Travel Photographers Network

In South Africa, we are serious about our annual running and cycling events. You can't be considered a proper runner unless you have completed the grueling 90km Comrades Marathon (11 000 to 14 000 participants) taking place on the old tar road between the cities of Pietermaritzburg and Durban. Cyclists compete in the 105km Cape Argus cycle race (35 000 participants) on roads around the Cape Peninsula. And mountain bikers fight to complete the 8 day Cape Epic.

Even with these arduous competitions, there is always someone looking for a greater challenge. One such person is attorney, David Waddilove whose love for mountain biking and the great outdoors lead him to establish The Freedom Challenge (FC); a 2,200km mountain bike race across the country and over the chain of mountains between Pietermaritzburg and the wine producing area of Paarl, close to Cape Town. This punishing extreme mountain bike race follows a trail through many largely unknown, remote, wilderness areas. Throw in 8 portages over the highest mountains, some rain, mud and the occasional snowstorm in the middle of winter and you have a true survival race against the elements, the terrain and your bike.

The route is very specific, following hiking paths, cattle paths, farm tracks and district roads. Maps and a route narrative are provided, proving a test of navigation skills. The Freedom Challenge is an unsupported race: any outside help, except what is available at official support stations, is not allowed. GPS is forbidden, though mobile phones are permitted.

Participants have 26 days to complete the event with overnight accommodation and meals being provided by local communities and farmers. This gives riders a unique opportunity to meet and connect with people they ordinarily would never see. The event aims to contribute to the economic uplift of the local communities, and to spawn a trail which can be used at any time.

The Race Begins

Traditionally Comrades is run in the middle of winter (16 June). So the start of the FC is set for the following day, to allow those riders who felt that the 90km run just wasn't enough to participate in both! To accommodate the number of entrants this year (46), the start of the race was spread over 3 consecutive days. The FC is not a stage race where cyclists start each day together as the Tour de France. Riders are free to ride through the night if they so choose.

Tim James, my brother-in-law and an airline captain, had entered the FC for a second time in 2008, so my wife and I traveled down to follow Tim’s progress for the first couple of days. We set out in a tiny Volkswagen to try and meet up with Tim at various pre-arranged points in the race over the first 3 days.

Tim started on the third day and, as it had rained the previous day, the access roads were pretty muddy and slippery proving a challenge for our little car. Little did I realize that Tim was on a mission, and this race was to be no joy ride with time for socializing. He had set himself a goal of finishing in 12 days, and so had no time to waste. He was later to tell me that every minute that he was delayed for no good reason meant a minute less sleep. To accomplish his goal he had developed an intimate knowledge of the route knowing which sections needed to be done in daylight, etc.

Photographing during these first few days proved a little tricky. While concentrating on driving on rough and muddy roads, I also was looking for suitable places to stop, jump out and get in a couple of shots of a moving target. The light was changing continuously due to the heavy clouds above. No chance of re-takes here. My kit comprised a Nikon D200, a 17-55mm lens, a 70-200mm lens and a 1,7x teleconvertor. The Nikon sensor has a 1.5 times factor compared with 35mm so that the 200mm is in effect a 300mm lens. I tended to shoot with the camera set on P (program mode), and then spin the thumb-wheel to the desired combination.

As we drove up one of the foothills to the Malekgalonyane (quite a mouthful for us English speakers) support station a beautiful mountain vista opened up. Here Tim introduced me to David Waddilove who was monitoring the race from his bakkie (S African term for on open backed pick up truck). David's photographer had given up on him, and Tim suggested I take the job. Long story short, I ended up arranging to meet David in Queenstown, a bit short of halfway into the race, in 5 days time.

Once back home in Johannesburg it didn’t take long for me to decide that I needed that 18-200mm lens that I had my eye on, as there really is no time for lens changing with a bunch of cyclists coming headlong at you down a hill. The overnight double decker bus ride to Queenstown was interesting to say the least.

The Assignment

Having joined David in the cab of his sponsored Toyota bakkie I received my brief – photos with cyclists but with lots of background. He wanted to capture the varying terrain the race moves through. Generally it worked this way. We would get ahead of the riders, look for an interesting background and then stop and wait for the riders to come through. Having found a group of 5 or 6 riders we followed the progress of this group for a couple of days spending nights at the same support stations, some times sleeping with 4 snoring, tired and dead-to-the-world cyclists. Two of the support stations, Rietfontein and Grootvlakte, were up-market game farms catering for hunters. Lots of Kudu and other buck (antelope) in the area. These stations provided opportunities for shots of riders effecting repairs to their bikes.

In the meantime, Tim had gotten far ahead of the field with the following group about 2 days behind. We eventually caught up with him, and were able to get some shots of him going through the relatively flat Karoo and then up the spectacular Swartberg pass. Because the field became so spread out (the last riders were approaching halfway as the leaders were approaching the finish) it was not possible to photograph many of the groups. In fact, many of the areas where the bikers rode were simply not accessible to us.

Lighting generally varied from low early morning, to flat midday, to contrasting bright light and heavy shadow in the Swartberg. I soon learnt to set the shooting mode to continuous high and shoot bursts as the riders whizzed past. Also to get a successful panning shot the shutter speed should be somewhere around 1/25s. One of the successful sunset silhouette shots was taken lying flat on my stomach on some pretty rough and stony ground.

Would I do it again? Without a doubt. Being out there in the open away from the normal hustle and bustle was just so exhilarating. Many photos taken by the cyclists with point and shoot cameras can be seen on the FC website, http://www.freedomchallenge.org.za/.

Oh and by the way – Tim didn’t quite make his ambitious 12 day target. He won the race in 14 days, still beating the previous record by 2 days!

About the Author

John Shillington knows a lot about extreme competitions...  He has run the 90km Comrades Ultramarathon 25 times!

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