---

Team Goanna

Chris Schultz / 26.09.2005

Well, Team Goanna finished the Maximum Adventure 24hr race on 24/25 September 2005. What an epic adventure! The race had us up at 4am to drop off bikes and boxes for the 6am start. At the \"start\" we were told thatthe \"real\" start was at 7am and that we had buses waiting for us outside... We marked our maps up on the bus as we made our way to the Rangers office near Bungonia Caves.

We had a short-ish trek to the first TA where we were issued kayaks. After we inflated them we had to trek1km down (and I mean down!) to the Shoalhaven River. The next leg was a kayak of about 5km, including an awesome rapid section (well, it was fun for a kayak novice!). We suffered a slow leak in the left side and had to stop to re-inflate about half way. It was smooth sailing after that into TA2.

Then began the next trek... up Bungonia Creek and into Bungonia Gorge. I had only ever seen this gorge from the lookout at the top. I had also read the many warnings at the top about the nature of trekking through the gorge. The best part was the boulder field where we ended up in a sort of 3D maze. After the checkpoint was obtained, the trek back was OK as we found the trail we should have followed in the first place! The climb up to TA3 was very hard but in hindsight it was a breeze compared to what was to come...

See All Stories On This Race