TSITSIKAMMA – South African OCR world champion and Red Bull athlete Thomas van Tonder has made history by crossing 600 monkey bars suspended 216 metres above the ground beneath Bloukrans Bridge, completing the 280-metre course in 47 minutes and 37 seconds on 26 October.

The Red Bull Bridge Bars challenge pushed Thomas to his physical and mental limits, marking an incredible South African achievement.

Linking the Western Cape and Eastern Cape on South Africa’s N2, the Bloukrans Bridge is one of the country’s most iconic landmarks, and home to Africa’s highest bridge bungee jump, one of the highest commercially operated in the world.

“I just completed one of my biggest dreams and missions for the last two years. We actually made it to the other side,” said Van Tonder.

The arch that fought back

The arch started at 45 degrees, so steep that Thomas could not face forward. He turned his back to the bars, pulled himself up and reached for the next one, over and over, while the bridge did nothing but get higher. By 10:34, his hands were done talking.

“Hands were not feeling great. It over-delivered. We simulated and trained as much as we could, but nothing can really compare to just the continuous beating that that incline puts on the same muscle group,” he said.

At the crown, the arch flattens and the bridge changes tactics.

“I would say that was the mentally toughest part to me. I found it really difficult to get any rhythm. The hands just didn’t do what my mind thought they would be able to, just keeping them closed was so hard,” he said.

“If you look at the finish, it’s so far out of reach and there’s so many bars in between. It seems undoable.”

He chopped the course into small pieces, telling Richard Lievaart, head of rigging and safety, over comms which point he was aiming for next.

“I knew I had to turn myself back around, I needed to get upright because if I had stayed like that, I would have fainted. My hands had to carry me up, I just trusted myself that they would and they did,” he said.

Fellow Red Bull athlete Stefan Glowacz, the German extreme alpinist, watched the crossing unfold.

“Wow, this is getting tough now,” he said. “The angle change made a big change, for sure.”

Then the bridge tried to throw him. On the descent, gravity does the pulling, and Thomas had to do the opposite and slow down, catch every bar and refuse to let the speed rip his hands off.

“The fatigue was way past what I expected it to be. Belief only came late, once the finish became my next piece of bridge. The rest of it was a fight. In the last 20 metres, one thought ran on repeat: ‘Make sure, make sure, make sure, make sure every single bar,’” said Van Tonder.

“I came in a bit cocky and a bit confident, and that incline humbled me for sure. I chose the arch not knowing if I could. This is by no means something I know I can do, which means it’s the right challenge. I have finished what I started, I set the big, crazy goal, and we actually get it done,” he said.

Nothing could be bolted or drilled. Richard Lievaart and his team rigged the course with two independent safety points and no permanent fixings. “Some people rigged through the night to make sure this bridge is ready for me this morning and they stayed up there to keep me safe,” he said.

“It is an absolute relief to know that Thomas is safe, and absolutely everything we did worked,” Lievaart concluded.

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