Patagonian Expedition Race
Into the High Country
Rob Howard / 18.02.2016
As teams finished the long bike ride on stage two the scenery of the race changed. The finish of the ride was a gradual uphill climb and the open grasslands gave way to forest before the small farmstead at Puesto Correa came into view. From there the views were of more dense forest and hills beyond, some now snow covered. The race was now headed into the high country.
While we were at the transition we saw three teams pass through, Sherpa, Patagonia 4 Barth and Kaweskar. Sherpa had their gear and bikes spread out on the meadowland around the farm buildings and had taken a very long time to find the checkpoint. “We followed the markers to a fence and followed that for some 15km in the dark,” said Jean Paul Desrosiers. “We didn’t think we could cross fences so just kept going well past the checkpoint. “Then we were on some big tussocks which were hard going and we finally made our way back and across the fence.”
They’d lost a few hours and learnt that crossing fences here isn’t a no-no as it is back home. When Desrosiers spoke to Stjepan Pavicic to see where they’d gone wrong he got a shrug and, “It’s the same for everyone.” It sounds like a few other teams also lost time around that area, especially those navigating that section in the dark. Later Pavicic pointed out this was the first time the route was not marked for teams in the race – and the first time they really had to navigate ...
Perhaps because of their trials the Sherpa team were in a transition haze ... they must have spent almost 2 hours there, slowly accomplishing nothing very much and losing track of time completely.
The farmstead used for the checkpoint was a beautiful location with a small stream and flower studded meadows all around, overlooked by strangely sculpted sandstone towers. The Gaucho working there knew Pavicic and invited us in for lunch ... and we figured we had plenty of time before Sherpa were going to set off.
The house was very simple with bare board walls, floors and ceilings, no electricity, a gas lantern, a wood burner and range, and a sink but no running water. Our host lives there on his own through the summer managing 8000 hectares and a large cattle herd. His horse complete with carved wooden saddle was tethered outside. The facilities may have been basic, but the meal of meat and potatoes he served up on tin plates was delicious!
Back outside Sherpa still had more to do but Patagonia 4 Barth had now arrived and they were on a mission to transition quickly, taking a matter of minutes to box up their bikes. They were quickly ready to go and seemed to wake Sherpa out of their transition trance so both teams left on the 79km trek together – the French team with some very heavy packs.
Not long after Kaweskar arrived, still in great spirits and making their transition quickly before setting off. Apart from Spirit of Poland these were the last 3 teams to leave and all teams were now trekking across the Hambruna Pass towards CP7 at Rio Primero.
SleepMonsters
