Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge

Anyone for ‘Desert’ ?

Fifty kilometres of paddling up and down a crocodile infested, 900m stretch of flat water, in an ’89 whitewater topo duo is mundane enough to have any team well and truly ‘over’ the training phase and keen for the start line! This was a small part of a reasonable lead up for team ‘Giddiup’ – four good mates from adjoining suburbs with a bit of fitness and a love of beer (or Mojito’s in Sue’s case). We were keen to test our team dynamic against the best – in funnily enough an alcohol free country!

Indeed it was the strongest start list in the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge’s race history (lucky for us eh?!). With the revised race format many contenders believed this was their year to overthrow Richard and Elina Ussher and Nathan and Marcel from team Thule Adventure– what were they thinking!!! Though I guess anything is possible and that’s what’s great about adventure racing so good on everyone for trying again! (and good on team Thule Adventure for another dominating performance).

We at least managed to keep the front runners in site for the ‘prologue’ – though ‘3 hour true stage’ may have been a more apt title – and were very happy with our 5^th place finish.

WE were not to know at the time, a lot of friends and family were jumping around their personal computers (and cursing their various internet providers) while tracking our progress thanks to the compulsory ‘satellite’ tracking BRICKS that every team had to carry (or that Dave carried in our case!). THEY were not to know at the time, in the first 200m of stage two while hanging off the lead bike pack, a derailleur on our event issued bike seized….watching the field ride away and knowing the pace of every stage, we knew we were in for a world of hurt and ‘catch up’. We limited our loss to 5 minutes, but our legs would pay for the solo effort well in to the next day…up till about the time we ran out of water and worried more about dying of thirst instead!

‘Fixed ropes like you ain’t never seen’ were the highlight of day 2 on the Jebel Hafeet mountain range – much more exciting than our navigation error and complacency with water! It seemed every team was running dry by the abseil section so no use in complaining, even with a couple of exposed hours ahead. A little chemistry at work, our ‘chlorine tabs’ made light of a random clear puddle we encountered and if it was good for the tadpoles, it was good for us! Footprints at the edge of many manky, dark canyon puddles told us we weren’t alone in our thirst and we pondered the outcomes…

Be at the start line early is a good tip for first timers…but hey, for a 4 am kick off forgive us for being stuck midfield and in the thick of the sand, pedals, wheels and foreign accents and the associated crashes, cursing and craziness of bunch mountain bike riding in the dark and dirt! Finally the 90km ride/hike a bike/sand castle building leg came to an end and we seemed literally in another world – the desert resort of Qasr al Sarab.

Four kilometres into the 120 odd km of the desert Sue experienced a first – blisters! Most of you have seen the pics of her feet after our desert crossing, with these only showing the heels. What you didn’t see was Sue’s display of strength and courage that left Dave, Chris and I often silent in amazement, sometimes tearful in sympathy and always astounded by the mental strength of an individual (I’d say the effectiveness of modern pain killers except they didn’t do squat). Sue ran the last 20km as it was too painful to walk on the her heels and she was heard saying ‘if you were a mob of pricks I would’ve quit ages ago’!!! It made the blokes niggles irrelevant and our determination to help and work together as a team stronger than ever. We know foot care is number one. We all donated some toe nails to the Rub al Kahli desert and put it down to our gaiters letting in sand despite their faultless testing on the beaches in Cairns. Bugger.

As it eventuated, the desert leg was the race decider and locked in our 21^st place. The leader board split into groups of those who claimed 4, 3, 2 or 1 of the optional checkpoints  (2 for us) and with the cancellation of the 130km sea kayak leg there was no opportunity of further place gains – all that paddling in crocodile waters was just for kicks! Still the 33km kayak sprint off Abu Dhabi’s ‘public beach’ was a ball tearer and though knackered we felt our finishing spot of 7^th for the stage was an honest appraisal of where we could have and hope to finish next year!

This is an event on a scale the likes of which you will be hard pressed to find elsewhere. The behind the scenes work force must be massive. The accommodation was five star, the food 6 star and hot showers in the ‘outback’ must’ve been heaven to many. With early starts, late finishes and bus transfers in between, this event felt more like a continuous adventure style race. The unfortunate windy weather and subsequent revision of the kayak leg was a dampener but the rest day did give us a chance to make friends and chat to some of the crew from the 18 countries represented. I imagine next years format is eagerly anticipated by more than just team Giddiup.

Catcha,

Team Giddiup, Struan Lamont, Chris White, Dave Wood, Sue Crowe.

Giddiup (gid ee yup) 1. n colloquial command used to encourage often simple and occassionally stubborn companions (dogs, horses, adventure racing teammates) to get a bit of a move on. 2. n Adventure racing team based in Cairns, Far North Queensland, with an emphasis on keeping racing fun and training adventurous.