OUT OF THE DESERT

Photo courtesy of www.abudhabi-adventure.com

Team Blackheart have now had a full nights sleep after finishing the desert trek around 3pm local time yesterday and are gearing up for two days of paddling. Conditions were said to be tougher than in previous years throughout the 116km of desert trekking with higher temperatures and softer sand. Team Thule from NZ who continue to lead took 28 hours to complete the stage (including their compulsory 8hr rest time). Team Blackheart finished about an hour later however had had to skip the last CP as teams were taking longer than the race organisation had anticipated. It was unfortunate to miss the last CP, which only the first 8 teams made, however they are still hopeful and well within striking distance of the top 10 overall.

Despite missing the last CP Team Blackheart still had a great trek moving up several places in the overall. Following their GPS tracker they appeared to have a great 2nd half of the stage and have consequently moved up to 12th overall. Here are Rob's comments from the trek,

"Desert trek was tough as expected, big big dunes and very hot on 2nd day. We never moved as fast as we would have liked but still moved up a few spots. 10th place still in reach".

Photo courtesy of www.abudhabi-adventure.com

Teams are now congregated on the shore ready for the next two days of paddling where they will cover 128kms if they get all checkpoints. Teams have until 6pm local time today before they must have reached one of the many islands within the course where they must camp the night. They may then continue from 6am the following morning all the way to the finish line. This paddling leg was scheduled to begin at 6.30am local time (which was over an hour ago), however there has apparently been a strong wind change and teams are waiting to hear further about the start. [Edit: I've just read that the strong winds and big seas have forced the cancellation of the first day of paddling - teams are being transferred to Abu Dhabi].

In other Australian news, Jarad from Thule Europe is still racing strongly in 2nd overall. Giddiup are in 21st having missed a couple of CPs in the desert, and Rogue / Sleepmonsters are in 42nd place (watching their tracker they possibly didn't complete the desert trek however look to be lined up ready for today's paddling stage).

The GPS trackers have been working really well - follow the link here.