Adventure Race Slovenia
Day 1, Friday, 24 June
AR Slovenia / 24.06.2011
<br>
We woke in a bright and weather-wise very promising morning. Until 6 am all the teams needed to hand in all their equipment which will be transported by trucks on check point where it will be needed. At 7 am the buses with teams left for Maribor, the second biggest city of Slovenia, where the start of the race was going to happen. We were greeted by a nice sunshine and the start setting, the bank of a major Slovenian river, the river Drava, was excellent for that occasion. <br>
<b>Trekking, rollerblading, biking, kayaking</b><br>
The teams began on foot, however, in a few minutes the Rover category needed to put on their rollerblades and continue the course rollerblading next to river. The Explorer category hurried to the bikes, which would get them to Sladki vrh in the north-eastern part of Slovenia, where they would come to another major Slovenian river, the river Mura. This is where the kayaking discipline was planned. Luckily, it wasn't raining too heavily during the night, meaning that the kayaking could take place.
<br>
This was the longest kayaking section ever performed at Adventure race Slovenia, being around 40 kilometres long. The teams stopped in Gornja Radgona, jumped out of their kayaks and went on a very wet city orienteering run, where they could get a glimpse of the city. Paddling in water or running around the city in heavy rain resulted in being only wetter and wetter. Quickly they headed back to the river bank, paddled into water and continued kayaking towards check point 13. The river Mura is known as a very calm and "sad" river, but today it proved to be anything but that, due to the amount of rainfall. The current was extremely fast what helped the teams to reach the check point much quicker than it was expected. <br>
The whole race course is divided into 3 or 5 (for the longer category) sectors, which are opened and closed at set times. Since the teams finished the first sector faster than it was planned, they were in for a longer rest when they came to the box. They had to wait a few hours for the next sector to open, which gave time to relax, dry their clothes and have a "proper" meal.
<br>
Just before 6 pm all the teams were at the box, which meant that there was practically another group start in front of us. All the advantage the teams gained in the first sector was somewhat lost, and they were all starting from the same position again, which is giving the race a much more interesting touch. <br>
At 6 pm the teams, fresh, dry and full of new energy, continued on bikes. After only 200 m, there was another "refreshment" waiting for them, a rather deep and muddy river stream. They stopped for a second, but already in the next they lifted the bikes and waded through water. Result? Wet again. Not a very pleasant start after they just managed to dry their clothes. <br>
Anyhow, they quickly continued on their bikes and in only three hours reached the outlook tower check point, where there was the abseiling discipline. They had to descent from a 30-metre outlook tower. The views from the top were quite amazing, since you could basically see the whole course done so far. Having had a group start at the box, the teams reached the abseiling discipline in very short intervals, which ended up in queuing for the abseil. <br>
A quick descent and then back on bikes for a night ride towards Ruše.
SleepMonsters
