A group of six people ran a non-stop relay for 29 hours and 51 minutes to raise money for a project aimed at providing safer sanitation at more than a dozen rural Eastern Cape early childhood development (ECD) centres.
The group slogged it out in fancy dress in a mammoth 316km relay that they called “From Nieuwoudtsville to Nowhere” in weather ranging from below-freezing to cooking-hot.
The quest was to raise money for the Makhanda-based Ubunye Foundation’s “Beautiful Toilet” project, which will see dangerous pit latrines at about 17 rural ECD centres in the Ngqushwa municipality replaced with waterless and safe sanitation.
Eastern Cape-born Kate Mapham led the charge.
The super-fit triathlon athlete said she had previously participated in the global Speed Project DIY challenge in which people all around the world see how far they can run solo or in relay teams in 29 hours and 51 minutes.
The time represents the land speed record between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
The group pulled it off, raising about R300,000, which is enough to build brand new toilets at three of Ubunye Foundation’s schools.
The foundation explored all options with local communities and the communities decided that because of the lack of running water where the schools are, they wanted to opt for the unique waterless EcoDry toilets developed in Sweden.
Mapham, who is passionate about both adventure and education, naturally gravitated towards world record-breaking ultra-endurance swimmer, rower and all-round super athlete Cameron Bellamy while the two were at Rhodes University.
So it was no surprise when she joined the board of Bellamy’s Ubunye Challenge charity early in 2020.
Ubunye Challenge has seen Bellamy undertaking dozens of physically taxing and seemingly impossible swims and rows to raise funds for, among others, the Ubunye Foundation’s ECD projects.
Among his other astonishing accomplishments, Bellamy completed the longest channel swim ever, swimming the 151km from Barbados to St Lucia in record time.
Mapham said their Speed Project run, which saw her team head north from Cape Town to run through the beautiful spring flowers on the “Rooibos route” and over the Biedouw Pass, had had a wobbly start.
They were scammed on their Vanrhynsdorp accommodation, which did not exist.
They managed to scrounge accommodation in a single room which saw them sleeping three in a bed.
She and her team, Kevin and Mark Sheehan, Briar Lock, Richard d’Arifat, and Megan Skowno, started the relay in below-freezing conditions at 5am the next day.
Each ran an hour, tagging over to the next person.
“The route we chose was beautiful.”
But, at 7pm on Saturday, they hit their next obstacle: a river crossing that proved impassable.
Not at all daunted, they simply took a 142km detour.
The team also ran out of water and drank from the rivers.
They each ran five times, in between swimming in rivers, napping and taking turns driving the car in pursuit of the runner.
The run was brutal at times.
“One thinks there is a lot of time between runs, but you are either running, preparing to run, recovering from a run, trying to stay warm, trying not to stiffen up, making food, or driving the vehicle and all while cheering for your friends,” Mapham said.
There is still a way to go before all 17 schools have safe toilets, but energy is not in short supply.
Mapham said Rhodes University’s fine arts department would also send a team to transform the plain and practical toilet blocks into “works of art”.
“There is plenty of work still to be done, but we are keen and eager and ready to get involved.”
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