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A Dream Come True

Rob Howard / 14.04.2011

Speaking to the Race Director of the Sardinian Raid Adventure, Telemaco Murgia, it transpired he has organised the race within a few months, but has been hoping to stage it for years! “It is a dream going back 4 years or more,� he said, “but it was only 4 months ago the Sardinian Tourist Authority agreed to support the idea. Since then we have been rushing to get everything organised, mostly dealing with bureaucratic difficulties, including changing the date 3 times and the name twice!�

“We want to show that tourism in Sardinia can involve outdoor activities, not just the coast and the sea, but we also have to explain what Adventure Racing is! There is some outdoor tourism here and we have about 40 professionals working on the race who are guides and in the local Alpine Rescue. Most are friends of ours.

“The most important thing is that this is a wonderful region for a race and planning the course has not been difficult. Most of the area is public land with open access, so there are not great difficulties there. There are shepherds and small farms, but they don’t own the land itself.

“Also I know the area very well, so it is not hard to find the best places to go. There is a lot to see! There are many wild animals, and prehistoric remains, and we will visit some of these, and the landscape is beautiful but difficult – perfect for adventure racing! The limestone is rough, steep and has many loose stones. It is dry too as all the water is underground, though teams can find some spring water in caves we use as checkpoints.�

He went on to explain how the whole mountain area has a 20km wide subterranean lake beneath it and that there are a couple of flooded sink holes with water 120m deep. There are also cave systems 60km deep and never yet fully explored, though the cave the teams will visit on the final day is the well known show cave Bue Marino. The teams will to beyond the open areas of the cave however, paddling through flooded caverns deep underground.

The course begins at the race HQ, the Silana Hotel, on the Genna Silana pass at 1017m. It is a new hotel built by a farming family and an ideal base for trekking into the region and close by the Gorropu Gorge. (The home prepared food and cheeses are good too!)

Teams have been arriving all day ready for tonight’s briefing, which will not take place until 22.00, and it is an 04.00 start so there will be little time to prepare. The start itself will be on top of a steep ridge opposite the hotel and the first two days of the 60 hour race are spent in the Supramonte mountains. The first day features a canyon descent, checkpoints in caves, a prehistoric fortress and an ascent of a peak at 1305m. It is logistically simple, with trekking followed by mountain biking to reach AT2, the first of two night time camps.

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