SX 2010: Team Bikes ‘n Wines put their hands in the air
I just wanted to say thanks again for all your organizing in putting together an awesome race, albeit rather challenging!
We journeyed all the way from Cape Town and even though my stuffed up ankle forced us to call it quits before the last cycle, it was still worth the trip!
I just wanted to let you know about another side adventure we had en route that made it all that much more memorable!
After we arrived at St Augustine school on the second night and learned that Jabberwock had pulled out we found ourselves out in front all of a sudden… from that transition T9. We headed out on the hike up to Siteki. We were struggling to find the second OP and had been hovering around the farm yard retracing our steps and trying to get the correct bearing from the main gate of that farm, doing a little bundu bashing in seach of what was a slight stumbling block for us when all of a sudden we were surrounded by vehicles and next thing I knew I had an AK47 pointed at me! They thought my hiking pole was a weapon and were shouting for me to drop it and put my hands up!!!! After proceeding cautiously towards the cars’ bright lights I was (slightly) relieved when I realized they were policeman and security armed guards!!!
After a very heated initial outburst from the farm owner, he started to calm down when he realized we were part of the race but still couldn’t fathom why we were running around the place at 1am. He was aware that the race was going to be coming through his farm and said he had granted permission but didn’t realise it would be at night. The general mood of the farm owner and all the guards etc soon changed and before long they became very jovial and pointed us in the right direction and wished us well!!!!
It was classic…. The owner did seem like a fairly esteemed gentleman… he just kept repeating.. “But why do you do this thing in the middle of the night! You must wait for the day!” We tried to explain as best we could but I still think that he thought we were a little crazy!!!
After that we heard from other teams that he had left his induna directing people around the dwelling to the OP. One for the campfire!
Looking back at it all it just added an exciting little story to tell mates when we got home… and although I was quite petrified for a few moments… I was actually quite impressed by how quickly the police got there and how well they all handled the situation!
Unfortunately that point seemed to be where our luck ran out and where we started to make a few more errors and watched our lead slip away! I then went over my ankle quite badly hike down to the jumar and hobbled exceptionally slowly into transition!!!
I had been wanting to do the race for a few years now but never got my act together… the fact that it was the last one forced me to be a little more proactive and now I wish I had done more!!!!!!
[this legendary SX tale courtesy of Chris Fisher – Team Bikes ‘n Wines]
The Swazi Xtreme 