Wild Traverse report

Two days of tough terrain, hard navigation and feeling of accomplishment met brave teams who took part in inaugural Wild Traverse 2012.

Fair bit of rain, chilly night in Midcamp, roaring waters of Lederderg river, fantastic views from 700 meters ridges and granite walls of canyons, 32 checkpoints, over 20 hours of racing are just a little part of what Wild Traverse was about.

It is not a pure race in its ordinal meaning, first of all, it's personal challenge for every participant. 8-9 September 2012 6 teams completed the whole course!

Race started at 8 AM 8th of September in Picnic ground at the southern part of Lerderderg park. Steep climb brought teams into the altitude of over 600 meters where they collected 7 CPs.  

 

Second part of the course was a bit harder with number of tricky legs between CPs and 8 CPs overall. First team arriving to the midcamp was team Filthy Tiangle, at 4:50 PM. The last team arrived by 7:40 PM. 

BBQ and pasta were waiting participants at the midpoint. We were quite lucky with weather, showers had place during the day, stopped at the time when teams got to the midcamp, therefore we enjoyed nice dinner time chatting about everyone adventures and went to the bed quite early. 

Although night was quite chilly and teams could use only gear they brought with them guys looked very fresh and determined at the start of the second day and only one team decided to pull out at this stage.

 
Cup of tea or coffee and we were ready to face second part of the challenge. Probably the hardest physically - legs already not fresh at all and the easiest mentally- it was the way back- to the finish!

First three CPs were located along the Lederderg river. Seriously flooded trail became really difficult to follow and took more time then a few weeks ago during test. However, our concerns raised after placing these CPs were groundless and everyone successfully passed this section.

Again number of uphills, gorgeous ridge parts and tricky legs and by the sunset teams finished surprisingly very close to each other. After 2 days of racing just 16 seconds divided 1st and 2nd team. What a competition! 

Looking forward to Wild Traverse 2013, which will take place at the second part of September 2013 in the new area. See you out there!