Sunday 1 May saw the long anticipated running of South Africa’s newest and most unique trail marathon, the inaugural Klipspringer Challenge in the Northern Cape’s spectacular Augrabies Falls National Park. By all accounts it was well worth the wait.
A respectable but intimate field of 120 runners braved the cold desert morning to line up at the Start, headlamps flickering in the dark, nervous laughter and the constant roar of the Falls in the distance providing the soundtrack.
Split pretty evenly between the grueling 40km Challenge race and the shorter but tough 21km Lite race, the field was a good mix of local runners with some knowledge of the terrain and a tolerance for the desert heat, representing such Northern Cape towns as Upington, Kakamas, Prieska, Kuruman, Prieska, Kimberley and Pofadder, and visitors enjoying the incredible Northern Cape hospitality from Gauteng, the Western Cape, as far afield as the Lowveld, with even a couple of KZN’ers tempted enough to venture beyond their Last Outpost.
Both races were privileged to have dark starts, making sure that every effort was made to shield runners from the worst of the desert heat, even in the welcome cold spell that very fortunately arrived just for the weekend. The Start saw a snake of headlamps head away from the safety of the Rest Camp with an obligatory swing past the Falls themselves, especially floodlit for the occasion, before heading out onto the trail proper.
The first section of the trail consisted of about 11km of deceptively technical running. Runners were advised in the comprehensive Race Briefing the evening before to try and conserve some energy early on and to watch their footing in their dark. Gauging by the post-race “zero-incident” report from the ER24 Emergency Team on hand, it seemed that people listened. Fortunately the reflective markings proved very effective and the trail was easy to follow. For the majority of the field, dawn was breaking by the time they hit the incredible canyon-top viewpoints in the latter parts of this section, and everything but the unforgettable view was quickly forgotten.
After this first section the Challenge and Lite trails split. Lite runners headed uphill on a short but challenging Park Jeep track, before veering off back into the wilderness onto the main trail in the general direction of the Finish, while Challenge runners were taken down a steep rocky climb into the Gorge itself. This was unanimously the toughest section of the trail, with monster boulders requiring some real Klipspringer-like boulder-hopping skills interspersed with quad-busting soft dry river sand. At the same time it is one of the most dramatically beautiful stretches that a trail runner will be privileged enough to run anywhere in the world. In addition, the trail along this section was very lightly marked, with runners needing to find their own line along the side of the river. This did not necessarily make things easier but it certainly made things fun, and the concentration required to find the most efficient line certainly distracted from the physical effort. At the Race Briefing and in pre-race email communications, runners were encouraged to swim in the legendary Orange River at one of the many convenient swim spots at the bottom of the canyon – the many who took this advice swore that it was an experience that they would never forget.
After the second Water Table, the route out of the Gorge was a brutal stretch of dry river bed and about 4km of muscle-draining soft river sand. This section also tends to be the hottest on the route, so it was with gratitude that runners finally come upon the second of the SANParks overnight huts on the hiking trail, knowing that they could fill up with water and that some fantastic fast running lay ahead of them. Those that still had the energy to run were able to enjoy what one runner referred to as “the best section of hard-core trail that I’ve ever run”, as the route traversed the beautiful alien up-and-down landscape of the Swart Rante. Finally the route emerges from the Swart Rante past the Park’s most famous and biggest Quiver Tree, and heads down to the 3rd Water and Checkpoint station. By this stage runners are hungry and thirsty, and the fresh fruit, salted potatoes, local dry wors and Racefood are tasting wonderful, and the cold water and Coke seems like heaven.
Somewhere around here the Lite and Challenge routes join up again, and runners enjoyed opening up the legs on the scenic and fast trails that they were promised, and that were the reason they were advised to preserve some energy in the tough early stages. Tired but sensing home runners hit the final Water Table before heading up and over the unmistakable Augrabies Falls landmark of Moon Rock with a spring in their step, only to find that like the desert scorpion, the Klipspringer had a sting in its tail, and they had to negotiate the ancient riverine Ebony Forest before finally emerging onto the tar road just outside the Rest Camp for the final few hundred metres towards the glorious sight of the Finish Arch, the sound of music and cold drinks, and the smell of food cooking. Although only 3km long, most runners seemed to estimate the forest section to have been anything from 5km-8km. Some loved the shade, some hated the thorns and low-hanging branches, but none are likely to forget it.
As participants in a successful inaugural event, there was a clear sense amongst the participants of having shared in something special. Crossing the finish line some runners were limping, some were bleeding, but all were unanimous and vocal in expressing their awe at the unique beauty of the environment, the comprehensive marking on the trail, the organization of the event and their overall enthusiastic enjoyment of the experience. Besides things like “incredible experience” (Taryn McDonald), “Awesome, very tough – well organized- if you haven’t done this you missed out on something very great!!!” (Zirkia Gregorowski), “Epic and beautiful race” (Geneve Zaaiman), “fantastic race and an awesome weekend all round” (Islay-Jane Sparks-Van Der Linde), “amazing experience and awesome challenge” (Chetan Patel), “rocks, sand and riverbed…a technical and scenic trail dream!” (Piet-Piet Swart), “my smile is going to have to be surgically removed” (Russell Nugent), the most commonly heard sentiment was “I’ll be back next year! With more friends!”
In the words of Klipspringer Challenge Winner and SA Long- and Ultra-Distance Champion Nicolette Griffioen, “Fantastic adventure experience! Beautiful route, well-marked and a good balance of very technical and runnable trail, thanks!”
