In 2022, as we were coming out of COVID, I took part in an ultra endurance bike “race” across South Africa. The event is a Mountain Bike “adventure” race from one end of South Africa to the other over 2150km of ‘off piste” terrain encompassing everything from single track, hike-a-bikes up mountains, walks through rivers and long 100+km straight gravel roads . There is under 100km of paved road.
The event is unique in so many ways, but one of the key features is that GPS is not allowed and navigation is with a map and compass. In addition, there are “support stations” dotted every 50-100km along the course where the folks living there have agreed to feed and provide a bed to any rider who should turn up. These two features make the riding incredibly rich, as, for three weeks, one is a guest of the people of South Africa, being treated to their hospitality, stories and warmth. The navigation aspect, whilst initially daunting, actually adds to the enjoyment, as one is forced to take in the surroundings to figure out the navigational problems. As one rider said on this year’s event:” It’s like doing math problems with your buddies”.
My 2022 experience was incredible . So in June of this year, I lined up again for the start of the race. This time with my son, Connor, who was an enthusiastic member of the youth program before starting his University career. Dad trained 10-21 hrs aa week for 6 months prior to the event. Judging from Connor’s Strava account, he did about 5-6hrs a week sporadically!
The first few days of the event are the most physically taxing as it rolls through the foothills of a major mountain range on the East coast with plenty of climbing. It is also the most populated part of the course and one makes one’s way down the trail moving from village to village being greeted enthusiastically by the kids and villagers who live there. The support stations can be very rustic on this section of the trail, often being in villages with rain water as the water supply and pit toilets. The first section ends with a hike a bike along a shepherd’s trail of about five hours over the final mountain pass reaching an altitude of 2,700m, before dropping down some glorious switchbacks into the small town of Rhodes, where the support station is a hotel.
Of note is that the Freedom Trail foundation, which is an initiative by those who pass down the trail, supports scholarships for the kids in these areas to get better schooling .
Connor and I were very fortunate to have exceptional weather for the first section and settled into the routine of the trail over the first week. Despite a few small navigational errors, we arrived in Rhodes in Good spirits and still talking to each other.
The next section is far more sparsely populated and one makes one’s way over a few mountain ranges before dropping into the Karroo basin, which is similar in its features to Saskatchewan, with long straight roads that go on for mile after mile. These days were punctuated with stops at farmsteads, where the hosts could not do enough for you and where one would learn about the history of the area, as well as the trials of farming . The days were also made more enjoyable as one naturally joins up with other riders along the route, and hearing their stories whilst navigating through some of the more challenging sections together is a real treat.
After the Karoo, one enters the Baviaanskloof which is a world heritage site and spectacularly beautiful. The gateway to this area is through a very tricky navigation section where one crosses a river 11 times whilst carrying one’s bike on ones shoulder through two meter tall reeds. As one of our fellow competitors pointed out:” This is not normal”, but it is incredibly fun.
In order to traverse the Baviaanskloof nature reserve on a bike, one is escorted by a volunteer in a truck for safety as there are Buffalo in the area and avoiding these volatile animals is important. This year, the traverse was made more challenging as it had been raining torrentially and many of the “roads” were flooded. This meant extended hikes through knee deep water, but this just added to the adventure.
Unfortunately for us, the rains were just a precursor of what was to come and as we entered into the final section of the trail into the Western Cape, we were greeted with a cold front that brought snow and gale force, rain ladened winds. As we were from Canada, Connor and I weren’t that excited by the small flakes of snow that were pelting us on the tops of the passes and which seemed to be distressing the locals, but the winds and rain were truly biblical. Unfortunately, they were also coming from the direction we were heading in and this made the last three days incredibly challenging. Some of the roads we were to use had been washed out and the final hike a bike section was deemed too dangerous to traverse with the flooding and this meant some significant rerouting.
Nevertheless, after just under 20 days, Connor and I rolled into the wine farm that serves as the finish point having conquered this awesome challenge. Content.
Words cannot adequately describe how profound these sorts of events are. One sees some of the most incredible scenery and has the most amazing adventures. One meets incredible people and hears their stories. But also, somewhere along the trail, one loses all the artifice of our daily lives and one focusses purely on the now, the experience and moving down the trail. Life slows down and becomes purer. For many who do these kinds of ultra cycling adventure things, it’s the antidote for some of the excesses of the crazy world we live in these days. It’s addictive.
Connor and I had an incredible adventure. We still reminisce about it and the crazy situations we found ourselves in and our lives are richer for the experience.
I would highly recommend this event, or any similar ultra cycling event to anyone. They are within the reach of anyone who cycles regularly.
I’ve signed up again for 2025!
For anyone interested in this event, or some of the shorter or less crazy events along the same trail run by the same folks, feel free to drop me a line. The details are all available on the website below as well as some of the previous race write ups and reports. A link to our daily voice note diary as well as some of our pictures are available here:
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