Women going on wild adventure
Annual run to take 24 participants on new, more ‘dramatic’ 90km route to Coffee Bay
ON THURSDAY, 24 fit and strong women clad in royal blue and lime T-shirts will leave their workday lives behind for four days and dash onto the beaches of the Wild Coast for the annual Wild Women on the Run adventure.
Once again led by Sunrise-on-Sea endurance athlete Kim van Kets, the 24 women from East London, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, will be tackling a new, more “dramatic” 90km route starting in Mazeppa Bay and ending at Coffee Bay on Sunday.
The run has no competitive aspect. It is not a race. Rather it has become known for its playful and empowering nature during which women spur each other on across rivers and up hills before enjoying exuberant evenings in hotels and guesthouses along the way.
“After five years of doing the same route – from Glengariff to Mazeppa Bay – I needed a change, as did some of the women who have done previous Wild Women runs,” Van Kets said.
“The new route’s terrain is much more hectic. There are more steep hills and big rivers to cross and it’s more remote, so it’s logistically more complicated. But I think it’s worth it.
“The old route is easier, flatter and more easily accessible if something goes wrong, but I always wanted to take them further north to show them my favourite places.
“The section between Bulungula all the way to Coffee Bay is extraordinarily beautiful with many unnamed beaches that can only be reached by foot.”
Van Kets, who has run up and down this coastline many times, describes it as her “stomping ground and playground”, but she nevertheless did a recce with her Capetonian running friend Kylie Hatton before designing this year’s route.
“I wanted a lieutenant with me who knows the route and has good experience with river crossings and Kylie and her husband run along the Wild Coast every year,” she said.
At the end of each gruelling day, women check into seaside lodgings which this year will include the Haven Hotel, the Bull’s Inn Fishing Lodge at Mpame and Coffee Bay’s White Clay Resort where they will nurse blisters and drink champagne.
Ahead of the run, participants join Van Kets for compulsory monthly 20km beach runs and Kwelera River crossings.
“All the girls are fit, well and strong, including our four newbies who have not done this run before.”
Besides training, women also raise money for two charities – African Angels and Busfare Babies outside East London – and have donated R300 000 in the last five years.
“Some women do pop-up restaurants, others ran a sandcastle-building competition. They all get out and do something.
“This run is really about joy, nature, playing and women supporting each other.” —