ExpAfrica: Let’s look at Leg 1

This afternoon teams received maps for leg one – the first hike which is 75km in distance. The fly over showed them the layout of the rest of the route but they’ll only get maps for sections at certain transitions. They’ll be copying CP and transition locations off master maps.

Teams now have the hiking maps for Leg 1 and the have the whole night to decide how they’re going to get from the start to T1.

Actually, the first six checkpoints are easy route choice as teams HAVE TO STAY ON THE TRAILS within the Royal Natal National Park.

Here’s the first section.

Notice the hiking trails, which are dark yellow lines. The highlighted yellow numbers are kilometre measurements.The thick navy band is the boundary of the National Park and the pink highlighted dash-dash-dot-dot-dot black line (in images after this first one) shows the SA-Lesotho border. North is up. I’ve highlighted a possible route in pink.

For this first part they leave the start and run on road to the gate of the National Park. Once in the Park they have to stay on the trails to grab the CPs. These are very well used trails and they’re well signposted. These are probably the most popular and well-used day trails in the ‘Berg. There may be other trails in the Park, which the teams can use, and they may not be on the map. But, provided they stay on the trail, they can take it. No cross-country running on this section. Whether the trail will keep going where they want it to go…

From Witsieshoek (CP4) they’re on a road for 10km into the Sentinal car park (CP5).

Stephan says that it is about 3-4km from the car park to the Chain Ladder and another 1.5km to the top of the Tugela Falls (CP6). Then the teams will be running wild.

 

The wild section is from CP6 to CP7 and on to T1.

There are two main options being considered by teams.

• Some are looking at taking Ifidi or Icidi Pass (I’ve put in green lines). Ifidi is marked on the map as a rock pass and unless you’re a climber with all your gear you shouldn’t be going near this one. The next one is Icidi. This too is a rough pass but doable.
• Rockeries Pass is the next option. There are a good number of people here who have done Mnweni Marathon so we know Rockeries Pass well. The transition is at the Mnweni Cultural Centre, which is where the event starts and finishes. For me, this is a no brainer. I’d take Rockeries. But then I know this pass so I’d go with what I know.

What the teams are debating is the following:

They’re comparing the distance on top between Icidi and Rockeries. They’re weighing up whether it is worth going down Icidi and past the transition and then ‘up’ to the CP and then back to the transition. There is a very good, wide dirt road between the transition and the CP. Even going back and forth between the CP and the transition it is shorter than the Rockeries route.

The choice is between staying high and running the open flat and then dropping down; or running shorter on top, dropping down and then running lower.

BUT… you have to keep in mind that the top of the Berg is runnable. Very runnable. The grass is low and it is open up there. You really can just go.Although I’ve marked the hiking trail with my pink line, teams don’t have to stick on the trail (it is outside of the National Park – in fact, it is mostly outside of South Africa, lying in Lesotho). And, the trail may be quite indistinct anyway. Up there you don’t need a trail.

How challenging is Icidi? I’ve never done it but I’d reckon that it is harder going than Rockeries. MUCH harder going.

Which route will win? I’ll let you know when I know.

Locals, especially the teams from Gauteng (Johannesburg and Pretoria) generally know the Berg. Some, like Cyanosis, know it very well. The South African team Merrell Adventure Addicts aren’t from Gauteng; they don’t know the Berg at all. If I was a top local or foreign team, I’d stick with Cyanosis.

Chances are good that we’ll only see the first teams at T1 after sunset on Monday. It’s a BIG 75km hike.

At the moment our internet here is ssssllloooowww so media are struggling to upload videos and photos. The teams are Google Earth-ing the area like CRAZY. They’re also Googling the passes in the area, looking at hiking club write-ups on them.

Ah… on this… they won’t have signal all the time tomorrow for their trackers (mobile signal) as they are in Lesotho and very remote. So don’t be alarmed if your team’s tracker ‘isn’t working’.

Till tomorrow…