---

On The Arabian Ark

Rob Howard / 13.12.2008

Last night the teams camped out on a beach on Sir Yani Bas island – but while it was technically a camp, in the sense they put up their tents, it was unlike any they were likely to have experienced in adventure racing before. Up on the nearby road 4 large portable shower and toilet units were installed (each of the shower units with a dozen cubicles), while on the beach large tents housed 10 masseurs and a kitchen that served up a meal that was more banquet than ‘boil in the bag’. (There was a choice of half a dozen main courses, salads and a variety of tasty sweets.) The whole area was floodlit so there no need to even unpack a head torch!

It was Abu Dhabi style camping, but after today’s competition on the island teams are now back to regular Adventure Race camping as they are on the uninhabited Kirkum island in the Arabian Gulf, with none of those luxurys. They are back to eating camp food and wearing a head torch!

In between these two very different camps they have had a morning of mountain biking on Sir Yani Bas, and a shortened afternoon paddle to get them to Kurkum.

As the sun rose they gathered on the start line on their bikes ready for the 45km ride around a truly remarkable island. Under the ownership of Sheikh Zayed the island was stocked with hundreds of Arabian and African wildlife species and is now run as a nature reserve and tourist attraction. The island is home to Giraffe, Ostriches and all the species of Arabian Oryx, some of which are now extinct in the wild.

The racers didn’t get to see these, the riding was much too fast and they had their heads down, but they did encounter the prolific Sand Gazelles. There are over 5000 of these on the island and the roam freely and are not used to mountain bike races! The potential for collision was high as the herds were startled into crossing roads, but luckily there were no crashes, just a few near misses!

Of more concern in the early part of the ride was fast speed on the tarmac road, and the fact everyone arrived together at the first CP. Six Sportident boxes were not enough and there was a lot of confusion before teams were on their way again, turning to ride a dirt road up the West side of the island, passing plantations of some of the 3 million trees that have been planted on the island.

See All Stories On This Race