ITERA Ireland
Paddle/Trek to the Killary Adventure Centre
Rob Howard / 17.08.2016
An ocean paddling stage on the Atlantic Coast of Ireland was always going to be something of a gamble and luck wasn’t with ITERA today, but the teams still managed to complete the majority of stage one despite the rough weather and experienced some tough Atlantic paddling.
After being pulled out at the Clare Ferry pier teams trekked for 15km down the coast, staying on the beaches for much of the way and crossing some fast flowing and deep rivers on the way. They were headed for what had been specified as an emergency pull out in the event of bad weather, but in this case it became an emergency put-in as this was where they resumed kayaking.
From this point they turned away from the Atlantic Coast into more sheltered waters of Killary Fiord and they were headed towards the first transition at the Killary Adventure Centre. They couldn’t quite paddle all the way however, the put-in was moved to a quay about 5km short, so there was another trek before teams could finally reach TA1.
First to arrive were SWECO, still saying they would really have like to have paddled all the way. “I know it was the right decision for everyone,” said Matthias Carling, “but there are so few long sea paddles in races these days it was a shame not to do it all.” He added, “I’m short of socks as I wasn’t expecting to trek, but the route along the beach was nice, we even had the sun behind us for a few minutes. It was a short time but nice!”
The weather did improve this evening, there was even an impressive sunset over the fiord, and the rain which had put the rivers into spate and flooded the roads had finally stopped.
Issy Aventure came in next, concerned they had taken the wrong route. Instead of sticking to the coast they took a road further inland, saying there were not told about the route in the confusion at the take-out. Godzone Mountain Hardwear soon followed and the transition then quickly filled up as more teams arrived.
Godzone didn’t have the smoothest transition, finding that instead of Nick Gracie’s personal kit bag they had the team kit bag. Gracie was now without his set of marked maps, headtorch, shoes and food, and it took a while for the team to share around their spares and get going. Luckily they had enough spares, though it wasn’t ideal and Gracie was not as focussed on a fast transition as he usually is. He spent a few minutes frantically looking for his bib before realising he had it on!
The transition took place at the back of the Killary Centre in a huge geodesic dome which provided ample space for the team’s transition and hot drinks were available as well. Teams also had to be briefed here on a few more route changes for the next trekking stage which included removing checkpoint 5 to shorten the route as the race is a bit behind schedule after a difficult first day.
This first trek will take teams across the Maumturk mountains and all the leading teams will be on this section on the first night of the race.
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