Stanford Lake College took two teams to compete in the Adventure Challenge for Schools™ in Zambia from December 4-8. Nine teams from 3 countries, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia competed in the event.
Adventure racing is a multi-disciplined, non-motorised sport where mixed gender teams of 4 compete.
It takes months of gruelling dedicated planning and training to prepare for these events. Last year’s event was held at Mulungushi Dam, Zambia – 200km North East of Lusaka.
Two Stanford Lake College (SLC) teams, 4 teachers and several parents left on the 30th of November 2015, making their way through Botswana and Zimbabwe to finally set up camp 4 days later on the banks of the Mulungushi Dam in Zambia.
It was an exciting four days of fast paced intensive activities.
Day 1 activities were at Mulungushi Dam. The teams moved on water via canoe between the different activities -mountain biking, canoeing, kayaking, rock climbing, bouldering, high water jumps and various initiative exercises.
Day 2 was spent in a gorge just below the hydro plant with activities such as gorge walking, running , hiking through river beds, abseiling, slack lining over water pools, more water jumps, Tyrolean traverse, raft building, rock pool diving, problem solving, cooking, map work and orienteering were undertaken.
The Grand Challenge was over the last 2 days and was a continuous race of about 100km which included all the activities they had done during the first few days, all as one event.
Not a lot of rain and high temperatures made things even more difficult! After four days of racing, various activities and a lot of blood, sweat and gears; it was a close finish between Zimbabwe’s Falcon College senior team (Bushtic Gladiators) who took 1st place overall, with the SLC senior team (Ubuntu) in 2nd place by 21minutes. The SLC Junior team (Tshanduko) came home in 3rd place 25 minutes behind their senior team.
Highlights of the long journey, were a river cruise down the Zambezi river at Kasane on the way there, white river rafting down the mighty Zambezi River at Victoria Falls.With 3 members doing it in kayaks (and YES, there is water at Victoria Falls, contrary to all the photos and rumours!) and mountain biking in the Matopos just outside Bulawayo (a World Heritage site) on the way home – and this was all just for fun.
A huge thank you to all the sponsors: Trophy Toyota, Trappers Trading in Mall of the North, PPS in Tzaneen, Falconwood Water and Adventure Zone in Victoria Falls. Then all the teachers and the parents who came along for the adventure, their assistance and support was truly appreciated, the two teams could not have done it without them. Thank you.
Well done to the 2 teams, Ubuntu and Tshanduko on finishing the year off on a high note and for their dedication throughout the year to put in all the hard training that was essential to achieving excellent results.
