Guadarun 2008

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Day 4; Basse-Terre

Bryan Sharp / 07.04.2008

A lakeside country park provided our pitch for the evening, the soft turf making a pleasant change from penetrating, coarse sand.

The usual morning routine of wash, breakfast, kit check and race brief was undertaken as if we were heading to another day at the office. If you work in an office at the summit of a 1097m high mountain blanketed in unforgiving jungle and race your colleagues to work and back maybe this is just another day at the office. We don't! Today was anything but routine.

To give you some perspective, Snowdon is 1085m and the last time we checked North Wales didn't look like the set from Jurassic Park.

The course was simple, no navigation required, determination and perseverance were essential and must be carried at all times. Steady off-road farm track running greeted us as we headed off, gently climbing for 7km's. It didn't seem too bad but the phrase "lulled into a false sense of security" quickly came to mind!

A muddy, slippery, trail with near vertical climbs became even more treacherous with the addition of vines, creepers, dense foliage and bogey pits. Beautiful to behold but a constant battle to pass it forced the competitors to use everything they had available to them, grasping at vines, scrambling up rocks and digging their hands deep into mud as feet struggled for traction. The walls of rock and mud would pass as quickly as they arrived revealing flat ridges where a glimpse of the countryside below could be snatched between the enveloping clouds.

Temperature wasn't a problem the atmosphere cooling as the altitude increased; the eerie silence was eventually broken by cheers of encouragement from the national park game warden who greeted us at the summit. A quick "Hi" and "Good Bye" was all we could muster as we turned and headed back down the sea of mud, rock and vegetation that we'd just struggled so hard to leave behind.See All Event Posts