The World Adventure Racing Championships (XPD Australia)
Along the Coast from Mid-Camp
Rob Howard / 05.11.2011
As teams have travelled further west the terrain has become more and more wild, and from the mid-camp at Strahan the course takes another twist as it follows the coast northwards towards Granville Harbour, but it’s no less wild. The town of Stahan is a tourist mecca for the West Coast, with lots of facilities not seen elsewhere on this race and a colourfully painted Esplanade where there is a big visitor centre and hubs for cruises, 4x4 safaris and even sea plane trips. Teams got to see the town and ride alongside the harbour as the last CP before mid camp was placed on the Esplanade, and those who arrived Saturday saw the town at its best as the sky was clear blue and the sun was beating down.
This made it too hot to sleep in the tents at mid-camp, but it was perfect for drying everything out and warming weary muscles ... though perhaps not so great for the longest trek of the race, which was the next stage.
This trek, a mix of beach and mountain, began with a spectacular section along Strahan’s Ocean Beach, where the waves from the Southern Ocean create big surf and the broad sandy beach is surrounded by wild sand dunes, virgin forest and high mountains.
The beach is one of the main attractions in Strahan and teams naturally got the full experience – trekking for a couple of hours up the coastline to the navigation challenge in Henty Dunes. This huge area of dunes and scrub had two checkpoints in it, marked on a Satellite map, with virtually no detail – it just showed white sand and clumps of vegetation.
Crossing the steeply banked sands was hard work, and finding the CP flags was harder. Even good navigators could do no more than get to the general area and search, and the teams who are on this stage at night face an almost impossible challenge. A lot of expert navigators were lost last night and when she heard this Race Director Louise Bycroft just said, “Well, it’s supposed to be hard!�See All Event Posts
