Who is doing or has done the Grand Traverse

Great to know that someone is keeping their SPOT active. Go guys!

7:30PM and they are across the Sani Road. Just under 50km to go!

8:30PM they are bivying on the river that flows down the Lesotho side from the Giants Cup. Good to see they got an early night this time!

Final day - and at 7:15 they are already past the Verkyker Ridge.

That means they have a long valley ahead, a killer hill, a slightly shorter valley, a slightly smaller hill, a big downhill, a long boring flattish bit, a gentle long downhill, and then a nice hot meal!

8:50 they are on their way up the Leqooa Ridge. This is the last major uphill, they will have sore feet and will probably be very fatigued, but the approaching finish line should be all the motivation they need!

My estimate is that they will finish around 2PM today, so assuming a 3AM start on day 1, that is 81 hours - just faster that Stijn's time.

Based on the tracker history, looks like they started at 5:09am from Sentinel Car Park.

Nice, so they might be only the second team to finish in the 70-79h59 zone.

They have just hit the top of the Leqooa Ridge now, I rate the speed they get down this hill will be a good indication of how quickly they are likely to finish the course.

This has been an exceptional effort - wasn't this their first Drakensberg trip?

Really looking forward to hearing from them how they found the trip.

With a 5:09am start, 80h elapses at 13:09. So it's looking like their time will be veeerrry close to ours...

They have had one previous attempt at a fast DGT last year: www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/16-drakensberg-grand-traverse/55817-doing-a-fast-grand-traverse.html?start=30#63257

Lessons learned and they're smashing it this time!

And Isicutula Pass is behind them. Now the long bit behind Thaba Ngwangwe, Thamathu Pass, Thamathu Ridge, some rivers and then the fence.

I'm revising my estimate to 3PM.

1PM, 80 hours in, they are most of the way around Thaba Ngwangwe - now just a bit of a hill to reach Thamathu Pass, and then the long slog down Thamathu Pass and Ridge.

Last time I did a GT, I could already smell my cheese toast cooking when we got here. But there is still quite a way to go!

They have accelerated a lot, so I rate they are still on track to beat Stijn's time - but it will be tight.

2PM they are on that long flat stretch on top of Thamathu Ridge. Memories of this ridge on my GT with Hobbit - it was really hot (probably a lot like today), and there is absolutely no cover. We had also both run out of water. Nonetheless, the end is in sight, they just need to crawl across the line to get this now!

2:50 they are past Mushroom on Thamathu, the last bit of downhill is in front of them. Soon they will have some river crossings before the finish line.

3:02 is the line for whether or not they beat Stijn's time.

Well done to the team, looks like they did 81h55 - 2 minutes slower than Stijn's time.

Wow, that's crazy! Pretty much identical times, more than 7 years apart... especially considering that I'm pretty sure they weren't aware of our exact time.

Congrats guys, awesome effort - now put up your feet and enjoy the fact that the clock is no longer ticking!