TRAIL RUNNING
As soon as the daylight started to fade and we decided to head back to camp , the clouds suddenly rumbled in and a few drops started to fall . Only when the first raindrop struck Sven in the middle of his forehead could we sense some real urgency , as he increased his walking speed a couple of notches . Then , as the first lightning struck only a couple of metres away , it was a flat-out sprint .
The camera crew actually overtook the athlete , running whilst sheltering their lenses . At first , no-one could keep up , but a huff and a puff later , Sven ran out of steam and quickly passed the lenses to his camera crew companion . “ Run as fast as you can ,” he told
Arlo . In a hurry we made it back to camp , squished in like sardines under the gazebo , but relatively dry as the Drakensberg ’ s unpredictable weather said hello .
Watching the Weather
After the thunderstorm , as the tents were pitched and dinner was slowly being prepared on the gas cylinder , Sven was mumbling some words of wisdom whilst sipping on his whisky : “ My wife predicted that on Thursday morning we will have clear skies followed by
days of non-stop rain . Johardt , you have to go for the FKT attempt tomorrow or we won ’ t hear the end of it .” But Johardt being Johardt , he decided that Thursday wasn ’ t going to be the day . “ I need my legs to adapt to the Drakensberg first , and the weather looks as good for Saturday as it does for tomorrow .”
The implications of that statement were tremendous , even though not that clear at the time . Firstly , if Sven ’ s wife ’ s weather prediction proved to be
Images : elvin Trautman , Louis Le Grange & courtesy Johardt van Heerden
Running Mafadi
On 8 October 2015 , trail runners Ryan Sandes and Ryno Griesel set a Fastest Known Time ( FKT ) for the ascent of Mafadi via the Northern High Approach , an alternative , and slightly shorter but steeper route of the popular Corner Pass . They set a time of 5:47:59 , starting and ending at the Njesuthi Campsite , and covered a total of 38.52 kilometres with approximately 2400 metres of elevation gain / loss . A previous FKT was set in 2012 by Andrew Porter , with a time of 6:22 from the Giant ’ s Castle Campsite via Judge Pass .
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