After a a relaxed morning sorting gear, plus the hand out of our new race gear from of the heavy rain warming forecasts.No roads, 2XU and Area 51. The new gear is awesome and everything we could need. Now time to register for the challeange of our lives, at this time we started to hear Gazza now took control as it was time for photos in the new gear.
Friday afternoon consisted of competency testing to ensure we know what we are doing (nav, first aid) and our gear (jacket, first aid) meet all necessary requirements to survive the next 48hrs of racing. Team numbers were presented and maps were given out at 3pm, at this
point the 4 of us quickly changed into race mode and our marvelous crew were sent into the other room so we could focus on the maps which would be our life blood for the race.
6am Saturday we rose to good conditions as we begun the 1hr of eating and final prep before we headed to the beach for the start, which was a 15km ocean paddle to the north. We arrived to the beach 20mins early so we took our time to review the map and discuss our dep
arture strategy from the beach.
8am we were off running down the beach with our 7m double surf skis, and given we missed the gun we got a little boxed in and were bumping boats as we got in. Off the beach, over a couple of lifts from waves and we were out into the ocean, as we settled into the paddle leg we slowly picked through the boats in front. by around 9km up the coast the swell and wind can up from behind us and we started to pick up some long runners (100-150m) which pushed us further through the field as quite a few boats in front of us were becoming uncomfortable in the raising conditions. We hit the beach on a nice little wave in 2nd place to Gazza shock.
With a quick transition we set off on our bike to a split Mtb rogaine and into a pack raft which we had on board plus a PFD which gave us around 6kg each extra weight. 8km after clipping CP2 we had to go through a thigh deep colvert under the free way with dirty water and mud. from this point our feet did not dry out from the rest of the race. Shortly after pulling our selves from the mud we split sending the boys south in the hill to pick up 5 cps with Mel and myself
opted to go north and collect 4 cp then head to the TA for the pack raft. we got through clean, rushed to get ready for teh boys to arrive with the pump and the second airbed. But after a
few minutes they were nowhere to be seen? we were starting to think they were either lost or a bike mechanical. we were just watching teams push off, luckily most we half geo teams but it did make us think. After 40mins they arrived and they had
a tough ride with one small mistake. We inflated our queen airbeds and loaded 2 bike on the back and us on the front and pushed off. We moved really well and passed a team and later discovered we were equal second in the fastest time for this leg.
A quick change into skis and we were off down Kalang river, through the quick transition we picked up a team and through the paddle we caught a team and passed them with 2kms to go.
Pack raft 2 took us across the Kalang river and on to the beach for a 5km trot to the bike TA. On the with some stops on the way to collect Cp's which were in water logged valleys as the rain started to come down. We got through the bike in good time and
we hit all our marks. into the trek and by now it was around 10pm, with a quick hot snack and dry sock we went on to the assault of Mt Dorrigo via the syndicate track. the track took us straight up
the south eastern face where the old tram line did run. We climbed 800 vertical metres over a 15km trek, but most of the this climbing we did over around 4km, at some stage we were on all fours as a river ran under our feet due to the rain, almost 4hrs later we reach the top, we were cold and wet. so into cars and down the hill as the race director called off a part of the bike leg due to the wet condition. we were given 60min to make the car move and start racing, it took us 60mins to get to bottom as we had a car bogged, and a question on how to get to the bottom. after departing the CP 40mins late we pushed off on the bike.
I felt like rubbish for the next 2hrs i did not know if loose my last meal or not? luckily i got some more food and water into and me and everything started to settle down. Shortly
into the ride we passed through a stunning creek in the middle of nowhere and then through into a latana forest, luckily the leaders had smashed a did of a track through, just after this were to hit a CP on our next junction turn, but is was nowhere to be seen we hunted for 90min up and down roads, checked distances and everything seemed to fit, were were there with another team and it was decided to push on with out it, this later cost both teams 4hr penalty. From this point the ride went vertical and once agin after pushing our bikes into the sky we got back int othe saddle and heading to Bellingen.
Arriving into Bellingen was a pleasant site where we were welcomed by a tried crew with hot food and sun breaking through so the next trek leg allowed us to dry out some gear. we set out with a trek along the road before climbing back up onto the ridge 2 CPs on route and a couple more to get, next CP in and out to a creek. one more then all our trek legs were complete, we paused at junction were the CP was and we were quickly met by two other teams, Macpac and instant humans. We clipped first and headed for TA, shortly after the TA we were met with a camera vehicle and we were told that the race was cancelled and the time to the TA will be our finish time. so we ran for the lives and finish 7th on the track, but given our penalty we ended up 9th, The CP we missed was 250-300 up one of the track, we just did not go quite far enough. So close but so far. But another Geoquest down and our best result to date and good solid hit out for XPD
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