”A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

This past October, the Plett Adventure Racing Team took on the epic World Championships of the Adventure Racing World Series in the Eastern Cape. They competed in an 800km challenge, alongside the best teams from across the globe, and facing their fair share of adversity including illness forcing team anchors, Petrus Maree and Drew Scott to yield their spots in the team shortly before the event began.

It was a mammoth task for any team and Plett Tourism is incredibly proud of the spirit, perseverance, and positivity that the team ...more

This week, international and local teams will converge for an epic challenge at Expedition Africa Adventure Race. 

The Plett Adventure Racing Team is a quartet of endurance athletes - Drew Scott, Jeannette Wylie,  Andrew Jansen van Rensburg and Pax Mosterd - who compete in adventure races across the globe under the banner of the Plett Adventure Racing Team. At Expedition Africa, an Adventure Racing World Series event, the team will again carry the Plett flag onto a global stage, representing the spirit of Plett, and the exquisite wilderness that surrounds our beautiful town. 

Expedition Africa, ...more

"Oh my goodness," I was bursting with excitement when my owner put me in her adventure box, that only means one thing… An adventure race is happening!!! Don't get me wrong I've been busy - my Buddy the bike and me have been trapping around, but an adventure race is different...

You see the bike is of course the most important ingredient in a cycle… and me, the " bike shoe", is more like a tag along… but NO not in an adventure race - there I sometimes play the important part too and my buddy the BIKE either gets pushed alongside me or carried - my owner then relies on ME to make her move forward.

The mysterious fifth team member!

Last weekend saw the PLETT ADVENTURE RACING TEAM of Petrus and Netski join forces with a team member from the past, Martin Fraser Mckenzie, and a newbie, Plett local Physio Andrew Van Rensburg. 

It didn’t take much to twist Andrew’s arm as his positive enthusiasm for anything crazy is always refreshing and Martin is an old adventure racer who is always up for a challenge. The Plett Adventure Racing Team headed off to Elgin to part take in the WCAD 36hr ADVENTURE RACE which is part of the A1 adventure racing series in South Africa. The race organisers did not disappoint us as the course was a tough one and taught ...more

It’s been almost 3 weeks since our Carnarvon to Plett bike adventure started and it is amazing how easily life falls straight back into its routine, engulfs you as if nothing happened. 

More Plett Adventure Racing Team Chronicles

Our total journey came to just under 600km, which we decided to cycle unsupported with a tent and what we could carry, including maps, food, etc.  Starting from Carnarvon we cycled 98 km the first evening till we pitched our tent for day one. 

From there we loved every bit of the karoo cycling via Fraserburg about 170kms to end day 2, we could see the sunset hiding from mozzies in our tent….  ...more

The packing has started for our little C2C (Carnarvon to Coast) bike adventure.

Water bottles: ✔️  Bivy bag:✔️ First Aid kit:✔️ Gortex jacket:✔️ Teddy:✔️ And on and on goes the list until suddenly you realise…. “ Hang on “ I have to carry all of this ! And where am I going to put it all?? Small bike carrier and Backpack ain’t going to do it. 

So slowly but surely you go thru the list again and you realise how little one actually needs but how easily we get sucked into needing everything….. the greatest latest gadgets ….but in real life all you need is water, food, warm shelter or clothes, good company and “gees”.

So here we are ready for our little adventure ...more

Not having done an expedition-length Adventure Race since Expedition Africa Rodriquez 2019, and missing this year’s expedition race in Lesotho, we (Petrus and Jeanette) decided to do our own little mission for the simple reason of FOMO but also because there’s just something about adventure racing…

Yes, it’s a challenge and you push yourself outside your comfort zone, but somewhere there is this unseen force that pulls you back and back and back again. There is not one race where you don’t think, “What the *#*! am I doing here?” But, then all the pain and hardship falls away and just the good stuff stays in your mind and ...more

The Riversdale 36hr race saw the Plett Adventure Racing Team team up with two new members making us an interesting bag of “Liquorice all sorts”:  Hanno Smit, the adventure race legend, representing the good old back liquorice, Petrus the machine as the double-decker chocolate liquorice, Pax the unknown flavour, and Netski the mandatory pink liquorice with the potent black inside! All teams had to do a prologue in the cute little town of Riversdale which then determined the time teams would start in the early ...more

This year's Tour de Plett wasn’t just a stunning hard route it also included three other aspects that the Plett adventure team had to encounter: Sweat, cable ties and sportsmanship.

What started off as a training ride (which of course changed as soon as the gun went off into a racing ride?) ended up as a proper and true training day. 

The race started, after a while Bubbles got a glimpse of the front ladies and decided to put the hammer down and see if she could pass them, it all backfired when she passed the third and second lady her bike decided it got abused too much and gave in…. Petrus the true gentleman he is stopped and tried to fix the derailer but not being sure of what to fix ...more

Here we go again!!! Plett Adventure team was lucky again to have been able to put on their racing shoes and head to Cape St Francis for the 120km Kinetic Adventure Race.

Although this time the team was a bit smaller consisting of Petrus and Bubbles, they nevertheless went out full steam ahead.

The races started with a 1 1/2 hr bus drive from Cape St Francis Resort to Kareedouw.

A beautiful hike over the mountain saw us hope onto our bikes to cycle to the dam. Where a paddle with two runs in between waited for us.

This is where nature showed us, we are not as hardcore as we thought we were. A headwind of note was the ...more

The Plett Adventure Racing Team approached the Swellendam 120km race in a different way. Our usual navigator Drew and Steph could not make this one therefore Petrus took the reins with Netski trying her best to throw in her input (when she was allowed). Our team consisted of Andrew, Terry, Petrus and Netski.

It was a pure and true adventure race with tough navigation, proper mountain bike legs with the good old carry-the-bike-down-the-mountain-to-the next-track bundu bashing mountain hikes, kloofing (canyoning) with scrambling up small waterfalls, long swims, sweat, and the sore, scratched legs that comes with all the above. 

1. You can’t just give up halfway through. Once you hike halfway to your destination, you suddenly realize you have to make your way back or you’ll be eaten by a wild pig. Don’t get eaten by the wild pigs.

2. One step at a time. You’ve dragged yourself up the trail and are standing at the foot of a mountain. The rock you’re climbing up is slick from the thousands who have already climbed it, and all you’ve got to hold onto. It’s one of the most mentally and physically challenging ways you can spend 30 minutes. The trick is to ignore the magnitude of it all, and take it one step at a time. And whatever you ...more