Sabah Adventure Challenge
Team Blackheart Adventure in Sabah
Damon Goerke / 01.06.2011
Day 1 started with a 35km jungle run. It was supposed to be significantly shorter, but landslides had closed some roads forcing the relocation of the transition areas. Heading straight up the nearby mountains on a fire trail, it was sweaty work, with the heat and humidity hitting us pretty hard.
Reaching the top, we had the option of taking some shortcuts along walking tracks but opted to stick with the recommended route rather than potentially getting lost in a maze of local village tracks in the jungle. The main route soon narrowed into a singletrack, following local rubber tapping tracks, and descended steeply down a muddy, slippery slope to cross a bamboo bridge before climbing again. Luckily the trail was still in reasonable condition for us as we were close to the front,and as more people passed the trail would steadily deteriorate making it a nightmare for those later on, who ended up sliding down on their backsides.
More jungle, hills and bamboo bridges followed until we hit a dirt road at about 30km, which we would follow into the next transition. We staggered the last few km’s as it was now in the heat of the day and we no longer had the protection of the jungle canopy. I readily accepted the offer of a wet sponge over my head from an enthusiastic local in the TA, not realizing he had soaked it with icy water and I suffered the worst ice cream headache ever as a result.
Now we got to hop on our bikes for a short lived ride to the next hill. The course restructure meant we had to get the next CP via an out and back climb up a massive hill. We were soon pushing our bikes and managed to pass a couple of teams who were suffering in the heat. Numerous teams passed us coming back down and we counted the mixed teams to find we were 3rd by the time we made the top.
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