The World Adventure Racing Championships (XPD Australia)
ARWC 2011 – In Review
Rob Howard / 22.11.2011
Tasmania was the star of the show during the two weeks of this year’s World Championship (along with the teams of course). The beauty and variety of the scenery, the wildlife on the course, weather ranging from snow to blazing sunshine, and the welcome of the Tasmanian people all contributed to a successful event.
With the unstinting support of Discover Tasmania and the City of Burnie the event had a perfect compromise between the need for a challenging and wild course, and its requirement for good logistics, transport and facilities. Teams will rightly remember the surf washed beaches, noisy and verdant forests, challenging canyons, and a white water river paddle through ancient ferns and trees, but they wouldn’t have been able to experience them without the roads to move their gear boxes (there was 16 tonnes of gear), transitions to stop at, and facilities in Burnie for the start and finish of their journey.
That the race received permissions to visit so many protected areas and National Parks was in part due to the staging of a previous successful XPD in Tasmania … and may have been helped by Race Director Louise Foulkes being a local.
With everything in place the island met and exceeded everyone’s expectations. Most race locations offer a predominant terrain, desert or jungle for example, and a regular weather pattern, but Tasmania offered an unrivalled mix of natural challenges. Rolling hills, alpine plains, beaches and sand dunes, forest and bush, rocky coasts, rarely visited rivers and canyons, lakes and ocean were all part of the expedition.
All this in weather which was freezing cold and snowing one day and blisteringly hot the next. Teams had to cope with the risk of both heat stroke and hypothermia and it was possible to feel cold and be sunburnt at the same time! Fortunately the weather wasn’t anything like as wet as it could have been and for a Tasmanian spring was unseasonable warm and dry.
Teams travelled home feeling they’d explored as much of the island as they could on a 700km course and I’m sure they’ll do their bit for Discover Tasmania by recommending others visit the island, and will return themselves if they can.
SleepMonsters
