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Walking on the Moon

Reunion d\'Aventures / 16.09.2003

On day two the teams virtually ‘walked on the moon’, they lived for a while on another world, in another time. Le Piton de la Fournaise is like a big cauldron on the fire which has a moonlike, crater stewn landscape. It has a diameter of 7 kilometres, smoking hot, the volcano periodically lets out a slow river of lava towards the sea; but not today … Instead, you could see our teams coming up to the main crater; walk all the way around it. And return by the same way.

The first team that got into the summit cone was Wilda Sport Eider. It took their runner 2 hours and 9 minutes to go around. What a performance! No other teams made it faster. Next, 19 minutes behind them, came Spie/The North Face. They got in at 6h26 a.m., and left at 8h55. What took them so long? They kept their mouths shut and were not saying. It seems like it wasn’t a good day for them, and later they lost some precious time as they punctured on the bike section.

Holding the third place came the local team, Banque de la Réunion-RFO, who had a good night, making best use of their local knowledge. They slept in a hut, with five other teams, including the two all-ladies teams. Always smiling, they are doing really well.

However, the other teams did not have the same luck. On the second day, three competitors gave up. Marc Batiot of team Sovimem Daikin, had to stop because of a torn muscle, while David Ogden of International Adventurers, let his friends go on without him. His stomach felt bad and he felt like he was slowing his team, who needed to meet the cu-off. Alexandre Devaux of team X Esiea Renault Sport, was still suffering the pains from the roller blading the day before. “Next time I’ll train more on this one� he declared later.

At the end of day two teams in Réunion d’Aventures were stretched over a wide area, but the race won’t wait for slower teams and the journey continues ...

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