EcoMotion Pro
Teams are arriving from all over to the coastal resort town of Buzios
Wayne Oxenham / Team Orion Health / 19.10.2007
SleepMonsters do not have one of our regular international race reporters at Ecomotion, but we will do our best to provide coverage with the help of some friends, competitors and our Brazilian Editor, Wladimir Togumi. If news is a bit sketchy please bear with us!This report is courtesy of New Zealand’s Team Orion Health: www.orionadventure.com
Another report from Orionhealth.com, this time from the beautiful coastal resort town of Buzios...finally!
After a good day in Rio (including nearly being blown off the top of Corcavado, the site of the famous Christo Redentor statue, and walking the length of Copacabana beach) we were collected by bus and headed off. The bus stopped first to collect a team from Canada, Lost in Transition, at the central bus station ... They weren\'t there so we headed out to the airport to collect the French team , Wilsa Helly Hansen (WHH) ... Who also weren\'t there! After waiting, beng moved on by the airport police, circling the airport roads, waiting some more, being moved on some more etc etc etc for 2.5 HOURS WHH finally arrived and it was back through the busy Rio streets to the bus station for the Canadians who luckily had only been there for about 30 mins. Eventually after about 4 hours we were heading North towards Buzios ... a 2 hour drive away!
Our bus driver took us on a bit of a detour for an hour or so and we nearly got the bus stuck in the narrow main street BUT eventually at 1am we arrived at Pousada du Corsairs ... Our pretty luxurious accommodation for the days leading up to the race.
We had a good sleep and then the team (like most others) assembled bikes and organised gear for the gear check.
Gear check was run by a small but enthusiastic team of Ecomotion staff and it didn\'t take long to get things checked off. Apart from handing over money for insurance and money for the radio hire and deposit the most painful part of the gear check was the first aid. The first aid list is exhaustive and was very thoroughly checked. There could be a few teams making a trip to the local Drogaria (drug store) if the checks stay as thorough all the way through!
All you can eat pasta for dinner washed down with a glass of the local Caiprihina drink and the wander back to the pousada passing Merrell also eating out and a few support crew vehicles in the street loaded up with Brazilian teams gear ... It\'s starting to feel like a race town!
Tomorrow the plan is to have an easy day ... Pack gear into boxes for loading on the support vehicle (due here Saturday). We may test the kayak sails if we can find a kayak. Rumours are that the race may be quite short (3.5 days) but hilly and hard ... Start not until late Sunday night (9 pm) ... But that\'s just rumours! Anyway, best to rest up now as there might not be so much sleeping during the race!
Bye from BuziosSee All Event Posts
