ARWC 2023 - It's a wrap!

A couple of months ago, the Dune Daisies had never heard of the concept of Adventure Racing, let alone met a real-life racer in the flesh. And now, as we sit in DD HQ sipping our coffee and mulling over the past few weeks’ events, we feel a little bit chuffed (and an awful lot honoured), to have experienced a snippet of the amazing, adrenaline accelerating world of the Adventure Racing World Champs. Seen it, blogged about it, and got the gear (which is fabulous, thank you) and have come away with a radically different view on life and its challenges (we’ll never moan about a 5km run in the wind ever again after what these athletes have been through). We feel humbled and motivated, inspired and awakened to all that life has to offer – with the added bonus of having made some new friends.

We didn’t take part in the gruelling, take-you-to-your-limits, 800km endurance race, but we did meet some amazing people along the way; from volunteers, participants, race organisers to supporters. We’d like to honour all who made this event truly unforgettable – and share with you some AR moments that may have slipped through the social media net ;).

Team 66: Celts Endurance – on bonding, buckled wheels & best podium finish

We enjoyed the bike sections most – especially when we teamed up with a Spanish team and sang songs to keep us going through the night. Any song where we knew two words was good enough! Then one of our teammates fell asleep and rode head on into a barrier, buckling his wheel. Luckily, we managed to bounce up and down on the wheel to straighten it out and cycle the next 60 kms to the next stop.

Before we entered the finishing stretch to the Resort, we all got into the sea. It was really emotional. We were crying and telling each other what this race meant to us. Everyone is on a personal journey. Experiencing this together and finishing the race was amazing. Robbie was the first South African home, and the Resort staff got up onto the podium and danced with us – we even got a standing ovation!

Team 75: Expenature France Sud Raid – on portage parties, pies and magnetic mishaps

In the kayak section, it was so hard to decide which side to get out and it was just before the Dark Zone (mandatory halt in racing during the night for safety reasons). Everyone seemed to be having portage parties (probably not the kind of ‘parties’ you and I are used to!) and I ended up carrying someone else’s boat up river to where we were going to stay for the night! When I realised the mistake, I had to carry it all the way back again. Nothing quite like doing extra carrying at that time of night!

And the pies!! We stopped at a shop and had three pies each (we were THAT hungry). We also had quite a bit of trouble with our compasses. One sent us one way, the other in a different direction – with all the glag (Irish speak for mist), we couldn’t tell which way we were meant to go. It was only three days later that we realised it was the metallic buttons on my fancy shirt that was messing up the compass readings!!

Volunteer: Carmen Hamilton – on transition tents, paddle palaver and weekly Weetbix

I was constantly amazed by the positive morale at transition tents. Volunteers would be dead tired by the time teams came in (after all the preps to make sure their transition would be comfortable), yet they would always welcome them with huge smiles and words of encouragement. At Transition 6, competitors arrived absolutely exhausted, but once in the tent, it wasn’t long before you heard them chatting and laughing with other teams, comparing how often they fell off their kayaks into the river. A Swedish volunteer commented that ‘this is not a transition tent, it is a circus tent!’, describing the atmosphere brilliantly. In another situation, a team had lost their paddles and their support member commented that ‘city boys can’t swim like farm boys can!’

I have absolutely loved this experience and learned so much, even that I can survive on only biltong and Weetbix for 2 days!

THE BIKE WASHERS’ TALE; A SHORT STORY BY M LANGLANDS

We had volunteered for Expedition Africa’s 2017 adventure race and again in 2020, so we thought we knew what to expect this time around. Were we ever wrong! The only remaining volunteer spot was bike washing at Transition 7. Ah well, how hard could it be? We set out to recruit some extra helpers; a couple of brave hearts, both of them medical doctors, to join our nucleus of three, and the game was on. It turned out that TP7 was just outside Steytlerville, a Karoo guest farm, and the first competitors were expected there on the Sunday. So we left St Francis on Saturday, in the rain, to Steytlerville, only to find that the farm was cut off from the world by a river in spate. So instead of camping in the rain we spent the night in a Steytlerville B&B. And patronised the pub in the Royal Hotel. Definitely no complaints from us.

The river subsided to its normal flow during the night and Sunday morning saw us putting up our tents at the guest farm and getting into our bike-washing kit – gumboots, rain gear, rubber gloves and ARWC tee shirts. We reported for duty and staff from the Coimbra Bike Shop in St Francis, our bosses, lost no time in showing us to our wash bay. We were taken through the bike wash process – first a spray down with bike cleaner, then a hose down with a pressure hose, then a wash with soapy water and a final rinse – and we were ready for business.

The first team didn’t arrive till early afternoon, the formidable Swedish Armed Forces – moving calmly and unhurriedly but wasting no time. Their bikes were caked in mud, after the previous day and night of rain, so it was a good test of our newly-learned skills. The weather, fortunately, was kind from Sunday onwards and we enjoyed meeting Danie Craven’s grandson and namesake, the current owner of Noorspoort, who put all the farm’s facilities to work for the race. His smiling face and cheerful attitude made it a very happy transition point – although the competitors were probably too exhausted to fully appreciate it. When we left on the Wednesday we were asked to give a few people a lift back to St Francis. This was a great opportunity to talk to this special breed of people, adventure racers, and find out how they tick. Their motto seems to be ‘if you are lucky enough to have the facility to run, cycle, paddle and orientate – use it!’

And that is the story of the most over-qualified and least experienced bike washing team in South Africa (Inèz Rossouw, Jeanette Kriel, Ken and Mandy McGregor, and Maggie Langlands).

Farm owner: Ruan Lamphrecht of Doringkloof Bushcamp – on flame grilled food, bakkie braais & hundreds of hamburgers

“It was a privilege to be part of such an event and we had over 500 people pass through our farm. We prepared more food than we ever imagined possible: 300 hamburgers, 300 boerewors rolls & 250 portions of curry & rice!” We at Dune Daisies particularly liked the double tot options available 😉