Latest News - May

Well....so much has happened in the last month.... After our return from Godzone we have had many adventures including the fantastic Rogue Adventuregaine, held at the Wyralong Dam.  We all had a great time in the rain.....all night and all day....then all night again.... And all the Tri Adventure teams had some brilliant results too!
 
 The ARA hit town on May 20th....and we had many teams competing.... It's great to have an event so close to home... Well done to Kim & MD's who took out the premier mixed category, again....and us vintage gals got a 2nd place against our fitter and younger competitors.....and Hayley & Mel who placed 2nd female team in the Raw course....awesome result girls!!

MD's atop the podium

Mel & Hayley at the finish

Paddy Justin & Howie

What's coming up??  Well, we're heading over to NZ, once again, to race the 3d Multisport in Rotorua.... This was such a good event last year, we are going back for more..... We just can't get enough of those fantastic mtb trails over there.... Then Geoquest will be upon us.... MD's in the full course, Vintage Cowgirls in the half.  Really looking forward to finishing the event this year!  After that will be the inaugural Wild Women Adventure Race....staged on the Sunshine Coast, this is the first ever all-women's AR in Australia.  We are sponsoring the event and are hoping for a big turn out.....so, girls, this is a great opportunity to be part of history!!

For details and entry go to http://www.dareyouadventure.com.au/wwar/

That's about it for now....don't wait too long for your next adventure...
See you out there!
Jan & Kim

The Queenstown Adventure

Team MD's at race rego...

Well….we’re back home after another EPIC adventure in NZ.  Queenstown was the setting for the inaugural Godzone Adventure Race…and, in retrospect, it’s a pity the organisers didn’t stage more of the actual race there…..it is extremely beautiful and has so many adventures in close proximity….so after Team MD's withdrew from the race it was great they were able to make the most of it for the remaining few days….

Spectacular view of Lake Wakitpu from the to of Skyline

But before that…..This is what happened…..

If you didn’t follow the race and hadn’t looked at the live coverage…..it was absolutely phenomenal…. The teams who endured this event were exceptional....Even the race directors completely underestimated how challenging the course would be and had to cancel a paddle and ride section, for all teams, as the days went on and some teams were still on the first trek!  Our Team MD’s were going really well…..we all thought…..until that first trek which took them 24 hours and Kim was struggling with an ankle injury that had resurfaced from XPD.  It seems that 24 hours of walking (up, down, up, down, up, down, up, up, up, down, down, down, etc, etc….) is just not what she can do any more.  The bone-on-bone thing just got worse and worse.  And the peaks they were crossing were over 1000m….The following bike leg was more pushing (with no tracks…) than riding…..and when I saw them at the end of this one it was when she said she had to pull out.  The boys couldn’t believe it as she had been very quiet during that leg…..except when she growled at Gary…..he should have realised she’s not like that…. Anyway, we all sat around at TA5 and no-one was saying much…..Teams were coming in and going out…..while MD’s were lying around on the grass in the sun….Gary was snoring away…..I wasn’t sure what to do…..I wanted the boys to go on as a team of 3…..but only 2 out of 3 of them wanted to…..and that wasn’t allowed in the race rules….In the end the ride home to QT in a cosy car was the chosen option....

They were very quiet and dosed a lot on the 2 hour drive back to our apartment….so, not a happy team now…..but they understood Kim’s reasons for pulling out….they were just wishing it didn’t happen….But when you enter an adventure race with 4 people there is no guarantee that everyone will make it to the finish…..as you see in every event. 

So…that’s the sad part of the story.  The rest of it was quite good….

View of QT from the top of Ben Lomond...and the ridgeline track I took for the trek!

 I had been loving my time in QT….Had a para-glide off Skyline hill….Went in the Tour of Wakitipu Mtb race on the Saturday…..and managed to sneak on the podium with those tough kiwi chicks……as did Julian Martin and Austin (Noosa-Kiwi’s…) and it was an extremely beautiful course.  Thanks Kiwi Julie for letting me know about this one…. Then, while the team was out on the course….I trekked to the top of Ben Lomond (big, big peak behind QT – 1748m…) and did some very pleasant riding on the QT mtb trails…..and of course, driving out to see the team at some of their TA’s.  So when I brought the team home…..they got to do all this stuff as well….. Which was great for them....Kim couldn’t do the trek of course….but she was ok riding her mtb…..just did a bit of one-leg pedalling when she had to!

As you can see – it wasn’t all bad.  The race website was keeping us up to date with all our amazing friends still out on course….and it was the best website I have ever seen for an AR!  So, we had a fantastic time, really.  Apparently the weather was very kind to us….although it did reach zero overnight in QT one night (but I was inside with the heater on…) and minus 2 for the Team on their last bike leg…..but other than that, the locals said we were really lucky…

There’s always a little twist to our adventures though….And we sure had one…..well two actually….

1.        .... I have found out the best way to avoid paying excess baggage at the airport…..Just arrive at the check-in with 10 seconds till closing time…..besides the stress levels of cutting it so fine driving to the airport and getting stuck in traffic….then throwing our gear out of the car and sprinting through the car-park with two bikes, a huge gear box, 2 large packs, a laptop and no trolley to wheel them on (No-one had seen anything like us…Kim was super-human and had her bike box under one arm and the gear box under the other with her pack on her back….she would have been carrying about 50kg of weight!....I had a huge pack, the lap-top and was dragging my bike bag too) we saved $250.....$250!....that’s the way you do it…. 

2.      ….the second twist happened because of the first twist…..The bottom line is that when we arrived back in Brisbane, we had no idea where we had parked the car……are you getting the picture?….I’m surprised we even locked it as we were is such a hurry to make the flight…. So, here we were last night, it was about 8.30pm.  We have one trolley…(as they are ridiculously expensive…$4…!) and Kim has her stuff on it…..I am dragging my bike (again) and carrying the huge back-pack…. We are wandering aimlessly in the car-park….(the new long-term car-park in Brisbane airport is stupidly confusing anyway….) In the end I can go no further…..I fish out the keys from my pack….and stand in a spare car space with all the gear while Kim goes up and down 7 (seven!) floors before she finally finds the car on level 2…..I breathe a sigh of relief when she drives up, we load the car and are driving out.  But it doesn’t end there…..we have to pay our ticket ($190!)….at this point I was thinking we should have just paid $4 for another trolley and wheeled the stuff back to Noosa…..I can’t find the spot to pay the ticket…..It is not where it was last time…..we are still driving around the car-park.  Finally I park in a disabled spot and Kim runs out and pays…..If her ankle was not completely wrecked in the race, it surely is now….. We start driving again….I still can’t find the way out…. We are getting a bit frazzled…..to say the least…. Eventually a ‘way out’ sign is in front of us…..and we take it…… We are out…..and driving home…..tired, dirty and frustrated…..  

So,   I’m not sure what the moral to this story is…..or whether it was just easier to pay the $250 excess baggage…..or relax initially and miss the first flight…..and pay more……or procure our own airport trolley so not to have to pay $4 ever again…that’s if we can find one of the confounding things..…..Food for thought....

        

        See you out there!

        Jan & Kim

A day in the Life of Tri Adventure....

The lovely Susie Blissner was the only ‘brave’ one lining up to join us for our ride on the Pt Glorious trails recently… We set off not long after 7.00am…..there was a heavy fog in the Mary Valley…..it was stunningly beautiful as we climbed Buckby Road and viewed the peaks to the west poking up out of the low-lying cloud…A mother cow with twin calves watched as we pedalled by….it would be a different picture on the way home!

We reached the trail-head – and in we went!  First trail was too muddy….later on we were ploughing through mud….but at this early stage, we decided to take a nicer trail in…. It was cool and inviting….and we travelled along a very pleasant track which took us down to the upper reaches of Belli Creek..

...at the creek junction

Lots of creeks have their source on this major ridgeline…..and on this side was the Mary River catchment… The creeks were running nicely – not too much so we couldn’t cross…It was delightful…. We climbed up out of the watercourse and were still heading up to the top of the ridge.  Some hike-a-bike…but some good riding as well…. The next track-junction signalled our turn off the main trail and we took a single track down to another creek crossing and up the other side.  The forest was quite damp…but we were happy to be out of the heat of the day.  We T-boned the main road to Pt Glorious and turned right.  This road took us down and up a bit and then we followed a great downhill which was part of Hells Bells last year (and 2 years previous…)  Another beautiful downhill had us at the bottom on Browns Creek Rd….Hmmm….the only way home was to go back up and over…. We will have hills, hills and more hills at our up-coming races - Bike Buller and Godzone….and Suse was happily along for the ride….but not doing either of these events!  However, she is doing the Simpson Desert Classic….which will be a majestic challenge in itself…. Probably some sand hills to contend with out there….

York Creek cascades

So, after a little break at the cascades (and a chocolate frog for Aunty Jan..) we started the long climb back up the ridge… It ended up being an hour of climbing….after we deviated off checking out some unknown tracks…..but all rideable…and a lovely way to get back up there…. Approaching the top we had some spectacular views of Mt Eerwah which sits right in front of Pt Glorious….but didn’t get any pics of this….so you have to imagine it! Finally up, and we have a short ride to out the Point…. When we get there and check out the views we realise how hot the day is, as the viewing platforms are in full sun….we have been in cool of the forest all morning….and it was pretty damned hot it that sun… We retreated into the shade after taking some pics….   

Suse and Aunty Kim at the lookout

After taking in the views and a well-earned snack, we set off for the final “downhill”…..technically it was…..in reality we had a bucket-load of climbing left that we hadn’t counted on…..you know how Aunty Kim forgets….well, it wasn’t all her fault….it was the fault of the map….  You see, because we only had Suse as company, we did a little bit of exploring….we knew she wasn’t the type to spit the dummy….so we took an unknown track “2kms all downhill” back to the cars...and you wouldn’t believe it,  500m from the road the track suddenly stops in a mountain of lantana and long grass.  (you would believe it…) Hmmm….this is not good.  We have just absolutely barrelled down the track….Suse was on fire, following our lines and getting super-confident on the rocky, slippery trail…. We are 500m from the road….we can hear the cars…. We hatch a plan to bush-bash along a fence-line…instead of the common-sense alternative to go back to the trail we know exists and follow it to the end…. Aunty Kim goes in to have a look….. It looks ok, but we did see another track back up the hill that might be better… We make a decision to push back up to it and check it out.  It looks ok….ie: going in the right direction….so we take it…..only to get about 400m and it’s another dead-end….Oh dear, again!….the bush here is now very steep and thick with prickly vines and other nasties….. We push back up to the track-junction.  Here we make a decision (the wrong one…) to go back down again and try to bush-bash where we were previously…. More downhill skills for Suse…. We arrive back at the dead-end…. We take to the bush… Crawling, lifting and pulling our bikes through the scrub is the reason we don’t need to go to the gym….It was our resistance training for the week…. We go in about 200m and find a huge cliff…. No going down this one with our bikes…. It is now about midday….we have been out for 5 hours!  Eventually, after scouting around the cliff top to look for a way to the bottom we make the ‘common-sense’ decision to go back to the track… We are all used to this situation in adventure racing …..sometimes you have to deal with taking the long way around….even if it is on the 3^rd attempt…. Back up the hill we go…. Suse learns the art of the ‘bike carry’…. She has wanted to learn this for ages…. There’s a positive…..  We ride out the way we came in…..down into upper Belli Creek….up, up, up the other side….and finally out onto the road.  We had a super-fast downhill on Buckby Rd…..past the view of the Mary Valley that was shrouded in fog on the way up…..and the mother cow and her calves were long gone and probably under a shady tree now…..and when we got to the tar on Eumundi-Kenilworth Road we really felt how hot the day was! 

100 metres on the tar was quite enough for us….and we had a cold drink at the Belli Store….and reflected on our ride…. 6 hours….lots of hills but some awesome views .....and we noted that some map corrections are in order!!!  It was a fantastic day and we hope Suse made it home to Brisbane ok….. 

More of these adventures in the pipeline....no doubt!

See you out there!

Jan & Kim

Latest News - Jan/Feb

January has come and gone....sun-rain-sun-rain-sun....well, something like that!  We had to cancel a few adventures....but have gone ahead with some really good ones too...
 NOOSA TRAIL TO KIN KIN...
Our ride out around Kin Kin on the Noosa Trail Network, recently, was definitely a highlight! We set off from Pomona on the beautiful Trail 5 - our favourite, I think...and had a lovely ride out to Cooran and then the big climb up the western ridge that overlooks Kin Kin.  Our route was all ride-able....and we found a couple of new trails in the process.. At Kin Kin we were lucky enough to strike the local market in progress so grabbed some refreshments there before taking off for the climb up to Cootharaba Views....

Steve & Aunty Jan with the beautiful Lake Cootharaba in the background

 it was a perfect day and we could see for miles......so we sat and enjoyed the ambiance before continuing along the ridgeline (up, up and more up).. We finally got to the downhill ride and it was over all too fast....except for one of us (that would be Aunty Jan) who opted to continue on the down and meet the others on Louis Bazzo Drive.  So....the five more hills promised by Aunty Kim turned out to be about 25.....but we finally rolled into Pomona and enjoyed a very well deserved 'breakfast' at the quirky Mountain Stop Cafe.... Just another great day in our hinterland paradise....!!
UPSIDE-DOWN ROGAINE...
The first rogaine of the season was held on 11th and 12th February and Aunty Kim and Gary from Team MD's raced alongside Robbie & Schosshy from Team SCAR to take out the event in very convincing style.  They are having a fair bit of trouble walking down stairs this week...but hey, it was worth it, I'm sure!  They almost cleared the 8 hour course (which started at 11.00pm Saturday and finished at 7.00am Sunday) but came in a whopping 280 points ahead of 2nd place!  These guys are racing together at the Godzone Adventure race in NZ in a couple of months.....so they are looking like quite a cohesive team at this point....

Team MD's/SCAR looking extremely fresh after 8hrs running hills in the dark!

 

AND FINALLY....
We have been having some real fun on our Monday night 'adventure' rides.... These rides are guaranteed to be out of the square....Here are some pics of the places we go....

Look what we found!

Aunty Kim trying to get to the rope...

Noosa Rainbow!

See you out there!
Jan & Kim

Latest News - December

The Aunties dress up for New Year's Eve!

Well…we have come to the end of another exciting year at Tri Adventure and have had so many great times with so many great people…. Here’s a month-by-month account…just to remind you all….

JANUARY

We started the year camping in the beautiful Yuraygir National Park….tucked away nicely at Lake Arragan…. When we got back home we had some amazing adventures including our day of paddling/riding/running up to the Cooloola Great Walk

FEBRUARY

Aunty Jan’s birthday adventure is always the focus this month….this year we did the Tri Peaks….that’s a little ride around the hinterland with a few peaks thrown in to get some views…..11 hours later we rocked in for some champagne….well deserved, I think!

MARCH

The Kathmandu Adventure Race is always on our calendar in March….MD’s won the day J….but this year we combined it with a wedding and some MTBO….and lots of rain and mud….an interesting weekend to say the least…

APRIL
Amongst other things we made the trip to the inaugural M2M Multisport Race in Victoria….Jules D blitzed the field in the vintage female division after some interesting camping with us Aunties….I did the road trip with my 83 year old mum and we came home via the goat track over the Great Dividing Range….Funny!  Following this we had the 8hr rogaine/Australian Marathon Mtb Champs/Mt Barney climb….all in one weekend….then later that month we staged our Easter Adventure….3 days of fun….

MAY

The ARA came to Noosa.  Tri Adventure entered many teams…. MD’s won again, with Tri Adventure boys hot on their heels…. Tri Adventure Vintage won the all-girls….It was a great day for all concerned. 

JUNE

Huge month starting with our trip to the 3d Rotorua in NZ….Fantastic event….want to go back next year!  Geoquest was the following weekend….it was the wettest Geo ever and the event was subsequently called off…..however, the Tri Adventure Apprentices managed to finish their race….and place 2^nd in the Geo-Half…well done boys and Audrey!

JULY

Huge month starting with a lovely ride/climb to Mt Pinbarren…on a perfect winter day….We took some time out on the Gold Coast to help our friends at Rapid Ascent with the run & bike course for the Anaconda…. Later in the month we had our amazing Rail Trail Adventure at Yarraman…and followed it  with the MTBO….what a weekend!

AUGUST

Adventure Racing 101…..it rained, but was a fantastic weekend….Lots of people having a go at some exciting adventures….Thanks to all of you who came along and supported this….especially the lovely Katy Kirby J

SEPTEMBER

We are stepping up the XPD training…. We race Dark Side/Dawn Attack Champs in northern NSW….MD’s win again… Tri Adventure Vintage have a win also J  Aunty Jan races the next day at Gold Coast Anaconda….running and riding for Pete who does the swim and paddle.  We have a lot of fun…. Hells Bells is next…..MD’s win again….they are on a roll….even with Gigantor on board!

OCTOBER

We Aunties walk/run 90 km’s on the Cooloola Great Walk….it is very beautiful but very hard as well….we camp out 2 nights….then spend a luxury night at Rainbow Beach before riding home…. We fly to Tassie at the end of the month for XPD….

NOVEMBER

XPD….this is an amazing event to be part of….even as a volunteer!  We watched the highs and lows for 2 weeks as teams tackled everything that XPD threw at them….

DECEMBER

We snuck in Anaconda Lorne….which was a bit beyond our ability this year!....then we were very privileged to be part of the Mark Webber Challenge….in volunteer role first, then competing on the last day…and we Aunties finish the year with a win in the Challenger Cups...what a surprise!.....What a contrast to XPD….. It was a great experience….

So that’s the year in a nutshell…. I’m a bit exhausted just thinking back on it all….but excited that we could pack in so much great fun and adventure.  Thank-you all for joining us this year! Hope you have a great holiday season. We are going away at our special camping spot again…but will be home on the 3^rd January…and straight back into it…

See you out there!

Jan & Kim

Latest News - November

We are back from our epic adventure in Tassie!  Wow…what an amazing couple of weeks!!  Sorry, I only managed one update while we were there, but I hope those of you who were interested were tracking the teams on the live website…. Aunty Kim will write a full account of her race…and I’m sure the Tri Adventure team will write their account as well…. I will give you an insight into my adventure as a volunteer/support crew/etc….

Mountain Designs-Tri Adventure looking fit and ready...

 TUESDAY 1^st Nov…..While the teams were at their course hand-out, us Vollies were in an all-day session which revealed our activities for the next 10 days.  We had already been given an idea of what we were doing….but now we found our WHERE it all was happening… Over 50 volunteers from all over the world gave up 2 weeks of their life/holidays to come down to Tassie and support this epic event…. I was pleased to find out I was still doing the big trek to retrieve CP’s on day 3…and now I knew this was over Black Bluff…the highest point on the course!  Yay…we were hoping for good weather….. When I arrived back at our cabin on Tuesday evening the teams were in their last phases of packing and organising…. ‘Towers’ of food were stacked all over the table…bike boxes were laying open with gear all over the place…..but now it was all clear to them and they finally knew where to put everything….. It was also Melbourne Cup Day…but no-one here was slightly interested….

 WEDNESDAY 2^nd Nov…. Race start was right in Burnie…. They would paddle out around the shipyards, then head east to the town of Penguin…via one CP along the way…. When the gun went off – so did Susie and me…. We were headed to Penguin to set up the TA where they would come off the paddle and head for the hills on foot.  We set up the area and had the help of 15 students from the Devonport High School…they were very good with carrying all the boats up to the waiting trucks…. This TA was absolute chaos…..the first one always is as all the teams are still so together at this point…. The racers were freezing and unable to sign in properly on our sheet…. Luckily it wasn’t raining too!  When the last team had come through, we packed up the area and took off up to Riana to drop off the TA box for the next person….. While we were there the 3 top teams came through and we were privileged to watch their amazing transitions…..this one they had to unpack their bikes…which became an automatic skill for all the teams as the race went on…. It was great to see our friends from Blackheart in 3^rd place at that point….. Suse and I then took off again…on the most amazing drive out to Leven Canyon where we would be based for the next 2 days…..Very basic camping here including no power…..so luckily we had stocked up on all the essentials…..food, wine, etc…and Suse had here little fuel stove for us to cook dinner and make coffee…. !!  We manned the TA here with a few other people for 2 days and nights…..and I experienced one of the coldest nights I can remember….sitting up all night waiting for the teams to come in.  It was great to see all our teams though….they had already been through so much…..and had so much more to do…..this was only the beginning!

THURSDAY 3^rd…. Still at Leven Canyon waiting for the last team to come in…..Team Driftwood from the US…they had gotten themselves quite lost on the way there and were a very long way behind.  Suse & I were hoping they would not sleep in this TA as we wanted to go out and get our first CP before dark this night and then head out on our big trek the next morning.  The boys finally left and we followed them down into the canyon towards CP 13…they dithered along…and didn’t really know the way to go…. We shunted them in the right direction and we all headed out along the track beside the river to find the CP…. This was the point that Suse and I felt we were in the race too…. The CP was on a track/creek junction….. We all searched at the first creek…which was way too soon….. Luckily we had brought our lights with us…as it wasn’t as easy as it looked…. Eventually the CP was found in a beautiful little creek, the Driftwood boys punched and we grabbed it and headed out back to the road…. We spent a relaxing night at Leven…..before our big day on Friday.

Atop Black Bluff with snow in the background!

 FRIDAY 4^th…. Packed up and ready…we started our trek at 07.30….. I had pre-dropped the car the day before…and we had organised for one of the other vollies to take our tents and extra gear and put it in the car for us….. This was great as we wouldn’t have to take it all over the mountains with us…even though we did take our sleeping bags as you never know what’s going to happen out there….and it was compulsory gear for the teams going out…. We found CP 14 outside the cave…some nice person had brought it outside for us…otherwise we were going to have to crawl into a very tight space…with spiders and bats…. Thanks Driftwood boys!  We followed the path along beside the river and then we started the climb up to Black Bluff…at its highest point about 1339m…..and we had the most beautiful clear day…..it was absolutely glorious!  We collected the CP at Paddy’s Lake…and then made our way over Winter Brook before descending down towards Tiger Plain and down to CP 16….. We had left the track now…and really felt part of the event… The going was hard…and we felt sorry for the teams who did this part of the trek in the dark…..not only was it dangerous underfoot…they would have missed the most spectacular views….on one side we could see all the way to Bass Strait…..on the other side we had views of Cradle Mtn and Mt Ossa… Suse & I were feeling like the luckiest people alive that we had been given the opportunity to do this….. There was no sign of the Driftwood boys…so we hoped they found their way and were ahead of us…but we found out at the end they got quite lost coming off the top and when they finally got to CP 16 we were long gone (even though we sat and had lunch there before we left!..) and then they didn’t even try for CP 17…. They were not too worried, and luckily ended up DNF so it didn’t matter anyway….! Meanwhile Suse and I trekked on…downhill…crossed some very nice creeks and had some more awesome views on the way down.  We finally got near CP 17…..and had a bit of trouble finding it as we were distracted by an little bush shack with some great carvings out the front…. By the time we got the CP we only had about 1.5 hours of daylight left.  We decided to take a bearing south to the road where our car was…and hadn’t counted on the thickness of the ti-tree scrub in Tasmania…just great if you were a wombat…plenty of wombat highways in there…but if you were more than ½ metre tall it proved a problem…..we bashed our way through this bit of scrub for at least an hour…starting to panic a bit as there seemed no way out…we did not want to spend the night with the wombats…Susie, wearing shorts and low gaiters was getting cut to pieces but the prickly undergrowth…so I was up ahead trying to break it all down and make a way through…usually gentle and with more respect for the bush….I was now on a mission…standing on broken down scrub…breaking branches…we had to literally fight our way through there…I walked along a fallen tree eventually and saw the power lines and there was the road…we had made it out…and we quite relieved that it was only about 2kms to the road by track…and the waiting car!!!  Wow…what an experience!  It had taken us 12 hours…and we almost thought we wouldn’t get out before dark!  Getting in the car off our weary feet was a great relief…. We zoomed off in the car…..and arrived at Tullah where we booked into a motel for the night…before a very memorable dinner at the Tullah pub…they graciously re-opened their kitchen for us…amidst the darts game and pool comp…we felt a bit out of place…but thoroughly enjoyed the steak and chips on offer!

 SATURDAY 5^th….. I left Suse at Tullah where she was to go out to another TA and I took the road to Strachan where mid-camp was set up…. The teams all had a compulsory 6 hour stop here and got a hot meal and a tent for some rest.  Lots of teams here had already been struck by the gastro that seemed to plague over 50% of the field…and they were a sore and sorry sight as they walked around like zombies…I think it was at this point I decided I never want to do a race like this…. There was so much for the teams to do at mid-camp…besides washing and scrubbing their bikes, shoes and packs (when they were tired and hungry) and then having to do a compulsory blog, gear check etc…..it wasn’t any wonder a lot of teams spent way more than 6 hours here.  Some of them spent more time recovering from their sickness…..and most seemed to recover ok….. It was a dim and depressing place though…and I was also here that I re-acquainted myself with Audrey who had pulled out of the race due to chest and breathing problems…. I had booked a cabin for the night…..so I bundled her off for a shower and bed whilst I spent most of the night manning the TA……

 SUNDAY 6^th….. Still at mid-camp…and getting organised to drive back to Burnie…. I now also had Ali Wright with me who had pulled out of the race too with knee problems…. It was a bit sad for them….. We got back to Burnie and nothing was going on……so Audrey and I had bit of a rest before I had to go back on duty at race HQ for the next 5 days….

MONDAY 7^th…. Audrey and I went for a drive out to Wynyard and Boat Harbour…..It is such a nice part of the world…..We visited my cousin’s farm again and enjoyed a ride around their beautiful property…..The weather was hot and sunny…not what we were expecting at all! I headed into HQ eventually and we all got ready for the first team to finish.  The big controversy in the event was that the leading team, Seagate, had copped a 4 hour penalty for not carrying their spot tracker for part of the event…this was compulsory gear…..so penalties were harsh…In the end, this lost them the race…..as they had to sit out their penalty in the last TA at Boat Harbour…meanwhile teams Thule and Silva breezed in and out on their way to the finish line…. I was the lucky one who waited with their flags to hand to them for the final victory lap around the velodrome….. and they were excited and happy…well, all but Seagate, really….

 TUESDAY 8^th….. Spent lots of time at HQ updating the leader-board, handing out champagne and pizzas….. Teams were coming home…. I was watching Team MD’s/Tri Adventure on the tracker and waited up all night for them to finish…..

WEDNESDAY 9^th…. MD’s/Tri Adventure cross the line at about 0700…..with Pikey on tow…They’d had so many problems…it was amazing they got there at all…I will leave Aunty Kim to tell their story….. So, after the obligatory champers and pizza, I bundled them up and took them home for a shower and sleep…. They had finished in 13^th place and had hoped for top 15… Fantastic!  We all slept for quite a few hours…I was very sleep deprived myself at this point…and when they all woke up their bodies were puffing up like balloons…. This happens in these long events and is the result of fluid build-up when the kidneys and other organs can’t quite keep up with the processing of toxins etc….. Their feet all looked like they would burst if I put a pin in them and they had plenty of black toenails and little infections all over their bodies…It wasn’t a pretty sight! 

Tri Adventure at the finish!

 THURSDAY- FRIDAY…. Spent more time at HQ…..watching many teams finish including our gallant Tri Adventure boys, now with Audrey, who had joined them for the last trek and bike (9 hours…lucky she had recovered from her health problems…) It was a great moment on the finish line when Tracey arrived with the 2 boys…and we were all there to welcome them home…..boy, they will have a story to tell….. Friday night was the big presentation night and BBQ feast…everyone was in good spirits…volunteers, finishers, short-coursers and also DNF’s….. They had all experienced an incredible event…so many highs and lows…..many of them had done XPD’s before saying this one had topped them all…in all the extremes…. I was very proud of all of them…