Team Macpac Girls on Top

Waikato Trials Ride - 100km of Mountain bike fun

2012-01-11T19:20:00.000-08:00

Waikato River Trails Ride - 2012

Long rideable, off-road mountain bike trails in the North Island of NZ have until now been hard to come by. Lucky for us the lovely John Key has put aside some cash and resources to build some trails up and down the country – thanks John for this great initiative http://www.nzcycletrail.com/

Anyway we were looking for a ride to do over the Xmas break and decided to give the recently opened 100km Waikato River Trails ride a go. The website calls it a 3-4 day ride so we were pretty sure it would provide us with a pretty full on day out – we were NOT disappointed !!. Woo hoo what a day !

January 2, 2012 dawned bright and early and Cath, Andrew, Rob, Marquita, Anne and I scurried around our motel unit trying to get packed and sorted for the big day out. Food and water for 8- 10 hours – check, sun screen – check, bikes – check, camera – check, phone – check, maps – check helmet, gloves, shoes – check, car keys check.

This ride is unfortunately a one way trail as opposed to a loop so instead of riding there and back we managed to talk a few more friends Di, Roel, Ally and Hagi into doing it from the other direction and had swapped keys the night before on the off-chance that we didn’t see each other on the trail.

After swinging by and picking up Aiden we headed to Waipapa dam carpark to leave a car for Andrew who knows us all too well and decided that 50 km would probably be plenty to keep him happy.

After dropping the car at Waipapa we continued down to Atiamuri where we found a carpark at the start of the trail to leave our cars for the others to collect. As we pulled up we noticed a lovely gentleman called Glyn dropping some other riders off in his shuttle bus and trailer (Glyn provides all sorts of services to do with the trail he can be contacted via the Waikato River Trails website http://www.waikatorivertrails.com/

How exciting ! We bailed out of the car unpacked our gear and headed off on the first leg of the trail 23km to Whakamaru. Although this section of the trial is graded easy according to the Waikato river trails website we found it reasonably technical in terms of riding ability due to the number of slippery roots – granted it had been raining a lot prior to us riding the trails but it was definitely challenging terrain and not somewhere I would be happy sending my Mum. (no offense Mum) It took us 2 hours to travel the 23kms to Whakamaru !!

At Whakamaru we had a bit to eat, talked to a few people who were interested in the trail and continued on. The next section from Whakamaru to Maretai was 15.7kms and the trail was in much better nick and it is definitely a trail I would take Mum on – what an awesome section this was with smooth free flowing trails. There were certainly lots of great views and lots of whoopps and weeeees coming from us all. Unfortunately, just after one of the amazing swing bridges on the trail Andrews freewheel went which meant he was now effectively riding a fixie. He nursed his bike through to Maretai where he bailed out onto the road and back to the car which was luckily waiting at Waipapa.

Meanwhile, the rest of us continued along the trail to Waipapa. This 14.6 km section was probably the hilliest of the day and gave us quite a workout but for me it was the most enjoyable as we travelled through some beautiful forest tracks and trails. Half way through this leg we met up with the others and had a quick catch up before pushing on to the car at the Waipapa Dam. Luckily Andrew’s bike had held together and he had managed to limp his way back to the car and even more luckily we had left extra water and food in the car – by now it was a sticking hot day and we were all relieved to have a chance to fill up our bottles and bladders.

Just as we were ready to leave on the next 33.8km leg to Arapuni the Waipapa Dam opened and we were treated to a view of the dam in action. Awesome. Once again we were off and at em and doing our best to eat up the kms on the track. This leg was also hilly and reasonably challenging in the heat of the day but full of surprises with varying terrain, stairs, bridges, quarries and long ups and long downs.

All too soon we were on the last 13.7km leg from Arapuni to Pokaiwhenua Bridge carpark where the cars were waiting for us. This leg had a reasonable amount of road in it so we managed to cover the distance in pretty good time. I think we were all pretty happy to see the cars but also a little sad that it was coming to an end.

So to summarise we travelled 100km in around 9 hours and 15mins and a bloody good day out. We’ll be back for sure. The only issue I had with the trail is the lack of facilities at the end of each stage. It would have been great if there were toilets and water available at both ends of the trail, as well as at the ends of the various stages. Granted we were in a hurry and didn’t really make an effort to look around too much for shops and facilities but from memory I didn’t see any shops or toilet blocks. Also we were gutted to find that the infamous Rhubarb Café was closed until Jan 6  - next time we’ll be heading there for sure – I hear it is a little piece of heaven!

For those of you who are wondering which way is best – we thought our way was easiest and the others thought their way was easiest … We did a comparison on metres ascended and the guys who travelled North to South climbed around an additional 100 metres than we did travelling South to North.

Te Aroha tramp

2012-01-03T18:12:00.000-08:00

After the XPD I did a lot of lying on the couch contemplating life and imagining all the things I would do after retiring from Adventure racing. Whilst it was good for a week or so it wasn't long before the restlessness set in and I found myself looking for a new challenge and something to focus my energies on. The answer was staring me straight in the face. The Godzone !! - a new adventure race based in the adventure capital of NZ -how could I resist. Before I knew it I had signed Team Macpac Girls on Top up for yet another adventure race and another year of racing.

With racing comes training, so the New Year period was set aside to kick start our training programme for 2012.

As the South Island has considerably larger hills than we have up here in Auckland we decided to go back to TeAroha and do some hill reps. This time we only decided to do two reps and a circuit rather than three solid ups and downs. We left Auckland at 9am and were standing at the base of Te Aroha by 10.30am ready to head out into the rain and start our little adventure. Aiden Boswell who is also doing the Godzone joined us for the outing and kept us amused with his hunting tales.

Our first up and down was reasonably painless and flew by without any of us noticing. At the top we spotted some cable ties on the ground that must have blown off the tower - someone decided we should have a competition to see who could pick up the most - so a short manic interlude took place as we scrambled to collect as many as we could elbowing each other out of the way - luckily there was noone else around as we looked like a pack of crazed animals searching every possible spot for sightings of cable ties.

The second repeat was a bit harder and the conversation suffered somewhat. We were all feeling our legs by the time we summitted for the second time.

From the top we headed off the back of the mountain down to Tui Mine and then took the Domain track back to the car. What an awesome little circuit with reasonably good runability. It was made more exciting by the level of water pumping down waterfalls and streaming crossing the track at one point where we had to cross a stream.

We arrrived back at the car wet but happy. A great training outing had by all. This was followed up with a hot pool and a catch up with friends near Matamata. What an awesome way to farewell 2011 and welcome in 2012.

Macpac Girls on Top - The XPD Adventure racing World Championships 2011 – Tasmania

2011-12-05T01:28:00.000-08:00

Well it is over. Done and dusted. We have achieved our goals of getting to the finish line with dignity and finishing better friends than when we started. It seems so surreal after so much focus and so much build up, here we are out the other end and scrambling to work out what actually happened during the event.

Three weeks ago team Macpac GOT – Debbie Chambers, Anne Lowerson, Ally Davey and Craig Stevens headed over to Tasmania to take on the Adventure Racing World Championships. During the event we travelled 733kms, on foot, mountain bike and kayak through the wilderness areas of North West Tasmania, navigating our way with map and compass as we went. It took us 7 days 15 hours and 45 minutes to complete the course. We finished in 23rd place out of 80 teams from all over the world.

It has taken me a couple of weeks to write this race report as my brain went into some kind of automatic lock down after the race to protect me from what we just went through. I’m finally ready to break the code and for the first time since the race, identify and come to terms with what we achieved.

Leg 1 - 17km Sea kayak - Burnie to Penguin

What a feeling it was lined up on the beach with 79 other teams of four about to embark on this adventure. Before we knew it the countdown was on .. three, two, one and we were off . There was no time for thoughts of “hell what have I got myself in for”, it was more about fighting for a space amongst the sea of boats and trying to keep tabs on your teammates. This leg passed by in a flurry we got one easy checkpoint (CP) on route and all too soon we pulled into Penguin to the first transition (TA) of the race. We grabbed some food changed into our trek gear, made sure we had all our compulsory equipment and headed out onto the next leg.

Leg 2 - 20km - Trail Run – Dial Ranges

With lots of teams around us at this stage it was essential that we focussed on getting into our own rhythm and pace and not get sucked into trying to compete with those around us. After passing a hoard of high fiving five year olds from the local primary school, who had come out on the street to cheer us on, we made it to the Clay bird shooting range. Only one person in the team could shoot and legendary shooter Ally Davey put her hand up for this task. She shot four out of five clay birds saving us a 10 minute penalty if she had missed. After posing for a photo we headed off back onto the trek and into the Dial Ranges.

This leg was a bit frustrating for us as we spent the entire leg playing leap-frog with our good friends team Goldfish who had obviously got their heads into the map better than us and took some risks that paid off. We trotted past them at least three times as they strolled along eating fresh pineapple and smiling. However, we made reasonably good progress and entered the next TA at Riana feeling strong and ready to attack the next leg.

Leg 3/4 - 20km - Mountain Bike / Cave

Being claustrophobic I was a little apprehensive about the caving on this leg but I knew that whatever was put in front of me I would have to deal with as there was no way I was going to let the team down. Heading out of transition into a strong headwind we focussed on riding efficiently and tucked in behind Craig like little ducklings. We made good progress through the farmland and down a massive descent to the cave at Gunns Plain. The ride down to the cave was an out and back. It was awesome seeing teams coming towards us as we flew down the hill and it gave us heart that we were in touch with some pretty good teams. Not so nice was the realisation that we’d also have to cycle back up the hill ourselves after the caving. At the entrance to the caves we dropped our bikes and headed underground. Our time was stopped once we entered the cave and we had an hour to enjoy the scenery at our leisure. It was a nice chance to take a bit of a breather, view the amazing stalactites and stalagmites and enjoy each other’s company, although in the back of my mind I was dreading the fact that we might have to squeeze our way through some tight sections in the cave. My fears were unfounded and I enjoyed every minute of the cave, it was truly spectacular- my only regret is that I was so freaked out before we went in that I forgot the camera.

Leg 5 – 50km – Mountain bike

On exiting the cave we got a 10 minute relax and a chance to refuel before we were back on the road and headed up the so called massive hill – we were pleasantly surprised, it wasn’t as bad as we had thought and we were up it in no time. This leg took us through farmland and forestry. It was pretty straight forward navigation and we ticked off the CP’s along the way. During this leg we were caught by Team Bridgedale socks and spent the last half of the ride chatting to them as we rode through the forest. It was a great feeling rolling into the next TA at Leven Canyon and we were all keen to off the bikes and out onto the first of the big trekking stages.

Leg 6 - 60km - Trek

Our strategy was to push through the first night without sleep, so after packing away our bikes and a quick bite to eat we headed out into the night. This section included a reasonably straight forward walk on tracks through forest then a big climb up onto Black Bluff where we would be out in the open and off track. Lucky for us our timing was optimal and we found ourselves just coming out of the forest onto the tops at sunrise. Wow what a feeling being surrounded by mountains, lakes and tussock with the sun rising in the distance. It was here that we had the first of many encounters with Team Nga Rakau our NZ friends. At the top of the Black Bluffs we both chose different routes but we then spent the rest of this leg bumping into them, then leaving them, then bumping into them again. On the final push of this leg down the river, we teamed up and attacked the icy cold canyon pool swimming, bush bashing, rock hopping, river crossing madness together. It was cold as hell so we focussed on trying to keep moving as efficiently as possible and used strength in numbers to support each other on the multiple river crossings. This was probably an amazing river but with the cold water, slippery rocks, grovelling in the dense bush and being constantly wet in the dark of night , this trek turned into a bit of a mission and we were all pretty keen to see the back of it and make it to the next TA. After a bit of confusion about which side of the river the TA was actually on we finally made it to the next TA on the edge of Lake MacIntosh. It was still dark and we were all a bit poked as this had been a monster of a walk so we put the tent up for a couple of hours of sleep until the sun came up.

Leg 7 -12km – Raft/Kayak

The sun was up by the time we got ourselves organised, fed and packed into the single inflatable kayak we had for this paddle leg across the lake. At times like this we consider ourselves lucky to be a light weight team. We made good time on this leg passing two teams who being a bit bigger and heavier than us struggled to squeeze into one small boat with all their gear. We had to pick our way carefully between trees being careful not to puncture the boat on any half submerged stumps as the lake was pretty much a drowned forest - Anne, Ally and Craig worked extremely well together on this leg with Ally calling out the dangers ahead, Anne giving directions and Craig steering.

Leg 8 – 20km – Kayak and Portage (2km)

At the next TA we traded in the one inflatable kayak for 2-plastic ones and headed back out onto the lake towards a 2km road portage. We were dreading the portage as the plastic boats we were using are not particularly light and we thought we’d struggle – however, with some focussed effort and determination we managed to make reasonably light work of it and even caught a team in the process. After the portage we paddled through the Murchison Gorge, which was stunning, to Lake Rosebery then on to Tullah and the next TA. We were very happy with our progress in both the portage and the paddles and were looking forward to keeping momentum going all the way to mid-camp.

Leg 9 - 105km -Mountain Bike

After a bit of a long transition, we headed out onto the next mountain bike leg. We spent the next wee while slipping, sliding and skidding our way along an old railway track. It was fast and furious and we whizzed through multiple puddles, passed an amazing waterfall, pushed our bikes across a swing bridge high in the air and got covered in mud - awesome ! Once we hit the tarseal we were off, single file swapping the lead, heads down bums up focussing on being efficient and getting some good kilometres under our belt excited about getting to midcamp for a well earned rest. We stopped for a look at the map and a 10 minute power nap as we were about to head into a forest where the navigation looked to be tricky. On waking up from our nap it was clear that Ally had picked up a bug and had a bad case of diarrhoea. Craig had suffered from this on the previous leg but had come right so we thought Ally would be the same. This was not to be, once we got into the forest it was clear that all was not well with Ally. She was running to the roadside every five minutes and starting to lose energy and pace. We egged her on all anxious to try to get to the TA where we could rest and recover for six hours but she reached the stage where she couldn’t continue and collapsed in a pile on the side of the road. We made her a bed of bracken, wrapped her in her emergency blanket, covered her with our sleeping bags and tent and all bedded for a couple of hours kip. By now the sun had come up and Ally seemed a little more with it and able to continue – although her symptoms were still pretty bad. We located the next checkpoint at the same time as Nga Rakau who also had a roadside nap and a bit of sickness in the team. We rode into the midcamp TA with them. Boy was it a relief to be there.

Mid camp came with a compulsory 6 hour rest stop, food, tents, a place to charge our batteries and recharge the bodies and minds. However, it was far from fun for us as Anne had now succumbed to the shits and Ally was not improving. I would say the two of them spent more time in the toilet than anywhere else which didn’t make for a happy team. It is so hard to know when to push people on and when to allow them more time to recover and this is what I was grappling with whilst the girls were busy sorting themselves out in the loos. However, both Anne and Ally were determined to get out of mid-camp and somehow we managed to get ourselves together and out onto the course for the next leg.

Leg 10-65km- Trek

We walked out of the transition fully aware that we were taking a risk and that Ally and Anne would either come right or deteriorate during this mega trek which was reported to be the longest in the race. However, neither of them were willing to entertain the thought of pulling out or giving up so off we went down to the beach. The beach was spectacular. I vaguely remember rabbiting on to one of the media guys that walking down the beach was therapy for the soul. Once again Anne’s navigation was spot on and we located trails and nailed the checkpoints on the dunes with no problems. On the way out of the dunes we bumped into Nga Rakau who were still looking for the 2^nd CP and then a few minutes later came across Team Bridgedale Socks having a cup of tea and meal on the other side of a river. What unfolded here was hilarious. Team Bridgedale socks informed us we had to swim and that getting naked was the only way –we stripped off (Ally needed no prompting here) and started swimming just as Nga Rakau arrived, they then stripped off and headed across the river too – the cameras were out and there was lots of shrieking and giggling – mostly from Team Bridgedale Socks. There we were again. Three Kiwi teams all together. We walked down the beach together catching up on news just as the sun was setting – priceless. Then things got interesting. We came across Little Henty River. Oh no another river crossing. It was dark and cold and the swim looked more than unappealing. We yelled out to some guys across the river with a boat to see if they could give us a lift. They had obviously been speaking to other teams as they asked if one of us was the team with three girls in it. As soon as we confirmed we were indeed the Macpac Girls on Top they were over in a flash. Our team got in the boat first and to our delight found ourselves sitting around a fire on the other side of the river all toasty and warm. We were soon joined by Bridgedale Socks who unlike us didn’t dilly dally by the fire but instead continued on in search of the next CP. Nga Rakau had decided not to accept the lift in the boat and went off back down the river to cross elsewhere. At this point I was starting to feel a bit uneasy as I was sure the rules specified teams could not accept motorised assistance. I was a bit sleep deprived and although I wanted to discuss what had just happened with the team nothing came out of my mouth. It wasn’t until we’d been walking for an hour and half that I couldn’t stand the thought of being disqualified so stopped the team, got the rule book out and explained to the team what was going on inside my head. As a result of this, we turned around and walked an hour and a half back to the fire. It was now 3.00am so the guys that had the boat were fast asleep. We stripped off, swam across the river and back again with all our gear and then spent the next 30 minutes or more huddling around the fire, trying to warm up and giggling about what we had just done. We then walked back along the river to the next checkpoint. I felt a huge sense of relief that we had played by the book and had no cause to be ashamed of any decision we had made. Whether or not the decision to go back was valid or not or we had just wasted 5 hours we will never know- but it felt right, we had righted our wrong.

Once we headed North away from the river and up on to the tops we started to feel a bit sleepy and Anne was keen to have a 10 minute nap to recharge her brain a little before what could have been a navigationally challenging section on a slightly dodgy map. We found a semi sheltered spot out of the wind a lay down for a quick power nap. Back on the road again we saw a team up ahead. It was none other than Nga Rakau who had crossed the river at a different point and taken a different route choice to us. We pretty much spent the rest of this trek with Nga Rakau separating only once to take different route options to the CP. It was amazing up on the tops, the scenery was awesome and the weather was quite something with strong winds, big black rain clouds and rain sweeping over us. Unfortunately for Ally she was still struggling and suffering from the runs and had to dig deep to get through this leg. Reaching the TA at Granville Harbour we decided to have some food and put up the tent for a couple of hours shut eye. It was cold and windy here so getting in the tent was a nice respite – although four people crammed into a two person tent is never as relaxing as it could be, but at least we were warm and dry.

Leg 11 -150km - Mountain Bike
Somehow we managed to drag ourselves out of the tent and head out into the dark, cold, and slightly wet night. As we were leaving, we bumped into Nga Rakau yet again. They were grinning from ear to ear as they had met a local and had just had a sleep in a house, in beds, and had been fed – Oh we were so jealous !!– We laughed at how we kept meeting up as it really was amazing. We were full of optimism as we headed out into the night – pushing in the sand and bogs and riding where possible along the coast. Unfortunately it was dark so we couldn’t see the apparently spectacular coastline. Before long we were faced with a wall of sand towering above us. With no other option we shouldered the bikes and headed up on to the massive sand dune. Although we weren’t riding with Nga Rakau we kept a similar pace and kept leap frogging each other. We then proceeded to spend a considerable amount of time roaming the dunes and trying to work out where we could drop back onto the tracks that had been covered by the dune. It was incredibly frustrating. Eventually, thanks to the brute force and determination of Craig and the Nga Rakau boys we managed to bush bash our way through to a track and to the first checkpoint. It had taken us six and a half hours to do ten kilometres. What a relief it was to find it. Now the real work was still ahead of us 140 hilly, hard arsed kilometres to the next TA. We rode with purpose towing, pushing, pulling, drafting doing everything we could to maintain relentless forward movement and keep efficient as a team. At the Pieman River we shuttled our bikes and ourselves to the town of Corrina on the other side of the river using the 2 kayaks and a paddle that were supplied at CP28. We were dreaming of a getting a full hot breakfast here at the shop(well all of us except Ally) but we were too early and weetbix was all we could get our hands on. Guess who was also here having breakfast – yes – Nga Rakau. We still had over 100km to go and although it was as hilly as, we maintained our focus and drive all the way to the town of Waratah . Craig was like a man processed on this leg and gave more than 100 percent to ensure our pace didn’t drop. At some stage near Waratah it entered our heads that if we kept up the pace we could even make the next transition in time to hit the river before 7.30pm. So after a stop for a pie, a pastie and a chocolate milk at the same petrol station we had visited 6 years ago an XPD, we were off again keen to keep momentum. Before we knew it we were back in the forest with Annie focussed 200% on the navigation. There were a number of route choices to be made and a number of roads not on the map. Anne nailed the first checkpoint with a stunning route choice but after this it was slow going up a huge climb out of the Arthur River and all too soon we realised our dreams of making the next TA before dark were extremely optimistic. At this point we backed off the pace and began to relax a bit. Not long after this we missed a turn and found ourselves flying down an awesome downhill whooping and yelling. Anne, in the meantime was mumbling something about it being the wrong direction but we all convinced her that it had to be right as we hadn’t seen any turn offs. Somehow she also convinced herself that there was some electromagnetic force playing havoc with her compass !! We came to a screeching halt at the bottom of the 5 km hill when Anne assured us we were going the wrong way and needed to go back up. This was hard pill to swallow for all of us but for Ally who had been digging deep all day it was a big ask. Once back up the hill we located the correct track and headed down it still hoping to make good time to the TA. It was NOT to be. The track was a muddy bog, it climbed and climbed and was for the most part was unrideable. To make matters worse Ally then broke her derailleur. Lucky for us Team Dancing Pandas just happened to pass us and had a universal spare derailleur hanger that fitted Ally’s bike. Craig then spent a considerable amount of time grovelling in the mud trying to fix it. By the time we stumbled into the TA it was 3.30am. So much for our 7.30pm planned arrival. We were all toasted and were pleased that the dark zone meant we couldn’t get on the water until 6.30am. Another bonus was that we had two tents here. Woo hoo, we were finally able to lie flat on our backs. The alarm went off a couple of hours later at 5.30am it was dark, cold and pissing with rain. I got up and tried to rally the troups but got no answer so quickly dived back into the tent to wait for the rain to ease. Once the rain eased we were back into it dismantling bikes, packing and repacking kayak gear and food for a night out on the river. We then discovered we had to wait an hour before we could leave transition as the organisers were assessing the level of the river after the rain. Finally we were ready to hit the river and made our way 6km down the road back to the river. Poor Ally was struggling still and made more than several stops on the way down.

Leg 12 - 75km-Kayak/12 km Trek

It was good to be off the feet and on the water. Anne had I took the faster plastic fantastic kayak and Ally and Craig had the yellow blow up boat. Craig named it the yellow submarine as if he hadn’t stopped to bail out regularly they would have sunk. We were all a bit sleepy particularly Anne who nearly fell out of the boat a couple of times trying to grab some shut eye whilst paddling. However, we made pretty good time and managed to locate the CP’s on the river section that were short hiking stages. Once again we found ourselves playing leapfrog with Nga Rakau and Bridgedale Socks. Before we knew it it was 7.20pm. We had 10 minutes to get off the river by 7.30pm. We honestly couldn’t work out where the day had gone, it felt like we had been paddling for only a couple of hours. We pulled off the river with Nga Rakau and spent a wonderful night on the river bank around a fire talking eating and sleeping. Bliss!!

We were really focussed when we woke up, determined to be on the river at 6.30am and no later. Somehow we achieved it. Although we had had a decent sleep I felt whacked and struggled to keep focussed down this last section of river. Craig was awesome a calling the lines on the rapids but on the last one about a kilometre before the TA I lost concentration and Anne and I ended up in the river. I went down one shoot and ended up straddling a tree, Anne went the other and was spat out with the kayak at the bottom of a rapid in a pool. Ally said I was like a possum clinging to the tree. Luckily Craig and Ally had seen us fall out and were quick to the rescue. This leg was probably one of the highlights of the race – great rapids and a true wilderness experience.

Leg 13 - 70km - Mountain Bike

Back on the bikes and off we went. Wow the rest on the river must have done us good. Ally was back, we were a full team again all amped up to get to the end of this leg. What a joy it was, oh how wonderful it was to all be feeling good. We knocked this leg off without too much hassle struggling only for a short time as we rode a few more kms than we would have liked on a railway line. We stormed into transition firing on all cylinders. There were quite a few route choices on this leg so Anne was feeling pretty happy that we’d stayed ahead of Nga Rakau and Bridgedale Socks. This was our fastest transition ever, which was probably due to the fact we didn’t have to dismantle our bikes, and we were soon off for the final trek leg and the second to last leg of the race.

Leg 14 - 25km - Trek

We hit this leg running eager to get as much of this trek done in the daylight as we could. The scenery was stunning and was made even more dramatic as we were hit full on by a massive thunder storm, the track turned into a river but we were in heaven and simply splashed our way through. We pushed hard on this leg forever wary of the fact that whenever you get complacent and think you have the race under control it comes back to bite you. And it did – kind of – we had a bit of trouble with the final checkpoint of this leg which was 20 metres ‘upstream’ in a very indistinct ‘dry’ creek bed – but were quick to react and put it right – we then struggled around the coast in the dark with the tide coming in desperate to reach Boat Harbour without too many detours. Finally we had made it - the transition was right ahead of us. What an awesome feeling of relief. We were even more excited when we found out that Mary from Macpac was there to greet us. Woo hoo!! We gobbled some food, changed our clothes and fired off into the night.

Leg 15 - 35km -Mountain Bike

What a feeling 35 km of road riding to the finish line. It was dark and cool and we were all pretty happy. Anne was sweet with the navigation again and we ticked off the last checkpoints without a problem. We amused ourselves by spotting wildlife, squashing hundreds of snails and discussing random things such as why were there so many snails on the road and where were they going…. Before long we found ourselves in suburbia and out of the corner of my eye I saw a car full of blokes. I assumed they were hoons who were out to hassle us – as they turned to follow us I thought here goes .. bloody dickheads . They turned out to be one of the film crews and before we knew it there were lights and cameras in our faces from all directions – what a boost it gave us. With that we powered our way to the finish line proud of our achievements and humbled by our experiences.

Thanks Macpac for the continued support and awesome gear. Thanks also to Craig and Louise from Geo Centric Events for putting on yet another superb XPD.

Macpac GOT have completed the Xpd Adventure racing world champs.

2011-11-11T16:19:00.000-08:00

Well we have knocked the buggar off and achieved all our goals in the process. Apart from a few issues with illness we managed to move through the course reasonably quickly. What an amazing part of the world Tasmania is. We have seen some spectacular scenery and had an amazing time. We also finished better friends than when we started. We will write a full race report once our brains and bodies reconnect.

2011-10-30T23:17:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the final briefing before all hell breaks loose tomorrow when the maps are released. Today has been filled with gear checks and competency checks. As usual we also spent a bit of time packing repacking buying more stuff packing some more and gossiping and speculating with other teams. Craig the race organiser is currently reminding us that this event is more an expedition rather than a race. Looking forward to another nice warm night's sleep in a bed :)

Hanging out in Bernie tassie

2011-10-30T03:12:00.000-07:00

Been chilling in Bernie today. Great little seaside town - did a photo shoot for the local paper this am then some food shopping for last minute supplies. things heat up tomorrow with gear checks competency checks and registration etc. Teams everywhere from all corners of the world. It is pretty exciting - wish the weather was a bit warmer - it is very cold out tonight - too cold to go out and wait for the penguins to come up the beach. Must be getting soft.

2011-10-28T18:03:00.000-07:00

Have been in launceston for last day buying race food and equipment. Just had an awesome brunch in a cool cafe. About to head up to Bernie to race HQ. Starting to get excited - weather is overcast with snow forecast in the hills - brrr

Team Macpac GOT heads across the ditch in search of the Tassie Devil

2011-10-25T15:13:00.000-07:00

Team Macpac GOT (Ally, Craig, Debbie and Anne) head across the Tasman tommorrow for the AR World Championships in Tasmania, Australia. The race kicks off on Nov 2nd and we have 10 days to complete the 700kms on foot, by kayak and bike. We will be updating this blog pre-race and hopefully Annie from Nga Rakau can keep you posted during the race. Check out the official race website http://www.xpd.com.au/ for live tracking once the race kicks off or you can head into any Macpac store for an update. Please yell at us down your computer if we appear to be going the wrong way :) Also dont be shy to send us the odd message of support to help us along the way. Thank you to our amazing sponsor Macpac for providing us with great gear and helping us get to the event. We could not ask for a better partner :)

Woo hoo

A Long Weekend of Last Minute Training and Prep

2011-10-21T01:46:00.000-07:00

We know it's not long to go now because Ally's on a long haul flight from Germany to NZ as we write - can't wait to see her and start to get final prep underway oh and hopefully do a bit more light training - together :) Craig is moving house this weekend so his traning will be mostly heavy lifting and waking. We are planning a couple of paddles, a couple of rides and a couple of runs with some shopping, packing, eating, rugby watching, labelling and washing our flash new cycling kit from Tinelli, wearing in new montrails and hopefully getting a sleep-in or 2 in at some point.

With races like this there is so much to think about and get organised. You would think that after doing this sport for 10 years we'd have it down pat but somehow we seem to angst over what clothes we'll need for the conditions, what additional equipment to take and how to keep the weight down for the flight to try to minimise costs of excess baggage.

Hopefully the wind will die down, the sun will shine and the weekend of Rugby will keep cars off the roads :)
Go the Wallabies ... go the All Blacks ..........

Only 6 more sleeps and we'll be Tassie bound .......

Preparing for an expedition adventure race

2011-10-13T16:07:00.000-07:00

Craig and Debbie

In just under two weeks time - argghhh - Team Macpac Girls on Top will be heading over to Tasmania for the Adventure Racing World Championships. This event will involve biking, kayaking, and trekking over 700kms through the wilderness of Tasmania over a period of six to ten days non-stop. We will eat on the run, sleep when we can and push our minds, bodies and souls to their limits.

It is hard to believe that the race has come up soooo quickly it seems like only yesterday we were toying with the idea of getting a team together and giving the XPD another nudge. These last few weeks have flown by in a blurr of training and preparation.

Anne

Getting to an event like this takes a hell of a lot of planning and preparation. There is the physical preparation ...the training - how much to do ...., the gear preparation - what to wear, what to take.... the team preparation - who is responsible for what, what are our goals ...., and finally there is the food and drink preparation - what will we eat, drink.....

Our latest training sessions have been focussed on long slow outings with heavy packs. The reason behind these long missions is to get the feet, backs, bums and wrists used to long periods of time on the go and heavy loads. Blisters are to be avoided like the plague on Adventure races as they can often be the result of teams having to pull out ....

Craig

Here is a summary and some snaps of our last couple of outings:

Team trek 1 - Pureora Forest Park - Taupo - 7 hours out and back for the hell of it. Team trek 2 - Kaimanawas - Taupo - 16 hours - loop - finished with a 12 km gravel road bash - for the hell of it. Bike mission - Coromandel - Loop - 9 hours - heavy packs and racks - hills and more hills

These training sessions are all about getting out into the good old NZ outdoors and having some great experiences with friends and I guess when you boil it down that is what the XPD is all about for us.

Our goals for the XPD 2011 as always - are to finish with dignity as best friends, push ourselves to race as efficiently and effectively as possible, and to enjoy every minute of the adventure.

Kaimanawa bush

Titiraupenga peak

Navigators at work

Anne and Debbie

Which way now?

Team Macpac Girls on Top - Team Members - XPD World Champ - Tassie November 2 - 11

2011-10-13T14:45:00.001-07:00

Debbie Chambers - Team Captain

Debbie Chambers

Debbie has been involved in the outdoors all her life. Her most memorable adventure was cycling through Asia from Japan to New Zealand in 1993. She has been competing in the sport of adventure racing since 2000. Over the past decade she has raced in numerous adventure races ranging from 24 hours to 7 days both locally and internationally. Her Adventure racing exploits have seen her racing through the New Zealand Alps in the Southern Traverse, the Amazon jungle in the EMA, coastal and inland regions of Brazil in the Ecomotion and through the outback and wilderness of Australia in the XPD and Geoquest. This will be her fifth XPD

She started her racing career with Team sportzhub.com but in more recent times has been the driver of the Girls on Top adventure racing team which is New Zealand’s most successful all women’s adventure racing team. She loves the teamwork aspect of Adventure racing the most but also raves about the freedom of being able to race through the night and the amazing places you get to explore. “There is nothing more satisfying than completing a gruelling 750 km adventure race that takes you through the most incredible scenery and pushes you and your teammates to mental, physical and emotional extremes.”

When not adventure racing, cycle touring or out in the outdoors training she manages the girlsontop.co.nz website and helps organise fortnightly runs around Auckland. Her passion for being in the outdoors is infectious.

Debbie is based in Auckland and works for Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development where her job is to promote Auckland as a study destination for International students

Anne Lowerson - Team Navigator

Anne Lowerson

Anne has always been active and loves getting into the outdoors. She has cycle toured through Asia and many parts of Australia; hiked in Nepal, North India, Australia and New Zealand; and done a number of kayak camping trips in New Zealand and Australia. What a great way to see the world !!

In 2000 she discovered adventure racing after competing in the Aqua Terra adventure race in Auckland. She was immediately hooked as it combined all the sports she loved as well as her other passion of orienteering. Ten years on she has competed in numerous adventure races ranging from 12 hours to 7 days both in New Zealand and Australia. She is addicted to expedition length races and thrives on the unknown element of adventure racing. "Adventure racing is like a box of chocolates - you never know where you are going or what you a going to be doing until you get there." This will be her fifth XPD.

When she is not exploring and adventuring Anne is the Assistant Director of Studies at an English Language School.

Ally Davey - Team Strategist - GOT founder

Ally Davey

Passionate for the outdoors and everything about it Ally founded Girls on Top to inspire other ladies to experience the outdoors. She has a grown to love high mountains after following her team mates up every high hill they could find... After a short one year stay in Australia and experiencing spider webs big enough to bounce her back when she ran into them on the track and managing to advert being eaten by great whites in the Sydney habour she moved to Germany to the land of Bratwurst and Beer.

She combines her love of mountain biking and paddling through the Alps and has learnt to appreciate what a real mountain is. Her goal is to continue to aspire other ladies to step outside their comfort zone and try a new adventure. She is excited to race the XPD world championships after many years of racing with the two best friends she started the sport with, a friendship that has endured the good times and the bad and like a MacPac jacket still continues to provide protection in the toughest of elements.

Craig Stevens

Craig Stevens - Token male in the team, packhorse, yes man, everything man…

Father of 2, Builder by trade

Making his comeback into adventure racing with Team Macpac Girls on Top after having (forced) time out with young family for the last 5+ years.

Over the past 10-15 years Craig has raced in competitively in a number of teams, quite often winning or finishing in the top 5-10 teams. He has raced internationally in Borneo, Brazil, Abu Dahbi, Australia & USA, not to mention all the fantastic events in NZ including Southern Traverse, Mizone Length of NZ Race, Coast to Coast, Arrow International 24hr Race Series, ARC events, Tongariro Mountain Classic, Crazy Man… the list goes on.

Seems to be that the longer and harder the event, the more he enjoys it!

Team Macpac GOT get out and about at the first of the Lactic Turkey Rogaine series events.

2011-08-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Team Macpac GOT took on the challenge of a three hour rogaine at Auckland’s Riverhead forest. Having been off training for a month with the flu we were unsure how we would go at this event. However, we knew that with legendary navigator, Marquita Gelderman in our team our navigation would be spot on. At nine am we were given our maps and we spent the next hour in the car debating the possible route choices and options. My simplistic approach is simply to join the dots and keep travelling in one direction until it looks like time might be running out and then heading for the finish at high speed hoping to get there before the cut-off. Marquita and Anne however are far more strategic and measured and the conversation involved lots of talk of “clusters of high points” “elevation gain and drop” “out and back distances” “ease of running on well formed tracks versus small boggy ones” “escape routes” etc etc. Finally, after much discussion and evaluation and re-evaluation (which is hard for someone like me with a concentration span of a five year old) we decided on a route and a drew pretty little highlighted lines all over our maps to show our intended route. At 10am Shaun counted us down and we were off with people heading out into the forest in all directions. In these events it is always key to focus on your own map and direction and not worry what others are doing and that is exactly what we did. The three of us kept together and communicated clearly about where we were heading what, was coming up to look out for and what the clue of the next control was. This kept us all on our toes and aware of what we were looking for once we got to the control. With these events everyone has a map so it was a cool experience for me to see how both Marquita and Anne think through the details on the map and keep tabs on where they are at all times. We made good progress and no mistakes over the first part of the course but at the half way time call we realised our initial plans were extremely optimistic and that there was no way we were going to get all the controls we were hoping to get. From this point on we were constantly re-evaluating our choices and adapting our route to ensure we would get back to the finish line within the three hour time limit. In these events you get penalised 20 points for every minute over the three hours. It is amazing how quickly the last couple of hours goes – before we knew it we were sprinting to the finish – we arrived with 6 minutes to spare, covered in mud and happy with our efforts. What a great day out

For results check out http://www.lacticturkey.co.nz/RogaineRiverheadResults2011Overall.pdf

Bethels Beach Rogaine - July 8, 2011

2011-07-12T21:34:00.000-07:00

Some ideas seem awesome in the comfort of your office in the middle of summer like a 12 hour rogaine in the Waitakere Ranges with a mid night start. Thoughts like that's cool, a midnight start will be really neat, wow how adventurous, I can't wait to do that event ... etc etc.....

However, last Friday as I sat in the comfort of my office and looked out the window at torrential downpour after torrential downpour and gale force winds hurling debris across the viaduct the soft side of my personality said ... mmmmm maybe this is a bit too adventurous - maybe we should just flag it and stay indoors.... but that was a momentary fleeting thought before the stubborn staunch side of my personality said HTFU Debbie it IS going to be awesome ... bring it on yehah and all that ....

So at 11pm there we were (Cath, Anne and Me) at Bethels Beach huddled in the car out of the howling wind trying to work out our route choice for the next 12 hours. Midnight hit and off we went - we decided to head directly for the coast and got a bit of spray and surge up to our knees for our efforts to collect the coastal controls by running along Bethels and Oneils Beaches, then we climbed up on to the ridge line and got blasted by the winds as we travelled towards Goldies Bush along the TeHenga walkway. At some points we were completely blown off our feet - what a buzz - this track is sensational during the day but it is also magic at night with howling winds and the sound of crashing waves and pounding surf. Apart from a stop to change batteries we made steady progress along here and soon got to Goldies Bush where things quietened down and warmed up considerably as we were out of the wind. We headed up the stream to collect a few controls then back tracked to the bridge as we knew the stream was pretty hard going. Here we bumped into Hannah and Andrew who had taken a wrong turn and got a bit discombobulated. From Goldies Bush it was a massive road trek to the Cascades - we thought about a short cut down some driveways but after discussing the possiblity of being chased by Rottweilers or irate residents decide against it. We then headed up Long Road and took a track through to the bottom of the Cascades track - headed up onto Cascades and Robinson track - what a climb - it's funny how our memories block out the nasty climbs and lull you into a false sense of "yeah it's a climb but it's not that bad....What ever ! From here we headed down or should I say slopped and slipped our way to the Tramping hut, down RGB, Chateau Mossie, Pig stream and all those famous Waitaks names before deciding to drop two controls and bail down to Lake Wainamu and the massive sand dune. We stumbled a bit on our second to last control on the sanddune as we took a bearing but due to sand being driven into our eyes by the wind we couldn't see properly so headed off the bearing too far left and missed the control - luckily we had time to faff so scouted around and eventually found what we were looking for - we picked up our final control and made it to the finish line with 15 mins up our sleeve. What an awesome night out it was. We did 2187m of climb and covered 52.7km and finished in first place :)

Taking on the beast that was the Geo Quest 2011

2011-07-12T02:32:00.000-07:00

As an adventure racer you are always striving to have the perfect
race. With so many factors coming into play such as pre race
organisation, teammates, equipment, gear, the weather, skills and
terrain, the perfect race is extremely hard to achieve. The lead up
to and the execution of this year's a geo quest certainly did not go according to plan - yet I wouldn't change it for anything. I guess overcoming challenges is something adventure racers get a buzz out of and this race was full of them.

Anne Lowerson, Ally Davey, Craig Stevens and I set off for Aussie from Auckland first thing on the Thursday morning before the race. We landed bright and early fired up to make the most of the day and keen to make our way to race headquarters in Nambucca heads (a 6 hour drive north of Sydney). The plan was to get there do our shopping and spend the day relaxing in the sun!!

On arrival we discovered that not only had the camper van we were to pick up not been confirmed but also that the vehicle we were borrowing to get our kayaks and bodies up to race HQ had overheated and needed repairs. After a long day of mechanics and stress we finally got a vehicle sorted and left Sydney at 5.00pm right on rush hour. Needless to say it was a long drive and early morning when we arrived at our destination. Not the start we were after..

Friday dawned cool but sunny and we spent the morning getting our bikes and gear sorted before the race briefing and competency checks at midday. I had a cold so I kept a low profile and grumped my way around the various tasks that needed to be done. The course was released at 3pm and much to our relief the checkpoints were pre-marked which meant the navigators could focus more on choosing the best routes between checkpoints and it also meant we got a reasonably decent sleep.

Race day dawned overcast but dry. The start was a beach start and required us to get out through some reasonable surf. The first wave of teams that left the beach, including us, managed to get out over the breakers unscathed but apparently the second wave of teams got munted in a big set and many teams fell out of their boats and were forced to start again.

We had a reasonably good paddle with a following wind and a side to rear swell. The conditions were quite challenging but we were happy as in our Adventure racing duet boats - some of the teams on surf skis weren't quite so comfortable and spent a lot of time getting on and off and not by choice !!Things changed a bit for Anne and I when we arrived at Hungry Head Surf Club and headed in to land. We found ourselves in front of a massive swell and ended up taking a quick swim before being washed up on the beach.

The next leg was a 13km mountain bike plus raft where teams could split up in 4 directions. We decided to split into twos with Ally and Craig taking the hillier longer route and Anne and I taking the shorter more direct route and carrying the rafts. The plan was for us to get to the river and start blowing up the rafts before the other two arrived. We ended up arriving within minutes of each other and set to blowing up our three rafts and loading the bikes and our bodies onto them before heading off on the 2 km or so paddle to the other side of the river. We made good time on the raft leg and ended up being the fastest of all the teams.

This leg was followed by a 11km kayak on quiet waterways. It was bliss after the messy sea paddle. Before we knew it we were at the next transition and off on another raft followed by a 6 km beach trek. The beach was stunning even though running on the soft sand was a little frustrating.

The next leg was deemed as one of the longest legs of the race and we set off to mountain bike and trek to find four of six letters in any order of our choice. Not far into this leg the rain arrived and we found ourselves traipsing around in the dark and the wet searching for some of the more tricky checkpoints.

The rain had really started to fall now which made the next transition a bit trickier for our support crew. They did well to keep our gear dry get us changed and push us back out onto the course into the next 15km trek that took us up 600 vertical metres onto the Dorrigo Plateau. The track was steep and slippery making for tough going in the rain it was a pity it was night as I am sure the views would have been quite spectacular.

The next leg was adjusted due to the weather conditions - instead of riding down a massive descent off the plateau we had to get in our support vehicles and get a lift down to the bottom of the hill. The only problem was there was a traffic jam on the road out of transition as a car had slipped on the muddy road blocking the way. We were forced to wait until it had been cleared and a journey that should have taken us 1 hour took over 2 hours. Eventually, we dragged ourselves out into the night and rain to complete what was left of the mountain bike ride. The rest of the ride was relatively straight forward and before long we were back at the support vehicle getting ready to head out on the next 19km trek leg.

Daylight had dawned by now and we were all starting to come back to life. We made good time on this leg getting faster and stronger as the day progressed, unfortunately the rain was still pelting down but we were so focussed on what we were doing we hardly noticed it. We arrived at transition in good spirits ready to attack the next bike ride and the final paddle. Unfortunately at this point the race was cancelled and we were told to call our crews to pick us up. I'm sure our jaws hit the ground in disbelief. Wow what a disappointment .... but once we had registered how hard it was raining we realised that the race organisers made the right call and it would have been foolish to have teams out on the course in those conditions.

We called our support crew and headed back to our accommodation. we had been racing 30 hours and ended up 6th overall.

The North Face 100 km run -The Blue Mountains, Australia

2011-06-04T02:46:00.000-07:00

Race day started an hour ahead of schedule with a 4.00am wake up call
from Anne who had set her alarm on daylight saving time!! Both
Grant and I were up and at em ready to attack the day when we figured
out that we still had an hour of shut eye left before we needed to be
up. Doh !!! All too soon it was 5.00am the correct get up time and we reluctantly dragged ourselves out into the cold but clear weather to get organised for the day ahead.

The temperature was around zero so there were plenty of
discussions about what to wear for the run. At 6.10am we left the
hotel and headed down to the 6.20 am briefing. Before we knew it we
were lined up on the startline in the 3rd wave ready to go. Ten nine eight seven .... We were off ... what a feeling after so much build
up. It was great getting underway.

The first few kilometres took us through the quaint town of Leura then into the start of the first of many single track sections through rainforest - the views were stunning and it was hard to keep your eye on the track ahead as the scenery was too good to miss. The pace through this leg was a bit erratic as there was a large number of people on the track and people moved at different speeds depending on the terrain. This worked fine on the smooth surface but was a bit of a pain on the technical stuff where we are most at home and would have liked to have moved a bit faster.

The first checkpoint was at 18kms and it was quite a nice feeling to
know we had completed one stage of the course. We filled up our water
bottles and grabbed a handful of lollies and fruit as we passed through.
Now to the next leg of the journey woo hoo.

The next stage was more of the same with fantastic views, firetrials and single bush tracks. Once again there was a bit of stop and start on the single tracks and steep ups. The famous Tarras Ladders were on this leg but we were too impatient too wait and took the 300 metre detour option. We were feeling relatively comfortable on this leg and made good time.
Checkpoint two was at Dunphy's camp on a grassy opening and once again we were pleased to be there. It's funny how you look forward to the next checkpoint as they don't really mean anything and are just a place to refuel. But I guess they are another step towards the end and show you that progress is being made. Once again we filled up bottles and grabbed some food before setting off on leg three.

This leg was a bit different from the previous legs as the terrain had
flattened out a bit along Ironpot ridge. It included a steep climb up to an out and back on a single track which was a bit annoying as we had to keep pulling over to let people past and avoid head on collisions. The presence of some aborigines playing music, some more spectacular views and a couple of horses made this section a bit more bearable but it wasn't my favourite section of the race. Part of the reason for my lack of enjoyment on this leg of the race may have been the fact that my ITB started
playing up. Five kilometres before checkpoint three I couldn't bend my
leg and couldn't run without wincing in pain. I told Anne to go ahead
as I was planning to pull out at the next checkpoint and waved her off. After she left I stretched, took some pain killers, then pulled the cuff of my long johns up tight on my knee. It hurt like hell but I discovered that after doing it I could kind of run and could swing my leg forward without wincing in too much pain. I caught up to Anne just before the checkpoint and told her I had decided to continue. She thought I was crazy to continue considering our next event the Geoquest 48hr Adv Race was only a month away, but just rolled her eyes knowing that pulling out is not in my nature.

This was our first checkpoint we could meet our support crew Mike. It
was lovely to see him and to pick up our food supplies for the next
leg. It was a great feeling knowing we were over half way having done 54kms to this point. There was a jazz band playing here and a group of supporters who gave us a massive cheer which also lifted our spirits. After a bit of a chat with Mike and Emma we set off again to tackle to last but the toughest half of the race.

Not long after this checkpoint we were faced with a hard stair climb up the six foot track. It went on a bit but we were feeling relatively strong and made reasonable progess. Before long we were at the next checkpoint at 65kms where we met up with Emma and our gear. Unfortunately, our food packs were still with Mike back at the previous checkpoint so we grabbed whatever we could find and headed back out onto the course.

This next section of the course took us through some grasslands to what is called the Giant Stairway and we found ourselves plummeting 700 meters down steep steps to the valley floor below. It was just on dark now but we had a real sense that the scenery was pretty amazing as we were still able to make out the shape of the Three Sisters. Luckily the steps had rails on them and I was able to lower myself down with my arms taking the pressure off my knee. Once at the bottom of the stairs we were spat out onto a forestry road which continued our plummet down. At the 85km mark this all changed and we embarked on a 640m climb in altitude over 8kms up road - it was a hard slog. Running the last kilometre or two into the next checkpoint was a mission as we were starting to feel the effects of the race now and were struggling a bit to get food down and keep pace. However, with a bit of digging deep we made it to the final CP. Wow only 11kms to go. Mike was back and met us at this checkpoint so we gave him a big hug grabbed some supplies, ate some two minute noodles and headed out for the final push. Both of us were feeling less than flash at this point with nausea and a few hundred metres up the road my noodles made a reentrance into the world - not ideal!!

This leg was tough and we felt like we were going backwards, the 5 km signs turned into 1 km signs and excruciating long periods of time seemed to pass between each one. For most of the race we had been passing people but on this leg the shoe was on the other foot and what seemed to me to be hundreds of people storming past at high speed. All I could do was grunt "go for it", man was it hard. Finally, we heard the sound of the mic at the finish line and dragged our sorry arses across it 16 hours and 49 minutes after we had started.

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt and the bronze belt buckle!! I know there is a saying that goes "never say never" but I am pretty sure this was a one off .... I guess time will tell :)

Team Macpac GOT named to take on the XPD 2011 Adventure racing World Champs

2011-04-25T21:05:00.000-07:00

After a lot of angst and decision making we have finally decided on our team to take on the XPD World Champs Adventure Race in Tasmania in late October this year. We have chosen a team based on long standing friendships and adventure racing experience. The team members are: Debbie Chambers team captain and chief bottle washer; Anne Lowerson team navigator and homeing pigeon specialist; Ally Davey team strategist and doctor in charge of all things bad; Craig Stevens team navigator, team pack horse, team joke teller and bar boy.

The Girls on Top adventure racing team had its first expedition race outing in the XPD Tasmania in 2006 as a mixed team with Debbie, Anne and Ally taking part so we feel it is appropriate and fitting that we have our last GOT expedition race outing as a mixed team in Tasmania in 2011.

This team will be usig the Geo Quest Aussie on June 11,12 as a build up to the XPD so check us out and see how we get on at www.geoquest.com.au

Team Macpac GOT complete the Journey to the end of the World!! - March 2011

2011-04-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

This year's ARC adventure race on the Coromandel Peninsula was titled
the Journey to the end of the World and we certainly felt like we were
there a couple of times during the race. Teams of 2 or 4 could choose
to enter either the 8,12 or 24 hour event. Anne and I entered the 24 hour
event as a two person team.

The race began on Saturday morning at 7.30am on the shores of the Whangamata harbour with a

15km kayak to Whiritoa beach. Luckily it
was a calm morning with only a slight swell, as on route we had to locate a control inside a cave on an island and we also had to pull off a couple of surf landings. The swell in the cave set the heart pounding but the real adrenaline started coursing through the body when we saw boats being up ended in the surf and people bobbing about in the water after having fallen out whilst trying to get into the beach. Luckily we have had a reasonable amount of experience reading the surf on Coromandel beaches and know that it is best to wait for the lull between the big sets. We landed both times without any drama.

After forgetting to check in and having to run back to the beach, we quickly got changed in transition and then headed off on our bikes pushing across the sand and up onto a dirt track over to the next bay. Somehow along this track I managed to get my handlebars stuck in a fence and went flying off my bike face first into the dirt. Luckily the only damage done was to my ego and my confidence!! After biking into farmland and up more than a decent climb we were soon speeding back down onto the road that took us through to the next transition.

We were pretty excited about the next 30 km trek leg as it promised to
offer up a good navigational challenge. The first half of the trek had
us travelling up a stunningly beautiful and peaceful stream. The further up we got the steeper the gorge got and the more dense the bush became. At one point we had to shimmy up a steep cliff to skirt a waterfall. It felt like we were hanging on with our finger nails and once again the adrenaline levels were at an all-time high. At another point we departed from the main river to skirt another small waterfall but found once we returned to the stream we were above the control. Doh!! Reluctantly we headed back down to get it. Feeling a bit annoyed with ourselves we arrived at the hut which marked the top of the stream determined not to waste any more time and keen to get the technical navigation section over. Unfortunately we hadn't read the notes and in our haste to keep moving missed the fortune cookies and the pink tape that had been put there for our benefit. The pink tape had been put there to guide teams safely through the dense bush to link up with a track that led to the abseil. We were unaware of the tape and set off on our own private trek across the tops. It was an exhilarating experience and we found ourselves bush bashing on all fours, shimmying across bluffs and hanging off massive tree roots in an attempt to make headway. Just when we thought life was pretty good and we were making progress we found ourselves standing atop a sheer rock face that dropped steeply in all directions apart from where we had come from. Holy Moley !! What a view but what a feeling of misery when we realised we had no choice but to head back to where we had come from. Reluctantly we turned around got to safety then reassessed our route and backtracked to the nearest saddle before heading down to a certain contour level and then sidling to eventually meet the track. Once we hit the track we burst into a trot and made good time to the abseil site.

The abseil was about 50 metres off a waterfall. It was stunning however, we didn’t hang around to enjoy the scenery as we were kicking ourselves for losing so much time in the trek and were simply focussed on getting down the waterfall as fast as possible. We caught up to the Ginga Nuts (the other two person team in the race) just before transition and gave them back their clip card which we had found earlier on. They were having a nightmare of a race so we hoped this would brighten their day a bit.

The next leg was a quick bike to a rifle shoot followed by a flat 15 km ride back into Whangamata. Once again we put the pedal to the metal hoping to make up for lost time and aware that the boys from the Ginga Nuts were hot on our heels.

We arrived at the next transition and picked up the maps for the next leg which was a 4 hour mountain bike rogaine in the Whangamata mountain bike park and surrounding forest. Anne took one look at the two maps we had been given and had a minor meltdown as they were a bit confusing and our very helpful team of helpers were all trying to give advice at the same time. Our best option was simply to get out of transition and work things out once we got to the forest. Four person teams were able to split up here and get half the controls each so we were a bit disadvantaged as we had to stay together. This meant we needed all four hours available to us rather than the two and a half hours it took the four person teams to get all the controls. Anne's navigation was spot on in this leg despite the maps and once we got started we made good time and good decisions and really enjoyed some of the single tracks in the mountain bike park. All too soon the four hours were up and we hightailed it back to transition to avoid any penalties.

Now we had to decide between a kayak or a trek. We decided on the kayak as the tide was lowish but still going out. Once again four person teams could split here and we couldn't so it took us quite a bit longer than the four person teams. The almost dead low tied didn’t help either. The kayak leg was a mix of kayaking, splashing and squelching in mud but we managed to find all the checkpoints bar one, which was impossible to reach due to the low tide.

Back at transition again we set off on the final leg of the race which was a trek. We paddled across the harbour to the start of the trek to avoid swimming and ended up on a sand bar. We then spent a few minutes debating the likelihood of the tide coming in before we got back from the trek. In our sleep deprived state we decided the trek wouldn't take long and that we'd be back in plenty of time. Turning our backs on our kayak we headed up a stream to get the next checkpoint. At one point we got to a steep rock face and were forced to scramble up a slippery slope to the left of the stream. Once clear of the steep cliff we headed right until we hit a stream. Thinking we were in the right stream we continued up it, but the further we got the drier the stream became and the worse the direction was. Once again we were forced to backtrack. Back at the steep cliff we discovered the stream had spilt into two and we should have gone further right. Happy to be back on track we headed up the stream found the control then put the hammer down to get out to the road which would take us back to the kayak. By this time we had been out a while and the tide had well and truly turned. We had visions of getting back to find the kayak had floated away. We got the last few controls easily and sprinted back to the beach with our eyes scanning the water for our boat. Luckily we could see the kayak shimmering in the moonlight completely surrounded by water. Had we been another fifteen minutes it wouldn't have been there!!. We waded out to the kayak then paddled across to finish just behind the Ginga Nuts at 4.00am. What a great feeling.

Despite crossing the finish line behind the boys we were pleased to find out that we had collected a few more points than them during the race. The final results had us winning the 2 person team category with an adjusted time of 5hours 44 minutes. The Ginga Nuts finished with an adjusted time of 12 hours and 29 minutes.

A great race and yet another learning experience!! Hopefully we will read the notes more carefully in our next event.

Next up for Team Macpac GOT is the North face 100 km run in the Blue

Mountains in Sydney on May 14, followed by the Geo Quest 48 hour race in Nabucca Heads, Aussie on June 11,12 then the Adventure Racing World Championships XPD Expedition race in Tasmania from October to 29 November 10.

Team Macpac GOT and 2011

2011-01-05T15:30:00.000-08:00

Wow I can't believe we are full swing into 2011 already. This year I have signed a team up for the Adventure Racing World Champs in Tasmania, Australia in late October. My dream for 2011 is to bring together a team of four fit, passionate, compatible, experienced females who are committed to racing together for the year and giving the World Champs a really good nudge. The prospect of achieving this fills me with excitement however the tricky part will be pulling it off. There are so many variables in the sport of adventure racing, such as injuries, finances, personalities, levels of fitness, compatibility, personal and work commitments, time off work etc, that it takes a lot of hard work to pull together the ultimate team and get them to the startline of a number of events. I really envy teams that manage to pull all this off and stick together and can build on their strengths and weaknesses over a period of time and in multiple events. I am not sure what the secret is but hopefully I will discover it for myself over the next few months or so..... watch this space :)

So far the calendar I have planned for the year looks something like this:
Taranaki Travesty - January 15,16
ARC 24 hour race - March 19,20
Northface 100km off road run - May 14,15
Geo Quest 48 hour race - June 11,12
Week long training mission - August
XPD AR World Champs - October 31 - 9 Nov 2011

Team Macpac GOT take on the Great Forest Foot Rogaine in Rotorua

2010-11-07T17:57:00.000-08:00

Team Macpac GOT dusted off the cobwebs and a few months of sitting on the couch eating chips and not doing anything too strenuous at the Great Forest Rogaine in Rotorua this weekend.

The team was made up of Debbie Chambers, Anne Lowerson and regular GOT night runner Cath Heppelthwaite. Maps were handed out at 1pm and we spent the next hour pouring over the maps, adding up points, studying contours and comparing ideas on the best route chioce. All hell broke loose at 2pm when the start gun went off and we were released into the forest for 8 hours of running, scrambling, bush bashing and crawling. We had a great day out, didn't make any major navigation errors and mostly managed to stick to our game plan. All in all a good blow out before we head South for a 24 hour race in central Otago in a couple of weeks. We managed to scrape into the top 10 in the foot event so were pretty happy with our performance.

Regular Girls on Top adventure racers, Erin and Marquita were also competing in this event with Marquita and Rob cleaning up in the Mountain bike event and Erin getting third in the foot event. Well done girls :)

Overall results of the top teams:

1 Rob Garden & Marquita Gelderman (9:54) 2390 1st MTB

2 John Randal & Simon Kennett (9:59) 2390 2nd MTB

3 Dennis De Monchy & Darren Blackwell 2380 1st Foot

4 Anita Liepina & Valters Kaminskis (Latvia) 2270 2nd Foot

5 David Blundell & Campbell Bennett 2270 3rd MTB

6 Brent Simpson & Greg Simpson 2260 4th MTB

7 Aidan Boswell & Erin Roberts 2160 3rd Foot

8 Debbie Mansfield & Glen Warner 2120 4th Foot

9 Pete Swanson & Hamish Goodwin (4.00pm-12.00am) 2070 5th Foot

10 Svetlana Subbotina & Nina Mikheeva & Marina Galkina (Russia) 2060 6th Foot

11 Nick Harris & Kath Copland 2040 7th Foot

12 Debbie Chambers & Anne Lowerson & Cath Heppelthwaite 1980 8th Foot

13 Alan Moore & Joel Tate 1940 9th Foot

14 Tim Cochrane & Alan Kirkpatrick & Rob Trass & Sekkie Meyer 1910 10th Foot

Geo Quest 2010 - Race Report - Team Macpac GOT

2010-08-31T18:07:00.001-07:00

The Macpac Girls on Top Adventure racing team have made the journey across the Tasman to compete in the 48 hour Geo Quest for the last three years. This year our main reason for making the trip was to make up for the disappointment Erin Roberts experienced when she was forced to pull out of the XPD team due to dislocating her elbow on a training ride to the Bridge to Nowhere in the Wanganui National Park.
The 2010 Geo Quest was held in Port Macquarie four hours’ drive North of Sydney. The logistics of racing overseas are always quite complicated but we are lucky to have the support of Steve Cooper from sleepmonsters.com.au. Not only does he supply us with lightweight Ruahine Adventure Duet kayaks and a vehicle with a trailer but he also is a key member of our support crew. This year we were also lucky enough to have my parents who flew over especially to crew for us.

Our team for this race was myself, Anne Lowerson, Erin Roberts and Marquita Gelderman. Although this was the first overseas race we had done together we had raced together a few times back in New Zealand and had done a reasonable amount of training as a group. As with every race our goal was to race as efficiently and effectively as possible and to give the premier mixed and all male teams a run for their money.

The course was revealed at 3pm on the Friday afternoon so Anne and Marquita then spent the afternoon and early evening plotting the checkpoints and working out route choices, whilst Erin and I sorted out the food, the gear and logistics of transporting gear etc. to the various transitions around the course. The race covered a distance of over 200 kms with around 120kms of mountain biking, 53 kms of kayaking and 53 kms of trekking.

Before we knew it we were lined up on a beach near Kempsey at 8.00am Saturday morning for a 12km ocean paddle with a 500m portage to the first checkpoint. Helmets were compulsory on this paddle which indicated that we could have been in for a surf entry or exit from the paddle. We were more than relieved on arrival at the beach to see that the surf was a mere ripple and although we had to take our helmets with us we did not need to wear them. The kayak leg was beautiful the water was a deep blue colour and the white sandy beaches of the coastline were stunning. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any dolphins or whales which are common in the area. Although there was a bit of swell and chop on this leg we got through with no casualties and all managed to hold onto our breakfast.

The next leg was 13km trek. We had a military like efficient transition thanks to our support crew being super organised and then set off on this leg at a reasonable pace settling in to a light jog. Our efforts paid off and we soon came up behind one of the other NZ teams in the race Team Cartera maps – I think we may have shocked them into action as after a wee chat they scurried off into the dust in front of us. We somehow lost a bit of urgency at the end of this leg and were passed by Team Australian Geographic Outdoor Magazine a team which we then spent the rest of the race playing leap frog with.

The next leg was a river kayak up the Maria River for 12kms, ending at Kundabung. The water was flat arse calm, the scenery was stunning and the paddling was easy. We were given a further boost of confidence as we powered past the half teams paddling up the river in blow up boats supplied by the organisers. The poor people, it must have been so demoralising for them to see us effortlessly glide past in a straight line whilst they zig zagged all over the river at snail’s pace. We tried to console them by commenting that they would be tucked up in bed way before us. I am sure they were cursing us though. This leg finished with a kayak carry and had us thankful that we had boats that weighed 25kg rather than 35 or more as some of the other team’s craft did.

Once again we had a fairly slick transition after this leg and we fired off into the mountain bike full of enthusiasm as it tends to be our team’s strongest discipline. The 40km MTB started in state forest near Smiths Creek and headed up towards the Kumbatine National Park. We made a bit of a booboo on this leg and cycled passed the checkpoint which lost us a bit of time but overall we made good progress enjoying the thrills of hurtling downhill through the Aussie bush and pushing ourselves a bit on the ups and flats. We knew that the sooner we got to the next leg the better it would be as we wanted to complete the canyoning leg in daylight if we could.

Once off the bikes we donned our wetsuits, had a quick feed of hot two minute noodles and made sure we had plenty of warm clothes before heading off for the canyoning leg in water which was reported to be around 9 degrees Celsius. Brrr!! Lucky for us we got through this leg just as night fell and thanks to Marquita only one of us (her) had to get completely wet – you rock Marquita !! The fire at the end of transition was a godsend and we huddled around it whilst changing into warm dry gear before heading of onto the mystery activity which was a flying fox across the river. The flying fox looked heaps of fun as the teams ahead of us went screaming across the river; unfortunately as we are all lightweights we didn’t carry as much speed and almost had to will ourselves across the last few metres.

Once on terra firma again we were faced with taking a compass bearing and heading directly up a large hill. It was a perfect way to warm Marquita up after her heroic swims up the canyon. We attacked this leg with gusto and made pretty good progress with Marquita leading the way and the rest of us checking her direction with our compasses and doing our best not to lose her in the thick bush. It was pretty rugged country and a pretty hard out bush bash through prickly Lantana and thick undergrowth. We had our ups and downs on this leg making a couple of reasonably serious errors which had has bushbashing in dense undergrowth for no reason and later heading the wrong way up an unmarked road. But we also made some very impressive route choices and nailed a couple of checkpoints other teams appeared to be struggling with. We were pretty happy to finally find our way out to the road and to the next transition which was unsupported. Unfortunately Erin suffered a bit of blister damage to her feet on this leg – not a pretty sight.

By now it was the middle of the night and absolutely freezing. Our map boards were covered in ice and we had to put all our compulsory gear on to stay warm. As we cycled out of transition into the night air for the 40km mountain bike leg ahead of us we were forced to stop and put on our dishwashing gloves as our hands were frozen solid and we couldn’t feel our brakes or gear levers. It was enough to bring tears to our eyes. We looked a bit odd with pink and yellow rubber gloves but boy did it make a difference. This leg was reasonably navigationally challenging with numerous small tracks created by cyclists and 4WDs not marked on the maps. But with Marquita at the helm we managed to get through reasonably unscathed. The single track downhill ride into the next transition was primo – yehah!! We rolled into the next transition around 8.00am. Unfortunately, somehow we lost a bit of focus here and did a bit of a faff in transition – must have been the lack of sleep setting in. …

Ahead of us lay our third and final paddle from Telegraph Point to Wauchope. This 29km river paddle was to be the longest of the paddle legs it also included a 1 km portage to cut off a large 5 km bend in the river. Once again we were thankful for the lighter kayaks as we steamed passed Team Australian Geographic Outdoor Magazine who had much heavier boats but trolleys to help with the portages. We had spent most of the race duelling with these guys so it was a cool feeling to get the jump on them. The paddle was long and tough and we were all moaning of sore bums and shoulders. We were all pretty relieved to see the finish of this leg in sight and keen to get back onto the bikes. We were keen to get out of the boats so quickly beached ourselves on the first sandy beach about 50m passed the bridge as our instructions stated and dragged our boats up the bank. We were shocked to find that we were actually 100 metres too early and were forced to take the boats back to the water get back in and paddle another 100 meters or so to the actual get out point where the marshalls were. Here we were stung a 2 hour penalty for not having our glow sticks attached to the boat.. Doh.. We should have known better… we should have read the rules…. !!!! Silly girls !!

This next bike leg which took us through Broken Bago State Forest and Bago Bluff National Park allowed us to split up into two groups. Marquita and Erin set off in one direction and Anne and I in another. We then regrouped at the top of a massive hill that had us hiking our bikes and basically rock climbing with our bikes on our backs. Perhaps not our best route choice and not quite our idea of fun but I guess that is all part of the adventure. This kind of terrain and activity was particularly no fun for Erin and her blisters. Ouch. The ride off the top down to sea level and the start of the final trek was awesome. Once again we had the odd mishap with route finding but overall managed to make reasonable progress and rolled into the final transition just after dark. Thanks Mum for the awesome avocado sandwiches they were delicious.

The final leg involved a scenic coastal trek along the beach from Lake Cathie around Nobby Head and into Port Macquarie. It was absolutely stunning even in the dark. For some reason we lost momentum here and allowed ourselves to be passed once again by the boys from Team Australian Geographic Outdoor Magazine who we had been duelling with for the entire race. This is something that we are kicking ourselves for letting happen and something that we will be working on in future races.

Wow what a race!!! We finished in a time of 36 hours 8th overall just behind the boys and won the all-female category for the fourth year in a row. A huge thanks to Steve Cooper and Mum and Dad for pampering us for 48 hours non-stop. Thanks also to Macpac for providing us with good quality gear that kept us warm even in freezing temperatures.

For results, reports and photos go to: www.geocentricoutdoors.com.au/geoquest/

Team Macpac Girls on Top head across the ditch again

2010-08-16T14:36:00.000-07:00

Yes we are off to Aussie again ! This time to compete in the Mountain Designs GeoQuest 48hr race. It is Australia's premier adventure race and involves 48+hrs of non-stop endurance racing in the major disciplines of trekking, mountain biking and kayaking. As usual with adventure racing, teams of four must navigate their way through an arduous 200+km course that is only revealed the evening before the race. This time we will be faced with the novelity of canyoning and a ropes section. The race will be held in Port Macquaire between Sydney and Brisbane.

Our goal for this race is to better our 12th overall placing in last year's event and to continue our winning form in the single sex category. We have been the first single sex team for the past few years and will once again be fighting off the all male teams at every hurdle. Our team for this race is Erin Roberts who has returned to form after dislocating her elbow over Easter, Debbie Chambers, Anne Lowerson and our secret weapon Marquita Gelderman - one of NZ's most talented orienteers. This is a supported event and we are lucky enough to have the support of Debbie's Mum and Dad and Steve Cooper from Sleepmonsters.com.au - Steve will be updating the sleepmonsters website with news of the race also - so don't forget to check out his site.. Fingers crossed the weather will be warm and dry and the snakes and spiders will be fast asleep.

Follow our progress at http://www.geoquest.com.au/ .. Bring it on ..

Kayaking with Orca

2010-07-12T13:38:00.000-07:00

Wow life in Auckland doesn’t get much better than this. We went out for a kayak from Takapuna beach on Saturday morning. It was an absolute stunner of a day, warm with not much wind and flat calm. We kayaked along the coast and down to North Head and paused to take in the views of the harbour with Rangitoto and Brown Islands in the distance – I remember thinking Auckland is such a cool place to live. On our way back half way between Narrow neck and Takapuna, I looked up to see a massive fin coming towards us. Before we knew it we were surrounded by a pod of seven orca - three big doods, a couple of tiny calves and some medium sized ones. What an amazing experience. We followed them down the coast back to North Head as they fished for Sting ray. At one point one of the big guys passed under the kayak within inches of us – it was incredible –once he had gone I couldn’t stop my knees from knocking together. A little freaky!! As they rounded North head we left them to it and headed back to Takapuna only to be faced with another 8 or so Orca coming towards us. Wow wow and wow – that was one hell of an experience and one we’ll never forget.

Midnight Madness

2010-06-27T22:11:00.000-07:00

Two members of Team Macpac GOT myself and Anne Lowerson decided to join Mal and his crazy mates in a run on the Hillary Trail. How hard can it be we thought - we've just done the XPD... it doesn't get much harder than that ... it is only 72kms it will only take 16 hours!" What we hadn't counted on was the fact that we would be running for a full fifteen hours and this uses slightly different muscles to walking for 40 hours in the Aussie outback.

It all started at midnight on Friday night after a full day of heavy rain. We stumbled out of the car at the Arataki Visitors centre to a group of around 20 eager smiling athletes all keen to attempt the Hillary trail in one hit. A decision was made that we would all stay together for the hours of darkness at least as the trail can be hard to find in places. Off we went into the night slipping and sliding in the mud. We made pretty good time down to the Karamatura camp and then after a rather hairy river crossing sloshed and slipped our way up to the Karamatura forks. Oh boy was it muddy. We then headed down the scenic but undulating coastal track into Whatipu and arrived there around 4.15am. The Manukau Heads were a stunning sight under the glow of the full moon. What a treat to be greeted by one of Mal's amazing support crew who provided refreshments and encouragement for all.

After a bit of a stretch and a regroup we headed off to attack the next section of the track. Hills glorious hills met us. First we climbed out of Whatipu then we found ourselves dropping into the Paraha Gorge - the water levels were so high in the gorge the board walk was completely under cover - one guy lost the board walk and took a deep plunge off the side into the icy waters .. ohhh bad idea !! - best to stay on the track !! We then headed up up up to the top of Zion Hill track before dropping into Karekare. We were more than rewarded here for our efforts as daylight was beginning to make its presence felt and we were treated to lovely views of KareKare beach. We were also treated to hot chocloate and loaf as Barbarella had decided to drag herself and her mother out of bed at some ungodly hour to come and join us. Thanks Barb's Mum..

Once again we were off on our merry way and once again we were headed up hill. This time we had the addition of a chatty Barb striding out in front and motivating us to keep up the pace. We headed up Watchman's Rd and then onto Coman's track which lead to Ahu Ahu track and the Mercer Bay track - what amazing scenery - this has to be one of the most scenic coastal spots around - wow. We then found ourselves heading the wrong way along the Piha Rd before dropping into the Winstone track which took us down to the sensational KiteKite falls and then into the back of Piha. The falls were in full flow and mind blowing, the view made all the efforts of the past few hours worth it. However on on and on we had to push.

We had another stop in Piha for breaky around 9am with the trusty support team - this time we were treated to pasta, pizza and hot soup. Yum Yum. But we were only just over half way so on we pushed. The next section took us up Whites track and then up the dreaded Kuataika track. This track was the worst of the lot and seemed to go up up and up again. After what seemed an eternity of climbing we found ourselves dropping onto Houghtons track and into Lake Wainamu. We spilt up a bit here with some people choosing the steeper but shorter sanddune route to the Bethels road and others taking the longer but flatter route up the creek. We regrouped for the final time at the Bethels carpark and filled up on hot soup again before setting off for the last leg of the track.

The track from Bethels to Muriwai is absolutely out of this world - no matter how many times I do it it never gets boring - it is sensational. We shuffled along here at pace with Barb pushing us to dig deep. My father also joined us along this track and ended up running the last hour or so of this track with us to the start of Constable Rd. From here it was all downhill into Muriwai, the Gannets and the end of the Hillary trail.

What a fantastic experience with fantastic people. Thanks to Malcolm Law for the inspiration - we wish him well with his 7in7 campaign. Thanks to all those who came along to support.

72kms - 15 hours and 50mins -

Team Macpac Girls on Top have tamed the beast that was the XPD

2010-06-27T21:15:00.000-07:00

The XPD expedition adventure race in Cairns Australia saw 47 teams attempt to travel 700kms, over 6 - 10 days. The disciplines they faced included; mountain biking, kayaking, hiking, rafting, snorkeling and wheelbarrow pushing all with tricky navigation. The terrain was unforgiving and remote and teams were sent through dense untracked rainforests teaming with leeches and stinging tree, rugged outback areas full of spear grass and spider webs and rivers low in water and home to fresh water crocodiles.
Twenty one of the forty seven teams made it to the finish line as a complete team including New Zealand’s all female adventure racing team Macpac Girls on Top.

Here is the race report and account of this epic adventure race from the team captain Debbie Chambers.

What an experience we have had - I am sure we were all pushed to our physical, mental and emotional limits on more than one occasion. This is one race Team Macpac Girls on Top; Debbie Chambers, Anne Lowerson, Zoe Albon and Viv Prince will never forget.

The lead up to this race is always a rather frantic one and this year was no exception as due to injury to teammate Erin Roberts six weeks out from start day, we were forced to scurry around to find a last minute replacement. Luckily adventure racing legend Viv Prince agreed to come on board and we came together in Cairns a couple of days before the race and got started on getting to know each other whilst shopping for food and other necessities for the race.

The day before race start the maps and course were revealed. Once this happened all hell broke loose. We split the team up into pairs with Anne and Viv organising the maps and planning our route and Zoe and myself working on logistics and gear. Each team has five bins and four bike boxes and these are transported around the course during the race by the organisers. In each bin you have to ensure you have enough supplies for the following leg before you meet the next bin. The trick is anticipating how much food and gear to put in each bin as you are only given distances by the race organisers, not approximate times of each leg. It is amazing how quickly time flies on this day and before you know it the boxes and bins are being loaded onto trucks only to be seen again during the race. We left the boxes with a sense of dread that we would get to a point in the race and realise we hadn’t packed the right thing.

Race day dawned and we were bussed from Cairns to Mission Beach and then ferried out to Dunk Island for the official start of the race. We were so ready to get started as it had been a stressful few days leading up to this. Leg one was a 25km trek/snorkel/raft and saw us scrambling, kayaking and snorkeling and around Dunk Island searching for checkpoints. We hit a reasonably urgent pace in this leg hoping to get as much rest as possible later on in the course due to the dark zone on the up-coming rafting section. Anne's navigation was spot on and we sailed around this leg without too many problems, although we had to use all our will not to throw up in the rough seas both in the kayak and the snorkeling. The only issue we had was that on returning from our second snorkeling leg we found that we hadn’t secured our boat properly and it had floated away. Doh! Luckily the rescue boat was one step ahead and soon delivered it back to us.

Leg two was a 100km mountain bike ride which to our extreme delight was relatively flattish and with easy navigation, and we managed to complete it in reasonable time. The highlight of this leg for us was meeting up with the Yogi Bears - a team renown for their singing - we had a good old sing along with them and passed a few teams in the process arriving in transition in time to catch three hours sleep in our cosy Macpac tent. Oh bliss (very cosy with four of us squeezed into a race regulation two person tent.)

Leg three saw us getting up at 5.00am and power walking 9 km along a gravel road to the start of the 10 km raft section for our 7.00am briefing. A rare quietness descended over the team during this walk but it wasn't due to the pace, it was due to the fact that we were all secretly packing our knickers about tipping out of the raft in the grade 4 rapids. We needn’t have worried as the raft was a blast with full on rapids one after the other, wonderful scenery, and a competent guide to ensure we didn’t flip. This was one of the highlights of the course.

Soon after getting out of the boats and stuffing our faces with creamed rice and pears we set off for the 47 km Misty Mountains trek. We expected this leg to be on nice walking tracks and to be relatively straight forward as the map supplied for this leg was a tourist walking map. Oh how wrong we were! From this point on we learnt never to assume that anything in this event would be easy. This trek was a mission and we had our first introduction to the large variety of painful Aussie plants, including the infamous “stinging tree” - which injects silica glass hairs that contain neurotoxins into your skin and “wait-a-while” - which grabs you with its vine and tears the bejesus out of you, your clothes and your pack. Whilst on this trek I commented that God must have been having a particularly bad day when he created the Aussie rainforest. Maybe that is why I got stung first! At the end of this trek Zoe and I had to get medical attention for the stinging tree hits. The treatment for stinging tree is more painful than the sting – first they douse the area in hydrochloric acid – then they cover the area in hot wax and pull. Holy ……. !! I ended up on the floor feeling a little woozy and Zoe ended up on the floor after fainting. We both ended up a little traumatized by the whole thing. Meanwhile Anne and Viv were tending to their leech bitten legs and trying to make sure there weren’t any leeches hanging out in places they shouldn’t be.

This was our welcome to the reality of racing in rain forest in Aussie. We soon learnt that due to all the nasties not only was this race going to be a physical challenge but also a mental one. We had planned to have a wee sleep at the end of this leg in transition to give Zoe’s blistered little toes a rest but as soon as we lay down a number of other teams arrived and started packing and unpacking right next to us. Our planned 2 hour sleep turned into a one hour lie down and with much frustration we bundled ourselves out of transition and onto our bikes.

The following leg was a hot and hilly 130 km bike with a 10km orienteering section in it. This section was hard but with mid-camp just around the corner we were all pretty motivated and put heads down and bums up and went for gold. The orienteering course gave us our first introduction to spear grass – nasty stuff that burrows into your shoes and into your feet. We moved reasonably well on this leg but struggled a bit with finding the last checkpoint. Perhaps our interrupted sleep at transition was coming back to haunt us.

At one point I disappeared into a hut to collect the checkpoint and yelled “yep, got it” to let my teammates know I had found it. I came out of the hut to find Zoe forgetting about her painful blisters running towards me at full pace with panic in her eyes and yelling out my name. She thought I had yelled “help” and had fallen down one of the many deep mine shafts in the area. We had a bit of a giggle over this once we had worked out what had caused the confusion. We left the orienteering course for the final bike into midcamp right on dusk. Just as we were setting off, Zoe’s mountain bike shoe cleat fell apart and she was forced to ride in her running shoes. The ride was a mix of heaven and hell. We spent some of it pushing up steep inclines, some of it skidding uncontrollably on loose rocks and some of it flying down a 4wd track at high speed hoping not to come to grief in the many soft sandy sections along the way.

Midcamp is a compulsory stop for 6 hours where the organisers feed you and provide you with a tent to sleep in. We wasted no time in packing away our bikes and heading inside for a delicious hot feed of bacon, hash browns, baked beans, tomatoes and toast. This was followed by one bucket of warm water for a team wash, and then a couple of hour’s kip. The kip passed all too soon and we were once again back into it – our next task was to load up “Warren the wheelbarrow” with two kayaks and push him 20 kms down a road to the river. We headed into the early morning mist dreading what lay ahead. We soon got into the rhythm of taking turns to push “Warren” and carry the paddles. There was something oddly therapeutic about having “Warren” to focus on. The walk was also made easy by the arrival of a camera crew which helped keep our minds off the task at hand. Much to our delight NZ Bloggers Annie and Sonja also tracked us down for an update and pumped out Michael Jackson’s “Beat it” on the car radio. We all had a bit of a sing and dance but unfortunately, this sidetracked us and we ended up having to take a detour through a dusty ditch to the next transition!!

Leg seven was a 70 km paddle along the Walsh River. We took a while in transition before getting into the boats as we knew this was going to be a mega mission. We were not wrong. The next 30 hours were spend jumping in and out of the boats pushing them over rocks and through rapids, avoiding low hanging branches and trees, searching for the right channel in the dark, emptying out our boat, portaging a scary looking rapid and trying to protect ourselves from sunburn during the day. We also spent a bit of time looking back at the red crocodile eyes watching us in the dark of night wondering just how big they were. Although we managed extremely well on the navigation on this leg it was the most physically exhausting leg and we left more than a few expletives behind us in the shallow rapids. We arrived at the next transition utterly spent and glad to be exiting the river.

Another epic leg - a 60 km trek - loomed ahead of us, and instead of heading off quickly to make the most of daylight we decided to take a two hour sleep and make sure we dried our feet out and sorted gear out before heading off into the outback. This leg was reported to be full of spear grass and long – the lead teams had apparently been going for 16 hours and still hadn’t reached halfway, so we knew we were in for a mission. Around four hours after arriving in transition we crossed the river, dried and strapped our feet, taped our shoes to stop spear grass getting in and headed out onto the trek. It was around 10pm. We set off focused on our compass bearing and our surroundings but somehow we lost concentration and ended up taking a slight detour –in retrospect perhaps we should have made the most of daylight! Anyway the slight detour took us up over a 639 meter hill where we were forced to sleep and wait for daylight before continuing on. Anne is still kicking herself for making this error. Once daylight broke we were on our way again and spent the next 40 hours or so clambering over grass covered rocks, avoiding massive spiders in their webs, navigating through hectares of untracked bush, soaking our clothing in water to cool our bodies down, and sitting around waterholes eating mashed spud and tuna and resting our feet. At one point we got to the top of a hill and realised Anne had dropped one of the maps we needed. After a bit of a panic and a bit of backtracking on our compass bearing we managed to locate it about 100 meters away. What a relief! Thank God Anne checks the map regularly or we could still be out there! For me this leg was an absolute treat – what an epic, what a challenge, and what an experience. After 48 hours on this leg we were once again ecstatic to be heading into transition.

Only 130km of biking, a 15 km paddle and a 60 km trek to go! One of the ladies in transition kept saying, “You’re nearly there guys just three more legs to go!” However, we knew better and opted simply to focus on one leg at a time. Another guy was over heard muttering, “These teams are nuts but how does that girls’ team manage out there!”

The next bike leg was a navigator’s nightmare with tracks criss-crossing in all directions and a number of route choices. We managed to find our way to the checkpoints without too much difficulty and then chose a route which had us on some single track for a few kms, then a reasonably fast 4WD track and then wham we found ourselves pushing our bikes on a track through grass twice our height. Not much fun believe me – luckily the main road wasn’t too far away and we burst out of the grass onto a potato patch with relief written all over our faces. We then made our way to the last checkpoint before TA where we decided to take a short 15 min nap, which turned into 40 mins. Oops! – The theory was that we wanted to be sharp in the next transition so we could get in and out quickly and onto the water for the kayak. A few kms further on we stopped again for a chocolate milk, burger and chips in a shop in Tolga. It was scrumptious after so many days of limited calories.

We were a little slow out of this transition due to a deflating boat, which was a bit frustrating, but the kayak across Lake Tinaroo was stunning. The lake was like a millpond and the skies were clear. Even though we had slept a few hours earlier we really struggled to stay awake on this leg and had to pull up onto the shore for a 5 minute power nap. Once on our way again we still struggled to keep focus and keep our eyes open. Luckily we managed to hit the transition without too much trouble or meandering all over the lake.

Wow the final 60 km trek leg was upon us but we weren’t letting it sink in as we knew the lead team had taken 30 hours to complete this. We headed out of transition and immediately settled in for an hour kip so we could be on the ball for the navigation for this final leg. Things started off relatively smoothly and we stormed passed a couple of teams refreshed from our sleep. Then things started to get complicated and we came across four or so other teams who had been confused by two tracks heading off in different directions with track ribbons going both ways. We made a choice to head down the left track with another team, Outward Bound Australia, away from the other teams. We weren’t always confident it was the right choice but we eventually ended up where we needed to be.

We had made it to the last section of the race and simply needed to find a ridge and head down it and we were home. Mmm, it wasn’t to be!! We made four attempts at finding the ridge on dusk but failed. On our fifth attempt in the dark we teamed up with two other teams and tried to hit the ridge on mass – unfortunately once again we missed it. Now our only course of action was to bush bash 4-5 km north through dense rainforest full of stinging tree, leeches and ‘wait a while’ until we hit a power line service road. Man this was a tough ask at the end of such a long race – we were emotionally and physically at our limits here as we scrambled up and over ridges and dived deep into ravines and gullies. From 8.30pm to 6.00am we bashed our way through the rainforest searching for the road. What a mission!! Everyone was pretty quiet, digging deep and focusing on moving forward. We stopped for three brief communal powernaps during the night but basically kept moving as we all just wanted to get out! Zoe got a leech in her eye at one point – luckily and much to her relief a guy from Team Latitude 19 knew how to get it out. There was a lot of stinging tree too just to test us even more. Fortunately for us Team Dash seemed to be taking most of the hits. Just as we had almost given up hope of finding the road in time to make the cut off at the finish line, someone shouted “power line”! You should have heard the yells of delight from the three teams that had remained together for the past 10 hours – we were so happy. The pace picked up considerably and we were on the road in no time. Now it was simply a matter of hoofing it to the finish line in Cairns.

What a feeling! Now we could start to believe we might finish this race intact. Our feet were starting to complain, Viv’s leg had started to swell from a leech bite infection but nothing was going to stop us from getting to the end. We stopped for a celebratory lemonade icy pole on our way through the streets of Cairns before crossing the finish line 9 days and 6 hours after we had set off.

We did it! We achieved our goal of finishing the race as a team of four. We had beaten the course and endured the hardship of this event.

Thanks to Macpac for supporting us and supplying us with awesome gear that made our lives so much more comfortable out on the course. We looked stylish too. Thanks also to Emily from Em's Power Cookies for the delicious bars and to Vitasport for the electrolyte replacement satchets (very easy to carry on long legs)
Next up for us is the Geo Quest 48 hour in Port Macquarie, Australia on August 21

Midnight Midwinter Madness (26 June 2010)

2010-06-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

Girls on Top Fortnightly 2 hour runs 2010

2010-06-17T15:17:00.000-07:00

Wow we had an amazing 2 hour run last night in the Northcote tracks with Girls on Top and Boys on the side. We ran Le Roys Bush, Chelsea Sugar Factory, Kauri tracks and Chatswood tracks. Around 40 of us took to the tracks in four different groups - power walkers/ joggers/ runners / fast runners. Well done to everyone for getting out there. The next one is in a fortnight out at Titirangi. See the website news page for details. What a stunning night it was :)

It is over ....

2010-05-29T04:00:00.000-07:00

Yes we have knocked the buggar off.... yes we survived ..... yes we have tamed the XPD 2010.

Was it hard? Yes, the hardest yet. What were the highlights? The rafting, the ever changing scenery, the challenge of the mega legs - 48 hours on one trek for example, the true remoteness of the course, the navigation, the atmosphere and friendliness of the teams. What were the lowlights? None really but our transitions sucked and the rainforest walk in the final trek was a real mind challenge and on more than one occassion we were doubting whether we would make the finishline or not. What did we learn? Never give up...even if you think things can't get any worse. Would we do it all again .. hell yes .. what an amazing experience it was.....

This race has been an incredible experience for us and we hope that through the dedication of Sonya and Annie you have experienced the race with us.

Thanks for all your support. Also a massive thanks to the team at Macpac - the gear we had was perfect for the conditions and we looked the smartest of all the teams out on the course.

Will write up a summary of the race later and upload some piccies. Off to drink champagne and enjoy prawns on the barbie

Cheers Deb

Macpac Girls On Top FINISH!!!!

2010-05-28T00:08:00.000-07:00

Look at those smiles and sense of relief! Yes the Macpac Girls on Top have completed XPD Cairns at 3pm today and are the second Kiwi team to finish.

They are all stoked to be cross the finish line and Debbie has been quoted as saying this was definately the most challenging XPD they have ever competed in. It took them all to the depths of their souls and then a little bit more!

Having watched the girls on this most epic 9 day adventure, we couldn't be more proud of them and what they have achieved which is truly amazing. Only 20 out of 47 teams who began this journey last week will complete the course before the cut off at 6pm tonight (only an hour away).

They celebrated in style with bubbles and pizza. The bubbles were quickly ditched for a cold beer which went down a treat. With minimal coaxing the Girls bombed into the hotel pool and washed off 9 days of grit, grime and hard work (poor other patrons of the hotel).

They are all in amazingly good physical condition for what they have been through. Zoe managed to get a leech in her eye this morning which Viv had to extract - yum. No major damage done.

So the only question remaining is can they shower and get back in time for the race party which starts at 6pm ? Actually the big challenge will be them keeping awake to enjoy the party!

So I'll sign off now and the next entry will be from the Macpac Girls on Top themselves to no doubt fill you in in more detail about their tremedous journey :)

Girls At Tinaroo

2010-05-26T04:33:00.000-07:00

Well, yet again, apologies for the news void. The team have been on 2 massive legs as you no doubt have learnt by now from watching the live website. Lets just say that the times for both the paddle down the Walsh River and the trek to Mt Mulligan have blown out for every single team. These two legs were punishing but almost universally enjoyed - even by team members that have had to pull out!

Just spoke to Debbie and the Girls have made it to Lake Tinaroo and are about to head out on the last paddle leg for the race (15km long). Most teams to pass so far have managed the paddle in 4-5 hours, to be followed by a mammoth 60km trek to the finish which we expect will take a minimum of 30hours!

Word from the bike leg is that as usual they all had a fantastic time and are as always smiling. Some interesting route choices had them at one point bashing their way through grass taller than all of the girls (even Zoe) which ultimately led to some great single track riding - wicked. A stop at the dairy for some pies I believe and they are well fuelled up.

This is turning into one epic adventure, and we are expecting the Girls in on Friday before the race ends at 6pm, what time exactly yet we are not sure! They are the middle of the field, so no doubt the multitude of teams behind them will be offered a short course option soon (all must start the trek by 6am tomorrow or they cannot start it).

So our next blog will be joyously letting you know that Macpac Girls on Top have successfully completed an amazing adventure in what will have to go down as the toughest XPD yet!

Warren the Wheelbarrow

2010-05-21T22:13:00.000-07:00

Well, after saying we thought there might be an info blackout on Macpac Girls on Top - we hunted them down on the road this morning pushing their wheelbarrow. They headed out of Midcamp this morning at 6am and made it to the river just after 10am. As you can see they continue to be in fine form. Zoe's feet are pretty sore but she hasn't scored Debbies bracelet yet - Viv is still holding on to that one.

Their wheelbarrow was affectionately named 'Warren' - at times he was a bit useless and Anne said he wasn't pulling his weight except on the downhill when he wanted to run. All the Girls took their turn pushing Warren the 20km to the rivers edge, but you could have been mistaken for thinking Debbie and Viv were going gardening (when their turn came around they donned some fetching gloves). By the time they reached the river the temperature was up to 28 degrees and the sun was beating down, so yet again one word pops to mind ... Legends.

A wee bit of a faff on the rivers edge taking an hour to transition onto the river, but you can't really blame them when they have an epic 70km to head down. Craig has told us all that given the river level is lower than when he paddled it there will be some significant amounts of boat pulling/dragging along the river bed or carrying over rocky areas. Orion have finished the paddle section now taking approximately 20hrs, so this leg is going to be epic.

I am telling the truth this time when I say that we won't see them again until after the 68km trek that follows the paddle. These next two sections of the race cover a huge distance which is all on one private landowners property. Apparently he doesn't go into the section they are trekking on EVER as its 'tiger country' or did he quote 'mongrel country'. Either way you get the idea.

So until Mt Mulligan and the end of the trek, the info blackout begins. We'll post again in probably 36hrs - ish. :)

PS Who knew Viv could 'Beat It' so well and was a fan of Michael Jackson?

Midcamp - Yippee!

2010-05-21T06:44:00.000-07:00

To all the Macpac Girls on Top fans we apologise profusely for the media lapse on our intrepid adventure racers. We lost them last night in the haze of the stinging tree nightmare. They have arrived here at midcamp in Dinbullah at 23:19.

No doubt by now you have heard about the awful Stinging Tree - the most painful plant in the world! Almost all the racers have had varing degrees of exposure to the nasty bugger. Apparently our young Zoe did an impression of a ghost with her treatment (which folks consists of application of 15% hydrochloric acid to the skin, follwed by a wax in an attempt to remove the invisible threads of sting) .. she is a legend, grown men were screaming with theirs! Debbie declined my kind offer of torture/treatment this evening ... I can't think why.

They had fun out on the rogaine and MTB to midcamp and have arrived in good spirits and may we say looking pretty sharp (don't they always). The shot above is them just after they pulled in. They are busy now breaking down their bikes into their boxes, and will tuck into a big plate of hot food before heading off for a well deserved sleep (they have to stop at midcamp for a minimum of six hours).

Tomorrow they have an epic day ahead - a 20km wheelbarrow push filled with all their kayaking gear to the Walsh river. Then its a 68km paddle on what the race organisers have described as 'pretty rugged and remote' - no sweat so say the Girls! We anticipate that the push will take them 7ish hours and the paddle around 12-14hrs so watch this space .. there will be a drought again.

So to sign off here from Midcamp - Debbie says thanks heaps to everyone for the great messages and support - they love it, keep it coming. And especially for Craig .. some big love from Zoe (she said you would know what she meant). Until post paddle .. Macpac Girls on Top out.

2010-05-19T01:04:00.000-07:00

Macpac Girls on Top were looking fine this morning pre race start, until some monkey jumped in front of the camera. The bus trip was uneventful, and all made it out to Dunk Island for a race start just before noon.

In fine form as usual, the Girls have smiles on everytime we spot them, and at least a couple of cheeky remarks. I think they may have enjoyed the snorkelling too much ... fins and snorkels flying in all directions (they should invent the female equivalent of the cricket box so I'm told).

They made it back to Mission Beach this evening in 19th position. They are currently putting together their bikes and making ready for the 100km MTB through Tully and up to the top of the Tully Gorge before they hit a darkzone and will no doubt get at least a few hours sleep before setting off on white water rafting tomorrow morning. NO teams are allowed on the river prior to 6am.

So far, no casualties - in fine form (unless you count Anne feeling a bit gippy on the paddle back into Mission Beach) and heading out on the bikes looking great.

Race about to start

2010-05-18T02:43:00.000-07:00

Macpac Girls on Top are looking good and raring to go. From this point in they have entrusted us with their blog for the race duration ... ha ha (I suspect at times they may regret relinquishing their password)!

The race starts tomorrow with what looks like a pretty awesome leg making the most of being alongside one of the most beautiful reefs in the world and its fantastic marine environment.

A 6am start to the buses and they are heading south down to Mission Beach which should take a couple of hours. Then the competitiors are loaded onto boats to head out to Dunk Island for the official race start. Then its trekking/kayaking/snorkelling around and on the island followed by a paddle back to Mission Beach (4 to a kayak). The girls should have an impressive advantage on the paddle over all the teams big on size = big on boat sink with 4 aboard. Top teams are expected to hit the beach around 5:30pm and the last should be through by 7:30pm all things going well.

The buzz around all the racers at HQ today was a good mix of excitement, trepidation, out and out fear, followed by more excitement again. The race overview as its laid out is going to truly fulfill the philosophy of the organisers - 'as much an expedition as a race'.

For more info have a look at http://www.kiwixpd.blogspot.com/ for info on Macpac Girls on Top and all the kiwi teams here at XPD.

Made it to Cairns

2010-05-16T01:40:00.000-07:00

Debbie, Zoe and I arrived safely in Cairns just after lunch on Friday and without having to pay any excess on our luggage thanks to some good sweet talking to important people before we left. We were picked up by our chaffeurs Chrissy, Scotty and Greg and whisked away to our accommodation much to the envy of the other New Zealand teams who were waiting for a shuttle. On arrival at our accomm we unpacked our bikes and moaned about the heat. Viv our new teammate wasn't far behind and thanks to Chrissy again was transport to the accomm of course we spent the next few hours getting to know Viv and sharing stories about past adventures and adventure races. Saturday was spent doing the shopping for the race and getting our Macpac gear and equipment sorted and labeled with our individual colours. Deb is yellow, Zoe is red, Viv is blue and I am green. Sat night was spent living the high life up at Chrissy and Scotty's place at Kewarra Beach. Man were we spoilt we got to walk their Rotweiler on the beach, sip gin and tonics, eat prawns and kanga on the barbie mate, and scoff the most amazing chocolate mouse cake you have ever seen .. wow was it scrummy. It seems Viv is not so strong when it comes to cake eating .. she let the team down and couldnt finish hers so was awarded the "harden the f..... up" wristband by Chrissy. This wristband will complete the race with us and be given to the person who really needs to just ... harden up... we have nicknamed it the wimp award ... Sunday was spent doing more shopping and doing more preparation of bike boxes, gear bins and food. We also took a dip in the pool to test our snorkels, masks and fins out. Apparently i was a bit of a wimp when I got in so guess who is wearing the wristband now ...!!!

Things get a bit more real tomorrow with competency checks, photos and gear checks. All hell will break loose on Tuesday when we will be given the course..... bring it on.

Will upload some photos tomorrow.... off to cook some pasta now.

Ciao Anne

Final days leading up to the XPD

2010-05-10T22:57:00.000-07:00

This post isn't about training but about the last few weeks leading up to the XPD Adventure race. As you can see from our previous blogs this event has been our focus for the entire year. The last few weeks have been a real rollercoaster of emotions starting with Erin falling off her bike and dislocating her elbow. At the time it happened we were openly optimistic and had rose colured glasses on all believing that Erin would make a full recovery in time to make it to the startline. However after her first Doctors appointment a week after the injury the warning signals came on and we started to think the unthinkable that she might not make it to the startline at all. Once the alarm bells were in full ring we started to hustle for last minute teammates. This is not as easy feat as there are not that many people meeting our description - Wanted: fast, fit, funny, female able to go without sleep for long periods of time, happy to push mind body and soul to the limits, not scared of snakes, spiders, leeches, crocodiles, box jelly fish and other creepy crawlies, able to fund a three week jaunt to Cairns and able to get leave from work, family and any other commitments they may have. Not surprisingly my inbox was full of thanks for thinking of me but ....... emails ... not what one needs in the build up to a big race.... however, it seems the good luck angels were on our side and we were more than fortunate enough to secure an Adventure racing legend Viv Prince ... woo hooo how lucky are we :) ... soo things were once agin looking all rosey and we were sorted and ready to roll. With one and a half weeks till departure Anne came down with Larangitis and has spent the last week madly trying to find her voice and recover any way she can..

Soooo... fingers crossed we all make it to the startline on May 19 in good health, good spirits and feeling fit and fantastic. A massive thanks to Viv for stepping up to the plate. Bring on the xpd

Countdown to Race time ...

2010-05-10T18:02:00.000-07:00

Team Macpac Girls on Top is heading off to Cairns Australia to participate in the XPD; code for an extreme adventure race, a 700km kayak, raft, mountain bike and walk/run based out of Cairns Australia.
The XPD is Australia’s own expedition length adventure race. In just over a weeks time on May 19, 47 teams from over 7 different countries including ‘Team Macpac Girls on Top’ will be embarking on an expedition into the unknown. The teams will travel by kayak, raft, mountain bike and on foot and will navigate their way from checkpoint to checkpoint sleeping when and where they dare. This type of adventure race pushes competitors to their physical and mental limits. These adventurers will race day and night over a 700km course.

XPD is open to mixed, all male or all female teams of four. The exact course is kept secret until 24hrs before the start. Then with much excitement and anticipation, teams are provided a course booklet and their race maps. The course booklet contains the location of each of the race checkpoints. Once teams start, racing is 24 hours per day; teams choose when and where they will sleep. The winning team is expected to complete the course in 4-5 days. All other teams will be permitted up to 10 days to complete the expedition without mid-race cut offs. XPD will be challenging for first time racers and experienced teams alike.

Follow our every movement in the race at … http://geocentric.geo-loco.com/xpd/TeamDetail.aspx?id=35 …

AN EASTER EPIC OF EXTREMES

2010-04-25T18:01:00.000-07:00

Extreme Exploration An Elbow Extended To Extremes

It’s always great when you can plan a few days of solid, fun mountain biking with good friends that goes somewhere new and also doubles as training for a race you have coming up, in our case, XPD. Hard to think of a better way to spend Easter!

So on the Thursday night before Easter Debbie, Anne and myself, along with a couple of friends, met in Taumarunui. After the usual gear sort out and planning for the next few days ahead, we drove down to Raetihi and left our vehicles at the Raetihi Motor Camp. Good Friday was always going to be the easiest day. From Raetihi we biked north up to National Park, the majority on the main road, with a bit of an explore of a rail road bridge by one of our party and some exploring off-road just south of National Park.

Conveniently our arrival route into National Park passed a cafe (theme 1 of weekend an uncanny ability to always come across cafes at opportune times!) so a good stop for lunch. After lunch we got permission from a local farmer and went for a trek for a few hours with topo maps, making sure we made it back just in time for our spa pool soak.

Theme 2 of weekend was noisy nights and/or poor sleeps. Unfortunately our fellow residents at our accommodation needed a lesson in hostel etiquette and I still can’t understand why you need to get up at 5.30am and make as much noise as possible to get ready for a Tongariro Crossing bus which departs at 8am.

Day 2 was our longest day kilometre-wise. From National Park we biked along SHW47 to the start of the 42nd Traverse. I seem to find this ride progressively easier over the years but it still has some good uphills and fun downhills, and it was great to see others out enjoying the awesome ride as well. We made it back to the Owhango pub for a late lunch. After lunch we headed west on the Oio Road. Overall it was downhill following a river, but we were starting to feel the last 20kms on gravel. It felt like we were getting more and more isolated as the scenery got more and more rugged and by the end of the day we had done over 100kms.

Saturday night we stayed at the Blue Duck Lodge at Whakahoro (www.blueducklodge.co.nz), but there is also a DOC camping ground in the vicinity. Our host Dan and all the locals were occupied with the annual local fair (gymkhana, wood chopping, raffles, dance, general piss up etc.) so we made ourselves at home in a dorm room out the back of someone’s house doing their dishes, tampering with their TV etc. after being resupplied with food and clean clothes by a later addition to our party.

Easter Sunday was awesome... until about 5pm.

We started the day with a birthday cake for Debbie and a 100m bike down to Dan’s cafe. While anyone who needed it got their caffeine fix, Dan told us about the area and his interests and initiatives. He has been restoring a lot of the historic buildings and en route we also went down a small track and borrowed some kayaks he has set up to explore a stunning waterfall and stream. Just magic!

For those of you that don’t know the Mangaparua Valley that we were biking through that day was opened as a Government scheme in 1919 to provide land for farming for returned soldiers from WWI. The Bridge to Nowhere was built near the bottom of this isolated valley in 1936 to improve vehicle access to connect with the steamer jetty on the Whanganui River. Unfortunately the soils of the valley were not fertile enough for farming and the valley was closed in 1942.

After crossing through Dan’s farmland we entered the Whanganui National Park. There was a bit of a bike push for a few kilometres, which Dan had psyched us up for. There were a few little gullys and streams which required a bit of team work to get up and over with our bikes loaded up with camping gear. All along the way, and for the rest of the day, we would come across signs naming the different families who had farmed in a particular area.

We stopped for lunch in a clearing (the only privately farmed piece remaining in the National Park). After this we climbed up a fantastically gradual hill (an old bullock trail) and at the top we took in the spectacular views all the way to the mountains at the trig. To note the last place of mobile coverage!

It was basically all downhill from the trig. It started off with a fast gravel road and then changed into a track, with kilometre after kilometre of awesome single track at the end through the bush, round spectacular bluffs, over rivers, all the time passing signs and remnants of the old farms. Then suddenly you come across the solid, relatively large, concrete structure of the Bridge to Nowhere, spanning the river 40 metres below, and such a contrast to the surrounding bush and rugged terrain. We spent a bit of time taking it all in, taking photos and thinking about the history.

It’s only about 15 minutes from the Bridge Nowhere to Mangaparua Landing. About half way along there is a very innocent looking pedestrian bridge with a lip on it of about 20cm. Tired and not concentrating as much as I should have been I parted company with said bridge, falling into the gully it was spanning headfirst. Using my arms to stop my fall, I dislocated my elbow.

I always say in adventure racing, or anything involving teams, that the measure of a good team is how they deal with things when they go wrong. I was lucky to be with some very capable and sensible people at the time when I injured myself and I was looked after very well over the next few hours. Although not very palatable to me at the time, the decision was made to camp where I fell off, rather than try and head back up the track in the dark to get mobile coverage – about 4 or so hours if you remember. We spent the night in tents on the track and the next morning we walked down to Mangaparua Landing and caught a jet boat down to Pipriki (thank goodness 1000 times we had this booked!). The others biked from Pipiriki to Raetihi and collected the vehicles, while I went by ambulance and car via Taumarunui Hospital and then onto Waikato Hospital to get my arm put back into place.

For me personally it was a bad end to an otherwise spectacular trip. I learnt my lesson, and I have probably been a bit lax in past, that I would always take an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicator Radio Beacon) when going somewhere so isolated. We could have set if off on Sunday night and I could have been helicoptered out and had my arm sorted that night, which would have severely reduced recovery time. I wouldn’t wish sitting in a tent for 14 hours with a dislocated elbow on anyone.

That aside the biking that we did was superb and I myself, and I know the others would as well, thoroughly recommend the Whakahoro to Mangaparua Landing ride to anyone who wants a good adventure. You need to be reasonably confident on a bike and up for the adventure but I’d hate my experience to put anyone else off. It sounds naff but just be prepared!

Erin Roberts (Team Macpac GOT)

Coromandel training mission

2010-03-18T14:04:00.000-07:00

After a bit of a sleep in, Grant, Erin, Aiden, Anne and I set off from our bach in Te Kouma on our mission to circumnavigate the coromandel penninsula at around 8.30 am on Saturday morning. Our packs were laden down with 20 hours of food three liters of water each and a few extra bits and bobs. Most of us decided to strap our complusory gear and trekking shoes to our carriers to take weight off our backs and bums. Unfortunately no one had told aiden this plan so he was forced to have the whole lot in his back. Poor bugger!!
Our first leg was a cycle from Te Kouma to Waikawau Bay. This involved one mega climb and a whole lot of smaller climbs. But the views made it all worthwhile.
Once at Waikawau Bay we changed into our macpac shorts and shirts and headed up into the hills for a three to four hour trek. It was as hot as but nice to have a break from the bike. The scenery was stunning and well worth the effort of the climb. The highlight of the walk for me was the last 500 metres on the beach back to the bikes with the surf rolling in. So beautiful. It was a pity we couldn't lie in the sun for a bit and swim in the surf but training is training and that is what we had come for. So after a fleeting stop to take in the view we filled our bladders and drink bottles and quickly changed back into our cycling gear and got back on the bikes.

The ride from here to Stoney bay was once again a hill fest with one incline leading into the other. Great training country with very little traffic and spectacular scenery. We made good time on this leg with a tail wind assisting us and were soon off the gravel road and cycling on the spectacular track that links around the tip of the penninsla. Last time we did this track it was pitch black so we were stoked to be able to see where we were going and appreciate the view.

Wow what an awesome ride. This is a little slice of mtb heaven . All to soon we were spat out back to reality and onto the gravel road at Fletchers bay. From here we faced another series of hill climbs to our next little trek just out of Colville.

The ride was punctuated with the most stunning sunset and with the sight of Aiden jumping off his bike at regular intervals to chase possums - according to Aiden we all need to do our bit to rid our land of possums. He is certainly dedicated to doing his bit.

Just out of Colville and before starting the trek we were faced with a hill we named the big bad hill - we were all pretty happy to trade our bikes for our trekking shoes at the top of this hill and once again set off into the bush. This trek was a short pleasant one and a half hours and was a welcome break from the bikes. Yeah now we only had around four or five more hills to our comfy beds.

Before long we were cruising into Coromandel township and only five or so kms from home. As usual at the end of our training missions Anne's homing pigeon kicked in and we found ourselves tucking in behind her and sprinting towards Te Kouma. Yeah we had done it - 16 hours in total, heaps of hills, two tramps and well over 100kms of cycling. What better way is there to spend a Saturday? :) Happy happy

Team Macpac Girls on Top take on the West Coast rogaine - February 19

2010-03-07T18:38:00.000-08:00

These events always sound exotic and attractive when you hear about them in the comfort of your office or on the couch. "Wow that sounds like fun, a 12 hour Rogaine on the West Coast of Auckland starting at 7.30pm on a Friday night, yes count me in. woohoo how cool will that be ..can't wait for that .." and on it goes ..... HOWEVER I can certainly tell you that come Friday February 19 at 3pm sitting in my office after a long and stressful week at work I wasn't really having the same thoughts and my enthusiasm had somewhat waned .. mmmm

But because I am dedicated to my team and didn't want to let my teammates Cath and Anne down, I put on a brave face, changed out of my work clothes and into my running gear and headed to Cath's house for a quick bite to eat before driving out to Muriwai. (Thanx for the lovely quiche and salad guys)

We arrived at the start, got our maps, planned our route and then bang we were off .. no time to dwell on the fact that we were about to spend the next 12 hours running madly through the bush.

Our strategy was to head to the North of the start area which took us up into Woodhill forest, we decided to go this way as there was quite a bit of off-track navigation and we wanted to do as much of this in the daytime as possible. We managed quite a smooth run in this section with some great navigation work by Anne and apart from wasting a bit of time dealing to my wasp stings and hunting around for the checkpoints we were happy with the way things went.

We then passed back through transition and grabbed a snack to eat from the car before heading out to Muriwai and up to Goldies Bush. We had intended to get alot further on this section but a nav blunder by Debbie and the slowness of the track in goldies bush coupled with the fact the none of us were particulary keen to swim in a swamp, meant that we ended up doing an out and back leg rather than the circuit we had initially planned. Boy were we glad we made the call to turn around as it was a hell of a lot further than we thought. We finshed with twenty minutes to spare and our dignity still intact ..

Overall, we had an awesome time out there and were very pleased with our route choice and performance. My wasp stings gave me grief for the rest of the week with a completely swollen face and eye and I ended up on antibiotics, antihistamine and antiinflamitory pills .... but hey that is all part of it

Thnx to Tony for putting the event on...

Results
1) Demon Monkeys 2880 (time 11hr 57 min)
2) Team Macpac Girls on top 2770 (11.38)
3) 7in7 2580 (11.40)
4) Nga Rakau A 2410 (11.54)
5) Nga Rakau B 2240(10.37)
6) Team Panda 1950 (11.36)
7) Craven Morebush 1880 (11.36)
8) Fisher and Paykel Healthcare 1780 (11.11)
9) Team Contours Manukau 1520 (11.41)
10) The Mint Chicks 1510 (11.25)
11) 3 blind mice 1470 (9.27)
12 Sue'n'Rob 1380 (9.55)
13) Two kids and a criple 1010 (11.37)
14) When will I see you again? 680 (10.10)
15=) Allan Janes 660 (6hrs)
15=) Will be walkers 660 (6hrs)
Team Liability No sheet handed in....but awesome finish! All be it a bit late (12.15)
Ken and Barbie Timed out, swamp casualty! (12.42)
Kris Jones DNF but was still out there for 9 and a half hours. Gutted for you mate....

Tramping in the Kaimanawas - Auckland Anniversary weekend

2010-02-02T11:49:00.000-08:00

What a sensational weekend we have just had. It all started on Friday with me going to the Macpac shop in Newmarket to pick up our newly sponsored Macpac AMP40 packs (thanks Daan). Grant, Anne and I then loaded up the car and headed out of Auckland down to Rotorua to Erin's house. After a massive feed of pesto and chicken pasta lovingly prepared by Erin and after packing all our gear into our brand new packs we settled in for a bit of shut eye.

As we all know the early bird catches the worm so at 5.00am we were all in the car and heading for the start of the trail in the Kaimanawas -- yippee. We arrived at the start of the track on Clements Mill road at around 6.30am and heated up a hearty pot of pre-prepared porridge - the perfect fuel for a long tramp. Our first break of the day was to be the Oamaru Hut which was around 4 hours walk away. The track between the road end and Oamaru Hut was beautiful - lush beech forest and ferns, beautiful rivers and a reasonably level gradient apart from one minor pass. We skipped along the track at a fair clip trying out all the pockets and straps on our new packs and generally talking crap and discussing the ins and outs of the XPD - what gear we will need, what food, what shoes, what socks etc etc, what training, what lights, where to stay, what we are anxious about etc etc - of course there were the occassional moments of silence but they usually coincided with bar time or an uphill. At the hut we boiled up a brew, had a quick bite to eat and chatted to a guy and his two daughters - oh it was nice to chill out in the warm sun and peacefulness of the area. All too soon we were back on our feet and headed for our accommodation for the night - Boyd Hut - another 4 or so hours away. Once again the scenery was stunning and we found ourselves in a wide open grassy river valley before we headed up over a pass and into the next valley. By the time we reached the hut our feet were aching and our legs were feeling the effects of walking with a heavy load. We immediately took our manky socks and shoes off and headed to the nearest creek for a wash. Wow the water was cold but it was sooo good to be clean. All plans for a forage around the hut went to custard once we sat down and we spent the evening grazing on various culinary delights, playing last card and chewing the fat with some hunters.

Day two started out with a 6.30am wake up, more porridge and a hot cup of Chai latte - yum. Unfortunately the weather had packed in and we headed out into the rain and mist of the morning towards our next planned stop at Cascade Hut. After heading back over the saddle we had come the day before we were faced with a decent climb up to around 1200 metres - the track was marked but less well trodden and we spent the next 6 hours clambering over fallen trees and branches in the wet and wild conditions. Luckily we had packed our wet weather gear and hats and gloves as it got quite cold on the exposed tops - quite exciting though. We stumbled into the Cascade Hut around 4pm and to the surprise and entertainment of two people in the hut proceeded to stuff our faces with whatever food we could pull out of our packs whilst giggling like little kids and gabbering excitedly about the last 6 hours and the next 4 - 5 hours back to the car. I am sure they thought we were nuts !! One more climb up to 1200 meters and another awesome downhill and we had made it back to Clements Mill Road - unfortunately the car was still 12 kms away and the only was to get there was to walk along the gravel road. What a challenge !!! but what a feeling to be back at the car - it was 10.00pm.

An awesome outing - the sceney was primo - the walk challenging - the Macpac AMP packs were everything you could want in an adventure racing pack and more. They have got perfectly positioned and plentiful pockets for food and water, comfortable straps, light but strong fabric, a good draw string at the top of the pack to protect gear from the rain, and they fit snugly to the body so don't swing around when you start running - oh yeah and the company was a treat and very entertaining. Thanks guys :)

Cambridge Calamity 18 hour adventure race

2010-01-20T20:17:00.000-08:00

Had a great weekend last weekend. Did an 18 hour Adventure Race with Erin, Anne and Marquita. We started with a kayak rogaine on Lake Karapiro which included a portage up and over a steep dirt bank. Stunning scenery on the lake and lots of checkpoints to keep our minds occupied. We then portaged down the dam to the Waikato river and negotiated some grade 2 ripples down to the event centre. It was quite exhilarating. We were then off on our bikes for a ride of over 100 km up hill and down dale thruogh farmland and bush with a couple of walks thrown in for good measure. One of the walks was a 3 hour orienteering course through open native bush. Spectacular. We finshed the orienteering in the dark and then had a thrilling decent back into Cambridge in the rain. :) The next leg was a 2 hour Urban Rogaine which we heading out to do after scoffing a few pieces of pizza supplied by our efficient support crew person Rob. Whilst doing the Urban rogaine in the drizzle we discussed the benefits of the next two legs. One was a night kayak which we worked out would not be worth doing as it would have taken longer to do than the bonus points we would have gained. The other was a 3-5 hour mountain bike leg that we decided we would do. After completing the Urban Rogaine we headed back to race headquarters only to find that the teams ahead of us had pulled out and were eating pizza and drinking beer. Unable to stop at that point we decided to head out in the rain and get one checkpoint on the ride before heading back to join the other teams. What a great course and an awesome training session. Thaks a million to Aiden who set the course.

Hillary Trail Run

2010-01-11T14:56:00.000-08:00

In order to celebrate the opening of the great Hillary Trail, Sarah Hillary and the Girls on Top running group decided to run the entire track in one day. Three teams set off at different times from different locations and as a group we knocked the Hillary Trail off in its entirety - The hares ran from Arataki to Piha, the slow bunnies ran from Muriwai to Piha and the turtles walked from KareKare to Piha. What an amazing trail the Hillary Trail is the scenery is spectacular. If you get a chance do it!

GOT Training blog

2010-01-10T00:56:00.000-08:00

Anne and I had an awesome run on the Hillary trail from Muriwai to Piha on Saturday. We needed to do it to test the trail before running it with Sarah Hillary on the official opening day of the trail. It took us five and a half hours at a jog tramp pace. The scenery was simply delicious. What a great way to spend a day.

Day ten - Anglesea to Seaford, Melbourne

2009-11-28T16:10:00.000-08:00

Our last day of cycling began with a delicious breakfast of eggs and tomatoes on toast ... yum. Anne's sister Megan decided to get on her bike for the 60 km ride to Queenscliff. We had a great ride with a tailwind and mostly flat terrain - we took the backroads and coastal route and once again had some great scenery. Well done Megan it was great having you as part of the team !!! Queenscliff was pumping when we arrived as there was a music festival on and it was in full swing. We headed for the bakery for our usual pie and chocolate milk and sat out on the street to soak up the atmosphere and chill out in the sun. It was then time to head for the ferry which would take us across the bay to Sorrento - unfortunately we lingered too long and ended up missing the ferry by one minute... never mind it was back to the festival for a drink and catch up with some of Megan's friends for another hour. After a tearful goodbye to Megan, Anne and I made our way on to the next ferry just in time as no sooner had we boarded the ferry than the heavens opened and there was a torrential downpour... lucky us ..

We arrived at Sorrento to a few drops of rain but were hopeful that the worst had passed. We now only had 60kms left to Anne's sister Sarah's house and we were hoping to make it without getting wet. It wasn't to be and 15 kms into the ride the heavens opened once again.. We took shelter in a bus stop and decided to wait the worst of the weather out. Anne's Mum had bundled Sarah's three kids in the car and had come looking for us .. luckily they arrived just at that moment and we were able to load our panniers into the car (much to Anne's disgust as she felt it was cheating! - I however was keen to keep my gear as dry as possible) From there it was head down bum up and hold on - we sped through the next 40kms in the pouring freezing rain feeling like we were riding in a river at times. We arrived at Sarah's house around 6.30pm cold and wet looking like a couple of drowned rats. How good was the hot shower !!!!

Day ten - Anglesea to Seaford

2009-11-28T03:09:00.000-08:00

We have arrived safely in Seaford Melbourne - What a feeling .... What a feeling .... da da da dee da ... The cycling trip from Adelaide to Melbourne is done and dusted - another trip ticked off the bucket list !!! ... Wow

It has been quite a day and after a long day in the saddle, a plate of fish, chips and potato cakes, a bowl of ice cream and two glasses of champagne .. I am ready to call it a night...

I have just spent the last 1/2 hour writing today's blog but somehow managed to delete it all before posting it so I am giving up and will do my best fill you all in on our last day of riding, tomorrow.

Nigh nigh

Day nine - Lorne to Anglesea

2009-11-26T18:15:00.000-08:00

We are having a bit of a rest day today which is a nice change. After a leisurely start this morning we cruised along the 30 km stretch from Lorne to Anglesea. Once again the views were spectacular and we were forced to stop off at various scenic spots along the way. We are now at Anne's sister's house enjoying some home comforts and some time out of our cycling shorts.... bliss :)

We will spend the rest of the day here doing some washing, going to the beach and just hanging out ... we will be back on the bikes tomorrow for the last real day of the ride.... :(

Day eight - Apollo bay to Lorne

2009-11-26T02:01:00.000-08:00

Well here we are in Lorne all snug as a bug in a nice cabin. Once we left Apollo bay we were treated to 44kms of stunning coast road. Pedaling was painless as our minds were occupied trying to take in the views and the sounds of the surf crashing below. Quite an amazing road made even more enjoyable by the lack of traffic. Pity the sun wasn't shining but the misty sea fog gave quite an eerie and remote feel. We ended up doing 120kms today so decided to leave the next thirty kms to anglesea for tomorrow morning. Hopefully the sun will be out in the morning and we'll get to see the great ocean road in its full sunny glory. Once again looking forward to what tomorrow brings. We might even get to hang out at the beach for a couple of hours. It will be great to spend some time with Megan, John, Angus and Myee. Looking forward to a bit of a sleep in tomorrow morning yeah!!

Day eight - Lavers Hill to somewhere

2009-11-25T19:04:00.000-08:00

Afternoon all !!! Been busy busy busy this morning and have just stopped for a hot pie and a choccy milk in Apollo Bay. Got up at the crack of sparrows today(or kinda)to a grey drizzle... not happy :( but then we had an amazing thrill filled descent through eucalyptus forest back down to the coast.. gotta love the smell of those eucalyptus trees and gotta love those downhills. We then debated whether to do the extra 24 km out and back to Cape Otway. Finally we decided to head out for a looksee ... what a treat!!! we saw lots of Koalas hanging out in the trees, big ones baby ones (oh soo cute), fat ones, thin ones ... and we have 50 photos to prove it .... the Cape itself was interesting and we did a bit of a walk around the lighthouse and surrounding buildings. It was then back on the bikes for a bit of a wee climb back onto the main road and down to Apollo Bay. Stopped off for a quick sprint through a rainforest at Mait's Rest. Better get back on the deadly treadlies .. not sure how much further we'll get today ... might end up at Wye River, Cumberland River, Lorne or if our bodies and bums are up to it we may push on to Anne's sister's house at Anglesea... ciao d

Day seven - Warrnambool to Lavers Hill

2009-11-24T23:51:00.000-08:00

Well if the other day was amazing then today was super amazing. Started the day off with a crash - nothing serious - anne didn't hear me say turn left so when I turned left right in front of her she couldn't do anything but plough straight into me - luckily no major damage was done - it must have looked hilarious for the two people we crashed in front of !!! Never mind ... We started off along a cycle path that led us to a very quiet backroad out of warrnambool... So nice to be away from the traffic. We then hit the great ocean road and had kilometres of scenic treats - every few kms we were off our bikes looking at arches, bridges, blow holes, the 12 apostles and more. WOW WOW WOW!!! Felt like a bit of a tourist, got the camera out at every corner. What an amazing spot ... We then headed into Port Campbell for lunch and then climbed up to lavers hill where we are currently scoffing a yummy pasta dinner in the motor inn we are staying in. Splashing out on accom tonight... No tent tonight ... Great views and you should see the size of the Lemon meringue pie oh my god!!! I have never seen anything like it in my life. Off to eat now .. It was another great day on the bikes... Got a huge downhill in the morning .... Woo hoo yipeee yip yip

Day seven - Warnambool to Port Campbell

2009-11-24T12:39:00.000-08:00

Up and at em today. Heading along the Great Ocean Road towards Port Campbell. Not sure how far we will get today as there is heaps to see along the way. Lots of little gems to tempt us off the road and onto walks and white sandy beaches. Should be a good day. Will be off the main road too yeah. Later gater

Day six - Portland to Warrnambool

2009-11-24T00:47:00.000-08:00

Hi all ... not our favourite day today but still a goodie. The traffic today was a bit more intense and the scenery a little less appealing .... it was a bit like being thrown from yesterday's fantasy land of remoteness and blissful conditions into a blender and "the real world of cars and people" Saw lots of people and cars today whilst on the road .... however we did stop in the lovely town of Port Fairy and did some sightseeing on Griffith's Island and we also spent some time chilling on the beach here in Warrnambool this afternoon. Beautiful beach and coastline so tomorrow's ride on the Great Ocean road promises to be a goodie. We might need to haul our arses out of bed a bit earlier tomorrow as I think we might need to get a few more kms under our belt than we did today. In the tent tonight so hopefully we'll get a decent sleep.

Day six - Portland to Warrnambool

2009-11-23T14:01:00.000-08:00

Just about to leave Portland aiming for warrnambool via port fairy. Just had a hearty breaky of yoghurt peanut butter and banana. Feels quite hot today just hope the tailwind is still with us. Enjoy your day at work everyone. We miss you all .....

Day five - Mt Gambier to Portland via Nelson

2009-11-23T02:09:00.001-08:00

Oh what a day ... Da da da da. The ride today was a cyclist's dream we had rolling hills, lots of changes in scenery, blue sky and a tail wind to boot. The best day yet ... It was made even better by the fact that we crossed out of south Australia and into Victoria yippee. Today has all merged into one but I am sure we saw enough animals to fill Noah's arc. My favourite for the day was an echidna, oh soo cute. Unfortunately I couldn't get the damn thing to pose for a decent photo!!! Must be losing my touch!! The only negative about today's ride was the 50 or so semi trucks that came roaring past at high speeds on reasonably narrow roads. All we could do was hold on tight and hope our clothes weren't ripped from our bodies from the windage they left behind. Oh my god .. Quite an experience... Although I must say they were courteous and they did their best to give us a wide berth. I found myself laughing at cars that passed us during the day thinking to myself is that all you've got? Where's the noise? where's the windage ? .... Prob not an ideal response and I promise to respect all vehicles tomorrow.

We spent this morning doing some sightseeing in Mt gambier. We even joined a guided tour which took us down to the base of the blue lake. It was a real geology lesson ... Sandstone.. Granite .... Lava ... Calcium deposits etc etc. Was good to do even if we joined the tour in our cycling shoes and manky Lycra ... Hope we didn't smell too bad ... One of the ladies on the tour asked me how we managed our laundry just after we got out of a small lift ... So maybe we did? ..

Now in Portland in a backpackers unit in a caravan park. Anne is getting her ears talked off by a yokel local living here whilst he waits for his caravan to be delivered from Perth. Catch ya in the morrow. Can't wait to get back on the bike... Just wish we could do something about the tan lines .... Not a good look at all ...

Day five - Mt Gambier to Portland

2009-11-22T13:33:00.000-08:00

Woke up looking like two zebras with reddy brown and white stripes on our legs and arms. Not going to be a good look when we hit
the beaches. The wind is up bright and early which is more than can be said for us. Bit of a slow start this morning... I think becos we are only going 108 kms today we think we are on cruise mode. Hopefully we won't spend the day battling a headwind. Off to the pharmacy now as my eye has swollen up like i've been in a fight - better try to get something for that or I might be cycling with one eye closed. Will aim for Nelson for morning tea .... Then Portland for the night.

Day four - Robe to Mt gambier

2009-11-22T03:00:00.000-08:00

We made it to Mt Gambier slightly wind blown but in one piece and in a reasonable time. The rain stopped before we left our snug cabin which we were pretty happy about. We started the morning as tourists with a tour of the historic robe township before heading out back onto the main road towards Mt gambier. The wind was strong but was more of a sidewind than a headwind and at times it became a tail wind woo hoo! Even when it was more of a headwind than anything I practiced the mantra.. Work with the wind work with the wind... I am not sure if it made any difference to the wind direction but it sure as hell made me feel better and prevented me from getting annoyed by it. The road from Robe to Beachport was beautiful, the verge was grass, there was hardly any traffic, and there was lots to see. We passed a couple of lakes, saw some more kangaroos, some more emus and even a tortoise (unfortunately it was dead and not really photo worthy) Beachport itself was a beautiful little port town on the coast with a lovely beach. We stopped briefly there for a drink and a mars bar before continuing on to Millicent. The next 33 kms to Millicent was reasonbly flat and we covered it quite quickly. We raided the bakery for lunch then sat in the visitor information centre to get out of the wind. I don't think the lady working there minded us taking a power nap in a nice sunny corner. At one of her tables. From Millicent we headed in to Mt Gambier via the Tantanoola caves. The caves were amazing. Unfortunately, anne's camera stopped working so we didn't get any piccies. Once again we are tucked up in a nice warm cabin and looking forward to a good sleep. Hopefully the legs will be less sore tomorrow. Mt Gambier is full of things to look out so we'll have a tiki tour in the morning of the Blue lake and a few other points of interest. Hope the winds die down over night and the temps warm up a bit tommorrow.

Day four - Robe to Mt gambier

2009-11-21T13:27:00.000-08:00

So so happy that we were in a cabin last night. Boy did it rain and blow all night. It is not much better now but it seems the rain has abated somewhat. We are not looking forward to getting out in it as it is quite cold too. We are just hoping the wind will be in our favour. Hoping to get to Millicent which is around 82 kms away for lunch and then Mt gambier for the night. They are forecasting 36 degrees in Mt gambier today so it will be interesting to see if that happens or not considering it is about 13 degrees here now. Better get on the bike.

Day three - Policeman's Point to Robe

2009-11-20T23:13:00.000-08:00

Done it, have had a hot shower and am now relaxing over a cup of tea and a gingernut. Have found a lovely cabin in a caravan park with an incredible view out to sea. Lovely to be by the water again. The ride from Kingston this afternoon turned out to be very scenic. We passed through a state forest and more vineyards. We even found a couple of moundlike hills which kept us entertained. The bodies are holding up okay just the usual tight shoulders and sore bottoms. Got another big ride through to Mt gambier tomorrow. Hopefully the sun will come out for a bit. Time for dinner now ... Spaghetti on toast and some noodles yum yum.

Day three - lunch stop

2009-11-20T18:57:00.000-08:00

We are now at Kingston and have stopped for a hot pie and a sticky bun. Once again the road was flat flat flat and not much changed in the way of scenery for the whole 90 something kms. At least the wind stayed away and the temperature was cool and perfect for riding. We saw a bit of wildlife today - a wallaby, some emus, lots of sea snail things that squished under our tyres and a dead roadkilled wombat on the roadside. Got another 43 or so kms to Robe so will try and do that as quickly as possible incase the winds pick up again. With a bit of luck we might even get a hill for a change yipee. Opps the heavens just opened so it looks like we will be hanging out in the bakery for a wee bit longer.

Day three - Policeman Point to Robe

2009-11-20T12:21:00.000-08:00

We are aiming for another reasonably decent day today so have decided to hit the road early in an attempt to beat the headwind and the flies. Had an amazing sleep last night which was morev
than welcome after our first night. Having an apple and peanut butter roll for breaky... Yum yum. Fingers crossed the wind holds off for a while. Catch you later.

Day two - Meningie to Policeman's Point

2009-11-20T01:15:00.000-08:00

After lunch we had a 30 min rest under a tree next to Lake Albert - we were woken by an odd couple who sniffed us out when they saw our bikes leaning against a nearby tree. They were cyclists themselves (the guy was legally blind and so took the back seat of their tandem) and wanted to know everything about where we'd come from and where we were going. We spoke to them for about 30 mins and then hit the supermarket to stock up on supplies for the afternoon and tomorrow. Then we headed out of town to do the final 51 kms of the day. It was a lot harder than expected as the wind had picked up and become a very frustrating headwind. It was a real slog but the scenery was quite amazing as we were cycling along the coast for most of the afternoon. We are now in a very comfy budget motel (luckily there was no caravan park around so we get to sleep in beds - yay!! About to go and have a meal at the pub. We have got another big day tomorrow. Hopefully the rain that has just started falling will be gone when we get up.

Day two - Strathalbyn to Meningie

2009-11-19T19:23:00.000-08:00

After all the promise of a spectacular night with thunder lightning torrential rain etc it was a bit of a fizzer. All we got was a few strong winds and a couple of drops of rain. It was hot as and trying to sleep in the tent was like sleeping in a sauna. It was so hot I bailed and slept outside on the concrete floor of a shelter. It wasn't the most restful night but at least we didn't get hit by lightning. Today has been flat flat flat and we have already made it to our next destination and it is only two pm. Looks like we'll push on and aim for policemans point another 50 km away. Altho the terrain has been mostly flat the scenery has been quite varied we started with wineries and vineyards this morning then moved on to open grasslands and finally salt water lakes. It is a good feeling to have done 90 kms by lunch and makes up for yesterdays pathetic efforts. Happy to have the iPod on these long flat roads I am not sure the locals appreciate the bike dancing and singing tho. Gonna eat my chicken sandwich now .. Having a break before the next leg... Lovely place meningie right by a lake. Will update you later. Oh what a life.....

Day one - Adelaide to Strathalbyn

2009-11-19T02:41:00.000-08:00

Well well well... What a day this one has turned out to be... We left the airport around one o'clock and headed out into a nice flat run thru suburbia in around 37 degrees celcius.... Yehah we are on our way on our bikes and it is a lovely day. Unfortunately this elation was short lived as the temps rose up to 42 degrees and the terrain headed into the hills. Oh my god we have never experienced temps like this before. We spent the whole day riding for fifteen mins then diving for cover for at least half an hour in a shaded spot to get our heart rates down to an acceptable level. At some stage during the day I created the word unsane as what we did today was more than insane. Anyway after 7 hours of fifteen mins spurts and lengthy rests we managed to cover 64 or so kms. We arrived here in strathalbyn just before dark and just before an incredible electrical thunderstorm. Now we are sitting in the tent watching the light display and praying that the tent doesn't blow away. Altho the day was a struggle with the soaring temps the scenery was amazing and we met some lovely people. Happy happy. Can't wait for tommoro. Oh here comes the rain too it is going to be quite a night.

Last minute stuff

2009-11-17T23:00:00.000-08:00

Just getting the final preparations done .... have had a last minute frustration- the pedals don't come off so the bikes can fit in the boxes .. being hammering away to try and get them off but have given in and decided to cut a hole in the box instead .. not sure if it is the right move but it seemed a good idea at the time !!! Just been online to look at the weather situation in Adelaide ... 43 degrees celcius tomorrow ! Oh my god .. not sure how we'll cope but I guess we will play it by ear. I just hope the fires stay away ! mmm not really in the plan but fingers crossed we'll be able to achieve our goal of averaging 100 kms or more a day.

Gear list so far .... hope i havent forgotten anything ..

2009-11-16T11:30:00.000-08:00

Gear list for trip:

Two pairs cycling shorts
Two cycling tops
One short sleeve poly
One long sleeve poly
Three pairs of socks
Two bra tops
One pair long pants for evening
One rain jacket
One pair overpants
One pair cycling shoes
One leg warmers one arm warmers
One cap
One jandals
One warm top for night time
One bikini One towel
One pair walking shoes
Light weight long sleeve tops for sun protection

Sun screen
Chammy cream
Shampoo conditioner
Soap Deoderant
Tooth paste Tooth brush
Comb
Contact stuff
Insect repellent

Tent
Sleeping bags
Sleeping mats
Sleeping sheets
Head torch
Insect repelent

Cooker
Plates and cups
Pocket knife fork spoon
Lighter

Tubes
Lube
Repair kit
Duct tape
Bike lock
Tools

Money
Passport
Camera
First aid
Maps
Money

Preparing to ride from Adelaide to Melbourne

2009-11-12T15:22:00.000-08:00

What to take on the ride?