Treat yourself to a premier trail event this year and race amongst our top athletes vying for the big prize purse.
Embrace all 53km and 1900m vert of South Africa’s iconic – and aptly named – five-day Whale Trail hiking route in one tremendous effort.
Fast flowing footpaths through spectacular mountain fynbos give way to technical rocky coastline ridges, calf killing sandy beaches and onto undulating coastal paths. The entire route is in the De Hoop Reserve, so you come for the whales, but expect to also see eland, bontebok, zebra, vultures, dolphins and signs of otter, leopard, caracal and turtles. It’s magic.
Finishing Whale is not easy but so worth the effort. Find your tribe of genuine, wild loving trail runners here.
The 35km Trail Run route starts and ends at the same magnificent places as the 53km.
It begins with 15km of glorious mountain singletrack, merges onto a 7km jeeptrack to get to the 15km section of beach and coastal paths with ridiculously jaw dropping all round vistas and of course plenty of time with the whales.
(Yes, that’s closer to 37km than 35km!)
But it’s not just running. You’re treated to weekend dinners, free massage and freshly prepared lunch when you finish, wine tasting, complimentary G&T, quality goody bag, quality good people and all round ethical goodness at this big hearted race.
Competitors
- Competitors need to be 18 years or older to enter.
- Running under someone else’s number will result in disqualification.
- If you withdraw from the event, competitors must notify the race timekeepers or a marshal immediately.
- Compulsory equipment is non-negotiable. Failure to comply will result in time penalties or disqualification, at the Race Director’s discretion.
- Competitors are to follow and complete the entire course as designed by the Organiser.
- It is the competitor’s responsibility to check in at all check points. Failure to do so will result in a DNF.
Supporters
- No physical support is allowed. Any form of physical support will lead to the competitor’s disqualification.
- Supporters are welcome at the start and finish. Unfortunately no public access is permitted on the CapeNature jeep tracks that we use for our race safety vehicle access and there is no way to reach the checkpoints unless you run there.
- Supporters are to have read these Standard Rules and Regulations.