Implausible, given I weigh in at less than 60 kg. “Oh yes, officer, of course it’s mine, I always travel with my punchbag”. Now I also had a leaking rubbery punchbag and chains to explain away to the hostile customs official (interrogator) of my imagination.
A ROMPING WESTERN BLACK RHINOCEROS FULL
In Kenya, plastic bags are banned but I had various ziplocks full of my daily porridge ration, peanuts, cashews and Bertie Bassets (my secret weapon). All of it worries me needlessly and constantly. I don’t like visas, Covid passes, customs forms, passport controls. Turns out it’s an aqua bag, you fill it with water before you batter the hell out of it. A three-foot long neoprene type of a bag with heavy chain. Then an enormous 9 kg misshapen lumpy package wrapped in masses of bin liners and gaffer tape turned up on my doorstep. Sure, I can do that Oli, anything for you. Oli is big-hearted enough to find the time and energy to support other causes too… which is why, a week before we flew to Kenya, I got a message asking if I could ferry out a punchbag to a gym in Nairobi that works to keep kids off the streets and channel their energies positively via boxing. He is a great supporter of rhinos and of rangers, the twin pillars of this race. He did the ForRangers Ultra with me and Cathy and some other friends in 2018. Just getting that far deserved a big shiny medal. Ah, the best laid plans… I still find it incredible that after not one but two years of postponement, our band of five managed to stay in the game and all actually made it to the start line. Ten legs and 10 feet doing diligent training in preparation for our September 2020 adventure.
False startįive friends, five days, 220 km to go. Needless to say, an ultramarathon is more or less as tough as it sounds.
Perhaps 12 kg, crammed into a rucksack, with whatever you are wanting invariably stuck in the bottom somewhere. What else is an ultramarathon? It’s carrying all your kit for the week food, medicine, bedding, GPS and compass, emergency equipment, toiletries, and if you have room, a spare pair of socks. Our longest day would be closer to 50 km, which is 8 km more than a standard marathon – an immensity of extra slog on very tired feet. After you’ve completed a marathon, even 10 extra yards is not “a little”, it’s a painful prospect on aching feet and muscles. A little… Perhaps I should rethink that description. So, what is an ultramarathon? In this case, 220 km of heat and dust across Africa, spread across five days, averaging a little over a marathon a day.
While G&L clearly had considerable form as long-distance walkers (masterful understatement!), this would be their, and Charlie’s, first ever formal ultramarathon, doing “marathon plus” distances day after day. The rest of us had rather more prosaically flown in to accompany them for a few days. Cathy and I were enthusiastically praising the “ForRangers Ultra”, and to our delight the others took the bait. Laura and Graham had got to Italy by walking there from their home in Hampshire, and were heading on down to Rome on an epic 1,450 mile “Home to Rome” journey. Back in 2018, Cathy (my wife, and CEO of Save the Rhino) and I met up with friends Graham and Laura (G&L), and a neighbour of theirs called Charlie, for a few days walking in Italy.
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