Meet the two Matric boys who made a 100km unassisted run over the Traverse
Jarred van Alphen and Kai Broom are not your average high school students.
The Drakensberg Grand Traverse is the highest, hardest, and longest hike in South Africa. It stretches along 250km of the Drakensberg escarpment from the Sentinal Car Park in the North (near Harrismith) to Bushman’s Nek in the South (near Underberg). Hikers climb over 11,000 vertical meters, ascending as high as 3480m above sea level and sometimes descending below 3000m; the average altitude throughout the walk is 3000m/a/s/l.
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In 2022, Treverton College was the first school team to complete the Drakensberg Grand Traverse. Jarred van Alphen and Kai Broom managed to complete the traverse in 10 days. This year, the aim is to have the first school girls in a school team complete the traverse from the 25th of March 2023 to the 8th of April 2023. The goal is to complete the traverse over 15 days.
Although Jarred van Alphen and Kai Broom are not part of the Drakensberg Grand Traverse trip this year, they did partake in a 100km run from the Northern Traverse accompanied by experienced trail runner Pierre Jordaan. Carrying their supplies, they hoped to achieve the 100km run along the escarpment within 30 hours, starting at 5am on the 27th of March. The group was unsupported.
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One of the main factors will be the mountain weather, which is often temperamental and adds to the adventure and difficulty.
This is not a challenge every high school student would accept and takes a certain amount of determination as it can prove to be severely challenging, both mentally and physically.
We got the wonderful opportunity to sit down with Kai and Jarred to hear all about their incredible journey and the difficulties they had to face.
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