ARWC 2015 Brazil - Pantanal
In Corumba
Rob Howard / 12.11.2015
The past few days teams have been getting to know the riverside town of Corumba and its surroundings. The Goldfish Hotel has been their base, which is about 5km out of the town centre and has housed all the teams, so they’ve used bikes and coach transfers to the SESC building, which is acting as HQ for registration, gear testing and storage, and tonight is hosting the opening ceremonies.
The town itself is a grid pattern, with some streets block paved and others tarmaced, rising up from the River Paraguay, beyond which is Bolivia. There are occasional glimpses of faded colonial facades, particularly along the waterfront, but for the most part the town has a modern look, the streets lined with small shuttered shops and the occasional recognisable fast food brand. Along the streets there are sellers set up with small boxes of goods; shoes, fruit, tourist souvenirs, sitting out in the heat and trying to make a meagre living.
There is not much traffic in the daytime and it comes across as a relaxed place, but then it’s hard to be much else in the sledgehammer heat and humidity here, nobody wants to race around ... well apart from a few strange visitors down by the riverside. The town gets busier at night when it cools off a little.
The SESC building is an ideal spot to host the race, a big conference/communal facility built by a small bay on the river where the town’s boats are lined up along the shoreline. There is plenty of room and teams have been in and out all day while they go through the formalities, refine their packing and complete some simple gear tests.
One was a 20 foot abseil off the riverside wall, and another a short swim in the river. For this teams paddled out 100m in the race sit-on-top kayaks, then two jumped overboard to swim back to the beach. The river is huge and the current strong, so it was enough to give them an idea of its power. There is a continuous flow of debris, some of it the size of small islands, floating downstream past the town.
As they adjust to the heat a few teams have been venturing out into the surrounding area on bikes and kayaks. Those who have done so have already had some wildlife encounters, which are going to be common in this race. Team Vidaraid Oncosec said they saw a huge snake while riding, so large they couldn’t pass it on the trail and had to wait for it to move on, and Silva were surprised to see Capybara and river otters close to the town on a short paddle.
The sound of birds is a constant background noise here too, as they gather in the trees, many of which have vivid orange fruits. Along the shore there are hundreds of cormorants, lined up on the mooring lines of the river boats and on their decks. There are numerous large tourist river boats here as its coming to the end of the dry season, which is peak time for visitors, and the race staff and press will be taking the largest of these to follow the race into the Pantanal.
I’m told the teams will go upstream to the start in a navy boat, leaving after dark tomorrow, but for this evening it’s time to socialise as the opening ceremonies take place and Corumba, the Pantanal and Liga Outdoor welcome the 2015 AR World Championship.
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