The Best of Iron Will
By Oliver Bidwell of Fiennes Tent
Iron Will was the final challenge for our first term, which we’d been steadily preparing for since the start of Quest. We’ve done countless exercises to develop our teamwork, hone our navigational skills and take our hiking and biking abilities to the next level. This hard work and preparation paid off and Quest boys were just about able to not come dead last. This year Iron Will ran from the 5th of April to the 7th, andinvolved biking and hiking around an area of Matopos national park. The event was hosted at Camp Dwala and condensed into 3 days making it a little more intense than perhaps expected, with people traveling about 140km within these days. The days consisted of hours on the bike, which would leave you tender regardless of padding, followed by hiking to finish off your legs for the day.
It was a blessing to come back to Camp Dwala after a long days moving, where the food was fantastic and free beer, supplied by sponsors, was kept cold for us to enjoy. Although we’d been preparing for quite a while the competition was strong with some national triathletes for Zimbabwe showing up and so, for some, the competitive nature of the event was over very quickly. However, this only meant that they had more opportunity to appreciate the surroundings which held stunning views, from cave paintings to rock formations there was always something to take your mind off aching legs and sore rear end.
I feel everyone enjoyed themselves whether that be because of the food and beer or being out in nature exploring a new place is debatable! Despite not obtaining the results we may have been hoping for Quest performed well and I feel embraced the spirit of Iron Will, at the very least we offered a form of light relief for the other competitors at this year’s event. I would like to thank the organisers for putting together the event and I’d like to thank all of those who donated money to the chosen charity, I thoroughly enjoyed the entire event and left feeling fulfilled and satisfied, I hope to be able to do a similar events and would jump at the opportunity to take part again.
