Bimbache Extrem

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A Closely Contested First Day

22.03.2006

It was an early morning start at Bimbache Extrem, with teams up and preparing from 6.30am, giving some of them only 3 or 4 hours sleep after all the last minute map preparation and packing. Even so, by the time all the bags had been put into the right piles, and the bus to take them to Cordoba had made its way through the traffic the race was an hour late starting.

It began from the steps of the town council building in central Cordoba with teams running for a ‘clothes line’ on which hung their street maps marked with orienteering checkpoints scattered around the city. One was by the remains of a Moorish town wall, and another in the town square. To reach them teams were soon making their way through the surprised pedestrians, down narrow streets and busy shopping arcades, before heading for PC1 on the outskirts of town. From here they ran along the northern bank of the Guadalquivir and up into a range of low hills to find PC2.

The fast runners of the Abarth/Teva team had lead by 2 minutes at the first checkpoint and were the first to cross the river below PC2, closely followed by a chasing pack including all the Scandinavian teams. After the recent rains the river was murky brown and flowing rapidly but luckily there was a pipeline across it close by, which served as a handy bridge. A fast pace was being set, and even at this early stage the teams were well spread out.

Their next destination, after crossing a section of low wooded hills, was Embalse de san Rafael de Navallana, a large lake where the first paddling stage took place. Abarth/Teva were first to arrive but third to leave as they took much longer to pump up their inflatable Sevylor canoes. The X-K2 boats were new out of their boxes (which were stacked up to one side), and took a long time to inflate. See All Event Posts