Home > Events > Trek > Rat Race: Race to the Wreck Namibia

About this event

Part of the Rat Race Bucket List Series

A journey across the Namib Desert to the Skeleton Coast by foot and fat-bike to reach the most famous shipwreck on Earth…

Namibia means Vast Place. The sand dunes of the Namib Desert and the famous Skeleton Coast are perhaps two of the most photographed landscapes in the world – alluring, evocative, mysterious and foreboding. In the ancient expanse of the Namib Naukluft desert, endless skies merge with towering dunes for hundreds of miles. And then at the coast, the Atlantic breakers come crashing onto the shore amid colonies of thousands of seals, rolling in on the cold seas of the Benguela Current all the way from Antarctica.

Join us as we journey 300km on fat-bikes and foot from the source of the Kuiseb River and over the Sand Dune sea of the Namib Naukluft national park to reach the Eduard Bohlen shipwreck on the Skeleton Coast. Special permissions have been obtained to make the first-ever multi-sport crossing of this ancient landscape on a route that promises a quite extraordinary palette of terrains, vistas and an objective so eerie and unusual you will be quivering with delight for time eternal.

We will explore abandoned diamond mines and meet abundant wildlife such as seal, oryx and jackal, as well as spotting the litter of endless whale bones to which the coast gives its name.

This is Race to the Wreck.

The Children with Cancer UK Team will receive the following:

  • A dedicated point of contact at the charity
  • A Children with Cancer UK fundraising and training pack
  • Regular Children with Cancer UK updates
  • A technical Children with Cancer UK T-shirt to wear with pride
  • Free Rat Race backpack (ideal for use on Bucket List events!)

Click the link below to register your place and read the full trip details.

Book your place

Rat Race is the UK’s largest and most respected adventure event operator. They have catered to over 1 million customers in nearly 15 years of operation. Their mantra is for you to get to the start line and they will help you get to the end, and in so doing achieve something extraordinary.

Location & Date

  • Windhoek, Namibia
  • November 14, 2021 - November 21, 2021

Contact Details


Itinerary

DAYS: seven, including two logistics days, one briefing/admin/kit check day and four days on the route

DISTANCE: 300km (200km on fat bikes over two days and 100km on foot over two days)

November 14:

  • Arrive Windhoek OR Walvis Way

November 15:

  • Enjoy the surroundings of your stunning Lodge Bushveld setting. Today’s schedule will also include briefings, a kit check plus opportunities to be sized for and trial your fat bikes. Another night in the lodge and then it’s off into the desert

November 16:

  • Race to the Wreck begins! Cover 100km on fat bikes over gravel roads through the Khomas Hochland region, roughly paralleling the course of the Kuiseb River through rough, mountainous desert country to our overnight tented camp. Enjoy hot showers, braai, beers and vast starry skies

November 17:

  • Day 2 sees another 100km on the fat bikes, now descending into the sandy dry river bed of the Kuiseb itself and its towering gorges and really feeling the rhythm of that fat bike in the sand. Today we will reach the home of the Top’naa people at Homeb. From here you can literally touch the massive dunes of the Namib Naukluft, which tower above your overnight camp in the cool river bed

November 18:

  • Day 3 sees the transition to foot, for a massive 60km day (approx) on foot across the world’s highest sand dunes of the famous ‘Sand Dune Sea’ in the Namib Naukluft, before reaching our stunning overnight desert camp

November 19:

  • Another long day on foot over another marathon’s worth of sandy terrain – covering approximately another 20km of dunes and then 20km of running on compacted flat sand down the Skeleton Coast, metres from the breakers of the Atlantic Ocean
  • You will also take in some of the abandoned mining settlements around Conception Bay
  • In the late afternoon and early evening, Rat Racers will reach their incredible destination – the Eduard Bohlen. We will again camp in the desert, enjoy some beers, music and party at our ‘dance in the desert’

November 20:

  • The adventure is not over yet. You are still 200km from the nearest humans. The only way out of this remote location is by 4×4 back across the dunes, or by bushplane. You will break camp and depart via our huge 4×4 desert convoy; or for those who want to check-out in style, you can take a light aircraft transfer from the nearby bush airstrip
  • Then, partying in Swakopmund, Namibia’s tourism hub and a hotspot for bars, great hotels and adrenalin activities. Enjoy a slap-up meal, event video highlights on the big screen, presentation of your finisher’s medals, special edition finisher’s T-shirts and other very secret and special mementos before partying the night away

November 21:

  • Transfer for those who want it back to Windhoek or to Walvis Bay Airport

Get ready for the event

number 2

Start Your Fundraising

We’ve teamed up with Virgin Money Giving to make fundraising easy. Find out how to set up your page!

number 3

Start Your Training

Children with Cancer UK will help you prepare for your big day by offering advice on training and more!

Extra options

Entry fee refund

Raise at least £5,000 (excluding gift aid) for Children with Cancer UK by March 3 2019 and Rat Race will refund your total entry fee up to the value of £2,500.*

*Please note, $500 of your registration fee paid to Rat Race is non-refundable. Your refund will be made in US dollars, with the exchange rates dependent on the time of processing. Refunds will be made between 2-3 months after the event is completed.

Refunds are not mandatory; participants are welcome to opt out. Should participants opt out, their refund will instead be used by Children with Cancer UK to help fund vital specialist research into childhood cancer.