10th Waterberg District Adventure Challenge for Schools™ 2007

That time of year has come when school children all around the country finish their exams for the year and get ready for their huge summer holiday, but a small group of these children are getting ready for something bigger than the normal run around the block… These children are at present taking part in the 10th Waterberg District Adventure Challenge for Schools™ 2007 in the wild and untamed Waterberg Biosphere Reserve. The event started at the Doorndraai Dam near Mokopane on Saturday, 1st December and ends at Jobedi Game Reserve on Friday. It is sponsored by Waterberg District Municipality, Altech Netstar, Trappers Trading, Coca-Cola / Powerade, Limpopo Tourism and Parks Board, PVM, Fluid Kayaks, The Bull of Africa, and The African Ivory Route. This event started in 1998 with only a couple of schools participating from the Limpopo province and Johannesburg area. However, over the years the event has grown to an international event with an average team count of 12-14 teams per event. Some of the international teams that the event has seen in previous years are teams from Canada, England, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This year the event will be hosted by WOW Limpopo and Stanford Lake College and will see 13 teams competing for the trophy, of which teams from Canada and Zambia are once again part of the Challenge. The format of the race is an expedition style covering 300km over the course of 7 days. Whereas skills such as running, mountain biking, navigation, paddling, rafting, pioneering (rope work), horse riding, rock climbing, kloofing and problem solving is put to the test. For the first four years the event was held in Magoebaskloof and then moved on to Glenmore-KZN (2002) and Lydenburg-MP (2003). In 2004 the event moved back to the Limpopo Province, with its rich and versatile terrain that made the Limpopo Province the perfect Adventure Racing destiny. From 2004 the race saw areas being used such as Venda (2004), Wonderkop/ Masebe (2005), Blouberg (2006) and this year it is hosted in the wild and untamed Waterberg Biosphere Reserve. For more details contact Thias Taute at 082 339 2523 or Walter Dhooge at 084 515 4866.