College hosts 20th adventure race

Stanford Lake College (SLC) hosted the 20th Adventure Challenge for Schools™ towards the end of last year. Among the participants were some old boys and girls from 20 years ago who, on invitation from the school, raced against the other competitors in a special fun challenge on the first day.
The real event included many disciplines ranging from rafting, mountain biking, trail running, swimming to obstacles, first aid, high water jumps, rock climbing, rope traverse and structure building challenges in which teams from Zambia and South Africa went head to head over the five days.
Day two was spent in George’s Valley for the kloofing and climbing rotations where teams were tested on their climbing, communication and problem solving skills. Day three was spent on Ebenezer Dam with water activities as well as land navigation and problem solving made a little more difficult with low visibility because of the mist and predictable mountain weather. The 90 km Vasbyt challenge started from the college at 04:00 on day four and consisted of a 40 km mountain bike stage and a hike into the Mohlapitse, past the Wolkberg Nature Reserve and back towards the Georges Valley road. Here they had two activities, one being a 25m abseil where after they had to cycle to Ebenezer Dam and then to Consolata via the contour road around the dam. From this transition teams had a 10 km paddle back to the college using one kayak per team. Upon arrival they were required to build their own raft with two drums, a tube and eight poles. On this craft they had to paddle to the floating structure, jump 8m into the water and continue to the finish. Team Ubuntu from SLC was the first team to cross the line just after 15:00. The last teams came in just after 18:00. A long day of racing!
The last morning saw the teams finish the event by building a single raft on which all the teams had to fit. They then paddled around the beacon and back to the finish. Team Ubuntu won the event after 5 days and 250 km of racing and SLC’s Badgers finished in 2nd place overall.
Next year’s event will be held in Zambia.