Chris Meistre

Sunday 14 June 2009

Everyone woke up this morning extremely excited as well as nervous about what this day will hold.  Breakfast was had in mostly silence, and then everyone prepared to take off at 08:30.

Charles did the briefing and explained everything about putting the vehicle in 4wd high range, where the diff lock button is, and how the day’s events will be run.  We were a small group consisting of 9 teams, so we’d be able to go through all the events quickly, and still have enough chance to enjoy the scenery around us.

Briefing

Each team were given a Mitsubishi Triton 2.5 4×4 to use for the event, so it was nice driving someone else’s car

The first event was a standard offroad racing event, trying to see who can drive through the course the fastest.  Sounds easy enough, but you start off on a slight uphill so that you cannot see the rest of the course that you’ll drive, you have poles that you have to miss and gates (2 poles) that you’ve got to go through and not touch.  Adrenaline was pumping as the first team went.  We went second with me driving and it was awesome!  The first thing I noticed was that the Triton 2.5 lacked power that the Triton 3.2, that we practised with, has.  Although you’re racing and driving quite fast, everything seems to happen in slow mode.  Must be adrenaline.

The second event was a sandy hill climb.  You got one chance to go as far up the hill as you could.  We were first, and again I took the wheel and tried.  We did quite well, with Sarel even saying over the radio that it was a good climb.  I was chuffed about that.  Then 2 teams later a guy went up about another 4 metres.  So we ended up being the 2nd highest up.  Not bad I thought.

Most of them were just racing events similar to the first one.  Bernadette and I alternated between those.  There was another sandy hill climb where you chose a position to pull away from, and based on that position you can get points if you make the climb.  I made a bit of a stuff up of that as well.  Reflecting back now, we were putting too much pressure on ourselves, and ended up making stupid mistakes.   I really enjoyed the racing style events though, I felt like I was really getting into it.

The one was a reverse hill climb that I tried.  I went up the hill and saw I was going to hit a poll.  I stopped immediately (because hitting a pole is 30 second penalty), rolled down my window, pushed in my side mirror.  As I pulled off, I made a HUGE mistake by turning the wheel the wrong way and ended up hitting the pole anyways.  Damnit I was angry with myself.

We then headed back to the campsite for some lunch at around 12.  Everyone was talking excitedly about the events that’s happened so far.  Then it was back to the events.

There was a figure 8, again to see who does it the fastest.  This time with a twist, there are 2 vehicles on the circuit at the same time.  Bernadette took on this challenge and did very well.

At another hill climb Bernadette did excellent by making it look easy!

That was about that for the 1st day, and everyone’s adrenaline was pumping when we got back to the camp.  But the organisers were prepared for this, and took us for a nice relaxing drive down to Black Rock Beach.

We were privileged enough to be driven around by the late Nduna’s son, Bongani.  He is set to become his tribe’s new Nduna (leader) once he gets married.  It’s worth noting that the whole area we were living in and doing the events belong to a Zulu family.  They help out by supplying a few hands to help run the event, let us use a camp site, and much more.  I took this time to ask him questions about the culture and the area, and he was more than helpful to answer them all.  The route we took to get to the beach was amazing.  It’s like watching a movie.  The scenes that you normally see of people driving through the jungle on a exotic island, EXACTLY like that.  And what was also quite astonishing was how hot we were getting there, compared to waking up to -2 degrees celsius temperature the previous morning at Goldengate.

Once at the beach we all chilled around on the beach, watching the sun set and reflecting on the day’s events.  Some of the people swam and snorkeled but didn’t see much unfortunately.

Black Rock Beach

Event Photographer

Just before the sun finally set, we drove back to the camp site to enjoy a relaxed evening with some great food.  I was roped in to help with the braaing, but was more than willing to help because I hate sitting around idling.  After that we had a shower and went to bed for another night’s early sleep.

All the photos from the event can be viewed on http://www.meistre.co.za/gallery2/v/Other+Journeys/June2009+Expedition/Sunday+14+June+2009/Pro+Pics+P+van+Zyl/?g2_highlightId=20576