Confronted by a humongous map, we gasped as we stared at endless checkpoints. On this hot, windy summers day at Laborie Wine Farm, we were to collect as many points as possible, at checkpoints (CP’s) on Paarl’s hills and vineyards. Affectionately known as the Bootylicious Brunette Babes, Liz and I chose to run.
Following a hunch that strategy was the best way to deal with sky high temperatures, we plotted a route on our map. To avoid wasting energy, we decided to skip unrealistic, outlier checkpoints such as the fireman’s pole and paddler’s. 
After the horn blared, we raced to CP1. We passed a dam on our right, then a vineyard on our left, before we found it, nestled in the corner of the wine farm. High fives were a little premature, as we discovered when we continued to CP6. Met by a barbed wire fence, we had to retrace our steps until we found a fork in the road, leading to the gravel path.
A steep pebble path reduced us to power walking, before the route flattened and we were able to pick up the pace. The CP was at the bottom of a rather eerie, 10-metre deep quarry, whose wobbly ladders we clambered down, avoiding obtrusive rocks. When we clipped our card, we were more than happy to get out of there.
We bolted down the hill
Finding CP3 was easy, so we made up for lost time. When the red signpost flapped in the wind, alongside the vineyard, our spirits soared. We clipped our card and headed up the mountain to CP7. We were startled by a wayward red cool drink can, but after recovering from our fear of inanimate objects, we located the flag behind the dam.
Further up the path, CP8 was described as “Pumphouse at JP Drive”. Clueless about what was meant by the name, we decided to try our luck with the river. Crossing a stream we didn’t notice anything, so we decided to continue up the hill, admiring our spectacular surroundings.
Who the heck would have known to look there?
It wasn’t until we bumped into another team that we realised we’d already passed the CP. Liz scampered down to the boulder to clip our card at CP9 and we picked up some pointers on how to find the illusive CP8. “Underneath concrete where fence meets slab” may have been a less confusing name, if you ask me.
Heading back to Laborie, we discussed which CP we would find next. We’d been running for over two hours and were starting to feel the sun. We considered high scoring CP20, at the Taal Monument, but a steep hill could lead to a late arrival at the finish line. We didn’t want to lose our preciously banked points as a result, so we focussed on CPs that were closer.
A dash through the vineyard lead us to the edge of a quarry and CP2. CP4 fluttered on a bridge invitingly, south of a small dam. Alas, another fence blocked our path and no amount bundy bashing through the bushveld got us any closer to it. We took a path which passed workers houses, but ended up in the vineyard, away from our prize. Frustrated, we had to call it quits and crossed the finish line with seven minutes to spare.
A little more than one glass of champers
We must’ve done something right, because we were the second highest scoring female running team. We also had first dibs on delicious champers, strawberries and salami sticks.
The Nav Challenge is a fun adventure in the outdoors, which is tests you on so many levels. The scenery is beautiful – we enjoyed exploring the mountains and vineyards. To do well in this race you need to plan your route carefully, you need to keep your cool when lost, you need to be able to read maps and you need to be fit enough to run for 3 hours.
This stuff is addictive and we’ll be back next year to tackle CP20. For now, we’d like to congratulate organisers on the event that rocked and for our awesome goodie bags.
Words by Heidi Thompson, Photographs by Cherie Vale at http://cherievalephotography.wordpress.com
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