The Quest AR – by Ryan Springate

An early start to an icy Thursday morning – we had no idea how tough the next few days would be! We lost our first team member before the race had even begun! Nic Watson fell off his bike whilst preparing and unfortunately twisted his ankle.

At 06h30 the gun went off, the race had officially started. Teams ran off in all directions. We found our first checkpoint (CP) with relative ease. We then split up to find the remaining four CP’s to complete the first leg. We then all met up in transition 1 to start leg 2, a 61km cycle.

Quest Expedition Race by Cale Schaffner

Well it hurts thinking about it. My team and I woke up at 05h30 to breakfast before we departed at 06h30 for an experience I will definitely never forget, and I know my team will not forget either. Our team consisted of four people: Kyle Coghlan, Paul Pearson, Ruan Hageman and I.

Quest Adventure Race by Paul Fernandes Pearson

250km* Race!!! Well none of us expected anything like this to happen at Quest. It was quite a surprise for all of us I mean after hearing all about Dylan’s Expedition Africa race we knew that this wasn’t going to be easy, but at the same time we knew that in the end we could look back afterwards and say “I can’t believe we did it!”

Doing The Distance by Brandon Morton

My Experience of the Quest AR by Ross Bennet

On Tuesday the 22nd of May, we were told that we will be partaking in a 230km adventure race in 2 days time. We were all reasonably shocked and doubted that we were adequately trained and fit enough for this, but nonetheless we started organising our stuff and preparing our thoughts towards Thursday.

“Of Bunnies and Bakkies” – By Duncan Van Der Lingen

How many guys does it take to catch a bunny? Eleven it would seem. One to sedate, one to hold the spotlight, one to drive, at least two to fall off the bakkie, and the other six to chase it. It was one of the best experiences of my life. Some of the most epic scenes involved Jeremy tripping over a hill, and showing us some impressive head over heels tumbles; Kyle falling off the bakkie… repeatedly; Cale accidentally sitting on his Springhare as he caught it running between his legs; Mike wailing like a five-year-old girl and jumping away from the vicious bunny that fled between his legs; and myself, sent sprawling off the bakkie after an ambitious leap. Respect goes out to each man who caught a Springhare, thus setting a tradition for all Quest boys to follow. Their names are as follows: Ross, Mo, me, Kyle, Cale, and Ruan. I can tell you that as far as bonding experiences go, there is nothing quite like it, you get to laugh together at each other’s epic bails, share in the disappointment of a missed catch, in the thrill of the chase, in the admiration of the those speedy bunnies, and in the pride of the catch. It is an immensely fulfilling activity, and the feeling of personal achievement when you catch one is well worth the frustration of any previous attempt.

BUSHCAMP KOS by BRANDON MORTON

Besides the fact that we have poitjie every second day with all kinds of wild game meat in it, the food is not bad at all. We have a very limited variety of foods. All us guys come up with creative ideas on what to put into our three meals a day. For breakfast, its either Jamie’s Army Mix or oats. Lunch is always a sandwich with whatever we can put onto it. Sundays is when we have our best meals. We get egg, toast, tomatoes, bacon etc. and lekker braais. My concluding statement about bushcamp kos is we eat healthy.

Arguably one of South Africa’s most spectacular hikes, the Alexandria Trail, is located a stone's throw from the Quest Africa Kaba Campus. The Alexandria Dunefield, for which the trail is best known, forms the farm’s southern boundary.

In the process of furthering our relationship with the management of the Addo Elephant National Park, Woody Cape Section, we were asked to map a new route for the second day of the trail. This was a fantastic opportunity to experience the trail and to expose the Quest students to the beautiful areas beyond the boundaries of the farm.

For those not yet headed for Bushcamp, life was certainly not any easier. The boys’ first major challenge involved a cycle from the Quest campus to the mouth of Bushman’s River – this would be the furthest cycle any of them had ever undertaken.

It was I think, with a fair amount of fear and trepidation that the first group of Quest boys stumbled up the stairs of the Centre, with eyes still bleary thanks to the 4am start. Ten of the twenty were about to set off for Bushcamp - a three-week stint of living separate from almost every normal distraction of life.