Beast of Ballyhoura
Clare Glens
Rob Howard / 02.08.2014
There are several special tasks for teams on the race, and the first came part way into the cycle stage from TA1 at Clare Glenns, where they undertook a canyoning stage. After riding over the Arra Mountains and taking country roads south past the town of Newport they arrived at a transition at a parking area and park where their wetsuits, helmets and buoyancy aids were laid out waiting for them.
There was also a changing tent, as adventure racers are not very modest and the park included a children’s play area! As it turned out the playground was not in use as the weather had taken a distinct turn for the worse with occasional showers turning into prolonged and very heavy rain though the day.
Not that it mattered in the canyon as everyone was going to get as wet as possible anyway. It was a 2km walk up the trail at the canyon side, with occasional glimpses down into the overgrown depths below and then the trip back down began with the first of many jumps.
Racers had to walk out along the top of a waterfall before leaping off into the foaming white water below. It was quite a scary start and some took a few attempts to summon up their courage to jump. Then they were quickly sliding down narrow slot canyon’s, swimming and clambering their way downwards, making smaller jumps on the way, and another big one at the end. This was a fall called ‘Bad Ass’ and the race had buily a scaffold ‘walk the plan’ to jump off which was about 15 feet high.
It’s an ideal adventure racing canyon, with plenty of white water to make it challenging and physically demanding. There was lots of variety and the noise of the falls and looming, steep walls of the canyon all added to the experience.
Surprisingly it’s not normally used for canyoning at all, just for extreme kayaking when it’s in flood, so the racers had it to themselves with no other weekend groups around.
When they’d finished they returned to the park to change again, before resuming their ride southwards in the rain.
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