Magersfontein Trail Run

Our trail grading: YELLOW 1A

Distance: 11km

Extremeness: the extra 1100m added some extremeness

Location: Magersfontein road, Kimberley, South Africa

Joggers: Cobus Potgieter & me

After my presentation & workshop today at the Air Defence Artillery (ADA) School I got a rare opportunity to extreme jog in Kimberley. Of course, with no mountains around, I asked around to find out where the closest dirt road is and was referred to the Magersfontein road - the road used to drill the troops during parts of their training. Although I did not carry a military kit, it was fairly though because of the heat and thin air (when compared to Cape Town). The road was mostly downhill jogging away from the Military base, which meant an uphill coming back. Cobus turned around at 5km and I jogged out for 30 minutes, reaching 5.5km. Even though there are no mountains or sea, the countryside was beautiful in its own way and we even saw some wildlife in the form of a Swartwildebees (Black Wildebeest) and a number of Rooihartbeeste. I really suffered on my way back, but no pain, no gain!

Interesting: An important Boer War battle was won at Magersfontein. At the battle of Magersfontein on 11 December 1899, General PA Cronjé and his Boer troops defeated the English. The English was meant to siege the railway to the North and to relieve the besieged Kimberley.