ITERA - Presented by Open Adventure
Castle Capers
Rob Howard / 11.08.2014
Teams arrived at Conwy Castle a bit earlier than expected after the shortening of the first paddle stage and on a sunny August day the town and castle were full tourists enjoying one of N. Wales most popular visitor attractions.
The transition point was set underneath the town walls and looking out over the estuary mouth, which teams should have originally paddled into. Instead they were arriving by bike, from both directions, and one team entertained the families crab finishing on the harbour wall by riding down a set of steps into transition.
Adidas TERREX were still out front, setting the pace, and were the first to set off into the town for a short navigation stage. I wouldn’t call it orienteering as there was no map, just a sketch directing racers to a watch tower on the walls and 3 checkpoint descriptions inside the castle.
The watchtower is the high point of the extensive town walls and gave the teams a good view over the town and harbour, then they dropped back down to street level, the up onto another section of wall, before arriving at the castle entrance.
Here they were directed inside, with strict instructions not to run because the castle was full of visitors. (There were marshals inside enforcing this too.)
The descriptions the teams had were;
Soutwest Tower; Flag Pole
Viewpoint over Bridge; Bench
Cellar Below Hall; Iron ring
It was a bit like a treasure hunt and there were lots of dead end staircases and walkways which didn’t interconnect. There were lots of bemused teams (and tourists) too, but it wasn’t too hard to find the 3 checkpoints.
The international teams may have been at a slight disadvantage interpreting the descriptions and one French team gave a rather frustrated shrug when they got through the gate and tried to figure out what to do next! Danish team Multiatleten Racing complained when I took their photo looking lost but it only took them a moment to find the spiral stairs up to the right tower for their last checkpoint.
Once all the checkpoints were collected teams headed back for their bikes and set off to ride to the town of Bethesda and Zip World for the ride of their lives.
SleepMonsters
