Adventure Racing race (Trekking) 20:00:00 [3] 65.0 km (18:28 / km)
shoes: Salomon 3D Pro Red/Grey #13
We left Stahan at 9pm on the third day of racing, exactly 60 hours into the race. We knew the time would be misleading, as the three longest legs of the race now lay ahead of us, all following in consecutive order. We started by trekking the 4km from Strahan to the west coast, passing an American team on the side of the track, one of their number having a bit of problems with gippo guts. Less than 15 minutes later, Nathan was having the same problem as we started walking north up the beach. We started plugging Nathan with electrolyte replacement and any other medication that we had, but it would be a few hours still before he started feeling good again. This was a common thread amongst all the top team, with on average, one person per team suffering some stomach trouble within 30 minutes of leaving mid-camp. Hmmm.
The team managed a very fast walking speed going north, with the flat beach and low tide giving us a superb hard surface to cover lots of ground every hour. We could see the lights of two teams in the long kilometers of darkness ahead of us, presumably Merrell and CBD. We were quite pleased to cover this ground in the dark, as the monotony of the landscape in daylight hours could have become a bit much. However, we also didn’t get a glimpse of it in the dark and had to wait for the photos to see what we missed.
About 12km along we got to the Henty Dunes, the most technical navigation section of the entire race. We had two CPs to punch just inland of the coast, made all the more difficult in the darkness. We managed to nail them spot on, sneaking into the first as various other teams scoured the nearby area, their headlamps doing huge sweeps of the sand and dune vegetation a few ridges away (comparing notes afterwards, this was Teams AXA and CBD). We got to the CP just as Quechua approached from the other side and a joint effort a short while later saw us locate the 2nd CP without too much time loss. From here it was back to the beach and the first river crossing.
At 2am, the river was icy cold. As soon as we got to the water’s edge, we did the standard trick and stripped to down to nothing, keeping our clothes dry for the 40m swim across a lagoon. Quechua were more hesitant and we put in a small gap on them that we slowly extended.
The second and final river crossing was a much easier affair. We only got wet to our hips when crossing at the river mouth, so we didn’t slow down much at all. On the other side, we knew we had to trek 1km upriver, but the bush looked impenetrable. The next hour was spent trying various alternatives up and down the coast with no further luck. In the end we returned to our original starting point where Quechua were still warming themselves up on a fire next to a fisherman’s camp after swimming the river. We decided it was just time to plough on through the riverside jungle and quickly found that it wasn’t as bad as we first thought. An hour wasted.
We left Quechua behind at the fire. They looked to be in very poor condition and we never saw them again, finding out later that they pulled out of the race shortly thereafter. We found the CP further upriver and then started a mountainous section of the course, slightly inland from the sea. Getting out of the first gorge away from the river on a slippery foot track was the toughest part. We soon broke out of the forest and started traversing mountainous terrain with scrub bush that was almost identical to the Fynbos back home in the Cape region. For John and Bubbles, it must almost have felt like being back home on the Garden Route, with dense temperate jungle similar to that near Knysna sitting at the bottom of fynbos-covered mountains such as the Outeniquas.
There were quite a few significant climbs, the first up to Cumberland Hill, where we had a CP in an ancient mine quarry near the summit. We had a big surpise here when we saw the top Aussie team, Blackheart, just 15 minutes ahead. This perked the team up, as we realized that we had a good night, with Blackheart leaving the previous transition many hours ahead of us. We kept them in sight over the next few hours as we climbed more mountains, but never managed to catch them. At another CP at Gap Peak, we saw Blackheart catch another team in the distance, which later proved to be fellow South African’s Merrell.
It was mid-afternoon at this stage and for the first time in the race, the weather had gotten uncomfortably warm. At the same time, following ridgelines had meant we had been away from fresh running water for a while and the combined effect took it’s toll on the team. After a further CP, we crossed a forested ravine where I saw my first tiger snake of the race, sunning itself nicely on a sunny patch on the track. These are supposed to be the most dangerous of Tasmania’s plethora of dangerous snakes. It moved off quickly and I didn’t mention it to the team. Only when comparing notes after the race, did we find out that we’d seen about 6 of these tiger snakes between us out on the course.
The final section of the trek was a long downhill on a dirt road into Granville Harbour. We passed Blackheart on the way in, who were spending about an hour sleeping in the shade of a large bush. Merrell were still in transition as we arrived. This section of the course proved to be the worst for me. I had come down with a throat infection just 24 hours before the race, and although I almost managed to contain it, the cold sea-paddle and the subsequent conditions saw it get into my lungs, leaving me coughing my way through the intermediate 4 days. I was now running a good fever as well and spent well over an hour trying to assemble my bike and get down enough food and water before the next 150km bike leg. At the same time, we were loosing valuable daylight hours, as the first section of the bike leg would be a technically and navigationally challenging coastal ride. I ended up taking some antibiotics and hoping I could contain it until the subsequent leg, where a river paddle and compulsory dark zone section would give my body the break it needed.