Bossiespruit is where we train
In the heat and in the rain..
Blou Bos. Its very simple really. 25kg. 10km. 1 hour. If all of you make it, you don't get fucked up. If you didn't? Day became night. Bossiespruit was like that. Black or White. You made it. Or you didn't. Most of the time they fucked you up.
The instructors knew to the last second how long it took a fit person to get anywhere at Bossiespruit. And they gave you one second less than that. So you ran like hell. And when you didn't make it, they fucked you up some more.
Blou Bos was the yardstick. It measured everything. If you were fit enough. If you mind was right. If you helped your buddies. If you could ignore the taunting of the instructors.
We were sitting in the menasie just after lunch doing a course on the rules of driving military vehicles. I still remember rooimoer talking about how long you have your indicator going before you change lanes. And whether dogs tend to change their minds halfway across a road. And then his voice tailed off, and he stared aimlessly outside.
Fullkitgeweerbakstenetreeandrieminutefokkenbloubos! Mad scramble for kit and geweer. Treen aan. Not enough time to fix everything tightly so your sleeping bag is hanging lopsided over your neck. Fuckity fuck, you'll just have to run like that. "Julle vier? Daai fokken tyre? Kry vir julle!" So it's fullkit geweer and tyre today... Fokkoffdaagaatdjulle!
The first time we did bloubos the last guys came in 6 minutes too late. The retraining stopped after ten that night. We made it a week later. By 15 seconds.
Bloubos was a small copse of Australian bluegum trees 5km away from Bossiespruit. Groot bloubos was further away. We never ran that one - althought the implied threat was always there. The pic of Bossiespruit was taken in 2005/6 by Danie.
Blou Bos was the yardstick. It measured everything. If you were fit enough. If you mind was right. If you helped your buddies. If you could ignore the taunting of the instructors.
We were sitting in the menasie just after lunch doing a course on the rules of driving military vehicles. I still remember rooimoer talking about how long you have your indicator going before you change lanes. And whether dogs tend to change their minds halfway across a road. And then his voice tailed off, and he stared aimlessly outside.
Fullkitgeweerbakstenetreeandrieminutefokkenbloubos! Mad scramble for kit and geweer. Treen aan. Not enough time to fix everything tightly so your sleeping bag is hanging lopsided over your neck. Fuckity fuck, you'll just have to run like that. "Julle vier? Daai fokken tyre? Kry vir julle!" So it's fullkit geweer and tyre today... Fokkoffdaagaatdjulle!
The first time we did bloubos the last guys came in 6 minutes too late. The retraining stopped after ten that night. We made it a week later. By 15 seconds.
Bloubos was a small copse of Australian bluegum trees 5km away from Bossiespruit. Groot bloubos was further away. We never ran that one - althought the implied threat was always there. The pic of Bossiespruit was taken in 2005/6 by Danie.
