The Wilderness ARC
On Ardnamurchan
25.08.2005
The leaders had completed the long cycle ride around the Ardnamurchan peninsula in darkness, arriving at the final transition soon after dawn, ready to paddle up Loch Shiel. They might not have stopped to enjoy the view, but they missed some of the best scenery of the race during the night. For those who followed however, the weather could not have been better, with bright sunshine much of the time. Those teams or combined teams who chose to restart at TA7 at 8am were well rewarded and as they were joined by Irish AR and 4xtreme, the course was busy again, with teams arriving in the morning in quick succession at Tioram Castle.
Here they had to cross a causeway to reach the castle, which was flooded except at low tide. On the far shore the castle rose dramatically from a rocky outcrop in broad bay, but it was not too difficult to reach, the water was only thigh deep at it’s deepest. The checkpoint seemed to be hard to find though, and teams were running all over the island looking for a tree above a smoke house. Most probably did not know what a smoke house was! Mandatorygear.com found themselves traversing the narrow ledge on the outside of the castle wall, a precarious place to be ... and not the site of the checkpoint.
When they did find it there was a note telling them to miss the next CP (the river crossing), and some British teams will have understood the extra note saying Brian Elliot wished them well. Elliot was the former organiser of Adrenalin Rush, and Course Planner Gary Tompsett likes to leave little messages of instruction and encouragement along the way for the teams.
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