Families, novices and elite athletes all gathered on Fri 25 th and Sat 26 th April in Jonkershoek , Stellenbosch for an evening of navigating in the dark for the Salomon Night Run and the Earth Scout Night Bike respectively. What competitors didn’t know was that they were about to be sent out on one of the most grueling routes yet.
This time round the ladies of Magnetic South; Amanda Judson and Christine Collins doubled up as course designers and race directors. “Although not our intention to set an impossible course, we certainly wanted an element of challenge to be added to our route” said Amanda. ” Jonkershoek Nature Reserve has an intense network of roads that run along the contours of the valley and the challenge came in trying to link these passages with routes that not all the local regular trail runners and mountain bikers would know. We managed to find some great single tracks and to get to them, we had to take the course up some lengthy hills, along some badly rutted tracks and down some fairly technical downhills .” “We are also very excited about the arrival of our PMI synthetic paper on which the route books will be printed. This is certainly going to add a new dynamic to the event as come rain, sweat or shine, it’s weather-proof, non-tearing and completely indestructible.”
An atmosphere of excitement and anticipation built as competitors waited for the sun to set and a blanket of darkness to fall in the spectacular Assegaaibosch Nature reserve in Jonkershoek . Once in the tension tunnel- so named due to the fact that one is handed the route book and has 4 minutes to official start, moving through a series of blocks at one minute intervals- participants made final adjustments to gear and headlamps with some very strange-looking, home-made cleverly-constructed beams amongst them.
Two by two, teams raced out into utter darkness only to return, on average, 2 hours later wearing double beams- a well used Petzl headlamp and a broad, albeit sweaty, smile . “The indestructible route books were great! We dropped our route book in the water whilst pulling our raft across the dam and thought that that was the end of the race for us but we retrieved it and with no ink smudging and continued on to finish first in the Pro-female run division” said Marike Bolz from team Chutney. Pro-mountain biker, Jan Schutte from team Element who won the Pro-male bike category commented ” Geez , that was a seriously tough route!!” “The best night of sweat, challenge and fun I’ve had in a very long time” commented another competitor.
With only 2 months to go before the next Adventure Nights event in Knysna during the annual Oyster Festival and entries already starting to fly in, it is highly recommended that you book your place for this adrenaline-pumping, adventure-filled evening as entries are limited. Don’t be disappointed, enter online NOW at www.magneticsouth.net

Written by Amanda Judson