Patagonian Expedition Race
Vaucluse Aventures Evasions Has Arrived!
Anne-Marie Dunhill / 14.02.2016
The opening ceremony in the Best Western Hotel last night was the first chance that all of the teams present in Punta Arenas for the Patagonian Expedition Race 2016 had to meet up. After a brief, heartfelt welcome from the Race Director Stjepan Pavicic, race volunteer Jeff Brenhaug called up each of the 18 teams and introduced them. One team was missing from the roll-call; Vaucluse Aventures Evasions.
There is such a thing as being “fashionably late” but in missing the opening ceremony, Vaucluse had stepped into “nerve-rackingly late” territory! Due to work constraints their pilgrimage to the end of the world had begun later than most of the other teams and they were due to arrive in Punta Arenas at 18:30, just in the nick of time for the opening ceremony at 20:00.
The hitch in the plan happened in Madrid where they were informed that their flight to Santiago would be delayed by 12 hours. They were then routed to Lima in an attempt to make up a couple of hours. Grab a map to visualize their pilgrimage; Marseille to Paris to Madrid to Lima to Santiago to Punta Arenas, whew.
The team’s sponsor, the lovely hotel Rey Don Felipe, kept their rooms for them even though the hotel is full due to high tourist season here in Punta Arenas. Sleepmonsters would pop down to the front desk and enquire if they’d arrived yet and the answer was invariably the same; a glance at the computer screen and knitted, worried eyebrows told us all we need to know. At about 01:00 we gave up asking.
Spotting the team in the hotel lobby this morning was an incredibly welcome sight. They looked fresh and well rested as they were heading out in search of batteries. I couldn’t resist joking with them, asking, “What took you so long?” They were incredibly laid back about their delays and just asked for a quick summary of what had been said at the opening ceremony including whether any information on the race route had been given.
When they found out that the race start would be at the Atlantic side of the Magellan Straight, they exchanged knowing glances and said in French “That’s what we figured.” How they had “figured” this out is a mystery, as all information pertaining to the race route had been a closely guarded secret; perhaps from their past experience racing PER?
The news that there would be a 272km bike stage was met with a resounding groan from Corinne Bonnet and team captain Jerome Berruer laughed and said, “Corinne isn’t too keen on mountain biking!” It would have been unnecessarily cruel to mention the wind at this point.
Jerome finished our conversation by describing how on each flight they would look out of the window and try to spot the luggage being loaded onto the airplane; counting each piece of their gear that they spotted.
The team is all here, their luggage and gear has all arrived safely as well. It would appear that the charm of the third time racing PER has them covered!
SleepMonsters
