The First Edition Quest Africa Adventure Race - May 2012 

An introduction to adventure racing

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. 

Part of what Quest is about is arranging challenges that are designed to test the students, both physically and mentally. We do this because we want the guys to gain a better understanding of what they are capable of and, in so doing, develop a stronger sense of self-confidence. This was the idea behind the ‘boundary challenge’, which involved each individual carrying a 2.2m long wooden pole (with a diameter of roughly 13cm), around the boundary of the farms’ game area – a distance of approximately 14km.

Several Quest Africa Kaba students featured quite well in local races through the year. Their first event took place on May the 7th – the Woody Cape Mountain Bike Challenge. The race was initially supposed to be 63 km in length and was to incorporate a section of the Kaba Valley – turf our boys were by this stage very familiar with. Alas, after very heavy rains in the days leading up to the race the route had to be shortened to 45 km which in the end was quite a tall order in itself.

Quest Africa Kaba – the first five weeks

Dylan Weyer reflects on the Trans Baviaans mountain bike race- a gruelling 230 km ride through rough and mountainous terrain.

For three Quest Africa lads and I, the Transbaviaans would exemplify so much more than the crossing of the Baviaanskloof mountain range by bicycle. From the inception of the idea to actually taking up the challenge, it was through much doubt that we needed to wade – were we in fact cut out for this event? The Transbaviaans is heralded as the longest single stage mountain bike race on the planet, covering a distance of 230km, with 24 hours being allocated to the task. What is perhaps unique about this race is that it starts at 10h00 in mid-August which means even the speediest of riders are obliged to finish in the dark. What this means for most riders is a perilous descent of almost 900m over 10km from the top of the mother of all climbs, in the dark! What’s more is that this is a team race of between two to four riders with a maximum of 2 minutes gap allowed between team members throughout the length of the course, monitored chiefly at a series of checkpoints dotted along the route.