Rhodes Ultra Marathon 52k in the Drakensberg mountains of the North Eastern Cape and Lesotho

-12°C at the start	±8k mark, with "Table Mountain" and the guest house where some CRAGgers stayed in the background
	At 14k you leave the dirt road and the kloof starts - 8k of mountainside paths/cattle tracks where it is often not only impossible to pass, but it isn't possible for the person in front to stand aside to let you pass.
... then there's "Auntie Mavis" - the dreaded "Mavis Bank" = 1k of vertical slog to the 22k mark which has a cut off of 4½ hours. The first runner took well over 2 hours to conquer "Mavis"; the first lady was just over 2½ hours. Not an easy 22k !!
Taking a break at 36k and 10000'.	Winston gets his snow at last! At 42k the route is back "down" to starting altitude

RHODES 2002 by Guy Meredith - I had an absolutely magic time in the snow - it's probably been at least 25 years since I last saw snow (except at a distance, on the tops of mountains), so to be surrounded by so much snow was awesome. The race was unfortunately shortened, because the organisers said that there was 6 to 8 feet of snow on the top road (at the top of Mavis Bank), and they couldn't get any support vehicles up there, and also couldn't ensure the safety of the runners. In fact, no vehicles could get to Tiffindell either, as that steep concrete road was impassable. As a result, we ran an "out and back", to Naude's Nek, and then back to the turn off to Mavis Bank, and up the road towards Mavis Bank, and then turned around again and back to Rhodes - a 42km run all along the jeep tracks. So, while the route was not particularly exciting, the conditions made up for it, as we were running through a mixture of snow, mud and ice. There was much slipping, particularly on the piece to Mavis Bank, and runners were falling frequently. The views were spectacular, though, as you can imagine, with lots of snow, mostly dotted with specks of colour where rocks, grass and bushes poked through - but also occasionally fields that were completely white, all covered with snow. The farmhouses we ran past looked like something out of a Christmas Card, with snow-covered roofs, and with surrounding trees sprinkled with a layer of white. The trip to Rhodes was also quite an adventure. I was about 30km from Barkly East when Andrea phoned, to warn me about snow on the road. I asked Andrea where she and Andrew were, and she said about 30km from Barkly East - and, as we were talking, I drove right past them! A very nice surprise, as I didn't even expect them to be on the same road as I was. We then drove together into Barkly East, which was covered in snow. We had coffee at one of the local inns, and tried to get information about the road to Rhodes, and whether it was open. We received conflicting reports - Andrea's friends from Forester's had had to be pulled out of the snow twice, while on the way to the farmhouse (called Achill) in which we were all planning to stay, so that didn't sound promising. Another group of runners told us the road had been graded and was okay even for non- 4 by 4 vehicles. While buying meat in the butchery, we heard a local saying that only 4 by 4's could get through. Then, at the police station, where we went to find Joey Jordaan in whose farmhouse we were staying, one of the policemen burst out laughing when he asked what vehicles we had and I told him I was in a hired Volkswagen Polo. So, we weren't sure what to expect but decided to head to Rhodes anyway, and left Barkly East for Rhodes past the ominous "Road Closed" sign. The journey was quite exciting and hair-raising - at several points Andrew and Andrea's bakkie started sliding towards the side of the road (at one time near some particularly unpleasant looking drops) but fortunately was brought under control. Eventually Andrew stopped and let out some air, and the bakkie seemed to hold the road a lot better after that. My hired Polo was awesome, and only slid once or twice - but, as Andrew pointed out, hired cars can go anywhere! Also, it had wider tyres which I think helped a lot. Eventually we got to the turn-off to the Achill farm, and waited there for the other house occupants to join us, so that we could drive into Rhodes to register. Rhodes was obviously also covered in snow when we got there, and registration was delayed until 5pm. We had been told by the runners that had made it to Achill that the road to the farmhouse was particularly tricky, and, because it was soon going to be dark, we decided to see if there was any accommodation left in town. Fortunately, the organisers had put 20 beds in the old community centre, and only 12 of these had been taken, so Andrea, Andrew and I decided to stay there, while the others headed back to Achill. This was probably the best decision, as the building was warm (they had lit several of the cast iron stoves in the building) and we didn't have to get up early the next morning to get into Rhodes. The start of the run had been postponed until 8am, and the cut-off for the 42km was 7 hours, as opposed to the normal 9 hours for the ultra. When we woke up it was about -2 degrees, but warmed up to about 2 degrees for the start of the race. The temperature remained at about 5 degrees for the rest of the race, so was quite cold. Some runners ran in shorts, but most of us had some form of leggings, as well as warm jackets (lots of Cape Storm gear was in evidence!). The run was well organised, even with the change in route - there were some excellent stations, especially the one at the top of Naude's Nek, where we were offered hot chocolate, coffee, tea or soup, plus sandwiches - great stuff! At the turn off to Mavis Bank we were given schnapps, and Andrea had jelly that had (unknown to her) been made with schnapps! As we approached the last refreshment point, we heard a continuous rendition of "Day-O", and as we reached the top of the hill leading down to the station we were met by a girl with a half-empty bottle of schnapps, offering us a drink. When we reached the refreshment station, they had obviously been having a fair amount of schnapps to ward off the cold, and several of the girls were flashing any male runners that went past. Of course, most of the males voted this station the best! Andrea and I finished in just over 5 hours - 5 hours and 36 seconds to be exact. The worst part of the run was the cold feet - I should have taken Pam's advice to take plastic bags (for water-proofing feet when crossing streams)! I was lucky enough to have a warm shower at the camp site after the run, but poor Andrea found only cold water in the girl's shower, so she was not so lucky! We left for Achill only after the prize-giving (as the other runners staying at Achill won several medals), and fortunately all our cars got through, as the road was not as bad as the previous day. That night we had great steaks which Andrew braaied on a fire inside the house, while Andrea made great sweet potatoes and salads to go with it - plus we had some good red wine, so we all felt a lot better after that!

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