Adventure at the End of the World

Team adidas TERREX - Prunesco / 09.03.2012

Magellan Strait, Tierra del Fuego, Darwin Range, Beagle Channel.  Place names from the stories of early explorers, at the end of the world.  But this is where we were heading for the 10^th Patagonian Expedition Race.

We were back in Punta Arenas, Chile. In the team was Nick Gracie from the UK, Albert Roca from Catalonia (Spain) and Stu Lynch and Sarah Fairmaid from New Zealand.  Team adidas TERREX - Prunesco had won the race for the previous 3 editions and we were there to try and make it 4 in a row.

The race start was at a very uncivilised 2:30am in the morning with a bike ride from Punta going south along the coast of the Magellan Strait. The early start was so that we would get on the water at first light to cross to Dawson Island where we would have to portage the kayaks before crossing the rest of the Magellan Strait to Tierra del Feugo.   Team GearJunkies from the US seemed keen to lead out the bunch on the mostly flat ride from Punta Arenas and we were happy to let them do that and save our energy for later.

Two thirds of the way through the ride we hit the first small hills and without any plan to do so we found we had broken clear of the bunch so pushed on to the transition where we arrived with a small lead over the rest of the field.  It was still dark but by the time we had packed away our bikes and readied the kayaks the sky was starting to lighten and as we set out into the Magellan strait we had a nice tailwind helping us on our way.  The crossing was fairly uneventful with wind-driven swells providing some good surfing conditions on the way over.  As we neared the landing point we tried to pick out the CP on the shore, finally spotting the CP staff who where unhelpfully clad in camouflage clothing!

We quickly checked in and then broke out the Kari-Tek tow ropes, hitched ourselves to the kayaks and started hauling across the island. A quick glance backward showed the chasing teams about ten minutes behind us and then it was back to the task at hand. We had to travel about 10km across the island, about 4 km of which we could kayak on lakes, the rest we had to drag the kayaks cross country.  After a tricky section to begin with the going became quite good, with reasonably firm and flat turba providing good towing conditions.  We made good time through most of the portage until we arrived and the final challenge. From the flat ground we had been travelling on we had to cross a ridge 100m high, not a big obstacle until you are towing two fully laden sea kayaks.

To make matters worse, the only way forward was through dense forest.  We had no choice but to push on, manhandling the kayaks over and around trees holding out hope that we would break through onto clearer ground. Fortunately after half an hour of painstakingly slow progress we did reach the end of the thick trees and were once more on open turba.  It was still uphill and by no means easy but at least we could start making real progress again.  We had heard the next team about 20mins behind us so were keen to make a big effort and try to get a bit more of a gap opened up.  Straining at the ropes it was a real team effort to keep the boats moving on their slow progress up the hill but finally with legs about to give up in protest we crested the ridge and started descending the other side to the CP and the Fiord that would take us back out to the Magellan strait.

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