Lythgoes Adrenalin Rush

A late and wet arrival

Rob / 25.05.2002

The weather played havoc with the race before it had even begun. Storms and gale force winds swept across Ireland and the west coast of England yesterday (Friday) as most teams were travelling to the event centre in Enniskillen, resulting in long delays and arrival at a very sodden camping area.

Just getting to N. Ireland was a problem. Pick ups had already been arranged at airports in both Belfast and Dublin, but flights were delayed and even diverted. On the ferries the situation was the same with long delays and some cancellation. At one point race HQ had a call saying all ferries from South Wales were cancelled for 2 days and 6 teams were stuck there! Fortunately, the ferries did run in the end – thought there was a lot of sea sickness on the Irish sea.

The end result of all this was that the majority of competitors only got off the shuttle buses at the Lakeland Forum centre in Enniskillen at 1am in the morning. It was still raining then, as it had been all day, the river Erne alongside the centre had risen to lap the top of the bank during the day, but the main problem was the camping compound. About half of this was underwater and the pool was still spreading ….

The tents the teams are using had been delayed too so their first job was to put them up … at 1am …. in the rain …. on a half flooded field. What a start!