Yulz9081
Honorary ///Member
A huge and heartfelt thanks to all the guys that attended the event yesterday. It was a huge success and we had a really awesome day full of laughter and adventure.
So the meeting time changed to 7am and many of the guys actually made it on time
. We had a chat and met the newbie, Faiz (MFR786), who instantly became a part of the colourful crew along with that gorgeous VO 1M.
We then proceeded to the registration table to get our goodie bags, t-shirts and sign ourselves in which then lead to more mingling amongst the guys and girls along with some interesting tasting coffee :yuck:
So upon being briefed of the 144.8km challenge for the day we then proceeded to our cars with our assigned blind navigators. The guys all got accustomed to their navigators very quickly and a great friendship was born instantly between driver and navigator.
We were then released in batches of 10, 1min apart.
Some of us were separated and only a handful were grouped in the same batch but do not ask how we ended up together on the road
The route started off quite easily along Durban's stunning M4 North coastal freeway before proceeding inland to the heart of the Shakaskraal and Tongaat cane fields.
The advantage some of us had was that a group of the drivers ended up behind each other along the way and thus had the benefit of following our navigator's instructions as well as the driver in front to confirm the directions.
Drop It-ZN, Rando047 and myself ended up together and followed each other majority of the route. That was until Rando047 decided to take a detour :rollsmile: and Drop it-ZN, in his corsa bakkie with complete disregard for the pothole ridden roads, had his foot planted through the farmlands and made it impossible to keep up considering I was running on 19's and had to brake and zig zag every 30 seconds avoiding potholes.
Mind you this was not a speed race but a timed route at speed limit where penalty points were issued for driving too fast or too slow calculated by our time of arrival at each of the 7 checkpoints. It was a course empowering the physically challenged to be in control and guide us all the way.
About 100km into the route we encountered some roadworks and were stuck in traffic at the outskirts of Tongaat, full well knowing we were on the right route having just checked in at checkpoint 4 but lo and behold, stuck in traffic on the ONCOMING lane was Kish, his SO, Miron (MMN) and Faiz (MFR786). They were totally lost and off course but what added to the fun was Kish's girlfriend waving her hand out the window calling all driver going in the right direction to turn around and follow them :roflol:.
The idea that it wasn't a race never sunk into Drop It-ZN's head as he was vehicle number 28 but the 5th car to return home
Followed by Rando047, Moranor and myself approximately 30min later.
Our lost causes returned around 25-30min after us :rollsmile:
One of the highlights was that member, Prenolan, got launched by his navigator at the start of the rally for a ride in Faiz's 1M and so proceeded on the course alone without any directions constantly calling one of us asking exactly where each checkpoint was :biglol::roflol:
All in all the route was epic taking us through the cane fields and farms we never really drive through on our commutes up north. The scenery was simply amazing and really struck a thought of how grateful we should be for the ability to see the beauty around us, especially while explaining the scenery of the route to my blind friend next to me.
It was a really fun filled day for both driver and navigator. This will definitely be an annual event on our Fanatics calendar going forward. :thumbs:
P.S I did not manage to take any pics but will upload the ones from the official photographer as soon as they are ready.
So the meeting time changed to 7am and many of the guys actually made it on time
. We had a chat and met the newbie, Faiz (MFR786), who instantly became a part of the colourful crew along with that gorgeous VO 1M.We then proceeded to the registration table to get our goodie bags, t-shirts and sign ourselves in which then lead to more mingling amongst the guys and girls along with some interesting tasting coffee :yuck:
So upon being briefed of the 144.8km challenge for the day we then proceeded to our cars with our assigned blind navigators. The guys all got accustomed to their navigators very quickly and a great friendship was born instantly between driver and navigator.
We were then released in batches of 10, 1min apart.
Some of us were separated and only a handful were grouped in the same batch but do not ask how we ended up together on the road
The route started off quite easily along Durban's stunning M4 North coastal freeway before proceeding inland to the heart of the Shakaskraal and Tongaat cane fields.
The advantage some of us had was that a group of the drivers ended up behind each other along the way and thus had the benefit of following our navigator's instructions as well as the driver in front to confirm the directions.
Drop It-ZN, Rando047 and myself ended up together and followed each other majority of the route. That was until Rando047 decided to take a detour :rollsmile: and Drop it-ZN, in his corsa bakkie with complete disregard for the pothole ridden roads, had his foot planted through the farmlands and made it impossible to keep up considering I was running on 19's and had to brake and zig zag every 30 seconds avoiding potholes.
Mind you this was not a speed race but a timed route at speed limit where penalty points were issued for driving too fast or too slow calculated by our time of arrival at each of the 7 checkpoints. It was a course empowering the physically challenged to be in control and guide us all the way.
About 100km into the route we encountered some roadworks and were stuck in traffic at the outskirts of Tongaat, full well knowing we were on the right route having just checked in at checkpoint 4 but lo and behold, stuck in traffic on the ONCOMING lane was Kish, his SO, Miron (MMN) and Faiz (MFR786). They were totally lost and off course but what added to the fun was Kish's girlfriend waving her hand out the window calling all driver going in the right direction to turn around and follow them :roflol:.
The idea that it wasn't a race never sunk into Drop It-ZN's head as he was vehicle number 28 but the 5th car to return home
Followed by Rando047, Moranor and myself approximately 30min later.
Our lost causes returned around 25-30min after us :rollsmile:
One of the highlights was that member, Prenolan, got launched by his navigator at the start of the rally for a ride in Faiz's 1M and so proceeded on the course alone without any directions constantly calling one of us asking exactly where each checkpoint was :biglol::roflol:
All in all the route was epic taking us through the cane fields and farms we never really drive through on our commutes up north. The scenery was simply amazing and really struck a thought of how grateful we should be for the ability to see the beauty around us, especially while explaining the scenery of the route to my blind friend next to me.
It was a really fun filled day for both driver and navigator. This will definitely be an annual event on our Fanatics calendar going forward. :thumbs:
P.S I did not manage to take any pics but will upload the ones from the official photographer as soon as they are ready.
