The race starts at 9am tomorrow, but I feel I've been racing all day to get ready. The course looks awesome, with shorter legs for the first half til Midcamp at Strahan, then some Epic legs for the remainder.
Remember to get on to www.arwc2011.com, click on teams then scroll down to #3 TeamBlackheart.com and check out the photos and post some trail mail. Also follow the team via Facebook at www.facebook.com/teamblackheart
Here is my race summary.
Leg 1- 20 km ocean kayak from Burnie to Penguin
Leg 2- 20km trek to a shooting range where you must shoot a clay target. No shortcuts thru the back of the shooting range.
Leg 3- 4 CP's to collect in the Dial Ranges
Leg4- Quick Mtb ride down to Gunns Plain Cave
Leg 5- Caving. Part one is a tourist cave. Part 2 more hardcore caving and will involve getting wet and muddy.
Leg 6-MTB. Starting to get rougher
Leg7- the first Epic trek over Black Bluff Range with views to Cradle Mountain. Remote hiking track to Reynolds Falls. Abseil of a waterfall then canyoning down the Vail river to Lake Macintosh.
Leg 8- First paddle with 4 people in one kayak. Then pick up a 2nd boat and paddle 20km including 2km portage. This finishes at town of Tulla.
Leg 9- MTB from Tulla up the Sterling valley route through old mining settlements and some great MTB trails and rail trail thru Zeehan to Strahan. Midcamp at Stahan.
Leg 10- Long beach trek 65km north including some tricky nav in Henty Sanddunes. A few river crossings and then some climbs and good views. Leg finishes with some tough route finding to finish in Granville Harbour.
Leg 11- long 150km MTB. Could start with a ride on the beach. Cross over the Pieman river with rafts. Enter the Tarkine Region an amazing wilderness area. Stop for a coffee at some town then into amazing forests.
Leg 12- Epic 75km of river kayaking including grade 2 rapids and 12km of trekking up side valleys. This river has a dark zone from 7.30pm to 6.30pm with no portaging allowed. It will be very difficult to finish this leg in one full day. Remember to pack marshmallows for campfire.
Note- do not misplace boats this year!
Leg 13. MTB down to the coast
Leg 14- Coasteering around Rocky Cape to Boat Harbour
Leg 15- "Straight forward" ride to the finish. Note- ignore anything Craig says is straight forward.
Finish- suck down the champers, pizza and icecream on the finishers lounge with the satisfaction of finishing the 2011 Adventure Racing World Championships.
The full course information is at http://www.trackmelive.com.au/xpd2011/Course.aspx
