Two of us, Ross and Zack, will kitesurf from Ponta do Oura in southern Mozambique back to our home town in Durban, South Africa. Weather permitting, we hope to leave on the 13th Aug The distance along the coastline is about 430 kilometres.
Our plan is to catch the seasonal North-Easterly wind whenever it blows. The biggest challenge with this is that low pressure systems accompanied by strong Westerly winds are also quite common, as are days when the North-Easter is just too light. Both will mean downing kites and waiting it out. That said, well have to make the most of the North-Easterlies whenever they blow and take them as far as we can get.
Provided the flesh holds up, if we can do a hundred kilometres in a day, we will. If we are extremely lucky, we could possibly complete the trip in as little as 5 days. Far more likely, however, is that we will end up doing shorter distances and staying wherever we can, whilst holding out for wind. There are quite a lot of guest houses, cabins and fishing shacks along the way for us to stay in. The challenge is that there are often big distances between them. Well try and make these distances in one go, but thats not always going to be possible. Were taking a backup vehicle, but a lot of places are totally inaccessible by road and driving on the beach is not allowed in South Africa. As the chance of being stuck somewhere remote and inaccessible is quite high, were carrying extra water and supplies in case we have to wait it out or pack up for a very long hike. In a sadistic kind of way, I've been secretly hoping it happens. All part of the adventure I guess.
We're currently finalising gear tests, taking care of the last ofthe logistics and getting our chassis honed for 430ks of knee buckling adventure. I will be updating regularly between now and when we leave, in the comments section below,and then update daily once we kick off. You can also follow me on twitter @zack_buchan for the PG18 edits!
http://www.theunlimited.co.za/press-room/the-unlimited-kite-surfing-expedition