Rafting & the Misty Mountains

The 100km MTB leg didn't do much to separate the field due to the Dark Zone before the White Water Rafting. Blackheart arrived at the end of the MTB at 7:50pm yesterday evening in equal 2nd place at the same time as 2 other teams - being Mounty's as well as McCain from South Africa - appears as though there was a Bull of Africa 2008 reunion.

Teams then had to trek 10km to the start of the rafting section where it seems they were able to get about 4 hours sleep before the 6am Refting briefing. I would expect the Grade 4 Tully River rapids to have been a highlight of the race. Once the fun was finished the real race began at about 8am with the start of the 47km Misty Mountains Trek. Damon, Kim and Josh have an advantage of having done about half this trek in the 2004 Quoll Adventure Race. During that race the ground actually looked like it was moving due to the millions of leeches - so I expect there will be big incentive not to stop on this leg. And just because it is a 'marked trail' won't make it much easier as this just means there's an arrow nailed to a tree every 20-50m.

There's an update on the website and we can see by the trackers that 4-5 teams (including #1 Blackheart) have now finished the trek and will be starting the 130km MTB to mid-camp. Along the way teams have to complete a short orienteering section where they collect 5 out of 6 CP's before continuing on their bikes. Given teams at the front got a sleep last night they should all race through as long as it takes to finish the MTB leg because at mid-camp they have a compulsory 6hr stop.

A friend of Team Blackheart - Ben Wolstencroft is covering the race as a photographer so I will be able to post some great photos soon.

There's also an updated report on Sleepmonsters.