Twins power through Wartrail Challenge

In the four years that extremely fit adventure seekers have tackled the Eastern Cape’s Wartrail Challenge, only four teams actually crossed the finish line. Eight teams braved this year’s challenge which took place last weekend and only two made the end – the winners being twin brothers from Salt Rock and Tinley Manor.

Steven and Andrew Erasmus cycled, ran and paddled for nearly 30 hours straight and covered about 265 kilometres in the gruelling race which requires perfect planning and even better execution.

“We went there wanting to win it. We took part last year, but had to withdraw when Andrew’s bike broke, so we knew what we were in for this year,” said Steven, who together with his brother has taken part in various trail running events and even did a couple of Comrade Marathons.

“You choose when you want to start between 4am and 9am. Your time starts when you cross the start line. There are checkpoints along the way that you have to reach within a certain time to stay in the race. We were one of the last teams to leave at 8am. There are no actual trails, you just follow your GPS track,” said Andrew, who like his brother works at Palm Lakes Estate.

He said the challenge started with a 58km trail run in the mountains.

“You basically climb over rocks and fences following your GPS. Steven struggled with the altitude and got sick, as we were 2700m above sea level at one point, which is a lot for boys from the beach. We finished just before 5pm.”

The next leg was the cycle, which Andrew said was the toughest.

“We started cycling just after 6pm, went through the night and finished at about 7.30am. What was supposed to be a 150km mountain bike track turned into a 160km mission. I really lost my sense of humour pushing my bike through grass at 3am, searching for trails, but luckily Steven kept me motivated through that one. Being twins, we know each other really well and know when we can push each other and where our limits are.”

The last discipline was Andrew’s favourite, although he said mentally it was the most challenging.

“We paddled 63km down the Orange River in just under six hours. It was tough to stay awake through the monotonous movement, while trying to dodge sandbanks, after non-stop action and not sleeping for 20 hours.”

The twins crossed the finish line after 29 hours 23 min and 40 seconds. They said they could not have done it without their sponsors, Salomon, McCarthy Toyota Ballito who helped them out with their adventure mobile, Cadence Cycling Performance Centre in Ballito and Science of Coffee for providing those much needed caffeine kicks.

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