ITERA - Presented by Open Adventure
ITERA 2014 is Underway!
Rob Howard / 11.08.2014
After a day of packing and travelling and an overnight stop in Caernarfon teams were finally ready to start ITERA 2014 on a blustery Monday morning.
With the remnants of Hurricane Bertha still causing wet and windy conditions most tried to find some accommodation around town, but a few hardy souls did camp out. It was a sheltered spot on the shoreline and only a short walk into town to find something to eat.
Monday dawned overcast and windy, as teams gathered by Caernarfon harbour at the foot of the imposing walls of Caernarfon Castle. Until 7am those on the castle side of the harbour could not get across to the camp and boat launch site as the swing bridge was open.
Spot on time at 7am it was closed and a mass of red bibbed and excited teams swarmed across to get their paddling kit ready on a patch of grass above the pebble beach being used for the kayak launch.
Some were organised, some relaxed and most busy and hyperactive, double checking everything and asking the marshals about things they’d already been told several times, just to be sure! Around 07.30 everyone walked over the bridge for a race photo inside the castle where the start banner was set up, waving up at photographer James Kirby who was hard to spot in a slit window up inside the castle walls.
It was a very grand setting for the start in the grassy central courtyard of castle, just by the spot Prince Charles was invested as Prince of Wales. It won’t be the first of Wales’ great castles the competitors get to experience this week.
James Thurlow and Tom (hopalong) Gibbs called the captains together before the start to explain the options for the paddle round to Conwy – as the forecast is for winds at force 5/6, with bigger gusts – not ideal when paddling sit-on-tops.
Loath to cancel any stage the race will leave the decision to the last minute, so teams will paddle through the Menai Strait to Bangor Pier, and be told there how they should continue. The options if they can’t paddle are that they can continue in a flotilla or bike round, depending on what is decided.
Once all the teams were happy and the French teams had been given a clear translation there was a quick speech from the Mayor ... and it was finally time to go!
The racers took a while to funnel out of the narrow castle gate for a short run around the town walls. There were 2 laps, the first behind a race marshal, then a second, before teams raced back over the bridge to the beach to get into their kayaks and set off.
Adidas TERREX were the first away and Cosmic Chancers the last to leave as teams made their way out into the Strait to begin their journey to Cardiff (even if they were starting out by heading the wrong direction).
From the shore the tide had looked strong and when they got into the main channel the teams certainly knew about it and conditions became more choppy for them. They will be sheltered from the wind by Anglesey as the paddle through the Strait to Bangor and in the fast tide will move quickly.
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