7. Stage 5 will be open to the public!

The mountain biking public can now get a taste of the excitement of a 5 day stage expedition by joining us on the last day of the 2010 Cape Outback MTB Expedition on 28 April. This 68km stage from Strandveld Wine Cellar to Beloftebos will be open to the public. If 5 days and 470km in the sounds a bit too much for you, you can still share in the excitement by joining us for the last day.

Registration for this open stage will take place on the morning of 28 April from 5h30 until 6h30 at the expedition office at Strandveld Wine Cellar. The start is at 7h00 and entries are R100 per person. Day-riders do not have to be in pairs for this one. The stage profile is available on the website at www.capeoutback.co.za. The cut-off time will be 15h00 which is also the time when the prise giving for the Cape Outback will start at Beloftebos.

Come and join the excitement of the last day of the 2010 Cape Outback MTB Expedition. The local school will be the beneficiary of the last day's food stalls at Beloftebos.

 

Meet the organisers of the Cape Outback

Leo du Plessis (Expedition Director - Route and Planning)

Leo is not an office kinda guy. He starts where the road ends. So when the idea was mentioned of an expedition through a quiet and remote area he listened, but when the word "mountain bike" was added to the equation, Leo switched on. Leo holds an honours degree in sports science and work as an adventure guide for various companies. Leo survived hurricane Noel in the Caribbean while sailing from Cape Town to Fort Lauderdale in 2007. In his free time you will find him on his back underneath his 1956 Landy or he will simply disappear with his (Toyota) 4x4 and mountain bike into the bundu. Leo always has a good travel story to tell.

 

 

Jaco ("Jakes") Loubser (Expedition Director - Logistics & Admin)

Jaco is one of those people that struggle to answer the question: "So what do you do for a living?". If you catch him around a campfire with a glass of red, he can tell you about his days as a lifeguard instructor in Hermanus, about the time he sailed across the Atlantic, about his back packing journeys through South America and the Caribbean, about his life on an island in the Bahamas or his days as overland guide in Southern Africa.

If he is in a hurry, however, he will tell you that he is an accountant and lives in a small flat in Stellenbosch with his bonsai tree, Bernoldus. If he is not in the office or out organising the Cape Outback, Jaco is fighting wild fires in the Boland mountains and he still loves to travel to so-called Third World countries.

Con Viljoen (Logistics Manager)

If you phone Con during day time he will probably be hanging from a rope somewhere with lots of heavy equipment nearby. His rigging work has taken him across the African continent...bill boards in Senegal, bridges in DRC... if it is not cemented to mother earth he can lift it! Con sometimes returns to terra firma to run adventure camps for school children and students at his adventure camp site on the banks of the Breede River near Bonnievale. He is married to Ilse and during the Cape Outback he will have the daunting task of moving the expedition village every day.

Jansie Potgieter (Expedition Village Manager)

Calling Jansie the training manager of a Stellenbosch-based overland charter company just doesn't say enough about this girl. Her work as an overland guide has taken her across the African continent and her travels has taken her across the South American continent. She has served, with distinction, as one of the logistical managers of the gruelling Tour d'Afrique mountain bike race from Cairo to Cape Town. Oh, did I mention her days as a stage manager in the performing arts industry?! Jansie will be the not-so-democratically-elected "mayor" of all five expedition villages of the Cape Outback.

21 days left to enter!

Online entries for the 2010 Cape Outback MTB Expedition will be open until Thursday 8 April 2010. All entries must be submitted and entry fees paid on or before this day.

 

Coming up in future newsletters:

• More about the Cape Outback MTB Inter Schools

• The what, when, where and how of the 2010 Cape Outback