Sorry so quiet!! Out of signal for a while (we had no idea of the devastation in Japan until 24 hours after it happened) and then were a bit freaked out by civilisation.
We left from Mkambati Reserve at the crack of dawn on Friday morning to try and catch the tides right for crossing the mighty Mtentu River which Is known to be a breeding ground for the Zambezi Shark (Mtentu is one of the big 4 rivers that I have a resistance to swimming). Pete came along with us on a mountain bike to film the crossing and of course, with Dave (Scud) Pons running with me there would be no hesitation or dithering on the bank! We swam the river with our dri bags without incident (whew!) and set off to catch the low tide on the 20km stretch of beach we would have to cross before we reached the Mtamvuna River on the Natal Border. It was boiling hot with very little wind and I ran out of water and suntan cream before we reached the Wild Coast Sun and was able to refill our hydration packs. What a surreal experience to leave the deserted (but for a couple of Nguni) beaches and cliffs of the Wild Coast and run onto a Friday afternoon highway buzzing with taxis and trucks! Eish!
I was totally disorientated for a while and momentarily confused by a set of traffic lights! Scud and I ran a couple of kms past Port Edward before we called it quits for the day and stopped to wait for Pete and the support vehicle. When we saw them approaching I darted across the highway and somehow managed to slightly tear my right calf muscle. How bizarre – through the Transkei without injury and then I hurt myself on the first highway!
I have had to take an early rest day and was incredibly fortunate to have Amazing Grace (Hughes) give me some physio and funky black strapping stuff which seems to be doing the trick. The plan is to set off for Port Shepstone tomorrow and hope that the calf holds out.
[noteblock] Good luck to everyone doing the Argus on Sunday![/noteblock]
Author: Kim
