Discussion: Expedition Africa

It's almost time! One week to go.
http://www.kineticgear.co.za/Adventure-Races/Exped...

Team Spirit Canada will be racing again: FB, Willderness, Hermes and Popper.

Who else?

Enroute!!!!
Early for a change. Actually first time ever. Kruger for 5 days them off to HQ.
weather (forecast) shaping up nice. Not too hot. Not too cold..... & just the right amount of hippos and crocs :-)

So excited for you all! Have a great race.

Remember in the middle of the night in the jungle, you will never be alone because Attackpoint is watching your every move. ;) "I think Team Spirit is sleeping." "No, it looks like they're lost. They wouldn't sleep again so soon." "Wait, I think it's a bike mechanical." "Oh, it was just a tracker problem. Never mind."

Yup, always know that we'll be there for you!

It was so bad last year, they confined me to desk duty. My primary task is public relations and putting the correct spin on electronically documented mishaps.

FB, 1 week prior gives Willderness just enough time to develop gut rot for the start line. Stay on top of him.

Good luck and more importanly have fun and take care of your gal!

Good luck Spirit! We will be watching and cheering.
Have an amazing, fun adventure.

I'll be there with Team Endurancelife representing the UK! Can't wait.

All the best to you too, Gary!

Good luck GD44! Enjoy what should be an excellent race!

Good luck guys...I will be following and cheering very loud in the house :D

team list! anyone got picks?

1. TEAM ROYAL AIR FORCE
Jamie Buckle - United Kingdom
Simon Greenhalgh - United Kingdom
Dave Lemon - United Kingdom
Andy Cornthwaite - United Kingdom

2. TEAM MERRELL ADVENTURE ADDICTS
Graham Bird - South Africa
Hanno Smit - South Africa
Donovan Sims - South Africa
Robyn Kime - South Africa

3. TEAM SWECO ADVENTURE
Clarens Olsson - Sweden
Thomas Nordlander - Sweden
Fredrik Nylen - Sweden
Maria Treschow - Denmark

4. TEAM KEYHEALTH
Alexander Avierinos - South Africa
Malcolm Dunkeld - South Africa
Izak Theron - South Africa
Caroline Bullard - United Kingdom

5. TEAM RACINGDENMARK
Mikael Halberg - Denmark
Sren Gravesen - Denmark
Anton Hansen - Denmark
Mette Jespersen - Denmark

6. TEAM OLYMPUS
Tim Deane - South Africa
Julia Fisher - South Africa
Chris Fisher - South Africa
Alex Wagner - South Africa

7. TEAM POWERBAR SWISS EXPLORERS
David Francky - France
Frank Krauchi - Switzerland
Susan Tschappat - Switzerland
Julien Samson - France

8. TEAM JABBERWOCK
Brian Gardner - South Africa
Cobus van Zyl - South Africa
Susan Carter-Brown - South Africa
Craig Metherell - South Africa

9. TEAM DANISH DYNAMITE
Bjarke Refslund - Denmark
Bjorn Axelsen - Denmark
Thea Storm Henriksen - Denmark
Peter Villadsen - Denmark

10. TEAM SPIRIT - FB, Willderness, Hermes and Popper
Dave Hitchon - Canada
Shannon Miller - Canada
Mike Popik - Canada
Will Hitchon - Canada

11.TEAM EYECAN ADVENTURE RACERS
Glenn Cohen - Israel
Carin Goldblatt - Israel
Ari Bick - Israel
Ron Shilon - Israel

12. TEAM PARK RANGERS
Matthew Fry - South Africa
Craig de Villiers - South Africa
Shaun Golding - South Africa
Eb Beany - South Africa

13. TEAM NEVER STOP PERFORMING SPORTS
Franco Oliver - South Africa
David Barkhuisen - South Africa
Louise Kotze - South Africa
Thinus Matthysen - South Africa

14. TEAM CYANOSIS
Nicholas Mulder - South Africa
Clinton Mackintosh - South Africa
Nathan Thompson - South Africa
Hilary Pitchford-Bruss - South Africa

15. TEAM PSYCHOSIS
Sandra Johannessen - South Africa
Johan Olivier - South Africa
John Neave - South Africa
Div Nel - South Africa

16. TEAM ESTONIAN ACE ADVENTURE
Silver Eensaar - Estonia
Rain Eensaar - Estonia
Timmo Tammemae - Estonia
Mariann Sulg - Estonia

17. TEAM ENDURANCELIFE UK - GD44
Gary Davies - United Kingdom
Natalie Taylor - United Kingdom
Phil Scarf - United Kingdom
Alistair Morris - United Kingdom

18. TEAM UNTAMED EXTREME LIGHTS
Alec Rust - South Africa
Inus van Rooyen - South Africa
Bennie Steyn - South Africa
Jane Swarbreck - South Africa

19. TEAM BITTEREINDER
Cobus Stals - South Africa
Chris Pretorius - South Africa
Jaco Cromhout - South Africa
Vanessa Fisher - South Africa

20. TEAM AFRICAGOUS
Laurent Devaud - New Caledonia
Arnaud Boucher - New Caledonia
Sebastien le Divenach - New Caledonia
TBC

21. TEAM SUGAR MONSTERS
Robert Crichton - South Africa
Alex Pope - South Africa
Piers Pirow - South Africa
Janneke Leask - South Africa

22. TEAM SOLO / POPSTICLES
Tobin Evans - USA
Harald Zundel - USA
Joelle Vaught - USA
Rick Baraff - USA

23. TEAM CASTLE LITE
Adrian Saffy - South Africa
Craig Powell - South Africa
Garth Peinke - South Africa
Monica Botha - South Africa

24. TEAM SECRETOS DE ULLUM
Oscar Ferre - Argentina
Mabel Ramirez - Argentina
Fernando Ramella - Argentina
Federico de la Torre - Argentina

25. TEAM PEAK PERFORMANCE
Mikael Lindnord - Sweden
Staffan Bjorklund - Sweden
Karen Lundgren - U.S.A
Marcel Hagener - Sweden

Actually only 15 teams are starting.
01 - Royal Air Force
2 02 - Merrell Adventure Addicts
3 03 - SWECO Adventure
4 04 - Keyhealth
5 05 - Racing Denmark
6 06 - Olympus
7 07 - PowerBar Swiss Explorers
8 08 - Jabberwock
9 09 - Danish Dynamite
10 10 - Spirit
11 11 - Eye Can Israel
12 12 - Park Rangers
13 13 - Never Stop Performing Sports
14 14 - Cyanosis
15 15 - Psychosis

I don't think that's true. Peak Performance is in Africa.

Those are the teams listed on the live tracking. I have seen Peak there. We will know for certain soon.

Here's the link to the Team message page. 25 teams just not the 25 above.
http://www.kineticgear.org/teams

I think the internationals will have a tough time beating Merrel, Jabberwok and Cyanosis!

Tracking website indicates 23 teams starting from the 25 on the entry list. No team 22 & 24...

23 teams starting. Looks like the US and Argentine teams originally listed are not making it. Should be a good race out there! Quite a few SA teams have raced in Swaziland many times before, so i think this may give them the edge. From 2001 to 2010 there was an annual race called Swazi Extreme that moved around to different areas in Swaziland each year. The terrain will be familiar to a few of the top SA navigators, but I think one International team to watch will Peak Performance. I am racing with Jabberwock, and quite a few South African Attackpointers in team Cyanosis, Sugarmonsters and Untamed.

Go, Attackpointers! :)

I was getting worried it was a bit quiet, but finally found the correct thread.
Can echo Brian's thoughts, here's what i posted to our local AR mailing list:

I'm still going with my view that the winner will be either Cyanosis or Merrell Adv Addicts. Two reasons for this,
*I don't think the current rankings do these two teams justice and they are better than anything coming from overseas.
*Swazi X went for 10 years, these guys will have good experience in the area.
If pushed for a an answer I would say that Cyanosis racing with an unchanged team look like the 'safer option' as a pick, but there are so many variables I know nothing about so it really is speculation. Looking forward to seeing these two teams with their A grade paddling ladies duking it out!

BUT, I think there's loads of talented teams bringing their A game here, going to be a very interesting race with a top 10 a real achievement.

I also expect some strong showings from Jabberwock and Olympus - they will also have some good local knowledge and experience.

I've been told that there's going to be a monster darkzone probably splitting the field on the third afternoon. Would expect a whitewater paddle, possibly with crocs on the way. Teams will clearly push for this, but while swaziland is a small country the distances can be hugely deceiving.

https://twitter.com/sburnettza/status/607342523107...

Course guidebook

Route planning, via jabberwock/Brian gardener Facebook https://twitter.com/sburnettza/status/607342417889...

First maps of trek and paddle leg ,courtesy Adrian "safman" Saffy of team castle lite
https://twitter.com/sburnettza/status/607346800404...

Hi All! Should be good.
How do you gain 463m on a kayak stage?

Some great photos from Team Peak Performance, about half of them taken by team member Staffan Björklund on a GoPro, providing an inside view of the race.
The first day in Expedition Africa featured 42 kilometers of trekking, a spectacular canyoning and then 22 kilometers kayaking. The team has just started a long bike section of a total 224 kilometers, with a two hour cave section after the first 69 kilometers.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.11616647...

Cool photo of the race start up Sibebe Rock - by Suzi Hitchon, wife and Mom to two members of Team Spirit Canada.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1015280313...

Day 1 video

Hermes on the opening trek.
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/ms.c.e...

For Toronto / New York race spectators, it is 6 hours later in Swaziland. Days are short with sunrise around 6:40 a.m. and sunset around 5:10 p.m.

Is it just me or is the live tracking website extremely slow?

Just you, works 'ok' down here in africa! Cyanosis have pulled out, natahn thompson is sick - they will be devastated so early in the race. the other hot favourite local team Merrel Adv Addicts have overcome a mild start to move into the lead now, with 3 teams closely grouped in 2nd about 45mins back.

I didn't know much about the estonian team - ACE who led for the first 24 hours, but from their webpage they're not to be taken lightly. have gone to ARWC 2011 and 2012, and have won the world 24hr rogaining champs 3 years in a row now.

Thanks for the update Shebeen, please keep 'em coming. That's a real shame about Cyanosis - I wonder what hit Nathan that took him down so suddenly.

Looking at the race photo's so far, it looks like a very exciting race with lots of adrenalin activities. The canyon and the caving both look not for the feint-hearted. The white-water section will probably be equally extreme.

I am working as a marshal at the race. Been at T2 and now about to head to T4. I went to collect Nathan last night. He has had flu for the last week and was still not better by the start of the race. He was looking weak in T2 as the team was pushing hard.... He was coughing very badly last night.

Shelly and I marked the caving route with Darron.
It is very tight in some places but it's an awesome experience.

Quote from Team Powerbar Swiss Explorers: "that is the most extreme caving we have ever seen in an adventure race... very good"

Thanks MichelleVR. How deep is that cave / route into the cave?

The first paddle section is going to be painful! Water level low, lots of sand banks!

Here's a photo of Willderness "enjoying" the canyon! ;)
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.8927...

This is the Leg Description from the Media Pack:
Caving
Teams will follow a marked route through the pine plantation to reach the entrance of the Ghobolo Caves. The caves are unusual as they are predominantly granite, a hard rock that doesn't typically form caves. The caves are 1.8km long and 62m deep. The world's 8th largest granite cave.

to answer the question about elevation gain in the first kayak section. the one check point is placed on the side of a waterfall. Racers have to park their boats and walk up the waterfall. The next elevation gain is from the dam wall where racers park their boats and walk up to the transition station.

Stephan (Race Director) will be at T4 for a couple of hours and with no teams here yet, we have some time to kill, so if you have any questions for Stephan, now is the time to ask, and I will answer asap :)

I guess the big question for Stephan is: are the teams progressing at the pace he thought they would?

I mean, that's a huge break in the race while Merrel and co wait for daylight. Was that part of the plan?

Team Spirit Canada is several kms off the main route between CPs 18 and 19. I haven't seen any other teams come that way. They seem to be stopped at a roundabout with some buildings - maybe a village with food or a good place to sleep? It's almost 11 p.m. on the second night so it's a good time to nap.

Predicted course time has 9 hours at T4waiting for daylight. Merrel will be enjoying their hotel beds tonight.

Team Spirit Canada is on their way to CP19 now. It wasn't the direct route so I'm sure there is some story!

Spoke too soon. Spirit overshot the road they needed to turn onto to get to CP19 but they've turned around now. It's been dark for 8 hours and they must be tired. Go, Canadians, go!

Yeh, I lost the first part of the track and can only see a bit now. So I can't mount a very legitimate defense:).

BUT, keep in mind they get to put together these things in the T.A. So you do not get any benefit of google earth or such to figure out the obvious route. Approaching from a different direction adds to the crapshoot. The maps are good. But they do fail in delineating the difference between goat path and road somewhat.

Plus, that bike ride looks to be pretty epic.

On the upper left of the map below the words "Red" and "White", you can choose a different time period for the track. The previous time period is useful in this case. It's not as easy as seeing the track all at once and *really* not as good as having breadcrumbs with timestamps. But anyway... they're past CP19 now and looking good!

Got it. Wasn't seeing that on my tablet.

Yeh, parallel errors. They (we) feed off those:)

For people who are just starting to watch the race, here are some useful links:

Live tracking
http://www.kineticgear.org/gps-tracking/

Leaderboard
http://www.kineticgear.org/leaderboard/

Detailed Route Description
http://www.kineticgear.org/route/

Kinetic Gear Facebook page - lots of photos and updates
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear?fref=ts

Sleepmonsters Reports
http://www.sleepmonsters.com/v2_races.php?event_id...

Where else?

Come on Spirit. They are so close to getting back on route...fingers crossed they turn left after this dead-end. Once back on the main drag, hopefully they can get some kms in.

Thanks for the first hand account MichelleVR. Very handy to have the input!

Looks like Castlelite is having issues behind Spirit taking the same route. Good news is that Spirit made it back to the "main" route but they turned north instead of south. I was hoping maybe another team would be coming towards them but there isn't anyone close.

Does anyone know a trick ( or maybe it is on my screen and i'm missing it) to make the map full screen?

The next 4 teams all departed T6 within an hour of race leaders Merrell! Jabberwok are less than 1km behind Merrel - the other's trackers haven't updated recently but they are probably right there too. The racing must be fast and furious up front.

Olympus left T6 only 2h30 behind Merrell, so if they can put in a strong second half they even have an outside chance of a win.

no fullscreen trick, but the source site is here so takes away a lot of the frills- http://www.pirbtech.com/index25.html - organisers have okayed people to use it

I think olympus have possibly gained the most out of the darkzone.
the top 6 teams were spread out over 2/3 hours on the bike, but it's hard to tell if they were riding hard or maybe relaxing a bit with the knowledge that they would be sitting for a long time.

Olympus had quite a bad bike leg relatively, they started about 4 hours off the leading pace but then fell back quite badly. it's not like they stopped to rest and they didn't get on the water at 6:30am, so clearly something was wrong. but despite this, they are now in striking distance(BUT BUT didn't have a 8hr snooze like some of the top teams)

WOW spirit sure are getting their moneys worth on this cycle leg!
CP19 - low level bridge, does that make sense to our international racers?
(it's a 'drift' basically where the road will cross a river/stream that will be underwater at flood/rainy times)

I wouldn't have known what that was. It looks easy to miss in the dark.

Spirit has made an unusual route choice from CP21 but it looks like a conscious decision to choose better or less hilly roads, probably because of their experience near CP19. It appears to be paying off since they have remained ahead of teams who were close to them in the night. In fact, they've passed at least one team (Castle Lite) who started the ride before them.

There's no rush since they aren't going to make the 14:00 deadline to get on the river at T4. (It is already 16:42 and they're not quite there yet.) They will get to spend the night at a resort and have a real dinner before the final push to the finish.

Update from Team Peak Performance giving a glimpse of the race before and after the dark zone.
http://www.teampeakperformance.se/news_item.php?id...

Team Spirit is at T4, arriving in 13th place at 6:12 p.m. shortly after sunset. (They were in 14th at the start of the long bike ride.)

Perfect chance to rest and regroup for the last 100 km of the race. They can start kayaking at 6:30 a.m. (just after midnight at home).

Just posted by Team Peak Performance:
It´s a very high speed in the top now, and the race will have an extremely exciting finish! The team is currently on a split second place, with only 15 minutes to first place, chasing hard.
All team members are doing great and the team spirit is high - they are very motivated.
Not much remain of the race now – they will now take on a mountain bike section estimated 5 hr, and then the race will finish with a night trekking with a swim, estimated to 7hr, that will be very very cold for the teams.
- Tonight is the death night, anything can happen, we win or lose tonight said Mikael at the transition before going out on the mountain bike.
The first team will be expected to cross finish line early Wednesday morning at around 06.00 (Swedish time) Stay tune for more updates!
https://www.facebook.com/peakperformanceadventurer...

Top 4 teams have finished the 38 km trek after the kayak/raft and are now riding in the dark on the 61 km mountain bike leg. After that, they'll be on the 34 km trek to the finish, as described above.

Start times for estimated 5-hr MTB leg:
Merrell 17:44
Peak Performance 18:20
Estonian ACE Adventure 18:28
Jabberwock 18:30

So close!

Very close indeed! Looks like Danish Dynamite, who were also in there, have been dropped. They're still finishing up the hike. So it's down to 4 teams, any of whom could take the win. Graham Bird of Merrell looks like a very focused team captain in every photo I've seen. I can see them doing whatever it takes to hold onto the lead, but the slightest mistake in the dark tonight and within minutes 3 teams come trotting past. And you might not even know it!!! Nailbiting stuff!

So it's Merrell, 7km up the road from Peak Performance, who are 5k ahead of Estonia and Jabberwok who seem to be together. Perhaps they'll join forces to gain on the two teams ahead. A puncture could swing the outcome of the race!

Back at T7, sitting with Stephan to answer questions:

RACE PACE:
The leading teams arriving at T$ before the first dark zone, the leading teams were 1.5 hours ahead of schedule. and leaving T7 on the last two legs, they are 45 min ahead of schedule.

DARK ZONE:
Due to wild animals being in and close to river, the teams needed to sleep in the transition, as opposed to on the side of the river. As the rapid section could not be kayaked at night, teams had to sleep the night.
This dark zone has made the race very exciting and any one of the top 4 teams could potentially take this!

Update from Suzi, wife of FB on Team Spirit. They look great at T4. They were stopped for 1.5 hrs by the Swazi police!

Also, FB got caught in the cave and it took some serious pushing and pulling to get him through. It looked really tight in the photos I saw. I was thinking I'd have trouble getting through!

Looks like quite the battle up front. Top 4 Teams

FB will never live that one down...

Estonia are ahead of merrel now, just! We had to swim that dam at swazi X in 2009. But then it was a hot April afternoon!

FB said he thought it might take a jackhammer to get him out of that cave! His wife blames beer.

ACE and Merrell approaching the swim option. I think you have to take it at this point.

Agreed - 300 m swim vs. 5 km of extra trekking. Although at 5-8C, it's not going to be fun!

Must be cold, they both went around. Although, they are not on MR19 but on the eastern side of the river. Looks like they went to the waters edge and decided against it.

They're travelling together with a good gap to 3rd place Peak Performance. Maybe it was a mutual agreement to avoid hippos - especially chilly ones!

ACE went out to the road while Merrell bushwhacked a little longer to meet the road farther along. It paid off for ACE, who are now 1 km ahead.

P.S. This race is going to end while we're asleep here in central North America. I hope some APers in other time zones will keep an eye on things and report on what looks like an exciting finish!

It's 5:30 am local time south Africa... Will keep my eye out

Estonia have got a small lead, but with checkpoints still to come is far from over. There's one right at the finish ,let's hope it's not the deciding factor

Just as I say that Estonia lose the path. And merrel pull alongside but further northeast. Swimming would have kept the dam edge as a handrail too

Thanks, Shebeen - perfect timing. Good night! :)

Peak seems to be having some bobbles right now.

Fun and games with both teams trying to find this cp

This is close, both got the cp but now merrel on the road and Estonia taking more direct route. Haven't been following each other at all

Estonia have gone way off course to the north .Merrel seem to have this one seem sewn up .Not far too go now

Merrel about 2km from finish, Estonia double that distance

It's close now. Reeeeeal close...... :)

Merrell win! :)

Peak ended up swimming it.

as did jabberwock and sweco. danish dynamite went round. definitely slower, maybe 30/45mins

not sure what olympus are up to, maybe heading back to transition? seem to have got CP31 no probs, but then doubleback at CP32.

olympus have turned around and are going back to CP32. VERY odd!

This set of photos has some great shots of finishers and also shows Team Spirit in the whitewater this morning. FB went swimming and left Hermes to paddle Class 3 by herself! Big smiles on both their faces. :)
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.89552744...

Here's FB leaving the boat right before the drop.
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.8955...

And swimming over it!
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.8955...

Here is a photo of Team Peak Performance starting the swim. Even in daylight, it looks kinda daunting - especially when it's cold enough for wetsuits.
https://www.facebook.com/peakperformanceadventurer...

Spirit's track looks interesting after CP26; maybe they missed it and had to go back although it looks like they passed through the right area in the first place. Their tracker disappeared for over 2 hours after darkness fell so maybe they had a nap. They stopped for almost 4 hours in daylight between paddle and trek so it's possible that someone isn't feeling 100%. Still, they were making good time on the trek until their extra loop and they're moving well now.

Attackpointer GD44 and Team EnduranceLifeUK were about 4 km from the finish half an hour ago when their tracker last transmitted. Looks like an impressive 7th place finish for them!

Team Spirit Canada is now just a few hundred meters behind Royal Air Force and Keyhealth, the teams that were ahead when Spirit (apparently) stopped for 2 hours earlier tonight. They have 7-8 km left to the river resort where they spent last night - looks like it's all on roads. They'll transition there to the final 61 km bike ride, then they'll just have a 34 km trek.

Spirit, Royal Air Force and Keyhealth arrived at T6 together. Spirit was the first to leave an hour later, shortly after 3 a.m., and moved into 14th place. They were in 18th at the start of the trek so things are moving in the right direction! The bike leg will probably take 7-8 hours. The faster they go now, the more daylight they'll have for the final trek - and possible swim.

Looks like Swiss Powerbar are going on a nice little excursion of their own

Have a look at Untamed's track during the night. There you have indication of how confusing night nav can get.

The Swiss have realised the error of their ways and are repenting.

Haha, guys, treat yourselves to Untamed's recent track near the swim. By the looks of things, they swam several times back and forth. Their track crosses the dam no less than 5 times!!!!

I wish I could see the maps on this last trek. I'm guessing the vegetation boundary isn't delineated accurately?

@urthbuoy, i was thinking the same thing. We have been spoiled by Breath Magazines ability to get copies of the maps for us at home. Satellite imagery makes it looks so straight forward. :)

I'm hoping Spirit is being chased by a wildebeast or something to explain their track but likely just challenging night nav without a lot of helpful features. They were ~300 m from the CP at one point.

I looked at some other teams' tracks to see if maybe CP32 was not where it's shown on the map. It doesn't look like Spirit got it yet but if you look at the next few teams ahead of them, there are plenty of interesting track "variations". And where is the Royal Air Force going?

Great photos of Spirit at the final transition to the 34 km trek. They were all looking and feeling good, according to FB's wife Suzi. They've had some nav issues but otherwise they're having fun!

Someone will stop Royal Air Force at the SA border, right?

Looks like they figured it out before the border patrol got them!

Spirit must have visited CP32 since they have continued on. Maybe their GPS track is offset from reality, which sometimes happens.

Speaking of which, FB's wife Suzi says that they didn't make a 4-hr stop in yesterday's paddle/trek transition. That must be a leaderboard error. Also, they didn't sleep when their tracker disappeared for more than 2 hours in the early evening near CP26. They were just getting in some extra kilometres in the vicinity of that CP. ;)

Does anybody know when the race cut-off is? I hope there's enough time for Team Spirit to get sorted and to the finish line officially ranked. I REALLY want to see the maps as so many teams are having a tough go so close to some of the CPs. Been there before!

The route book describes a "Thursday night cut-off" to start the full 61 km mountain bike leg before this 34 km trek leg. The route book doesn't say what the final cut-off is.

The race is described as finishing on Sunday, June 14 - which could just be the day for a bus to the airport. I'd guess it means that teams will still be racing on Friday.

Spirit hasn't moved in awhile. I'm wondering if they made a parallel error, thinking they were on the road farther west that leads toward CP33. If that's the case, finding the river so soon would be an unpleasant surprise!

Spirit and Royal Air Force are searching for CP33 in the dark but they're both too far east and have several kms to travel. It's an easy place to get confused by the river bends and small roads. They must be soooo tired by now. Maybe they'll find each other and work together.

Spirit just swam even though it's 5C, raining and dark. They didn't get CP33 though. :(

Did spirit really just swim ,and then swim back ?Looks like they got to cp34 and not cp33 and are now backtracking . But you would think it wouldn't need a bracing dip in the dam to work that it first!

Have been following a regular teammate Alec who is the guy holding the compass for untamed. They had quite a final leg, taking 25 hours when they had food for 8! They had such a buffer they didn't even lose a place on this walkabout. For some bizarre reason their gps tracking got really sporadic on this leg ,no way they zigzagging all one the place . According to the tracking they did about 105km for this 34km leg. Will have to resolve it over a beer or seven when he's back!

It seemed like Spirit's track moved too quickly across the dam and then back. It's also 5C, raining and dark so I'd expect some extra time for discussing the decision to go back if that's what had really happened instead of a GPS error. So hard to watch this. FB's wife is heading to race HQ to get more info. It's not as if she can sleep right now! :(

Race HQ says that teams are still ranked if they miss CPs. At the moment, it doesn't look like Spirit's rank will change due to missing CP33 because the Royal Air Force behind them didn't visit it either. People are concerned about Team 7. They're having major difficulties. Apparently, there is a pass they have to find to get to the finish.

Spirit is 5-6 km from the finish as the crow flies. Maybe they'll find Power Bar Swiss and help them get out of that Bermuda Triangle they've been caught in. The sun is just rising now so the teams left on the trek should finish soon. Great job - tough race!

Looks like they have skipped cp35 too.maybe a case of just getting home asap?

To me, that last leg really exemplifies the Estonian nav. I'm looking at everyone else's wanderings and contrasting it with the Estonian accuracy.

Spirit missed CP33 and CP35. It's hard to tell about CP32 but they probably got it. There are penalties for missed CPs but apparently teams are still ranked.

Spirit finished with big smiles and cold beer. They're showered and sleeping. Congratulations!!

This last trekking leg reminds me of the last trekking leg from this race in 2013. Tough navigation right up until the finish. Take note 2016 Exp. Africa racers...

Yes - I'm going to use some hindsight and hi-light a few thoughts.

Never think "we head down this road and take the next right". I guarantee there is a nice big road not shown on the next right that isn't yours. Yours will be the cow path 500m further on:).

Lots of parallel errors in this race. You need to landmark, pace, etc. And then throw that all out the window at night...

And sometimes, like the Royal Air Force last night, the hours of darkness are best spent camping so you can look for CPs in daylight. I like their advice at the finish of their first race, "Get a navigator on your team. Don't expect pilots to find their way."

It's so much easier to "navigate" this race from behind a laptop, rather than being that sleep-deprived moving dot with an under-detailed map in your hands. :)

Sleepmonsters article about the teams who have come in today or are expected soon. http://www.sleepmonsters.com/v2_races.php?article_...

From what I can remember racing there in 2009, the maps were not great as they are not really updated .Makes forestry sections really hard. But something like cp33 looked quite an easy find . Junction of two rivers , that's the definition of a double handrail! Yet loads of teams went West/ upriver.the mind boggles!

Hi all. Wow what a race! We (#17 Team Endurancelife) managed to finish in 7th place even though one of our team members was really ill in the first 1-2 days, particularly suffering on the MTB stages due to the pneumonia he suffered a few weeks ago. He almost dropped out on day 2 because he felt bad for slowing the team down. However we took his kit and towed him around until he got his strength back. What a great feeling!

Yep navigation was very tricky particularly on the foot stages. The maps generally do not show woodland or forests so we regularly found ourselves fighting through dense vegetation to make any form of progress. Also the contours were at 20m intervals which meant that little lumps, stacks, crags and knolls on the ground weren't shown on the maps.

I'd say the maps were almost the same quality as Costa Rica's but at least more up to date.

Welcome back, GD44 - and congrats on great teamwork and a nice result!

Congrats GD44 on such a great team effort - it must feel great to have finished so well and pulled together as a team to get all of you to the finish line! Love it!

Thanks guys. I must say that I had a lot of satisfaction from this race.

Did you see the YouTube videos that I made? Links provided below:

Prerace: https://youtu.be/OwOlfURzn94

Stage 12: https://youtu.be/k9HolA_45BI

Finishline interview: https://youtu.be/0_tD8PQOgBI

G