How it started
John Loos had long believed there’s something really cool about a ride from South Africa’s “Great City of Gold”,Johannesburg, built on the greatest gold fields ever discovered, to the “Mother City” of Cape Town with its beautiful flat Table Mountain. In between the 2 cities are some of the least populated areas of South Africa, including the spectacular Great Karoo….and it just so happens that the quiet roads (off the N1 highway)…add up to a total distance of near to 1,000 miles (1,600km).
This coincidence led to the idea of a race simply called The 1,000 Miler.
The Jozi - Cape Town (Jozi-Parys-Le Cap) Forgotten Highways Route was the 1st in the series of 1,000 Milers to come. Back in 2016, Andy Masters (of Massive Adventures at the time) and John hatched the idea of an unsupported race from Joburg to Cape Town, to be known simply as The 1,000 Miler….Andy took the initiative and organized of the race.
The race was near enough to 1,000 miles in distance if one took the most logical route, but it was not actually a fixed route race. Rather, the race had certain “checkpoints” (unmanned points on the map) through which unsupported riders had to pass, and in between checkpoints they were free to take whichever route they desired.
But Covid-19 lockdowns came in 2020, and the race was cancelled. We then decided to set up a 1,000 Miler Challenge.
We then set about plotting the Joburg to Blouberg 1,000 Mile Challenge (approximately 1,600km) route…and Paul Erasmus and John launched the Challenge off shortly afterwards in April 2021 with the 1st ride. The 1,000 Mile Challenge idea was one of an unsupported informal challenge that was largely on quiet gravel roads. This implies riding the route with no “outside” support, the rider only making use of commercially available services along the route (accommodation, food etc), obviously excluding any transport related services, and with no back up vehicle or support from elsewhere.
The Joburg to Blouberg 1,000 Mile Challenge was hosted on Andy's Massive Adventures website, with a set of unsupported riding rules to which riders needed to adhere to in order to qualify to have their names added to the “Hall of Fame”.
One could start at either end of the route (The “down run” and the “up run”), and even ride ”out and back” for what was termed a 1,000 Miler Double (3,200 km)
Andy has since moved on, but our enthusiasm for the “1,000 Miler” concept….or what we term The “Miler” for short….continues, and we’d love to see more people taking up the challenge of this distance, some riding supported with vehicles as back up, while others try their luck at pure unsupported riding with all its challenges, and a smaller group going solo….the latter option being a far greater test of one’s own mental strength in my view.
What constitutes a “Miler”?
As the original name suggests, the distance of a “Miler” route should be 1,000 Miles (1,610 kilometers). However, planning routes of this nature between desired points will never be an exact science. We thus cut ourselves a bit of slack, deeming a “Miler” to be a route with a distance of above 1,570km but below 1,750km.
What constitutes an “unsupported” attempt?
Riding unsupported implies riding the route with no “outside” support, the rider only making use of commercially available services along the route (accommodation, food etc), obviously excluding any transport related services, and with no back up vehicle or support from elsewhere. It implies nobody meeting the rider alongside the route at any point, either to give direct help or merely to provide moral support. It means no special favors from individuals living on the route either, only making use of commercial (non-transport) services available to everyone. It means no assistance from the outside world via telephone or other communication channels, assistance which could include a person booking accommodation for the rider or assisting with navigation for instance.
If one is riding with a fellow rider, that fellow rider would need to be following the same unsupported guidelines for one’s own ride to be deemed unsupported. And the next step up, i.e. a solo unsupported ride, would mean that all of the above guidelines apply as well as the rider having to ride solo.
It is for everyone to decide how they ride their own “ Miler” Challenges, be it supported or unsupported ….anything goes. This is not an organised event. But we lay out our unsupported vs supported guidelines because we know that some may enjoy the various options and their different challenges. The challenge is different when one goes unsupported or solo…..often more challenging to motivate oneself to keep going on your own, the loneliness of solo ultra distance riding being arguably the ultimate challenge…not to mention that unsupported riding is logistically harder than supported, so I’m sure that some will want to give these various cool mental and physical test options a try.
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