News from the Course

I just received news that Team #1 Blackheart has left on the leg 6 MTB in 1st place! How did I hear this ... well ... Rob Preston Snr is volunteering driving trucks at the event and he is phoning updates back to Rob's Mum Julia who passes them onto me. It does kind of feel like de ja vu from the late night phones calls to the same "Supercrew" in Portugal last year.

Anyway, apparently the team looked great last night and were all smiles after the rafting this morning. They were maybe a little over the trek but had a great transition and is now making all the other teams chase them.

I also just got off the phone to Ben who had witnessed the Ravenshoe Transition described in the latest report from Sleepmonsters.

The front 4-5 teams all arrived into transition together and most members of all teams had encountered the stinging trees. It was interesting to see how the different teams coped with the issue. Team Blackheart decided that the worst was probably over and that they would just deal with it and keep going, so headed straight out on the bike. Others went off to the 1st aid for the acid and wax strips treatment and apparently some just rolled around on the ground screaming.

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.

XPD Cairns - Day 1

Team Blackheart.com.au is off and racing in the 5th edition of XPD - Australia's Expedition Adventure Race. Day 1 seemed to start rather eventfully with the arranged boat transport to the start at Dunk Island breaking down and alternative arrangements had to be made. The race started at 11:36am with a 25 km Trek / Paddle / Snorkel leg around the Island.

There appears to be about 6 strong teams at this years race and after the first 4 hours of racing only 10 minutes separated these teams with Blackheart in 4th place. From Dunk Island teams had to paddle back to the mainland at Mission Beach to start a 100km MTB leg to the Tully River. Once there teams will be able to have a good first nights sleep during the Dark Zone and await an early morning restart for the 10km whitewater rafting leg. From the GPS Trackers it appears that the teams arrived well before midnight. The website is not updated but I assume the explanation for this is the quoted lack of phone reception in the Tully River and no race updates are expected until late tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon after the raft and 47km Trek through the Misty Mountains to Ravenshoe. The race coverage is excellent on the website.