Conquering Rhino Peak
Shane Raw brought in 76 pledges to the value of about R38 000, raising the fourth highest amount among this year’s participants.
STANDING at the starting line of the Rhino Peak Challenge at 7am on Friday morning (World Rhino Day), Shane Raw gazed at the summit in the distance and thought uneasily, “It looks so very, very far away and so very, very high.”
Shane committed to participating in the annual trail run to the top of Rhino Peak to raise funds toward rhino conservation, a cause which has been close to his heart since a personal encounter with Sudan, the world’s last male Northern White Rhino.
Finishing the run 5h35min later (a good 1h25min ahead of his goal time), Shane looked up at the summit once again. “It still looked so very far away, but this time I felt a sense of exhilarated satisfaction, knowing that I did what I had set out to do,” he said.
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Shane described the experience, “I started off at an easy pace, knowing the climb would get steeper as I approached the top. The last part was going to be the hardest so I tried to conserve my energy for that. Two hours into the race, I got to the steepest part of the climb, which entailed literally scrambling over loose rocks and sheer rock faces. Close to the top, the wind was howling, and standing at the peak was quite unnerving. It felt like you could get blown right off the mountain. The view was breathtaking. I stopped for a moment to rest my legs and take in the sheer awesomeness of the mountain range. From there, you can look over the entire Southern KZN area because you are well over 3000m high.
“My ascent to the peak took about three hours and I thought the uphill was going to be hard work and the downhill would be much easier, but I was wrong. Even though I completed the downhill faster, it was just as difficult as the uphill due to all the loose rocks. I also made an error in judgement on the way down, and ran out of water. In 30 degrees, the last 20 minutes, all I could think about was sitting down and have a drink of cold water.”
At the first tally, the Rhino Peak Challenge 2017 raised roughly more than R310 000. Shane had managed to bring in 76 pledges to the value of about R38 000, raising the fourth highest amount among this year’s participants.
“Thank you to all the people that made pledges. It is such an important thing for all of us to make small contributions, as and when we can, to save our wildlife. The issue of conserving our wildlife is becoming more and more critical. I am grateful for the opportunity to make a difference and hope to be invited to participate in the Rhino Peak Challenge again next year,” concluded Shane.
