'No handbook for this': Thomas van Tonder conquers 600 monkey bars beneath Bloukrans Bridge - EWN

The Bloukrans Bridge hangs 216 meters above the River George, suspended in cold air along South Africa's Garden Route.

On October 26, it served as the backdrop for one of the most brutal physical feats in modern sport.

Over 47 gruelling minutes, Red Bull athlete and obstacle course racing (OCR) world champion Thomas van Tonder pulled his body across 600 custom-built monkey bars suspended beneath the bridge arch- a 280 metre continuous traverse featuring a punishing 45-degree incline.

For the world watching the global media livestream, it was a jaw-dropping spectacle of human endurance.

For Van Tonder, it was simply the latest chapter in a life built on a relentless drive to test his physical limits.

Long before he ever set foot on an obstacle course or scaled the Soweto Towers on a rope in 2020, Van Tonder was just a kid in Hartbeespoort looking for a way to prove himself.

"I wasn't the wealthiest kid growing up," Van Tonder told Eyewitness News. "To me, as a kid and as a young adult, sports was my way of stepping into the world where I felt like the work that I would put in myself would be shown on the racing field, and there's nothing else my competition can do to try to beat me besides try and work harder. That was the beauty of the sport to me- the fairness of a playing field where I can decide how well I do by how hard I work at it."