The days before

So what exactly is the Freedom Trail? It's an off-road route across South Africa conceptualized by a former environmental lawyer named David Waddilove, traversing roughly 1,500 miles from Pietermaritzburg to Paarl, near Cape Town. The route follows foot paths, cattle trails, jeep tracks, disused old wagon routes, seldom-traveled dirt roads, farm tracks, cross-country "portages," and the very infrequent tar road connector. There is reportedly somewhere between 140,000 and 150,000 feet of cumulative elevation gain on the route. But when it comes to weighing the difficulty of any section, distance and climbing are almost nonentities — terrain is what matters. 

Each year in June, David organizes a Freedom Challenge, inviting mountain bikers to take on the route within a 26-day time limit. The race is held in the austral winter, with long nights, more frequent storms, occasional flooding and snow, and consistently cold temperatures. If terrain and weather didn't make the challenge difficult enough, David throws in a rule that all participants must navigate the non-marked route without the aid of GPS — old-fashioned maps, compass, odometers, and cue sheets are used to discern the frequently implausible passages over rugged ripples of land.  The Freedom Challenge first launched in 2004, and in that time roughly 170 individual men and 20 women have finished within the time limit. Almost all have been South Africans — only a handful of foreigners have completed the Freedom Challenge, and as far as I know, no other Americans. 

My friend Liehann planted the seed just over a year ago. He participated in the 2011 Freedom Challenge, riding for ten days before mechanicals forced him out of the race. Shortly after that, he took a job at Google and moved from South Africa to California, where he joined Beat's team at work. It was just pure coincidence that the huge world of software engineering brought together two ultra-endurance enthusiasts, but Beat and Liehann became good friends, and we all started riding together on a regular basis. Liehann and I often compared Tour Divide/Freedom Challenge notes, and he's long been anxious to return to Pietermaritzburg and wrap up unfinished business. He worked on several angles to convince me to join him, and I dragged my feet on making any commitments for a long time. You think I'd be an easy sale for something like this, but I was extremely reluctant to enter a race with such a strict navigation rule. I hate feeling lost, and knew the uncertainty of map navigation — no matter how much I worked on improving my orienteering skills — would be a constant source of stress. Although Liehann and I planned to ride the route as a team, I was terrified of the notion of hacking through the bush in some remote part of Africa all alone, with no idea where I was going, and rhino and leopards lurking. Still, predictably, adventure lust eventually won out and I was on a plane to Cape Town. 

Cape Town is near where Liehann's parents live as well as the finish of the Freedom Challenge, but it's more than a thousand miles away from Pietermaritzburg. We opted to manage this leg of travel by renting a car and driving one way along the coast. The South Africa road system isn't as well-established as the United States or Europe; even the major routes are usually just two-lane strips with no shoulder, often in poor condition, and see heavy use from pedestrians in some areas. Still, I was excited to get a sense of the land before the race started, even if it meant two days in a car on rough roads. 

We spent the first night near Port Elizabeth and the next morning driving across Addo Elephant National Park to gawk at animals. 

 Warthogs!

 Lots of elephants.

 This jackal curled up next to an elephant carcass like it owned the thing.

 Buffalo. Mean and scary.

Zebras and kudu. We spent a lot of time in the park and didn't arrive in Pietermaritzburg until late that night. 

 The Freedom Challenge begins in downtown Pietermaritzburg under the same starting gate as the Comrades Marathon, which is the world's largest and oldest ultramarathon. David told us he conceptualized the route back when he was regularly training for Comrades. He read somewhere that one needed to run 1,800 kilometers in a season in order to do well at Comrades, and he started venturing further on trails from his home near Pietermaritzburg. This expanded into an idea to create a roughly 2,000-kilometer, all-dirt route across South Africa, and David began connecting a lot of far-flung dots. He picked spots he could run to in a day, and looked to local farm houses and villages to find places to sleep. It's notable that the Freedom Trail started as a trail-running route and only later developed into a mountain biking challenge. During the first days of the race, I had frequent dreams that I was explaining to Beat why the Freedom Challenge would be better on foot.

 We were slated to start with group "B" on Tuesday, June 10. The Freedom Challenge still utilizes farm houses and other tiny places as support stations, so participants start in waves of eight or nine over the course of a week. Of the eighty or so starters, 35 were signed up for the full Race Across South Africa, and the rest were participating in the Race to Rhodes, which covers the first 500 kilometers of the course. Our wave had five RASA aspirants and three Rhodes riders. I forget the names of the first two Rhodes riders in our group (one not pictured), but after me and Liehann is Ingrid, a Rhodes rider who graciously gave me her compass in Rhodes after mine was rattled to death on day four. Then there's Tracy, Di, and Steve. Steve and Di were a married couple who we spent quite a bit of time riding with during the race. They were a valuable source of knowledge and entertainment on a regular basis, and Di ended up being the only other female finisher in this year's Race Across South Africa. Di always left her headlamp turned on long after the sun came up, so this photo makes me laugh.

Team California at the race start, so bright-eyed and innocent. We had a long, long road in front of us, that we hadn't even begun to fully realize. 

From the ends of the Earth

Re-entry into the real world after three weeks of single focus and nearly complete disconnection is always a difficult adjustment. I promised Beat an update on my own blog so I'm attempting a quick post. My friend Liehann and I finished the Race Across South Africa just after 10 p.m. on Tuesday, July 1, after 21 days of riding, pushing, shoving, and carrying our bikes along the rugged contours of the country. It was an incredible experience to explore South Africa in depth and visit corners that very few people see. The route was brilliantly and sometimes diabolically devised to keep riders as far off the beaten path as possible, and for an American in South Africa even the beaten path feels far away. It was culturally dynamic and physically challenging in ways I didn't expect. Our days were generally (but not always) shorter than I'd become accustomed to in past multi-day endurance events, but the daily challenges were more mentally strenuous and sometimes brushed against the limits of my physical abilities. Not working on upper body strength or practicing carrying my bike up steep, loose terrain was the biggest mistake I made in preparing for this event.

Liehann was a great riding partner, usually upbeat and patient with me in the areas where I struggled the most, which were (unsurprisingly) navigation pressure and fear of being lost in a foreign country, and (quite surprisingly to me at least) the hiking portages. The middle segment of the route featured a seemingly endless string of three-meter-high game fences to hoist our bikes over, and for that and many other reasons there is no way I could have completed this route without his help.

The Freedom Challenge is well organized and makes it possible to ride this remote route with fantastic support from Native villagers, farm houses, and a few hotels. We met many wonderful people and spent time in fascinating places, one of the most unique being a night spent in the village of Vuvu inside one of the villager's huts. Commercial services are few and this route would be a difficult thing to complete fully self-supported, so the race organization has created a great opportunity with this tour.

And of course Beat was at home monitoring the tracking page and updating my blog. His support from afar was fantastic and his device worked great. Although it couldn't help much on the many cow paths, farm road mazes and off-trail bushwhacking, the gadget was consistently accurate at gauging intersections on even small dirt roads, which was frequently reassuring.

I've been off the grid for so long I'm not even sure where or how to begin re-entry. I'm in the Cape Town area for a few more days, hopefully enough time to visit the coast and see a penguin, and then it's back to California finally on July 5. I'm looking forward to coming home.

There will be more to come. Thanks for checking in. 

Freedom Challenge - Hadley to Willowmore

As explained by a commenter on the previous blog post, the section from Hadley to Cambria, while short, is one of the hardest and most rewarding of the race. Jill and Liehann only got to Cambria late in the day. The section was even more difficult to navigate than anticipated as there was flooding that had moved trees and debris across the trail which was at times impossible to find. They got very lucky as a faster racer caught up with them and guided them through the section. He deliberately stuck with them as he apparently had, in a previous year, left someone behind who ended up spending the night in this section, about which he had felt quite bad.
Steve and Di, the couple with which Jill and Liehann rode for quite a while earlier, also caught up with them.
The way from Cambria to Willowmore was on good roads with very clear navigation which, despite being a long day with over 100 miles, according to Jill felt "easy". The views must have been spectacular as we got this message:

Baviaanskloof one of the most beautiful places i have ridden a bike.

 They got to Willowmore a bit late, but have another long day tomorrow ahead. Steve and Di stopped at the checkpoint before Willowmore for the night (or at least that was their plan).

Otherwise everything is working well, and there seem to be no issues, physical or mechanical.

Freedom Challenge - Hadley

Just got off the phone with Jill. They had a few pretty good days, mostly through game reserves with some pretty cool views. After Jill had turned her ankle somewhat badly when a concrete step broke off at a lunch stop(!), it seems that they are doing physically better with both Jill's ankle and Liehann's shin improving (presumably due to more riding). They've also put in a few shorter days, mostly because the sections they are at right now don't really lend themselves to navigating at night. They pulled ahead of Steve and Di a few days back, though they anticipate they might catch back up, which would provide some good company anyways.
Lots of the past trail has been through game reserves and farms, with many10ft fences to climb. Jill is reporting improved upper body strength after some harrowing days. On the other hand, she said the terrain now really feels like "Africa" and doesn't resemble anything she knows from over here, with sightings of Giraffes, Wildebeest, Kudu. The weather has gotten significantly warmer, with daytime temps in the "hot" territory by now. So far they were extremely lucky with the weather having had no rain whatsoever (which is great because Jill was able to use her good non-waterproof camera to take pictures!).
Navigation continues to be the major challenge. Between ensuring being on the right path and some very rough rocky trails (Jill even got a saddle sore, which she was fortunately able to treat) they average only about 5.5-6mph. Looking at the satellite views though it seems better roads are coming up (along with longer distances between checkpoints).
They took a very short day today, as the coming section has a very difficult to navigate river gorge at the end, with the trail meandering for ~2 miles along a river (which might have some Alligators in it!) in jungle terrain - the race director advised against attempting it at night.
Other than that they are in great spirits.
Liehann's girlfriend Trang should by now be in South Africa herself (along with a friend). Liehann feels a bit pressed to make up the lost day, though we'll see if this is possible. I will keep checking the route via satellite view to see if night navigation is possible (it's amazing how much detail you get). The absolute limit for them is 25 days, because that's when they fly back!

Tiny Freedom Challenge Update

Jill did not have cell reception for most of the day, so all I got were two satellite messages. The were able to put in a double day as planned, though they were still struggling with navigation (I could see they got lost early in the day, costing them 20-30 minutes). The race plan calls for another double day tomorrow. The course seems to be mostly on well defined dirt roads and even a fair amount of pavement, with only one cross-country looking section, and one section with lots of forest/farm dirt roads intersecting. Other than that the elevation profile looks promising for some good mileage.

Here are the messages (hearty smileys removed:):

Hi love. Mildly sprained ankle when step broke at lunch stop. Other than that day was good. Liehanns shins bad.

and, after I asked more about the anke:

Sore hiking and a little wobbly but not too bad. Beautiful long climb today . Nav still main source of stress. 

And that's all I know. But they were back on the road a bit after 6am, indicating plans for another ambitious day!

Freedom Challenge - Slaapkranz to Elandsberg

Things have been moving along reasonably well for Jill and Liehann for the past three days. Communication was pretty spotty, so another short update. 

Jill seems to have a lot of fun despite challenging conditions with headwinds, temperatures of 14F, long days, and dead arms. The group has picked up another racer, so they are five cyclists now. 

Liehann seems a little more unlucky. Not only were they unable to get a replacement fork, but he has shin splints from walking, some knee pains, can't open his hand for some odd reason (which doesn't seem to concern him) and, to top it off, a failing rear brake. I think he should pick up some sport where he can't break stuff, like bridge maybe? Those cards are awfully sharp though ...

The original plan was to double up on the next two checkpoints which aren't too far apart and seem to be easy enough to navigate. So far they're moving very well.

For reference, some messages Jill posted:

-10C this morning . Arms are dead. Wish i weight trained

Gorgeous sunrise. Making arraingements for liehanns broken fork. Long day ahead

Portage killed the arms. Hoping they come back. afternoon pedal through high desert was lovely. Shift from native villages to farm country

Yesterday 137Km. Two portages. Harsh headwind. Fun 15Km on sandstone rollers. Still worried about dead arms.

Rugged descent from stormberg mountains into karoo desert. Icy headwind and stunning winter light. Tricky night nav has left me mentally drained

And some exchanges I had with Liehann:

Rear brake is soft

Need to pump it before it engages

Will ship bleed kit somewhere

Left leg shin splint and knee tweek

Otherwise good

Jill seems perfect :-)

Liehann

 • 

Tue, 3:28 AM

So much tougher

Liehann

 • 

Tue, 3:32 AM

Oh man! Be careful. Check that the caliper isnt leaking!!!

Tue, 8:36 AM

Whats the latest bike drama?

Wed, 12:58 PM

Nothing for now. :-)

Will get bleed kit in two days. Ride fork to cape Town

Hard work on the hands

Have some numbness in left hand. Oh well

Liehann

 • 

Wed, 8:53 PM

Freedom Challenge - Days 5-7

Just a quick recap as I was out at Bryce:

Day 5 of the FC would bring Jill, Liehann and her fellow travellers Steve and Di to Vuvu. Due to a cross-country section, they pushed the pace hard to avoid having to attempt night navigation. They managed that goal, though Jill was pushed to her limits and bonked towards the end. I'm amazed that Liehann is able to ride this with his busted fork. They call his bike the "rigid lowrider". I presume it's at least aerodynamic!
On Day 6 the group went to Rhodes, where Liehann's replacement shock was waiting. The section turned out to be very technical and challenging, with a very steep off-trail pass crossing. Jill texted that they encountered 50-60mph winds, and she was unable to pick up both wheels of her bike without it being picked up by the wind! As if that wasn't enough, it turned out that we had actually not ordered the correct fork! The specs we had found mentioned a tapered steerer, but his bike ended up with a straight one. Liehann seemed unfazed by the mishap though and is trying to arrange for the correct fork to be sent to a later checkpoint. I actually managed to call Jill just as I was on the last 10 miles of the Bryce 100 (a race which we ran last year together, I missed her a lot). We both had a solid adventure that day!
Day 7 brought them to Slaapkranz.  She was in a great mood as they had a day of perfect navigation, beautiful sandstone canyons and mountains and generally a good day of riding.  Gone were the creeping doubts about the route after the hard and arduous days.  She did report brisk temperatures of just 21F in the morning, but they both seem well equipped for that. They are already back on the bike now, on the way to Kranskop.