‘Antimatter’ are particles that are near impossible to contain, but when they come into contact with normal matter, they unleash an immeasurably powerful force.
When I first heard our team name ‘Antimatter’, I thought it was a tad strange. But after six days and six hours of racing with Ugene ‘O-wise-navigator Frikkie’ Nel, Mark ‘Strong-as-an-ox Lofty’ Loftus and Cos ‘the quickfooted’ Dimopoulos… I figure our team name is apt. Very apt.
We were impossible to contain – our team’s sense of humour knew no limits and our ability for distraction was immense. After a few initial attempts at herding cats through a pre-race briefing process, I quickly decided to join the fray of relaxed banter and general chaos. Antimatter was simply not going to be a military operation. This was difficult for my tendency-to-be-A-type personality to accept, butwe were going to do things on the fly. We were not going to strategize too much. ‘What is our sleep strategy?’ I asked.‘We don’t have one. We’ll sleep when we can’t not sleep anymore.’ And ‘How much food do we need to pack?’ ‘Just pack enough to not get hungry.’ Fair enough. And so, yes, after 10 minutes of racing our transition boxes would look like they were housing atomic bombs, and yes, when our GPS tracking device seemed to have been discarded in a bush somewhere en route, we were indeed making a cappuccino or two-minute noodles on the side of the road…
However, the relaxed combination of these three ‘oldies’ and one ‘auntie’ unleashed a steely, powerful, force of mental toughness. The ability of these three men to suck up their pain, to not complain, to toughen up and keep moving forward was inspiring. Lofty had an explosion of a blister across the entire sole of his foot and he continued to hike 60km on it with hardly a squeak despite the recurrent jab with every step. Uge had a case of tendinitis that resulted in him walking using his hiking pole handle as a stirrup and moving his leg with a crutch (quite ingenious I thought!). Cos’ one quad muscle collapsed into complete spasm so he was forced to move with a straight leg. And we all had a case of Mbotyi belly to contend with that left us with very low energy for the last two legs. And then there were the sleepmonsters. As Saffy so nicely put it, the little devils that hopped on our shoulders and used industrial-sized staple guns to staple our eyelids shut…
The combined experience of Uge and Lofty was enough to counter the total lack of experience of Cos and myself – who had never done more than 80km of adventure racing in one go. I had done considerable research into what to expect, and believed myself prepared. I had all the kit. I had done what I considered to be a sufficient volume of training and races in the lead-up to EA. And my feet were hardened and battle-ready. And I’m glad that I did all this preparation. However, I had completely underestimated the level of mental toughness required in an expedition-length adventure race.I thought I had a tough mind for these sorts of things. Ansa from team Luna Chicks had told me that I’d want to quit 14 times during the race and so if I found myself wanting to stop, I should just keep counting… This was good advice.
#1. After 20 minutes of racing, I had been dumped in the waves five times and had hit my lip on my paddle as the force of another wave spat us out again. However, the shared carnage of other boats made it a laughing matter – everywhere you looked, boats and paddles were flailing in an attempt to beat the breakers.
#2. After 12 hours of racing, I did my first abseil ever.OK, I’m not counting the 2m abseil off a second floor balcony. But this was 90m long and in the dark. Much to the concern of the abseil operator, Uge gave me a quick lesson on the lip and I set off. I was doing fine, until I got stuck in a tree and got a great deal more nervous. But after a short while, I got to the bottom, let out a few whoops and waited for the boys to join. Amazing experience!
#3. After 28 hours of racing, and just over halfway through an 80km hike leg, I had a bad case of chafe and was struggling to keep pace with the men and carry the weight of my pack. Fighting back a few tears, I asked my teammates to take some more of my weight and they very happily obliged. This made a world of difference to me. I find it amazing how even one water bottle is noticeable.
#4. At 11pm on day 2, after 40 hours of racing, we were still on the first hike leg and my feet felt crazily bruised from pounding on a dirt road (I haven’t yet recovered feeling in my toes) and we still hadn’t slept and we were walking around in circles trying to find a checkpoint on the top of the canyon. Serious low point = serious need for bioplus tablets. Thank you Uge!
#5. 5am on day 3 – Canyoning. Say what?! I have never ‘canyoned’ before. Not to worry, this was a good way to break my legs in… I fell, and fell and fell some more. In the end, we got through the canyon in just over 7.5 hours and felt strong enough to do a little jog down the hill into Mbotyi and transition… This was a big high!
#6. Around midnight on day 3, ~65 hours of racing down and halfway through the mountain bike leg I fell asleep on my bike and hit the road. The plus-side was that adrenalin kicked in and kept me awake for the next hour or two. We had an eventful ride characterised by endless climbing, shared one of the most spectacular South African sunrises with Castle lite, watched Cos launch himself down a ravine doing somersaults after his bike (could have been disastrous, luckily was just hilarious!), and we finally arrived at transition for a sneaky little paddle into Port St Johns… And miraculously, all still in one piece.
#7. Around midnight on day 4, we faced The Battle of Poenskop – a five hour team effort that consisted of us trying to hack our way through thick vines and clambering into and under and over cabbage plants, banana plantations and thick natural bush as we took the direct line ‘shortcut’ through the bush that numerous other teams,‘in their wisdom’, had decided to avoid.After much hacking, Uge eventually led us to victory and we popped out on a good road. No doubt Chuck Norris himself is still stuck in those vines somewhere.
#8.A third of the way through the beach hike, we met Jean and Lee who have a house on a lagoon and kindly offered us tea and pointed us in the right direction. Lofty proceeded to explain to Jean that we had started on Sunday and so far had done a sea paddle, followed by an 80km hike, a 10km canyon, a 150km bike ride, a 30 km paddle and then had the rest of this hike and a 230km cycle ahead of us… This was the first time I had allowed myself to think of the event in its entirety – I’d been restricting my thoughts to one checkpoint at a time. However, with Lofty’s explanation the sheer enormity of what we were doing and what we still had ahead of us came crashing down, and coupled with Jean’s motherly kindness and my emotional exhaustion, I burst into tears while saying goodbye to her.I put my sunglasses on, avoided eye contact with my teammates and marched on.
#9. A few kilometres later, the Mbotyi belly visits me.I start setting goals 1km apart.
#10. The Mbotyi belly hits Cos, Uge and Lofty. We stop often and finish our Imodium supplies.
#11. The massacre of Msikaba – We complete an excessively long hike a bike while trying to recover from points 9 and 10. We are now in survival mode, and are limping home, focusing at keeping the team intact. Cos’ endless sense of humour had dwindled a little – his quad muscle was still flat, and he was struggling with the tummy bug and so was completely without energy – but the man has serious grit, and stopping was never an option. He soldiered on.
#12. Midnight day 6, Sleepmonster attack number 2. This was the monster of all monsters for me. Castle Lite had magically appeared out of the bushes and Laura and I struck up a conversation that covered everything and anything and did wonders to keep me awake. She literally was my saving grace! Lofty tried to keep me awake by asking me a series of maths questions – This was surprisingly effective, but not nearly as effective as girlish chatter.
#13. The ride that never seems to end… 250km is a really long way. Luckily for us, Team #1 Havacrack bumped into us on top of a mountain and put a fire under our team’s asses to get to the finish line ahead of them. There’s a good chance we’d still be riding if we didn’t bump into them! Thanks Aussies.
In the end, I didn’t have to count to 14. We just kept moving forward and things magically would get better and easier after a while.And for every tough time, there were a multitude of highs to counter the lows – dramatic vistas, chatty kids, helpful local tour guides, heavenly Cokes, and good team laughs. We eventually got to the finish line in fourteenth place, carrying epic memories of an adventure across what is arguably the most beautiful part of South Africa. We donned our team onesies, held the South African flag high, had a few toots, fell asleep at the awards ceremony, woke up in the night with leg cramps and hot sweats, and are now beginning to wonder how on earth life will continue without another Expedition Africa to look forward to and plan for.
Huge thank you to my team – Lofty, Uge, and Cos. You’re absolute legends.
Thank you to Stephan and Heidi and team for putting on such a special event.
Also, thank you to everyone who took on Expedition Africa 2014 – when I crossed the finish line and saw the extent of damage on some people’s feet, the pain that some individuals had endured,the challenges that some teams had overcome, or appreciated the speed with which top teams blew through the course, I was struck by how everyone did so with a beautiful,sharedjoy at just being out there, adventuring in the Transkei, together.
Life will never be the same for this newbie AR enthusiast. My family now thinks I am certifiably insane.
Didi Francis
Antimatter
Great article dids!what an incredible journey!