Guadarun Raid Adventure
Stage 5, 21+ km: Guadeloupe National Park, island of Basse-Terre
Jacqueline Windh / 07.04.2013
<p>Yesterday, after our short run on Terre de Haut, we caught the ferry to Trois-Rivieres, on the southern tip of the big island of Basse-Terre. It’s supposed to be the dry season in Guadeloupe right now, but it has been far from dry over here. There is usually cloud and rain up at the top of the island, but we were drenched by a tropical downpour eve at sea level as we arrived.
Well, that would make the trails interesting!
We were delayed a bit in Trois-Rivieres, waiting for the bus and luggage truck to arrive, and we had a stop scheduled at a cassava factory before setting up camp. Cassava is the flour made from the root of the manioc plant - we had a nice demonstration of how cassava flour is made, and what can be done with manioc (apparently it’s a powerful diarrhea cure, among other things!), as well as samples of cassava dishes. We were all pretty hungry by then, so the cassava samples were much appreciated.
Then we set up camp at the Jardin d’Eau, which would be our finish line the next day - had a late dinner and a quick briefing, then all went to bed.
The next morning, we were bussed to the race start, and shortly after 7:30 we set off. The first kilometre or so was on road, and then we hit the trails: 900 m up over 7.5 km, then 2 km along the rugged ridge-top which forms the drainage divide of the island, then an 1100 m run down to the finish line at the 21 km mark - nearly all of that elevation drop over the first 3 km of that descent. The recent rains, which had continued on and off through the night, meant that the trails would be even muddier than usual.</p>
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