Adventure Junkie 8hr Race @ Nagambie!!!

The countdown is on, 2 weeks to go, perfect timing to have a good hit out in one of Adventure Junkie's fantastic Victorian events, 8hrs of fun adventure in Nagambie!!!

Mike and Angus teamed up together and with Paul away skiing and Phlip out injured, I had a new partner in crime in Sophie. With my weakness being kayaking and Sophie being a gun Kayaker, I was quite excited to hit the start line.

 The race started with a deep water start in the kayaks, the conditions were fairly rough, we all started well. Big decision for kayak leg was to portage and run to 1st CP or kayak a significantly further distance and stay in the kayak, we all did the portage option, which ended up including walking through a swamp that the boys nearly went under in and then a swim out to the CP. What a way to introduce Sophie to Adventure Racing, our choice of wearing out jackets to keep our clothes dry underneath was now looking a little pointless. The girls opted to hang their map on a dry tree before swimming, the boys maps went with them for a little swim which caused them a few jigsaw troubles later in the day. The boys blitzed the kayak leg and Sophie's kayaking experience was fantastic, getting the girls off to a fantastic start.

The mountain bike was next and the wind was nasty, one point to collect before hitting the Roadbook which was mainly on flat open firetrails with not too many turns.........once on the Roadbook we all cruised our way through this. Lesson learn't by all on this leg was read all instructions before the start of the race, more so for the boys who were a little confused with the starting point of the Roadbook, which cost them significant time.

Onto the trek, with fairly open bush and tracks going here, there and everywhere, some mapped and some not..........we all decided that bearing/distances was the best option and more fun. Ten CP's were collected on knolls, saddles, creek junctions and head of the valleys. I personally found this trek challenging, but we had a lucky day and managed to navigate around without walking in circles, it was a great team effort with Sophie embracing the adventure. The boys decided to do a few extra km's on the trek, why not get some extra training while your out in the bush, perfect XPD training, they weren't alone, many teams got themselves a little directionally challenged on the trek leg.


The last mountain bike leg was left, the girls had 2hrs until the 8hr cutoff and I thought it was about 30km (actually 40km for us)..........so I stupidly thought we should be all good if we nail the navigation. After flying along for 20km or so and enjoying some sweet singletrack, things were looking good and dry. Then the track got a little wet,then a lot wet and then we found ourselves riding up a road that you just couldn't see, the surrounding areas were also water logged and the actual track was a 4wd track with massive ruts that you couldn't see. So after some entertainment from both of us........I slid my bike sideways and ended up laying in the water with both myself and my bike pretty much submerged and yep our maps finally went under water.                                                     Sophie decided to come off and then needed to surgically remove her handlebar from the thick mud. The rain was now coming down so we opted to add on approx. 5km to the return trip and stay on the road, we couldn't tackle that water again!!! The rain really came down for our final dash to the finish line, but we finished in the light of the day in approx. 8 1/2 hours and in 2nd place behind the Blegg sisters, we were very happy with that!

Another fantastic event held by Serge and Maria, such friendly people who set some great Adventure Races and always throw in a few "what the" moments, which we all secretly love!!!