Team Parallel Adventure Racing Lining Up at Expedition Africa

Team Parallel will be lining up once again at the start of Expedition Africa, a challenging 500km adventure race through untamed wilderness.

Expedition Africa is part of the Adventure Racing World Series and this year sees 39 teams competing of which about half are international teams from 14 countries as far flung as Australia, Ireland, Brazil and Japan.

Adventure racing is a team sport, whereby a mixed gender team of 4 people navigate using map and compass through wilderness areas, using human power only: their feet, mountain bikes and kayaks. Occasionally some ropework such as abseiling is required. Checkpoints are ticked off as they go and they get to refill their backpacks with supplies at transition areas. The race is non-stop, meaning they race through the night and only sleep when they absolutely need to, wherever that need arises, be it a quick nap on the side of the road or a few hours at a transition.

No two races are ever the same and this year it starts and finishes in the beautiful holiday town of Cape St Francis, with a strong likelihood that the route (kept secret from the racers until the maps are issued the night before) will take them through the Baviaanskloof Wilderness area where they will encounter wildlife including buffalo.

Last year Team Parallel competed in EA for the first time and managed a respectable #26 out of 54 teams, completing the full course in 130 hours (5 ½ days). This year the team is aiming to shave off a full day from that time by making fewer navigation mistakes and racing smarter.

The race kicks off on Sunday morning and you can follow the teams’ progress via satellite tracking on http://www.kineticgear.org/gps-tracking/ or like their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/paralleladventureracing/ to receive updates.