One-Tel Hebridean Challenge
Late Arrival and a Stormy Welcome
John Laughlin / 06.07.2005
It wasn’t a warm welcome that greeted competitors arriving on Eriskay for the One.Tel Hebridean Challenge, for a storm blew in with such force that many of their tents were flattened. Luckily for us, a bit of poor judgement led to us missing the ferry to the Isles, forcing us to spend a hard night propping up the bar of the Sligachan Hotel; retiring to a wee whisky by the roaring coal fire of our bunkhouse. Hard life this adventure racing!
Eventually arriving on Eriskay, the last of the 24 teams to arrive, it was straight into the water for the kayakers wet test, where their self recovery and rolling skills were tested much to the amusement of onlookers. The rest of the field were busy making last minute preparations in a hive of activity, and it was quite obvious the teams that were new to the race and those that have a few years experience under their belts.
The major logistical and planning exercise has tested many teams to the limit, mentally and emotionally with a few ‘animated’ discussions taking place. Hopefully, all the mental work will come good and things will run smoothly once we are under way. Essentially the race route is dictated by the course organiser, but there are sections that will involve parallel legs with free order style of checkpoints and the simplest route isn’t very often the fastest.
It will be interesting to see how the newer teams cope with this aspect of race planning, but also it will be worth keeping an eye on Burach, who last year were very fast on land but didn’t quite get their logistics right and lost time on several occasions.
The bad weather has passed now and a real sense of anticipation of a wonderful race is permeating around the camp. Here’s hoping all goes smoothly ...See All Event Posts
