Itera-Lite SW England 2026 - a Scoundrel's View

Carrick Armer / 02.08.2026

When the Itera-Lite for 2026 was announced as the South West of England I was, like a lot of others, a bit intrigued. While everyone knows of Exmoor and Dartmoor, the rest of the area seemed a bit odd for AR - not much wilderness and a lot of country lanes. But as Paul McGreal had said previously, perhaps the 2-3 day Itera-Lite format could support races in places that wouldn't necessarily be able to host a full 5-day Itera. 

Race base would be Slapton ley Field Studies Centre, about as far South as I've ever ventured on the UK Mainland, and with recent weather it was going to be a warm few days out on the moors and lanes of Devon. I was racing in a pair with new teammate Izzy Styles as the Scafell Scoundrels, having met each other during the first paddle at the Selkirk Itera-lite and having both subsequently trained with the Nav4 squads. 

The course reveal was interesting: a bus up to Minehead in Somerset for the start, a group pic at the front gate of Butlins, then off along the coast before turning south to effectively race Devon coast-to-coast. Some big stages, a lot of ups and downs, a 'Queen Stage' trek across Dartmoor, and a finish back at Slapton Ley. There wouldn't be a lot of sleep the night before, with the dorm rooms far too warm, so some snooze on the bus is a must for those who can.

Stage 1 - Coastal kayak, Minehead to Lynmouth

After a short Le Mans-style running start, we were in our boats and headed west along the Devon coastline, trying to avoid eddy currents in the bays and stay a little wider out to see to maximise the benefit of the westward outgoing tide. One CP at the slipway in Porlock harbour was very pretty but caused a little traffic jam as teams queued for the SI box. Stronger paddlers and teams who got the better tidal lines accelerated away, before curving back into the bay at Lynmouth to a stony takeout in the mouth of the East Lyn river

Stage 2 - Orienteering, Valley of the Rocks, Lynmouth to Lynton 

We opted to only do the four mandatory CPs for this one, with the temperature in the high 20s we wanted to move steadily but minimise our distance and particularly our climb. The long steep rocky ridge provided some hard climbs and fun little scrambles for the teams that pushed for more, with the undergrowth taking its toll on unprotected shins and arms.

Stage 3 - Bike, Lynton to Belstone via Braunton Burrows

'The long bike', this was a game of three halves really. The first bike section was a mix of coastal singletrack, forest road and quiet lanes, where teams learned just how lumpy Devon is.  Some really long climbs, just steeper than you might want this early in a race. Coastal singletrack gave way to country lanes round Devon's major surf spots, Ilfracombe, Wollacombe and Croyde. 

A CP at the Landmark Theatre in Ilfracombe gave us a quick refuel stop at the 'Stoned' pizza van parked up next to the building, while other teams made use of the local chippy and Co-op. then back on the bikes over towards Croyde and round to Braunton Burrows for an orienteering section.

Braunton is massively complicated with a lot of small paths through complex dune formations, and will host the 2027 Southern Orienteering Championships, so it’s quality terrain for testing navigation skills, plus the unusual format of the section with dual OS and Orienteering maps did not make this easy - fortunately for most of us, it was a 'pick as many or as few as you want'.  Some teams skipped this entirely, the lead teams take around two and a half hours to clear this in daylight, we take an hour or so, just to have some time off the bike getting two of the navigationally easier CPs. 

The next section is mainly along the Tarka Trail, old railway line to Barnstaple, round the Taw estuary and up the river Torridge. It is easy going, easy to keep a good pace, but a little monotonous. A lot of teams took a stop to sleep along here, some on grass verges, some under a gazebo behind an old station and café, some sat upright on benches, becoming almost indistinguishable from the slightly creepy sculptures sat upright on some of the other benches.

We push onwards, and after a gradual climb that felt like it went on for several days, we emerge onto the road by a farm and find some honesty boxes, one of which contains handmade fudge - thanks Rosie, whoever you are!  This perks us up to continue on to Hatherleigh, where most teams waste time searching in the dark for a monument which isn't where it's marked on the map and, for most of us, is also pretty much invisible in the gloom and mist. Round Okehampton and up to Belstone there are more hilly lumps to be circumnavigated, which are frankly unnecessary after 120km+ on a bike. We roll into transition eventually and stop for an hour's sleep on the grass at the back of the village hall before 'the long trek'.

Stage 4 - Trek, Belstone to Princetown (35km)

After a hot Saturday, Sunday morning is cooler, more overcast and a bit breezy. It's clear from some rule variations that the race organisation expect this trek to be the crux for the event itself.  Normally a Short Course team can't leave a transition before the lead Full Course team, but that's been relaxed for the first three TAs of the course to get teams to the start of the Trek in good time. 

The Short Course teams have the luxury of a mainly linear and predominantly path-based route, while anyone wanting to take the Full Course has a sinuous line with a lot of off-trail heather bashing in their future. We opt to go mandatory minimum again, south down Oke Tor and Hangingstone hill to Postbridge, then take a longer path towards Princetown in the last third of the trek. 

Most teams refuel at Postbridge Stores, with pasties and cold drinks in the shade of their gazebo, while some stop just along the road at the local pub. I get a wave of tiredness as I sit down at the picnic table, but food and a can of ginger beer bring me back to some semblance of life. We ramble onwards, down to Dunnabridge then along some riverside paths that are supposedly bridleway, faintly laughing at the non-race folks ahead who are pushing, carrying and manhandling bikes along a hilariously rock and unrideable trail. One last long drag of grass and gravel bridleways up to Princetown and we're nearly done, just a quick walk along the road to get a photo CP at the entrance to Dartmoor Prison before TA. 

Stage 5 - Bike, Princetown to Totnes via Pridhamsleigh Cavern

There are two particular time checks on this stage, which means putting some work in and not losing too much time: firstly, the Special caving stage at Pridhamsleigh Cavern, which only runs until midnight; secondly the next TA at Totnes, where getting there before the midnight high tide, means the benefit of outgoing flow  for the next kayak leg. 

We have a good first part of the ride, with more lumpy lanes along the way, steer a good route along to Buckfastleigh and to Buckfast Abbey, though fortunately there's no glass of 'Buckie' as a challenge here, and we're soon spinning over Dart Bridge and up to Pridhamsleigh in great time. We're at the bike drop at the same time as our good friends on Nav4 Blue and get kitted up and walk up to the cave with them, hopping in front as the guides explain the stage and give us our cave maps. 

In the cave, we work our way through the crawls, squeezes and tight corners that make me glad I still do yoga every week. We have to wait a while at the bike drop - the "no Short Course teams before a Full Course team" rule is back in place, and we're ahead of Endurancelife who, it turns out, are the only team left on the Full Course. We set off in a mini mass-start as Endurancelife leave, uphill with a bunch of other teams and push for the 15km to the paddle transition, rolling into town on the correct side of the river for the transition, and down towards the Rowing Club as 11pm approaches, so we're right on the money for our timings.    

Stage 6 - Kayak, Totnes to Dartmouth (18km)

The paddle is good, but a bit surreal and confusing. While theoretically simple - follow the river downstream - we're wary of the ebbing tide and the possibility of sand and mud banks along the route, plus in total darkness (there are very few houses or other man-made light sources along the upper reaches) you're reliant on your head torch, which either a) doesn't reach both banks or b) reflects off your hands and paddle blades back into your eyes with every stroke.

We stick, broadly, to the river left bank, rough reasoning being that the two longest tributaries both come off to the right, and if you couldn't read the shoreline properly it was at least better to minimise the number of side quests. 

We get disoriented by the marina lights in a small side creek and end up out of the main current, taking a couple of minutes pause to drift, read the flow, check the compass direction, spot some boats at anchor and re-align ourselves - other teams were less fortunate and made long excursions up the dead-end side creeks.

A last surreal moment comes just above the end of the stage, when race-addled brains couldn't interpret a wall of coloured lights at some indistinguishable distance ahead. Once with 20 metres, it turns out to be a big marina full of posh boats with a crane above, but it's good proof that we're a long way into the race with not much sleep in the bag. Soon though, we're paddling into the rough, seaweed-covered slipwayand carrying the kit into TA a good 45mins-1hr ahead of our predicted schedule. 

The marina facilities were warm and had a couple of sofas in the foyer by the bathrooms which were really tempting to have a snooze on, but we took ourselves back out into the car park transition, got our kit broadly sorted out, put a quick brew on, then bed down in our bivvy bags for a few hours sleep on the grass nearby. 

Stage 7 - Bike again, Dartmouth to Slapton Ley (15km) 

From TA8 there were three possible options: the full course would ride another 30km from here and then trek 20 back to Slapton Ley; the intermediate would ride to the last TA but return to Slapton via another 15km of bike; our choice was to take Shortcut A straight to the finish at about 15km. It was a possibility we'd talked about right from the map handout, that we were glad of and happy to commit to, two days of pushing reasonably well in high heat was taking its toll on us both. 

We crossed the Dartmouth ferry with Questars UK, rolled through town straight onto another 'oh my god' climb out of the valley - Devon has a lot of lumps, and they're mainly right where you don't want them. We proceed, both riding and pushing, onwards through the lanes, up again on the main road to Strete, and then start our roll down onto Slapton Sands, chatting over our race; have we achieved our aims, have we definitely done what we wanted to do? 

The answers are all 'yes', except for an initial aim of getting chips, though the pizza and pasties have made up for that. In a final act of moderate indignity, we end up walking up the last hill towards the Field Studies Centre, though we ride the final stretch to the finish line, and at just before 9am on Monday morning, we are done - the first team across the line, though only because the team who'd taken Shortcut A before us had stopped for a sleep on Slapton Sand before finishing!

Endurancelife took the overall win as well as the 4 Nations Quads trophy as the only team to clear the full course. Questars UK behind them dropped two checkpoints on the bike leg after Princetown, the other Team Questars dropped more on the long trek to make sure they got to the cave and the last kayak in good time. In the Pairs category, team Jon-Drea took the mixed and the 4 Nations Pairs trophy, with Pointless and Team AdventuRoss rounding out the podium.

Having travelled over from the US, Team Bones took the Male Pairs, with the Nav4 Coddiwomplers the first Female Pair. Izzy and I finished a seemingly respectable 18th, but our aims were never really around position, more about pushing ourselves and having fun, which we definitely did!

Huge thanks to Paul McGreal as RD, Nick Gracie as Course Planner, all of the race staff and volunteers, all of the teams and good friends that made up the racing side of the event, and the hugest thanks to my amazing teammate Izzy - thanks for having me along for the journey!