To make it easier to overcome African cliffs, the Equites team trained on Kyiv high-rises
The program is a kind of prologue to the African Crossing – a journey by team members Goltis, Alexander, and Konstantin along the entire coast of Africa, 70,000 kilometers long and lasting about a year. This unprecedented crossing by the Ukrainian guys will form the basis of a fundamentally new show-game on our television.
So, Solomenska Street, evening, a typical long-term construction project in the capital – a building 25 meters high. A crowd of onlookers has almost blocked traffic. The sound of familiar African drums, the light of spotlights – everything suggests we are in the right place at the right time. A minute later, a 1942 Willys jeep drove briskly onto the site. It seems the owner ordered good SUV tuning – the restored jeep shines like a copper coin, the guys' faces glow with pleasure and anticipation. Today they will enter the Guinness Book of Records – a representative of that publication is already on site.
And the starting conditions of the 'third step' are as follows: the already familiar old Willys, an unfinished eight-story building, three determined guys, and... a standard winch, or as it is also called, a 'self-recovery device.' The winch deserves special mention. The fact is that it is the main character of the show (after Equites, of course). The trick is that a standard winch designed to pull a car out of mud works with a 10-meter cable. And horizontally. The guys, however, wind 25 meters of the allotted thirty-five onto the drum and at a 90-degree angle. That totals 1,200 kg on a thin cable.
The task is clear. Charge! Goltis, by right of leader, opens the show. He climbs the sheer wall without a safety rope. From the side, it seems he has climbed this building inside and out – so quickly and easily he overcomes the height. And now – the cable and safety rope are thrown down from the height. Final preparations and – off they go!
Slowly, slowly, the Willys raises its surprised headlight eyes upward. Konstantin is at the wheel, Alexander beside him in climbing gear. His task is to accompany the jeep and control the winch...
Heads tilt higher and higher. And below, our hosts – Igor Molyar and Masha – are competing in wit on the topic 'Traffic police and driving on vertical surfaces.' Intuitively looking back at the familiar sound of an engine (the author has a UAZ), I saw a picture hard to put into words: a slowly passing patrol car, with the faces of Berkut officers pressed to its windows. Their faces show confusion: it seems like a violation – a jeep driving up a wall, but on the other hand, who forbade it?
...Finally, the Willys, amid the friendly shouts of the crowd, reaches the 25-meter mark. A record! Next to the jeep, a banner with the team logo and the inscription 'Jeep for Sale' is unfurled. The fact is that this very 59-year-old (in a year – retirement) Willys will be sold at auction, and the proceeds will go to help victims of the flood in Transcarpathia. By the way, Goltis himself is from Uzhhorod. After all, the idea of an active lifestyle that the Equites team professes primarily means an active life position, and therefore – providing help where possible.
But for now, a new adventure awaits us. The guys plan to take a jeep (this time it will be a specially prepared Nissan Patrol) for a ride along the riverbed at a depth of 6 meters from the surface. They promise a thrilling spectacle!