Macpac Girls on Top finish

We've just returned from HQ where we, along with a crowd of their adoring fans! welcomed the Macpac Girls on Top in to the finish.

16th overall, in a race where more than half the teams failed to finish the course, this was a gutsy week for the girls. Debbie was at risk of getting deep and meaningful as she told us how mentally tough it had been this morning, when they were struggling to find their way out of the rain forest. She heaped praise on Anne's navigation over the whole race, saying that any time she (Debbie) took the map, she gave it back after about 10 minutes.

Their next little challenge is to get home, get showered, and get back for the prize giving in a couple of hours. And then not fall asleep in their soup.

Girls get closer ...

The Macpac Girls on Top looked like they had similar nav problems to everyone else on the final trek ... a few hours spent going in circles ... but they're on their way out now, and we're hoping to see them mid-afternoon - in plenty of time for the party tonight !

A couple of photos

1. Turn your back for a minute to check the nav, and Lou's suddenly catching a few zzzzz's
2. Tim's feet
3. Tim and a Dancing Panda confer as to where exactly they are ...

Nga Rakau finish 6th

Team Nga Rakau crossed the finish line a little after 1:30pm, 6th mixed team (7th overall), and first Kiwi team.

There were a few twists in the tail of the race, with plenty of tricky navigation in the last 60km trek.

The team are weary but elated, and Annie, Sonja, Ang & Bart would like to say ... we're SOOO proud of you guys!!

We will now await the arrival of the three-man Osprey team (probably sometime tomorrow morning), and the Macpac Girls on Top (maybe later tomorrow afternoon) ... the girls' SPOT has died at the moment, but we're pretty sure they're still heading this way on the final trek - no reports from HQ of any problems.

Nga Rakau nearly there ...

Nga Rakau hit the edge of suburbia about an hour ago, and we're expecting them in about two hours...

Four teams finished

After more than seven full days, only 5 teams (four mixed and one all-male) have finished.

A couple more should make it overnight, while we're still waiting for Team Nga Rakau and Macpac Girls on Top. Nga Rakau look to be having a few issues in the middle section of the final trek, they've looped around a couple of spots, presumably looking for controls.

We just spoke to the Girls on Top from the transition at the top of Lake Tinaroo where they are about to head out on the short paddle before the final trek. They're all still in great spirits, and we'll be looking forward to seeing them before the race ends at 6pm on Friday !

(No update on Brent's ankle at this stage, as he's down the coast a bit with the rest of Orion and alpineepic at a boatwarming for Anna (Berthelsen) and Rob's new boat !!)

Blackheart win XPD 6th edition

Blackheart are reclining on the winners podium, after arriving at the finish at 8:55pm.

The last 60km trek turned out to be another epic leg, taking Blackheart around 27 hours. That included very little time sleeping, and no particular navigation errors.

Orion and alpineepic were there to greet and congratulate them as they lounged in deckchairs beside the pool on a balmy evening. Craig (organiser) emptied his pockets of electronic devices before they arrived, as, with the pool only a few feet away, it seems he feared a certain amount of retribution.

Brent's next destination is the A&E for some medical advice on his very fat and hot ankle.

And at this point, remaining Kiwi teams .. Nga Rakau are halfway across Lake Tinaroo on their way to the start of the final 60km trek, and Macpac Girls on Top are at Mt Mulligan preparing for the 130km bike leg. The remains of securify and Osprey are just past and just before Mt Mulligan respectively.

Waiting at the finish

Nga Rakau on the road ...


Lost track of Blackheart on the Spot tracker ? So have we. Apparently the person stationed at the Crystal Cascades checkpoint still hasn't sighted Blackheart ... and he's been there all day. Odd.

Nga Rakau are closing on Lake Tinaroo (end of 130km MTB), the remains of securify are closing on Mt Mulligan (end of the first 60km trek), and the Macpac Girls on Top are heading down Branch Creek to the Mt Mulligan TA as well. They should be there before midnight.

Orion out of the race

An hour ago a help call came through from Orion. SAR have just been in to pick them up from somewhere on the later part of the final trek. Brent's ankle had swollen up, and he just couldn't go any further. Amazing they got as far as they did, our friend Nikki's down here from the last TA, she said Fleur had a leech bite on the back of her foot which had got infected, and was so swollen Nikki didn't know how she could have got her foot into her shoe.

We're back at HQ waiting for Blackheart to come in. The race is now for 2nd, between McCain and Merrell.

alpineepic are back here at HQ, pretty disappointed. Shane's cellulitis on his feet was spreading up his legs, and he could barely stand.

Nga Rakau look to have stopped doing circles, and are down in a place that Craig (organiser) says is a good route - rather than up where SCAR currently are.

The other Kiwi team still in the race are ... of course ... the Macpac Girls on Top. They're trucking along on the trek, with a bit of luck they'll make it to Mt Mulligan by late tonight.

Day 6

We just drove out of Mt Mulligan.
Nga Rakau finally came in off the trek after 10pm last night. We were expecting a bunch of sad sacks, but they were all in great spirits. Tim had a bit of a 'melt down' in the first section, not quite enough food and drink, and they had to ease back until he was back together. Then didn't have an altimeter set correctly which they needed to help them find CP16 (although a lot of teams had trouble finding that checkpoint).

Word through from race HQ is that alpineepic have had to pull out at CP21 (start of the Lake Tinaroo paddle) because someone's feet (most likely Shane's) were too bad to go on.

When we left Mt Mulligan, only 13 teams had finished the trek. There'll still be teams out there next week at this rate ...

Update on securify ... they apparently broke a paddle early on the Walsh River paddle, continued on with the one in one boat, then Dave got really badly dehydrated. They rested up for 12 hours or more to try and get him right, then struggled out to the end of the river, but Dave was too crook to go on, so Colin went back to Cairns with him (but not so crook you need to be worried Mrs Dave ... apparently now he's fine!), and Jill & Jerry went on with another part team. Which was supposed to be Osprey, although the Spot trackers seem to suggest that's not the case..)

Nga Rakau now appear to be doing circles on the MTB, apparently the nav somewhere in the middle of that leg is really tricky.

Update from Mt Mulligan

We're waiting here at CP18 at the base of Mt Mulligan (10am). No internet coverage, so no updates lately sorry.
Five teams have been and gone, with the sixth about to leave.

Orion in Sun 17:24 out 18:31
Blackheart in Sun 17:29 out 18:17
Merrell in Mon 00:55 out 02:57
McCain in Mon 02:30 out 06:55
www.alpineepic.co.nz in Mon 05:57
City Bike Depot in Mon 08:37 out 09:16

Orion and Blackheart arrived within 5 minutes of each other last night. Orion looked pretty wasted, they'd pretty much run out of food, and despite two sleeps along the way, Brent in particular was pretty tired. He grabbed a 10 minute powernap while the rest of the team finished the packing up. It was super hot out there yesterday, averaged around 30 degrees where we are at the TA, probably more out on the course.

Blackheart all looked pretty good. Their feet were all fine, and they did a pretty sharp transition to be out 15 minutes ahead of Orion.

Merrell came and went in the early hours of the morning. McCain arrived then slept, they were tired and had also run out of food before the end of the trek.

alpineepic came in and slept. Shane has a nasty little rash on the top of his feet. The medics patched them up before the team took a couple of hours sleep, they look a smidgeon better now, and those guys are packing up and nearly ready to leave.

CBD arrived an hour ago, all looking good, and they've headed off on the MTB.

Our fears about Nga Rakau being stopped at TA7 were allayed when they finally got going at around 8am yesterday morning (apparently they just overslept their alarm slightly!) We heard they'd had a slight sense of humour failure when they arrived at the end of the kayak, but were all in good spirits again after a sleep when they headed off on the trek.

Our fears about securify.co.nz were confirmed, apparently they were stopped on the side of the river for so long because one (and quite possibly two) of the team had bad dehydration. I heard two of the team pulled out of the race when they made it to the end of the kayak, and the other two were considering their options.

Based on the departures from TA7, SCAR then Nga Rakau should be the next to arrive, but there's no guarantee of that, and you'll know better than us from the Spot tracking on the web site.

Apparently SOAR (who left TA7 a little after Nga Rakau) activated their emergency transmitter somewhere out from CP16 (mid trek), and a helicopter is being sent in to retrieve them.

Of the other two all Kiwi teams, hopefully Osprey are still going as a 3-person team, and Aotearoa Crocodile Hunters are pretty much out of the race, with Mark out of the race, Shane was heading off to paddle the Walsh river with a media person and pick up the controls for the officials.

Updates from TA7

Updates from the film crew who went up to Nine Mile (end of kayak) last night...

- Orion looked pretty shagged when they came off the kayak

- McCain looked quite happy off the kayak

- Merrell looked shagged (probably leading to them doing loops whilst trying to find the first CP on the trek)

- Blackheart looked pretty good. And their feet looked really good. Which is important because this leg is going to be very hard on feet, after they just spent the last 20 hours in and out of the water.

- The reason Blackheart stopped for so long in the middle of the kayak was that they left their boats to go and get the CP, couldn't find the CP and spent ages looking for it, then when they tried to get their boats they couldn't find them. While they were searching for the CP they came across Orion - who had found the CP - but Orion too couldn't find their boats and spent a while trying to find them.

That was last night. It's now 8am in the morning, and currently
- Orion still going strong out the front; taking a different route to Blackheart which will make it interesting

- alpineepic.co.nz going strong up at the front of the field

- Nga Rakau got to the end of the kayak at 2am, we worried about why they haven't left the TA yet

- securify.co.nz haven't moved a lot from their position 2/3 of the way down the river for some time - worried about them too!

- Macpac Girls on Top still trucking nicely along down the river

- Osprey's 3-person team still working their way down the river

- Aotearoa Crocodile Hunters at midcamp. Mike has a dodgy stomach, and they're waiting for him to come right. They'll continue their journey by bike, and skip these two big legs.

70km Kayak

Word is that Orion have made it to TA7, at the end of the 70km kayak. Roughly 20 hrs in the kayak (after about 4 hrs pushing the wheelbarrow). Enroute, they've regained the lead. McCain are also about to finish; both have passed Blackheart along the way.


Blackheart obviously stopped and slept along the way, they would have needed to as they got no sleep at midcamp, partly because of their stings, and partly because it was just too hot. For a while there we wondered whether they might have holed one of their boats, as they seemed to be stopped for a fair while, but they eventually got going again at a good strong pace.


Kayak repair kits were handed out as the teams left midcamp, but they didn't arrive in time for the first 4 or 5 teams - but apparently Blackheart had one of their own, so wouldn't have been completely stuck if they had had an issue with one of their boats.


Osprey with their two slightly ill team members awoke this morning to find that one (Liam) was feeling a bit better, but the other (Mike) was still feeling quite crook. They waited until late morning when Liam decided he could go on, and Mike decided he couldn't. They headed off as a team of three just after noon.
Nga Rakau and securify still appear to be trucking along well, past halfway in the river. They should make it to end around maybe 8pm tonight.

Macpac Girls on Top arrived at midcamp around 11:30pm last night, and were up and away at 6am. (Zoe requested an extended sleep, but Debs said no).

We drove up the road a little later in the morning, and found them near the kayak put-in, still full of good humour (although Zoe's feet were hurting). Viv was wearing the team bracelet (the 'Harden the F**k up' bracelet), I think she'd complained about the flavour of the snakes someone gave her yesterday, which earned her the bracelet.


Debs doing a turn...

More Kiwi teams leave midcamp

Nga Rakau turned up 15:47, about an hour behind securify. Still in good spirits; Lou needed to get a few stings retreated, and Mark's feet are a bit sore. After a good feed supplied by the midcamp volunteers, they headed off to their tent to sleep.

Osprey reappeared near the end of their six hours, informing us that two of the team (Liam and Mike) were suffering from dodgy stomachs. They made a decision to spend the night sleeping at midcamp, and review the situation in the morning. (Rachel and Mark were later spotted briefly in the bar across the road ...)

securify bounced out of their tent about an hour before their departure time, looking pretty good. The boys had all had their stings retreated when they arrived at midcamp; Jerry & Dave had been unable to sleep at all the night before due to the pain. But now they reported that their limbs felt much better; yay. They loaded up their wheelbarrow and headed off into the night, leaving at 21:01.

Nga Rakau were the first team we saw who opted to blow up their boats before loading them on the wheelbarrow. And a good decision it was too, as one of them had a hole. A quick swap, a certain amount of messing round trying to get the balance on the wheelbarrow right, and they left at about 22:19.

One of the cameramen followed the 2nd to 5th teams with their wheelbarrows for quite a way up the road ... he reported that Marcel ran/jogged the first 6km. Legend! From the glimpses of the tracking we've had, it looks like they've reduced the gap to Blackheart by at least a bit. (Although another cameraman reported that Blackheart ran with their barrow as well).

And I must mention alpineepic as well ... those guys still all look great. Sophie still suffering from the stings a bit I think. Apparently the water touching the stingy bits isn't so good, hope the kayak isn't too bad...

Midcamp

Orion leave with their wheelbarrow

Blackheart have a handy lead over the rest of the field after the restart at midcamp. They arrived at 6:55am, just over 3 hours ahead of the chasing pack. Orion had dropped back a little, after a small nav error on the bike leg leading to the orienteering, but their different route choice from the orienteering to midcamp proved a good option, and they regained a bit of time.

alpineepic had a solid MTB, arriving just 5 minutes behind Orion. They another 40 minutes back to Merrell, City Bike Depot and McCain.

Blackheart had opted to skip the stinging tree treatment at Ravenshoe, but on arrival at midcamp they headed straight for the medics. Kim's comment in the blog was that the boys 'screamed like little girls'. A few people from other teams were still suffering a bit, Tatum from McCain and one of the Merrell guys in particular.

Blackheart were up and off at 12:55, with their wheelbarrow loaded up with their two kayaks, one person pushing, another carrying the kayak bag and towing, and all carrying their packs.

The next team to arrive was Osprey at 13:58, then securify at 14:59. Both said Nga Rakau wasn't too far away, but when I asked Jerry how long they'd be, he said it depended whether they stopped at the dairy down the road. I said if the dairy did milkshakes, they would. He said they were half hour milkshakes.

Orion were off on the dot of 6 hours at 15:02. They had their wheelbarrow loaded up with all the gear, packs, the log. Looked mighty heavy. They've got 20km to go with those darn things.

alpineepic were away just after the 6 hours at 15:17. They all looked really good. Orion looked good too, they were all a bit down when they got here after the various issues last night, but after a sleep and food they had all re-focused and were in good spirits.

MTB to midcamp

7:30am

Blackheart just arrived at midcamp.
Orion have dropped back just a little, they've finished the on-foot orienteering section in the middle of the MTB, and are now heading to midcamp. They're taking a different route to what Craig (the organiser) was expecting anyone to go ... it could be flatter but he thinks potentially longer. We'll see.

More from TA3

Lots of fun on the river

















Pain & suffering after the trek ...















2 1/2 hour gap until Osprey arrived. Then in the next half hour, securify, Aberdeen and Nga Rakau. Not sure whether the hydrochloric acid solution was weaker, or the Kiwis are more hard-arsed, but they all seemed to take their punishment with the acid & wax treatment a little easier. Tim was the first person who claims not to have been stung by the tree. Mark having a turn at looking a bit wasted. Lou got a nasty dealing to by the stings. Plenty of leeches out there too.
22:48 now, and no-one's quite ready to leave yet. Reasonably cool up here in the 'tablelands'.

Misty Mountains horror trek

6 teams into TA3 in the last few minutes.

Orion, Blackheart, Merrell and McCain arrived together. Five minutes back to alpineepic.co.nz and CBD.

A lot of people in pain here. Everyone got dealt to by the stinging tree.
Orion not too happy, the track was so overgrown that they were beating a path through, as the teams behind them slowly caught up.

The treatment consists of applying a waxed strip, then pouring on hydrochloric acid, leaving it for 5 minutes then pulling it off. The acid is supposed to dissolve the silicone that the tree implants into the skin. When the acid is poured on, it's unbelievably painful. People are screaming in agony. The theory is that this treatment means that the pain of the sting will be much reduced after 12 hours. Otherwise it's likely to last for weeks, and be aggravated any time the areas get wet or rubbed. Hope it's worth it.

Blackheart are the only team from which I didn't see any team members go for treatment. I asked Rob why not, he said 'because we're Australians'. Hhmm. He reckoned they got their fair share of stings, but thought the treatment sounded worse than the remedy.

This wasn't in the organiser's plan. A local supposedly recently scounted the track and advised it was ok. Maybe he was on a different track. The later teams are going to be re-routed round that section of track, but not sure how many are already amongst it.

Dr Sonja's over there dispensing acid.
Blackheart just left (21:25).

Times out of TA2

Orion can't be too far from TA3 now.
Most of the SPOT trackers seem to be AWOL, maybe the canopy cover in the rain forest they're walking through. Blackheart's tracker is broken.

Times out of TA2 were...

Orion 8:07
Blackheart 8:12
McCain 8:22
Merrell 8:24
CBD 8:25
alpineepic 8:31
SCAR 8:48
Nga Rakau 9am ish
securify 9am ish
Mawson 9am ish
Osprey a bit after 9am ish

White Water Rafting

Sorry for the news blackout, but there was no cell coverage up the Tully Gorge.
We got there last night about 8pm, just after Orion, and just after the first two trucks of gear.

Orion had also beaten the trucks, so had put up their tent and were sleeping down the back of the camping ground. They'd made the good decision to get as much sleep as they could, and pack their bikes up in the morning.

Blackheart had smashed the mountain bike, joining up with Central Bike Depot, McCain and alpineepic.co.nz along the way, and all four arrived at the TA 10 minutes behind Orion.

Then another hour back to SCAR, Osprey, securify.co.nz, Nga Rakau and Mawson. Osprey and securify caught Nga Rakau about 3km from the end of the bike, when Isak punctured. Tim looked to be improving from very seedy to only slightly seedy.

Nga Rakau and Osprey then made what we thought was a good decision to continue on and do the 10km trek to the start of the rafting, and sleep up there. Most of the teams slept at the camping ground, then got up early to walk to the start.

The grade 4 WW rafting was fabulous, we know because we had ! to go in the last boat to make up a boat to pair up with the last team (they were going down in twos).

Only casualty of the WW was Rachel from Osprey, she smacked her nose during a big bounce through the first rapid, just a small cut across the bridge of her nose, not serious but copious amounts of blood. Sonja's going to stitch it up at the next TA.

More teams through TA1

Isak with boat

alpineepic.co.nz were out of TA1 in 5th position, 8 minutes behind Orion...looking good.

Nga Rakau out in 6th, but Tim with a squiffy stomach and looking a bit green. Apparently he sat on the side of the boat on the way back from the island and fed the fishes. hhmm. Hope that doesn't last too long.

Osprey out in 8th 8 minutes behind Nga Rakau, and securify.co.nz out in about 12th another 20 minutes later.

Everyone's a bit over paddling a 4-man kayak.

Macpac Girls on Top just arrived. Still chirpy, although a few little dramas out at the snorkelling, the carabina holding their boat while they were off snorkelling broke and the boat drifted away ... and they managed to lose a few bits of gear...

Mark says Isak punched him. Isak said it was a branch and Mark's a clumsy klutz...

Race starts

The race is now underway, after some logistics issues to start with.
The big boat that was to take the teams to Dunk Island this morning broke down yesterday, leaving the organisers to make alternate arrangements at short notice. This meant ferrying competitors across in multiple trips on smaller boats, which then meant that the race didn't start until 11:50 am.

I spoke to all the Kiwi teams before the start, and each one told me that they weren't going to go too hard on the first day, as the advantage gained would be minimal due to the restart tomorrow morning. Then the horn sounded to start the race and they all went off hard.

The first leg consisted of a run up around and over Dunk Island, a kayak round the back of the island, two legs of snorkelling around some pieces of reef that were apparently pretty spectacular, then back to the island. Then paddle back to the mainland. We're waiting back on the beach for the first team to appear.

When we left the island, Orion were in front with Merrill on their heels. Alpineepic were fourth, a few other teams back to Blackheart, then several more Kiwi teams round 8th to 10th including Nga Rakau, Osprey and securify.

None of which is too significant at this stage of the race.

Orion just arrived in first place. And just had word that Merill holed their boat on an oyster-covered pylon, which is going to hold them up somewhat.



securify.co.nz run down the beach on Dunk Island














before the start













Brent in pre-race mode

Course revealed

The course was unveiled this morning.

Tomorrow morning the teams will be taken by bus about 250 km south, from where boats will take them out to Dunk Island. The race will start out there, and there will be a few hours of kayaking (4 to a boat), snorkelling and running round the island.

Teams will then kayak back to Mission Bay on the mainland (4 to a kayak again), then mountain bike inland for 100km. Then there's a dark zone, which means all teams will get some sleep the first night.

Leg 3 is a short trek to the Tully River, for whitewater rafting. That won't start until 6:30 Thursday morning. Two teams will depart together every five minutes, with a half-hour gap until the next 12 teams. This means that any advantage on the first day will only count towards the start position on day 2.

A big trek and another big MTB will take the teams to midcamp at Dimbulah. This is slightly less than half-way in distance for the whole race. After a minimum 6 hours in midcamp, the race restarts with ... a 20km wheelbarrow push. That's a tribute to the mining history of the local area, where a wheelbarrow was the only transport available for the miners to get their possessions up to the gold fields.

Then things get serious. A 70km kayak into the back of beyond, followed by a 60km trek through the back of beyond. (Craig said when he bought the map from a local shop, it was the first one the guy had sold in 20 years).

After that, just a 130km MTB, short kayak and 60km trek back to Cairns.

Macpac Girls on Top ... ready to go ...

Hazards

... and there's lots of them.

We're just back from the safety briefing. There's more dangerous plants and critters up here than you can shake a stick at. They've even got the tree with the most painful sting in the world.


Louise (Nga Rakau) was looking more and more unkeen as the briefing went on...

At Cairns

We've made it to Cairns.

This is the view from our hotel. That's Cairns harbour ... and that's about as much water as I've seen in it.

The registration and gear checks have been done. Lots of laughs at the team introductions.

7 Kiwi teams are in the race (plus a few other teams with one or two Kiwis in them).

Aotearoa Crocodile Hunters
(Jo Holden, Mark Rickard, Glen Warner, Shane Ross)

Macpac Girls on Top
(Debbie Chambers, Anne Lowerson, Vivienne Prince, Zoe Albon)

Nga Rakau
(Mark Struthers, Tim Cochrane, Isak Meyer, Louise Mark)

Orion Adventure
(Brent Edwards, Marcel Hagener, Fleur Pawsey, Carl Bevins)

Osprey packs / nitelights.co.nz
(Mike Walker, Rachel Ockelford, Mark Hearfield, Liam Drew)

securify.co.nz
(Jerome Sheppard, Colin Slater, Dave Rudge, Jill Westenra)

http://www.alpineepic.co.nz/
(Sophie Hart, Shane Armstrong, Angus Jennings, Nick Ross)