Drakensberg Grand Traverse: new record attempt

Photo: Kelvin Trautman/ Red Bull Content Pool

Drakensberg Grand Traverse is an unmarked mountain route of approximately 220 kilometres. It runs from the North to the South of the Drakensberg mountains. The route starts from the Sentinal car park and ends at the Bushman’s Nek border post. Various checkpoints/summits have to be visited along the way. These include The Chain Ladders, Mont-aux-Sources summit (3282m), Cleft Peak summit (3277m), Champagne Castle summit (3377m), Mafadi summit (3451m), Giant’s Castle summit (3314m) and Thabana Ntlenyana summit (3482m). Thomathu Pass must be used to descend to Bushman’s Nek.

Rules governing record attempts state that the attempt must be entirely self-supported (i.e. no seconds, food caches or resupplies) and entirely on foot. GPS is allowed.

At the inaugural FEAT event in October 2010 Cobus van Zyl took to the FEAT stage to talk about setting a new record, with Ryno Griesel, of 60 hours, 29 minutes, 30 seconds (men's pair; April 2010). [The solo record still stands at 61hours, 24minutes, 11seconds - it was set in December 2008 by Andrew Porter.]

In his talk, Cobus said that in the right conditions and with athletes in optimal condition taking the perfect routes, that a 40-hour time was possible.

Cobus and Ryno are both adventure racing friends and over the period of 23-27 March 2014 they'll be out there. This time Ryno pairs up with trail runner Ryan Sandes for the attempt. Cobus, together with Ryno's brother Stephan and friend Gert Forster, will handle safety and logistics down below for the pair.

This is going to be one helluva exciting attempt to follow and with Red Bull sponsorship and support it will have all the necessary bells and whistles to track the pair as they work their way across the Drakensberg day and night.

When they actually start will depend on the weather conditions at this time.

You can find all the tracking and info here, on these sites and platforms.

For live tracking and updates visit www.redbull.co.za/draktraverse and also Twitter - @RedBullZA, @RyanSandes and @Ryno_Griesel. Alternatively, track the hashtag #DrakTraverse across all social channels.

Neglected veggie garden - giving it some TLC

I haven't said much about my veggie garden this season... because there hasn't been much to say.

It started off badly last year when I was so consumed by the TEFL course that after putting in plants and cultivating seedlings, I then sorely neglected the garden. Too little watering, too much heat, no weeding... I got into it a few weeks ago... or maybe was that a few months ago over xmas? I can't remember. Either way I've done little with the garden.

It has been more forgiving of me (than me of myself) and I've enjoyed some cherry tomatoes, a few eggplants and a dash of swiss chard. The basil is looking great too. But the weeds... and spindly tomato plants... The garden has been looking a mess!

I swore to give it some attention 'after Forest Run' but with all the rain this week I haven't been out there. Straight after orienteering this morning I swung past the nursery to get some moo poo and a few seedlings (one tray of flowers, a tray of beetroot and a tray of spinach). I dumped my stuff indoors, pulled on my wide-brimmed hat and headed out.

It took me about an hour and a half to work through half of the bed. Revolutionary! I pulled up all of the cherry tomatoes, which I hadn't staked properly this year, I dug out the weeds and trimmed here and there. The eggplants are looking strong, the sorrel continues to flourish and there are a few nice-looking swiss chard plants.

I walked away feeling very satisfied and not 10-minutes later the rain started. Perfect timing to soak in that manure.

I'm aiming to get out for an hour each day over the next week to finish tidying it up and to put in the new seedlings. I'll take some pics during the week.

Competitive crochet (and knitting)

I am again making teddy bears for my friend's daughter's school's annual charity teddy bear collection.

Last year I made an awesome bear, Blossom. The school has a competition where the 'Best' bear is awarded. As Blossom wasn't made from the school's pattern, she got notable mention, but didn't win.

This year I've made two bears from the school's simple (and awful) pattern. It is an easy knit pattern but is very shapeless and featureless.

I converted the knit pattern to crochet and made my first bear. He's made from yarn my mom selected. He's sweet, but smaller than expected.

I then got my hand on some faux fur yarn - it is especially for making fluffy animals. You can't crochet this kind of yarn because with all the fluffy bits you can't pick up the stitches to make the next row. So I pulled out my knitting needles. Goodness, it has been a while!

As one ball of Fauxy yarn, which is all I had, wouldn't have made the whole bear, I decided to do the head and limbs in double strands of black (to get the thickness). I really struggled to give the face any real character as the knit of the face wasn't very tight (could have done with three strands of yarn). I made him a bobbly nose to add a bit of something - I'm not totally satisfied but he'll do.

Anyhoo... I found an absolutely divine bear pattern online. It's another knit pattern - I'm giving it a shot. I prefer patterns where you make up body parts and stitch them together - more personality.

Even though this one won't be eligible for the competition, I'm aiming for another 'notable mention'.

You can take the woman out of the competition but you can't take the competitiveness out of the woman - even when it comes to crocheted teddy bears and a charity collection. Hahahaha.

I miss aerial and pole

I've been out of both circus/aerial and pole for way, way too long and I really miss it. And that why I'm returning to pole on Monday night. I'm incredibly excited and so looking forward to class.

In May/June last year circus classes stopped when our instructors were tied up with performances locally and abroad. By the time I returned from Argentina classes were permanently halted as they needed to set up at a new venue when the old one was no longer available. This meant months of building and rigging... Classes only started again at the beginning of this year.

But I'd made the decision anyway not to return. I just couldn't face 30-minutes of travel either way and only getting home at 21h30 two nights a week - on top of other commitments. The toll gantries on the highway don't help either.

I was thinking of starting hip-hop classes - trying a different dance discipline. But I so love the gymnastic and acrobatic and strength elements of the aerial disciplines that I've decided to go back to pole. I haven't been teaching for about 18 months (after four-and-a-half years of teaching pole classes one - sometimes two - nights a week) and so I'm glad just to be returning to pole as a student.

I've certainly lost a lot of the strength that I gained from circus school - it's even the 'little' things like hand-strength for gripping. Nonetheless, I look forward to building it back up and I certainly have better neuromuscular pathways and more strength and stability - like core and shoulders - than when I left pole for circus 18-months ago.

Ooohhh-weeeee... so excited! For class and to see my pole friends again.