Synchronized spooning is the name given when trying, with your husband (or wife or partner) to turn around in a bed the size of a postage stamp – the types which are usually found in lodges that have been graded 4 stars by the owners themselves. Synchronized spooning is fun, it’s like playing a little game, let’s see who can fall off the bed first. FUN!

We did the Giants Castle MTB race this weekend and stayed with friends in this “4 Star” lodge the night before the race.  We must be one of the most unorganised couples when it comes to self-catering. I keep promising Jem that when we have kids I’ll get organised but until then we’ll just have to endure “adventurous living”. So we took Woolies lasagne, salad and rolls for dinner but we forgot to pack salt, margarine and salad dressing which meant we chewed the food in the same way a dog would if it had a chunk of peanut butter in its mouth. Num Nums!

So after a few jokes next to the fire, we retreated to our mini-me concave bed and got ready for a session of synchronised spooning.

“On the count of three. And 1, 2, 3 and turn” Jem would whisper, initiating the first synchronized spoon. And we’d both heave ourselves from lying on our left hand sides to our right.

However, when we went to sleep the sync in the word synchronized grew wings and flew. When one of us turned around, the other would lose precious mattress space and deep grunts and moans would follow. And you thought it was something else didn’t you Janine?! My arm fell off the bed several times, jolting me awake every time. In the middle of the night however, things started to get a lot more comfy. Huh, this isn’t so bad, I thought to myself, we’re quite good at this spooning thing, I feel like I have all the space in the world. Little did I know that Jem had made his way to the more spacious but less comfortable single bed in the corner.  The sheets definitely lived up to the 4 star status – they were so threadbare we almost mistook them for mosquito nets. B-yooo-ti-ful!

But there was one saving grace – I brought our own pillows. Thank goodness because the pillows of our 4 star lodging smelt like the hair from someone with a greasy comb over. I’m not kidding, I got woofs of it throughout the night.

Anyway we survived the night and woke up the next morning – Jem with a sore back from the different level planks of the single bed and me with a stiff neck. We couldn’t help but laugh at the situation though.

After shovelling chocolate Pronutro down our gullets, we headed to the start of the race.  Jem and I always ride the Giants together, it’s one of the toughest one-day races in South Africa and every year I ask myself “Why oh why am I doing this?”. A lot of grass tufts, muddy ruts, hike and bike sections and the altitude make it worthy of its name – Giants Castle Challenge. You literally climb for the first 3 ½ hours, descend for 45 minutes and then climb for another 45 minutes to the finish. Jem embodied the energiser bunny from start to finish whilst I just embodied a mad woman seeking oxygen for most of the way. Although I battled quite a lot, we knocked 30 minutes off our previous years’ time to finish in 5 hours.  Go team!

And guess what! The Wildlands Conservation Trust received R240 000 as a result of the Giant’s Challenge! :)

Find the final results here

How amazing is this? Check out the mountains in the background..

giants