In 2008 I took part in our first Spirit of Africa event with a friend. This is an event sponsored by Mitsubishi Motors and run by the famous rally and race driver Sarel van der Merwe. The competition is split into 2 parts, the semi finals and the finals. During the semi finals about 400 different teams of 2 people each take part over a 3 month period. Each group of about 15 teams go take part for 3 days, and then whoever gets the most points ends up going to the finals. The competition tests your 4×4 and rallying skills, but is also there to learn a lot from the master himself.
This year I decided to take part alongside my wife as my team mate. We also decided to make a nice holiday out of it, instead of just rushing there, taking part for 3 days and rushing back. We planned everything earlier in the year already, booked our spots for the competition and then also got our accommodation sorted.
We like not planning too much ahead when we go on holiday, so we used our holiday club’s points to book a place we’d stay after the event, but for the days before the event we decided to just wing it and see where we get. I don’t like sticking to a schedule when we’re driving, because I like taking detours and stopping off at different places. I also didn’t want to rush through the 1900kms we’d have to travel just to get there.
When the time finally came to go, a lot of things started happening. Projects got delayed that I was going to be a part of, the recession hit, my Colt’s repairs wouldn’t be done in time and we just felt perhaps it’s not the right time to take the holiday. But having already spent the money on everything, we decided to just stick it through. Best choice we could’ve made!
Maritime Motors in Port Elizabeth was kind enough to let us borrow one of their Mitsubishi Triton’s to practice a week before we went up. This proved to be a bit of a mistake to my thinking. We wanted this competition to be about fun, and at the end of the day, having practiced so much beforehand just made us put too much pressure on ourselves. But we are still very grateful for them allowing us that!
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