The Natal Adventure

Okay so it is official.
I am riding The Sani2C Trail with Werner Hattingh.

I am like a kid in a candy store right now.

On my MTB bucket lists Sani2C is one of the races I wanted to tick off the most. Remaining Multi days are the Cape Pioneer Trek in the Karoo and the Wine2Whales from Somerset West to Hermanus. And now I have a chance to tick this one off.

So when Werner asked me if I want to join him as a replacement after his original partner Pieter broke his wrist I jumped at the opportunity. Literally. The people in the office already think I’m weird, but the email from Werner saying I’m in is one of the best emails I’ve ever read.

We will be driving up, so the adventure already starts the Sunday before the race. Shooting through to Natal in one push. We will spend two nights in Underberg, having a rest/registration day before we start.

For three days we will be cycling from Underberg near Sani Pass (and the border with Lesotho) to Scottsburgh which is at the sea (hence Sani2C, race organisers just love to put 2destinations in their event names) about 40km from Durban.
Day 1 is 87km from Underberg to Eastwold
Day 2 is 96km from Eastwold to Jolivet
Day 3 is 78km from Jolivet to Scottburgh

This is all I know for sure. The whole ride part we still have lots to find out about. We’ll chat to someone who has done it before and learn as much as we can from them. We can never over prepare for something like this. I do know we will be spending quite a bit of time in the saddle, not as much as on the Epic, but I reckon we will be having more fun. Less suffer, more fun. (well that is what my heart is telling my head.) Epic was lots of fast open roads, with lots of monster climbs and very little singletrack. Apparently Sani2C is more singletrack, less monster climbs and more rolling hills (they still hurt) and the stories that I heard about the route is that it blows you mind. Singletrack through forest, sugar plantations, next to rivers and even parts where two singletracks are built next two each other so that congestions are less. (in the Overberg we treat rough jeep track like singletrack, so I will be loving this. I’ve seen photos of bridges built from pontoons for the rides to ride over rivers and apparently the trails are pretty well groomed and the route designer has a warrant out for any rocks on the route. So I’m already imagining fast swooping singletrack.

I am looking forward to balmy weather (by that time it will almost be winter in Cape Town,) swimming in the sea at Scottburgh, and hopefully I’ll see Jannik at the finish somewhere (he is like the Yeti, only more stylishly dressed, but way more frightening when angry.)

Then me and Werner will bum a lift back to Underberg to go pick up the Corsa, spend the night there and drive back to the Cape Colony. Luckily this will be a drive over two days, probably spending the night in Grahamstown at my mother’s sister, and then vamoos down through the Garden route to Cape Town.

So in the space of a week we’ll go through the Karoo, the Free state, skirt around Lesotho, cycle through Natal, and come back through the Transkei and the Garden Route. I can’t wait for this adventure to begin..