Crossing the Equator felt like crossing the finish line of a long, hard race. But it was different. Different because our race is not over. And we knew no matter how far and how challenging it was to drive from Cape Agulhas, Africa’s most southern point, to the line representing the equal distance between the Earth’s North and South Poles, there wa...

Islands. Alone, yet paramount to the flourishing of the continent, Africa’s lakes boast something special that set them apart from anything we have ever seen. Their sheer size and magnitude gave rise to wonder as we were privileged to visit some of Africa’s lakes that are as big and diverse as the countries which they border, acting as though they ...

“Why am I doing this?” is a question I ask myself more than once when running a trail race. This is especially the case when I do not feel like being where I am for whatever reasons I conjure up in my mind as I keep stepping in navigating the uncertain trail ahead of me. Taking this question into everyday life we all ask ourselves this question or ...

There is not much surface left of our planet which has not been travelled, traversed, discovered or explored. And everything that has, has usually been done with a purpose or mission in mind. Wild flowers, Moffat Mission Station, Kuruman, South Africa. Yet what we see as being overtly missional in movement is not always the impetus for its executio...

Adventure is the intersection of more than one experience at a time. Typically trail running evokes this well because of the terrain that it is experienced in doing what we love to do – running in an environment where we are not normally in everyday, often inaccessible and keeping one’s feet dancing over terrain that is as unpredictable as life is....

Passage is a privilege no matter where one finds oneself, and this is highlighted through Africa with a vehicle. It doesn’t come by itself, its created. It is also very challenging, simply because its passage is so obstructed. Navigating each and every obstacle has come about only through realising that we are not only guests to its beauty (even th...

It’s what lies beneath, what one does not see that gives rise to the beauty around us and the insurmountable joy in times of dryness that gives this colour to life. One has to be aware of these attributes in deserts in order to find them and then see what contribution they make in order to enjoy them. Deserts are hard places – often described as de...

Trail running involves stepping, sometimes taking bigger steps than what is necessary or what we deem physically possible at times. We all take steps in life, it’s inevitable, both physically or metaphorically, small and big steps. We decide - we step and figure it out…we think you do too. We had our 5 year plan. It was all worked out. It was suppo...

Raw. Rugged. Relative. The word that best explains the terrain of Cederberg Wilderness Area in the Western Cape of South Africa is raw. Its rocks and relentless shapes that form its horizons scream the bareness of Creation that points towards its Maker in vast magnitude. The Cederberg Traverse 100 kilometer Trail Run is underpinned by rugged terrai...

How much will we be remembered in 150 years from now? With some self-reflection, probably not much if at all. How about 100 years from now? Maybe. 50 years? Perhaps. Maybe we will be remembered for something we started, branded or achieved? How do we want to be remembered, and is there not more to this race of life? Running the Liggie (Afrikaans fo...

Running is repetitive. One step in front of the other. We keep moving forwards but never quite knowing where we will end up, often with feelings of running in circles. Such is life – repetitive, falsely assuming we never going anywhere, but actually the circular trails we trace always have purpose, even if it's to confirm we are on the right track....

Running a race is very different to volunteering at one. The former is an event, the latter is unique. This was my third visit to the Fish River Canyon in Namibia, having hiked the canyon in 2005 and run the 100 km Ultra race in 2013. Besides being a privilege, volunteering at the Fish River Ultra 2019 as a back-race marker sweep was not only diffe...