XPD Australia

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At Mount Mulligan - CP17

Geoff Hunt (AR World Series Director) / 24.05.2010

Sitting in a open sided large farm station workers house at check point 17 at Mount Mulligan at the end of 'the trek'. In front of the 'shed' is a lilly covered dam - the source of water for this station but there is no swimming allowed. The kangaroos have come down to the other side of the dam for a drink.

Yesterday the owner dropped in - in his Robbie 44 helicopter. The station is 1 million hectares so of course the helicopter is a essential farm tool. I was somewhat surprised to hear that it only runs 600 head of cattle. Perhaps the main source of income for this station is the tourism 'outback experience' that they run.

It's 08.37 and City Bike Depot stroll into camp, yes stroll into camp after a 60 km trek through the dry outback of Australia. All their feet appear fine. Kartrin van de Spiegel's first words were “I have never done anything like that before.�

I quizzed them about their feet and they attributed their good condition partly to the fact that they had slept twice and this gave them the chance to elevate their feet and reduce the swelling. They also appear very well dressed for racers with blue collared light weight cotton office workers shirts.

Without hesitation CBD prepared their bikes and readied to depart. There was very little talk except to have a conversation with Alpine Epic who have been sleeping. It was jus some light weight banter between the teams and City Bike Depot take only 39 minutes to transiation - the fastest time from the front of field.

I have a chance to talk briefly to AlpineEepic. They had planned to make the walk in 20 hrs and took 33 hours and ran out of food. I think that this is going to be a common complaint as this stage is taking longer than planned.

News from the phone just now - Soar has hit their help button on the spot and a helicopter has been dispatched to pick them up. They are reported to be a couple of kms further into the trek from CP16.

From the rest of the field we know very little except that 19 teams were still paddling this morning.

For the record these were the times in and out of CP17;

Blackheart.com.au – Arrive;17.29, Depart; 18.17
Orion Adventure – Arrive;17.24, Depart 18.31
Merrell/Akali – Arrive; 01.55, Depart 02.59
McCain Adventure – Arrive; 02.30, Depart; 06.55 (slept).
Alpine Epic – Arrive;05.57, Still here
City Bike Depot – Arrive; 08.37, Depart 09.16 See All Event Posts