Polaris Challenge
Picture This
Gale Force / 22.03.2004
Picture This ... The weather forecast, ‘can the isobars actually touch?’. It was going to be windy we could see that but we aimed high and planned an epic day. Slowly but surely people began to rethink and put in more layers and better tents and sleeping bags. A small sail might have been useful.
The check points marked ready for our examination the night before. We planned every possible route, down to the last bridle path and river crossing.
Picture This ...
A long line of sheep just standing behind a wall, looking at us, wondering what the hell was going on and what the hell we were doing. That was as Gary was trying to hold the gate open for me, I nearly slipped through but it was forced shut by our good friend Gale Force. This was causing us quite some hilarity; it was enchanting and motivating in a way and loads of adventure. Only a couple of times did we feel a bit uneasy, we knew what we had to do.
Picture This ...
Having crossed fords, which could only be described as raging torrents, streams that resembled grade 5 rivers and rivers that were higher than us we descended into a slightly less windy valley, only winds of 60 mph greeted us here.
A line of bikes abandoned against the wall outside a very appealing pub was the next amusing sight, ok I had seen one or two at Polaris’ before, but a thief would have had a field day if he could have got out of his car!
The landlord must have been rubbing his hands together, that was until he found that competitors were only carrying the mandatory 50p piece!!
Picture This ...
CP3, it was always going to be a bit of a tough one but with gale force winds it was almost impossible. Yeah sure, you have seen windy, we thought we had too. I looked ahead of me and Gary was about 15m off the side of the track, I thought it was a bit odd as the track went straight but with my poor sense of direction I thought maybe that was the way. Well no, he had only been blown off his bike and down the side of the hill. I soon found out why, yes at this point I was laying on the floor!!! A gust hit and you were uncontrollably blown any other way besides the one you wanted to go. I crawled my way to that check point, still laughing.
Picture This ...
Eight tents in one tiny sheep fold. Struggling to stay tent shaped. Ours, it was fine, only because for Gary’s superb tent erection, it stayed up all night with not even a hint of collapse. Some said ‘I am glad we brought this tent and not the other excuse for a tent.’ Others were running after parts of theirs and laying in a bed of deformed mess. See All Event Posts
