Raid Gallaecia Expedition Race
Down the EO River to the Coast
Rob Howard / 13.05.2019
The first paddling stage of Raid Gallaecia followed the Eo River, taking teams out into the Ria de Ribaldo estuary and to the coastal town of Castropol.
After a cloudy start it was sunshine all the way and near perfect day to paddle down the river, which is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. For most of the first part of the paddle the river was steeply banked and densely wooded, isolated from any roads and villages. This was the section with rapids (covered by the Dark Zone) and must have been a pleasure to paddle.
The next section had more open farm country on the banks and roads nearby and this gradually flattened out further as the river reached the coast. Teams passed under road and rail bridges at the town of Vegadeo to move out into the estuary, and were now in tidal waters. AR Sweden appeared to come through near slack water and Yeti and 400 Team Naturex then caught more of the incoming tide.
I saw Yeti come ashore and Tobjorn Gasbjerg said, “The last 50 minutes or so were really hard work against the incoming tide, but at least those behind us will have to deal with it longer!” There was a strong headwind blowing down the estuary too.
It was a struggle for the teams to haul the heavy sit-on-tops up the stone steps at the landing point and they put them onto a trailer before a 1km uphill trek to the transition in the school gym. When Naturex came ashore it took a while to accomplish this and Nicolas Seguin was shivering violently .
In the gym there were microwave meals laid out here for the teams, and some marked with team names for vegetarians and vegans. I didn’t see any of the leaders stop to eat though. They could see from the time sheet that AR Sweden were not too far ahead, and Yeti and Naturex were in the transition at the same time for a while.
The next stage is the longest foot stage of the race – described as a ‘walk with sea views’ and it began with orienteering around the northern tip of the estuary, running to picturesque coastal checkpoints. On a sunny afternoon it was perfect but if gales had been coming off the sea it would have been very different.
Teams then headed for the major road bridge that spans the estuary mouth, to cross this and head westwards on the ‘Camino Natural Ruta del Cantabrico’ to complete the remainder of the 72km stage. (The fastest predicted time on this is 14 hours.)
The first CP on this section was a lighthouse at the head of the estuary on the Illa Pancha and AR Sweden arrived here before sunset to find the cp flag attached to a wooden frame erected on the headland. (It was like a small building ... but with no walls.) The wind here was fierce enough to rock you on your feet at times, but luckily it will be behind the teams as they trek through the night to TA5.
SleepMonsters
