Adventure Academy

These two humans are just passion and knowledge. Passionate about mountains, Passionate about adventure and passionate about safety.  They have tremendous knowledge on traversing mountains and planning for adventures.  They absolutely sharing their experience and knowledge but in a way that makes the people they work with better. 
 
 We sit and discuss their adventures and how they use every opportunity to learn and ensure they never make the same mistake twice. Mountain abandon is a business they run that focusses on developing adventurers to be better prepared for endeavours.  Their wealth of knowledge is not shared though GPX tracks, highlighted maps or checklists, instead, they discuss and train people on adapting to situation, planning for events, and having a strategy for their adventure. 
 
 A great 40minutues listening, learning, and laughing.  I do hope you enjoy the podcast as much as i did.  Pierre And Nicolette are amazing people doing an amazing job. 

Our first Record holders join us in the studio for a banterful catch up and explaination of cracking out 219km paddle along the KZN coastline. 

Durban paddlers Quinton Rutherford and Brett Hadiaris set a new Guinness world record for the longest distance paddled in a double surfski in a twenty four hour period when they completed a brutal 219km paddle from St Lucia to Durban on Monday.

Rutherford, who recently set the equivalent Guinness world record for a single ski, and Hadiaris took advantage of the North Easterly winds and prevailing ocean currents to better the previous mark of 194,1km kilometres.

Quinten and Brett tell us of their expierence in the water where they matched some incredibles speeds for long distances. We also dive into some inspirational stuff on how mental strength overcomes age,  fitness, On the pain cave and perservering through it. 

Never doubt yourself! if you beleive it, you can acheive it. 

There are many legends in the adventure community. Many!!! so Many... But let me tell you about one,

Robert Le Brun.... He is the heart and soul of adventure. He can can race hard, he can lead, he can follow and he can support.  He hasa sense of humour like non other and enjoys nothing more than pushing boundaries with great company on great adventures in remote areas. 

He isa man, never shy of something new and he can not sit still for a second. 

I am not sure when last he spent a weekend at home chilling watching netflix. 

Adventure Academy caught up with him, while he and his beautful Fiancé were mid trip into their next adventure. ( excuse some interference in this podcast) We spoke about all his crazy and epic adventures, Races and race organizers and left the listeners with some sound advice. 

Its a great podcast and we Truly enjoyed have the BRUNDLE on our show! 

The Maqhwe Mfula - Heroes of the River. 
 
 I had a dream- Host a race in the incredible Dusi Valley. A race that will showcase the beauty that is the valley of the 1000 hills.  In our country, we have amazing race organisers and events and i wanted to be part of those legends. Hence the creation of the Maqhwe Mfula. 
 
 The race was a multi sport race following the Dusi River from PMB to Inanda dam. 
 25km Trail Run
 55km MTB run
 10km Paddle or 10km Trail Run again
 
 The podcast goes over my thinking, my strategy of putting together a race that will both test athletes and test my self. 
 
 Enjoy the podcast! 4

If you google the name Carla Van Huysteen, the athlete profile comes up with all the wins/podiums and medals at Xterra championships.  what it does not tell you is that this little pocket rocket is brilliant at all the events.
 
 The famous words of any triathlete is  "Life is too short for one sport"  but it is Carla van Huyssteen’s who eats, breaths and lives these words.
 
 Carla, a mother of 2 children has a sports CV spanning provincial hockey, obstacle course racing, internationally competitive triathlon, and mountain biking, and getting podiums on the trails. She is a passionate adventure and is very thankful of the team that supports her as she embarks on her massive championships. The attitude of gratitude. 
 
 Enjoy this podcast as we chat with the pocket rocket about being the ultimate multisport role model. 

I love having good mates on the shows because the conversation is so natural. 
 
 Join myself and Travers Chat about recent adventures, hair raising moments and epic moments with mates in the mountains. 
 
 Travers Pellew is a mountain man; he has conquered many peaks in the Drakensberg and run almost all of KZN's epic single track.  He talks to us about snow days on Cathedral peak, losing bags at giant castle but the real crux is the conversation around knowing what to do and when to do it. It is so important to know how to stay calm when sht hits the fan, as well as knowing when to raise the flag and decide to conquer mountains on another day. 
 
 This podcast is all about some of the lessons one can learn from Travers's mountain adventures. 
 
 Enjoy 

It has been 9 weeks since I last uploaded a podcast.  It all happened after the Looting in Natal. My gees went to zero after seeing the destruction and lack of respect by people I share this province with.  I was angry. 
 
 But, at the same time, I saw a lot of good, I saw a lot of positivity.  Communities coming together. People sharing essential foods with strangers.  
 
 After the Looting, my wife got covid, my little baby girl got sick, I eventually got covid and for 6 weeks had to deal with one negative ordeal with next.  All of this draining my energy and gees to keep pumping content. 
 
 IT WAS TIME FOR A REAL ADVENTURE. After missing the snow adventure due to covid.  We rescheduled the weekend at cathedral for a perfect weather day in September.  The goal was a solo mission in the mountains.  Up mountains, along contours, through rivers. Use the time to reflect on the beauty of Natal and how lucky I am to do the things I love. 
 
 Any way a few weeks later, podcasts are back up and running, Gees levels are back to normal, and my Entry in Sky run Confirmed.  
 
 So, enjoy this podcast, hopefully it inspires you to get back on the horse, focus on the good, focus on the beauty, focus on the positive.  

We know Lee Fuller loves to get down with nature.  Sometimes he likes to get REALLY close, like the time he took the charging elephant head on.  But this episode, Lee Fuller talks us through his sense of adventure when he took on the Freedom Challenge in 2015.  He road his bike with his mates for 20 days and 11 hours.  He loves the thought of simple living. 
 
 Mates--- Bikes---- Dirt Roads across South Africa.  What more could an adventurer want. 
 
 But the real beauty in this type of adventure is not only the simple things. This beautiful country has so many amazing people and all through out those 20 days, Lee was introduced and reminded of how awesome this country is.  The people, Whether Afrikaans, black, green or pink it did not matter they all helped, supported and looked after the adventures. Things got tough, Things got cold and things broke but there was always someone available to help and get you back on your way.  To me, that was a total highlight of the podcast. 
 
 We finish off the chat, pretending to be around a fire sharing stories when Lee whips out a story of shooting down some epic Winterton single track when his good riding mates get tangled up with Python in his MTB.  Something that is as epic as it is scary!
 
 Tune in for another epic podcast with LEE, LEGEND, FULLER 

Lee Schoombie is not the type of guy you would find absolutely broken sitting on the side of the road waiting for something to happen.  He is the kind of guy you will see walking, grimace on face but 100% not giving up.  He is the definition of vasbyt. 
 
 With several endurance events under his belt, it was time to really test the body and thus the  Carl Strong Extreme event was born. An event to raise money for people suffering from traumatic events. Something that is close to home for Lee.  Lee's brother was murdered in 2015 and it left a massive hole in Lee's life.  Lee did all he could to cope but, in the end, found that by setting himself tough challenges was his best way to cope with his loss. 
 
 We discuss on the podcast how, as with life, endurance events are tough, unfair, and hard and its only with an attitude of belief and no surrender as well as supported by an army of family and friends do you succeed these difficult times. 
 
 Schoombie’s positive attitude has helped him conquer majorly tough races and it comes down to turning the loss of his brother into an unfair advantage.  Lee's brother Carl is always with him giving him extra strength to continue onwards and Lee says often when he finds himself in the deepest darkest pits of the pain cave, he just reminds himself of the WHY. 
 
 Something we can all take away. 
 
 Enjoy this one. It’s a goodie

For many people, running is just a hobby or activity to stay healthy. For even fewer, its an addiction.  A drug that one would take to experience the highs.  But unlike the drugs that come with lows, this addiction helps to create a version of yourself that is better, faster and healthier.  The natural high.

Jo keppler talks first hand of how running was her way out, how it was her escape from the past that haunted her.  She had always been a runner and an active child, but her life got messy and some poor choices led to a life phase of abuse. Yet she comes out a stronger, wiser and healthier version of herself thanks to the people that surround her and her renewed love in running. 

This podcast draws parallel between taking on 100 miler races, which start in the dark and runthrough to sunrise, to what it takes to consistently work hard in overcoming your negative situation. Jo realized that she was stronger than they thought and that there were people around her that loved her and believed in her. It was with conscience knowing that she started challenging herself to longer and tougher races. 

Jo is an example that no matter where you started, you can always finish well. It takes hard work, it take belief but it can always be done. 

Jo has one goal to help other achieve what she did, she uses running as her platform and lives up to her Zulu name “Namoosa” (the kind one) by giving back to her community.