Thursday, December 15, 2011

Ndubaluba Outdoor Adventure Race









An edited report by Andrew Sukhacheva

This year’s race took place on the 21st of November, 2011. Two teams had the privilege to compete. Team A: Arthur Mukanga, Yone Kibombwe, Michele Valenza and Viktoria Sukhacheva. Team B: Chigomezyo Kawonga, Tim Ferguson, Andrew Sukhacheva and Jenny Boatman. In every team there had to be at least one female. Three schools competed, Lechwe, Chengelo and Amano, each with two teams. Lechwe participated for the first time and they did their best.
The race consisted of very basic orienteering and problem solving, kayaking, raft building, running, climbing and cycling for 35km. Each of the teams were given a map, compass, whistle and first aid kit. Teams had to design a flag based on their chosen team name and a war cry to go with it. The war cry is used to generate team spirit and is repeated at each check point.

The race began at 8am with all teams meeting at the office where we had to start with war cries and start the first challenge – a free standing structure made of old tent poles and rubber strips found around the campus. When the instructor inspected the integrity and height and passed it we were off to get our team kayak which we had to carry a kilometre as we ran to the dam.

At the dam two members had to kayak to a point in the lake and back whilst the others started building a raft. Materials available were two drums, two bamboos, an inner tube and 5 pieces of rope. Then with one in the kayak and the rest on the raft the team rowed to the dead tree and back. After disassembling the raft and doing our war cry it was time to carry the kayak back to base and climb on our bikes. At this stage Team A were last and Team B were third.

The first two kilometres were good road and then came the bush track. [At some point here Jenny’s bike got so seriously damaged it couldn’t move so then Tim chose to drop out so that the team could still qualify for a finishing place. A team can finish with three as long as one is a girl. Difficulties with slow punctures slowed down our progress.]

10 km later came the toughest part following a compulsory water stop. An 1.5km uphill stretch where some slopes to the cell phone tower were extremely steep with loose material requiring stages of walking. The team had to report the shape made of stones to an instructor lower down the slopes. By now team A had caught up having struggled at the dam stage. As they met the time constraints they were able to go onto the school primary climbing wall whereas we had to go straight back to campus suffering a 40 minute time penalty.

Team A had Arthur and Yone taking the challenge of assailing the climbing wall whilst Michele and Viktoria worked the safety ropes. Then it was a straight race to finish in the quickest time possible. The road to Ndubaluba was wide, straight and open to the sun. Back at camp the two that didn’t climb now had to go up the bigger climbing tower and raise their flags at the top, but they always had a rope harness so they had nothing to fear.

That is the end of the race. Next, when all the teams had met up, the certificates were given and the winner, Chengelo A, were proclaimed. Everything ended up with a prayer and then all schools left.

Our pictures show:

Team A - Arthur, Yone, Michele and Viktoria
Team B - Chigo, Tim, Andrew and Jenny
starting a 1km run with the kayak
Kayak and raft building challenge
Team on descent
Scenery on descent
Wall climb at Chengelo
Team B mid war cry