Ray Chaplin, the gear guru

Ray Chaplin really cares about getting his gear right. Some say he takes it to extremes. For instance, to help Getaway choose the best kit for summer hiking, he spent January to March 2010 walking 2 438 kilometres diagonally across South Africa. Along the way he encountered puff adders, lightning bolts and overzealous German shepherds. Alison Westwood caught up with Ray and his bicycle, Julie, at a coffee shop in Constantia.

Was it all just a gear test?
A lot of it was the gear test, but it was also the desire to get away from the big city and see the countryside from a different angle. Many people get caught up in driving or flying somewhere for a holiday. I thought I’d go and see the country bit by bit.

Where did your walk start?
It started from the lighthouse at Cape Point, from where I headed off across Table Mountain to the Cape Town Stadium and then out of town. The only plan for the route was Sutherland, Kimberley and Beit Bridge. For the rest, I decided to take it as it came and chat to locals.

You walked the entire way?
Yes. Karl Bushby, a British guy who’s walking around the world, put this thing into my mind of ‘unbroken footsteps’. So, should you stop for any reason, you can go for a drive around, but you start the next day’s walking where you finished the day before.

How did it go?
It was an emotional and physical roller coaster: some of the most incredible moments of my life and some of the worst, most horrendous moments, which I’ve tried to erase from my memory.

What were the bad moments?
This was actually my second attempt at doing this walk. On my first attempt, in November 2009, I was following the railway line and decided I would take a tunnel instead of climbing over the Hex River Pass. But I didn’t know it was a 13,5-kilometre tunnel! When I eventually saw light at the end, I was blurry-eyed, could hardly breathe and was stumbling all over the place. Turned out it was a combination of carbon-inhalation and lack of oxygen.

After that experience, you still decided to start again?
Absolutely. Some people say it’s fear of failure. Some say it’s the desire to succeed. Others that I’m damn stupid. I haven’t figured it out yet.

What do you think about when you’re out there walking?
On the bad days you have to think about the good stuff – happy memories of holidays, birthdays, those types of things. On the good days, you think Teletubbies. I did find myself singing Britney Spears songs in a Nelson Mandela accent one day. Then I knew I was dehydrated and needed to drink.

How did you feel when you got to Beit Bridge?
There were lots of moments on the trip when I thought I wouldn’t make it. I have videos of me saying my goodbyes to my friends. So it was a bit weird not having family or friends there – it was a bit of a lonely victory. I still look at the photos now and think, ‘Did I really do that?’

Then you decided to cycle back to Cape Town?
Yes. When I reached Thabazimbi I heard that eight cyclists had been killed in the week before the Argus Cycle Tour. Since a mate of mine was killed three years ago when a truck drove over her and I’d been knocked down three times myself, I thought I would cycle back to Cape Town to raise awareness for cycle safety.

What was your experience of the people you encountered along the way?
The hospitality across South Africa is incredible – people stopping on the side of the road just to chat, people passing me drinks and food out of their windows, guys who invited me to come and stay with them and then started phoning people ahead. People have taken me flying, on the back of their motorbikes, on game drives, even organised an armed escort for me on my last day’s walk to Beit Bridge.

What was the concept behind your gear review?
In this case it was summer trekking. What clothing, footgear and equipment would you take that you know you can rely on? That way you can enjoy and maximise your time out there on your adventure without worrying about your gear failing or falling apart. I’ve ranked everything from value for money to performance, life-expectancy and before and after – while it lasted the trip, would you want to wear it again? It’s the first time in South Africa that something like this has been done.

How did you decide what gear to take?
I wanted to find the best products in the industry so I chose three or four brands across each product and gave them a long-term test. Two-and-a-half months is a pretty good test – some of the kit didn’t even last that long. You can quickly see who’s really excelling in the industry and how they perform.

What kind of gear problems did you find?
I think the biggest problem is fit. In terms of performance, there are a few brands which are a little short on what they’re promising. There were also small failures – zips, holes in pockets. It’s not cool at the end of a day to be sitting sewing your pockets closed. Some of the most expensive gear I tested fell apart quicker than the cheap stuff. So it’s not all about price. There’ll be some surprises in my gear reviews.