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Lost in the Night

Rob Howard / 16.04.2011

As darkness fell on the first night and the weather deteriorated with heavy rain and persistent dense cloud and fog on the mountains, the teams still on the course were having difficulty finding their way and two spent the night out in the open, lost and waiting for daylight.

The two teams (Tuareg Turk and the Itlaian pair ‘Milk and Beer’) were both lost on the trekking stage around CP7. Rescue units were out looking for them, but they did not manage to find them, there was no shelter and the teams had to spend the night out. Fortunately for the Italians, who had no means to light a fire, they met up with the Turks, who did. So they huddled around the fire for the night and were found early on the morning of day 2, close to the Neolithic tower at CP6. Another team M6-Sport.com were also taken off the course in the night as they were unable to finish the trek.

The second Turkish team were also lost, but they were on the bike ride, trying to reach camp. They had labelled all the biking gear wrongly, so it was the camp at TA2. It was then brought back to CP9, the first on the bike ride, but they failed to find that, so it never caught up with them. After a long night they were found on the road and directed to camp to get some sleep. The other teams still on the course were already there sleeping, though Gill Watson in the British pair was unable to rest after their kit bag with dry clothes had gone missing. Jeff Powel Davies said the slept fine and “preferred the cooler wet weather to it being too hot�.

With the weather so bad, the teams so tired and two still missing, the restart was delayed until 08.30 and Race Director Telemarco Murgia went up into the hills to assess conditions. With little visibility and slippery underfoot conditions he advised all but the leading Polish team to miss out the next mountain trekking and canyon stage and ride around instead, which they did. The Polish pairing were still determined to complete the whole course and set off for the mountains and the canyon, which was presumably no longer dry.

The remaining teams cycled around to a cave at the far end of the trek, then rode to the start of the river and lake kayaking stage at a natural spring called Su Golgone. They picked up the new single kayaks (just out of the bubble wrap and cardboard) and put them into the water in a wooded area by the spring, and unless there are further changes will follow the original course from there on. The teams who have been taken off the course may miss day 2 and rejoin the event for the final day.

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