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 ...