Iles Guadeloupe Adventure
Eddie Winthorpe of Team SleepMonsters/Inov-8 gives an account from the course.
Eddie Winthorpe / Team SleepMonsters/Inov-8 / 07.12.2007
The inevitable kit check happened in a building annexed to the airport and predictably involved exploding our bags to show-and-tell everything that had been asked for including, according to the kit list:
- “2 pairs of footwear of sports (which one must fear neither water nor deep muck)
- 1 ground cloth (groundsheet) in ship\'s apprentice as karrimat
- 1 long trouser very light and allowing an efficient protection expenses of legs beware of sharp herbs.�
A strange development became clear as the race progressed: beyond this initial check, there was never any mandatory gear, so although for example a 1st aid kit and signalling mirror had to be brought to Guadeloupe, we never actually had to carry them.
Boarding the coach to the opening ceremony Pointe-a Pitre, it occurred to me that – other than the palm trees - we could still be in Paris, with the familiar road signs, buildings and more Peugeots than Coventry.
The 30 teams were each introduced on stage in front of the cameras, followed by a zip wire (pulleying) across the water/dock whilst followed by a searchlight. As you might expect, this developed a long queue as 60 racers waited their turn. True to form, many lay down on the roof to grab an hour of sleep fearing the \"hurry up and wait\" style of organisation here could be a sign of things to come. Another frequent occurrence was what happened at the bottom of the zip wire: 3 people all calling with increasing urgency (in French) so that racers would not hit their head on the arrestor gear. Maybe I should have tried harder at school?
Dinner followed in the form of a buffet, which finished suddenly when it became clear that there were more racers sleeping than standing. In the early hours of the morning, we retired to the basic (but adequate) dorm accommodation in St Francois, the hot air stirred by large fans.
SleepMonsters
