Race Report XPD 2013 South Australia

 

This year's XPD adventure race promised to be something special due to the outback location and the inclusion of a 50 km trek across a salt lake - it didn't fail to deliver and we were constantly blown away by the places we went and the things we saw.

The race started in Arkaroola on top of a hill with views showcasing the true nature of the Aussie outback with miles and miles of nothingness in all directions. It was an extremely emotional start as we reflected on the deaths of two Japanese adventure racers who had lost their lives whilst training for the XPD. This was a very poignant occasion and made us really appreciate how fortunate we are to be able to participate in this sport.

After the whole field counted down to the start, we were off, hearts racing and smiles a mile wide. It had been a big build up to the start and we were more than ready to let our journey begin and focus on the business of conquering the course and getting into our team bubble. The first leg was a 29 km trek with a rogaine to start followed by a trek along the Arkaroola Creek through the Tillite Gorge. It was stinking hot, rough and dry underfoot and the flies were quick to make their presence felt. Luckily we had had the forethought to bring fly nets with us so were able to hide under those - although at times they did make it hard to eat, drink and see. We made steady progress through this leg stopping only to cool ourselves in the few stagnant waterholes along the way.  At these pools we took our shirts, hats and buffs off, soaked them in the water and then put them back on in an attempt to control our temperatures in the searing 34 degree heat. We also filled our drink bottles with water to pour on ourselves between pools, as our clothing was crispy dry within minutes and it didn’t take long for us to heat up again. We were extremely conservative on this leg ensuring that we were all working well within our limits and were not risking pushing ourselves too early on. At one point we were running low on water and were forced to get water out of a waterhole that had a dead wallaby at its head. We doubled the dose of our purification tablets, washed the water down with a GU gel chaser and prayed that we wouldn't get sick. After about 9 hours on the trot we stumbled into transition keen to get out on the first bike leg as soon as possible. We felt as if we'd just completed a 24 hour trek the conditions were so brutal. Anne had struggled a bit with the heat on this leg so rested in the shade in the TA while the rest of the team put the bikes together and got the water and food ready for the next leg.

Leg 2 was a 48 kilometre mountain bike across Wooltana Station. We were pretty stoked to be on our bikes and heading into the coolness of the night. We moved efficiently and with purpose on this leg. That was until the tracks we were on continued to peter out. On one particularly frustrating occasion the track we were on started to head completely in the wrong direction. We were forced to travel cross-country back and forth over thorn infested terrain, looking for a track heading in the right direction. Thank god for the CYCO boys who had set us up with tubeless tyres as after this foray we all spent 10 minutes pulling thorns out of our tyres. After what seemed an age, we finally stumbled on the correct track and regained our momentum. Unfortunately,  just a few kms from the TA we became unstuck again due to the tracks we were following going nowhere. We then spent a fair amount of time backtracking and roaming about aimlessly. The frustrating thing was we could see the lights of the TA but didn't seem to be able to get there on a track. Finally, we decided to head cross country and made a beeline for the TA. It was amazing to see the lights of other team all converging on TA from different directions.

We were in our happy place at TA and intrigued about what leg 3, the 50 km trek across Lake Frome, had in store for us. This leg was the main reason we were so excited about this event. How many people get to say they have trekked across a salt lake for a half night and a day? After loading up with over 7 litres of water each we headed out of transition just behind Team Mawson and followed signs to Lake Frome. Anne was a little concerned that the road we were on was different from the map but we kept going. After around half an hour of road walking we found ourselves at the edge of the lake. Being on the salt lake even in the dark was mesmerizing and we took some time out to take in the beauty of the stars, moon and lake spread out in front of us. Anne and Sakkie then tried to get to grips with where we were and work out the bearing that would take us through the night to the next CP. It was all a bit surreal but we knew we just had to trust the compass and keep on walking through the night.


We headed off into the night across the lake ensuring two people were focussed on the compass at all times and that we were not veering off course. In order to keep awake we played word games, sang and told jokes. Our plan had always been to push through the night but in this case we were even more determined to make good progress during the cool of the night as we were well aware of the fact that there was nowhere to hide on the lake in the heat of the day. Sunrise was particularly magical and we all went nuts with our cameras as the lake and its surrounding land masses and islands came into view. Although it was harsh on our feet and tough on our minds we were all blown away by the size and beauty of the white lake against the blue sky. Sunrise brought with it new challenges for Anne as she struggled to identify the landscape around us which was distorted due to the shimmering salt. It was near impossible to discern distances and shapes. However, it confirmed that the point we had taken our bearing from was not the point we had thought it was on the map. This meant that over the past 30 kms of walking we had been angling in slightly the wrong direction. In hindsight we should have taken the bearing directly from the TA. We quickly readjusted our course and managed to nail the CP without wasting too much time. Once again a number of teams converged on the CP all at once. It was crazy given we hadn't really been aware of any teams around us all night and a bit annoying as they were invading our team bubble.

After collecting the CP things got a bit brutal; the flies arrived on mass, the lake looked like it would never end, our feet were hurting due to the abrasiveness of the salt, the heat began to intensify and the excitement and initial thrill and adrenaline rush of being on the lake had well and truely worn off. It was now a battle of the mind as we still had 20 kms of monotonous slog to go. We each retreated into our own headspace and personal bubbles in order to manage our own demons. Conversation was sparse and all our energies were honed in on getting off the lake. To add to our frustration, not long after the CP we were faced with a sea of water, it was impossible to decipher how deep or wide the water was so we were forced to follow around the edge of it until we could see a way across. This detour was extremely frustrating as it threw us off our compass bearing and meant we were forced to travel further than we wanted. Also our feet were now soaking wet and our shoes were full of salty, silty water. We were most definitely not in our happy place at this point. Luckily, we saw a couple of teams ahead cutting through the water and we realised the water wasn’t deep at all so decided to cut the detour short and make a beeline for the lake edge.  After what seemed a lifetime we found ourselves back on dry land, but our elation at having achieved this turned to despair as we hadn’t hit the lake where we had wanted to and the 1:150,000 maps gave us little detail to use to work out where we were. Our feet were screaming for us to get off them and the heat and flies were driving us to craziness but once Anne had got her bearings by using the shape of the lake edge we pushed on and made our way in the right direction towards the TA. After 2 hours or so and a quick 5 minute sit down we found ourselves in the safety and comfort of the TA.

We were so happy to be in TA and so exhausted from our 16 hour or so brutal mission on the lake, we decided to collapse in the shade and grab a breather for thirty minutes before heading out on the next leg. Talk about a bad decision! There were other teams around asking questions, media wanting photos and flies wanting to get in every crevasse of our bodies. Arrgghhh!! This wasn't exactly what we needed and not conducive to sleep. We made a call at this point never to attempt to sleep in a TA again. Before long we were packed up and back on our bikes, just after dusk.

Leg four was a 90km mountain bike leg to Wirrealpa. Once again we were stoked to be riding our bikes through the night. The second bike leg was generally easy going with straight forward navigation but we overshot CP10 because there was a map overlap at this point and the first map was lacking in detail. Luckily, after a chat with Team Mawson we realised that the second map, which was a different scale, had way more features on it so we were then able to backtrack to the CP.  Our sleep strategy had always been to push through the first night and then sleep for 2 hours on the second night. At some stage on this leg we all became a bit sleepy so decided to take our first nap of the race. We found what we thought was a sheltered knob in amongst the shrubbery and huddled down for a 2 hour kip. Unfortunately after an hour and a half or so the wind picked up considerably and we awoke to find ourselves sleeping on an exposed mound, shivering and cold. It didn't take long for us to get up and back on the bikes again in order to warm up. Let’s just say I wasn't the most popular team captain at that point as I had chosen the sleeping spot. There were more than a few loose comments bandied about the team that the standard of accommodation was less than satisfactory.

Once again we were back in TA after around 10 hours on the bikes and we were pretty happy with how things were coming together. We were stunned to find ourselves now in third place. How did that happen? Our conversation went something like this: “Shit we are in third place. Do we change our strategy from beating the course and doing our own thing or do we start focussing on racing other teams?”  It was a dilemma we'd never been faced with before but a nice dilemma to have. We decided to stick to our knitting and continue to focus on beating the course and looking after each other as we knew we still had a hell of a long way to go.

The third trek leg, which was 36 kms through Angorichina Station, is what we do this sport for. It was an awesome navigational challenge and the type of terrain we are most at home in. Finding a smooth route across the valleys and through the chain of high points was awesome. We were able to stick to our planned route and accurately attack each CP.  
The heat was once again oppressive in the valleys and pushed us to our limits of heat tolerance but the scenery, flora and the wildlife made up for it. We had sightings of emu, kangaroos, lizards and goats. We even spotted a lone emu egg hidden safely under a tree. During this stage we came across a stash of water and coke that the organisers had dropped under a tree.

Talk about a buzz, we were like little kids at a birthday party. There was singing, dancing and a lot of giggling. The water was a godsend as we were able to make up our Absolute Wilderness dehydrated food sachets and enjoyed a feast of banana smoothies and bacon mash. After reaching CP15 things came a bit unstuck when the camera crew asked us to walk towards them away from the direction Anne wanted to travel. Once we had done this she struggled to re-orientate, getting put off by some power poles in the distance and we all got a bit discombobulated - this was a low point for the team as we struggled to regain composure and support each other. After a bit of thinking Anne finally got us heading in the right direction to the airstrip. From here it should have been an easy bearing to the next CP but somehow we ended up on the wrong high point. Sakkie stepped in and took the map and got us back on track to the next CP and into transition. Once again our goal was to move efficiently through the transition. We were now in 2^nd place and were pretty focussed. We even turned down the opportunity to buy hot pizzas and merrily chomped away on our tuna wraps.

Before too long we were back on our bikes for leg 6, a 68 km ride to Wilpena through the Heysen Range. This is where things didn’t exactly go according to plan. We were riding along the tarseal about 10kms into leg 6, it was dark and we were going at a fair pace. A few minutes earlier a kangaroo had hopped across in front of us which sent out warning signals. Just as I was about to voice my concerns to the team about how dangerous it was, I noticed a blur from the right hand side of the road. I slammed on my brakes and tried to avoid it but a kangaroo smacked directly into me. The next thing I knew I was flat on my face in the middle of the road with the kangaroo not too far from me trying to stagger to its feet. Anne was the first to reach me and saw the roo get back on its feet and limp off into the bushes.  Emma and Sakkie arrived and the team assessed me and my Trek Superfly bike thoroughly. The damage seemed relatively minor and although my thumb was extremely sore there was no other visible damage so we carried on riding. I was pretty shaken and struggled to ride at speed as I was petrified it would happen again. Somehow my team mates coaxed me into riding a bit faster. Luckily we turned off the main road so I could relax a bit more. At the turnoff Emma taped my quickly swelling hand, squeezed it  back into my cycling glove, forced some pain killers down me and handed me the HTFU (harden the f.... up) bracelet. At this point Team Pharos came through and passed us. They stopped to give us some panadol and moved off into the night in front of us. We were a bit gutted at having lost a place because of a bloody roo, but continued this leg at our own pace. I was particularly angry at what had happened as was the entire team so we took our aggression out on the course and rode pretty hard for the next 50km. This leg ended with an awesome single track that had us all in good spirits as we rode into the transition at Wilpena.

Once again we found ourselves back in 2^nd place and wondered what had happened to Team Pharos. We were keen to keep urgency so moved through transition with purpose. The thought of getting back on our feet was painful but we sucked it up and headed out onto the trek around Wilpena Pound.  As we were leaving we were stoked to see the Bivouac Colts heading into transition just behind us, which meant that Dayne had obviously recovered. The trek was a little tedious in the dark as we couldn’t see the real beauty of the pound.  After a few hours we decided to take a 20 minute power nap and headed into the shrubs just off the track. Whilst we were resting the Bivouac Colts cruised past us singing and telling jokes as they went.  Luckily, the sun came up just as we hit the final CP of the trek, which was a lookout, and we were treated to spectacular views of the area.

 We crossed paths with Bivouac Colts again here and met Team Pharos at the CP. We were surprised to see Team Pharos so soon but apparently they had made a mistake and were collecting the CPs in the wrong order.

We headed out of Wilpena Pound ready to take on the next leg and hoping the heat wasn’t going to be too harsh on us. We were pushing ourselves here as this was the second last leg before midcamp and a 6 hour rest.  First, there was the ropes section to get to which was 14 kms around the east side of the Pound. The ride was pretty straight forward with mind blowing scenery and it didn’t take us long to roll into the TA. Once at TA we then had a long hot steep 2.5 km trek up to the ropes. We spent the whole walk scanning the cliffs for ropes and trying to work out where we would be climbing. It was cool to see the Biovuac Colts heading down off the ropes, they were all totally amped and it gave us confidence to know they had all had an amazing time up there. We were all a bit anxious but on arriving at the site took it in our stride. Emma who is scared of heights went first, then Sakkie then me then Anne – yo yo yo it was incredible – a 100 metre jumar up a sheer cliff face, the colours were awesome. I was a little apprehensive about my hand but managed to ignore the pain. On the way down we were put on a controlled flying fox back to where we had started the climb – it was incredible and we were all able to sit back and enjoy the view. The buzz from the climb meant our walk back to the bikes was full of adrenaline fuelled jokes and the usual ramblings of the sleep deprived.

Back on the bikes we got down to the business of completing Leg 9, a 54 km ride to midcamp. It was as hot as a hot thing with flies galore and we were stoked to find a water tank with a tap in the middle of nowhere. Bliss!! We all went crazy soaking ourselves from head to toe – anyone would have thought we had never seen water before. After our dousing in cold water we were all in better spirits and attacked the steep as track up the gap through the Chace Range with gusto. I couldn’t ride the rough stuff with my hand so we all hooked up our tow lines and moved up the steep terrain as a team caterpillar. Unfortunately, I couldn’t enjoy the descent either but again the team pulled together and worked to get my bike down the rough track. At the base of the descent we went too far left and got a bit confused as to exactly where we were. We faffed around in the fields a bit riding all over the show but were soon back on track and managed to locate the last CP of the leg. From here we hooned towards the town of Hawker and midcamp, appreciating the colours of the sunset and the onset of dusk.  To our great surprise a couple were out in front of their house and gave us a clap and a cheer. How nice it was to see people!

Talk about perfect timing, it would have been hell arriving at midcamp in the middle of the day and trying to sleep in the hot tents. For us midcamp was absolute bliss – food – showers – blogging - packing and prepping then SLEEP. We were sooooo happy to be there and to be able to get around 3.30 hours kip.  I had a bit of a stressful sleep and woke up during the night convinced that we had put all the gear in the wrong bins and that our race was stuffed.  Luckily, it was just a nightmare and Anne managed to talk me out of my panicked state!

All too soon it was midnight and we were back on the bikes and off on the 155km ride through to Wilmington.

 This was a great leg for us as we flew along the smooth flat roads in the dark of night. We had a few enjoyable stops on the way where we chatted, took photos, shared salami and snacks and had some good laughs. At one point we all got excited as we rolled into our first town of the race during the day. We all had visions of sculling cold chocolate milk … but to our extreme disappointment nothing was open. We needed water so knocked on the door of the town’s retirement village – thank god for old people who wake up early!  After making our own GU recovery chocolate smoothies we headed up the road to the next TA. We hadn’t seen any other teams in transition apart from Bivouac Colts so we knew we had a bit of a buffer to 4^th place.  We rolled into the next TA just before midday just as the sun was heating up.
 

Wow!  This trek was officially the last trek! We were stoked to know this was the last time we would have to stuff our sore swollen feet into our shoes. We couldn’t wait to get through it. After a feed of hot soup, some Absolute Wilderness kumara mash (nom nom) and a hot chocolate we headed out into the heat of the day. Our first stop out of transition was at a shop for the much talked about and anticipated lemonade ice block – so good!  Just down the road we met the Nothin But Shorts film crew and posed for some photos while walking through some yellow fields. After several painful kms on the road in the sun we headed into the bush and into the trek proper. On the way to the first CP we decided to bush bash up a creek instead of climbing up a big hill. We are not sure if it paid off but I got the shock of my life as I realised I was following a big brown snake up the creek – I may have screamed!  At this stage we had been pushing quite hard in terms of not sleeping as we knew that we would probably get a full 10 hours overnight during the paddle. We were also trying to think strategically as we knew that teams ahead may be forced to wait out the night and we may be able to catch up to them. We were also aware teams behind may get the chance to catch us! We hadn’t slept for a while so it came as no surprise that things started to get a bit hazy on this leg and our team started to come apart a bit at the seams. Some of us were pushing for more urgency, while some of us were suffering from sore feet and sleep deprivation. Our lines of communication weren’t working effectively. At one point we missed the turn off to a CP and had to back track a few kms.

This was demoralising and put us all in a bad frame of mind – especially Anne who was kicking herself for not reading the map more thoroughly. We then missed the CP for a 2^nd time and were forced to retrace our steps back down a hill. After eventually locating the CP, which was off to the side of the track, we were back on track but the team dynamics were at an all time low with all of us struggling to come together. We plodded on up some really steep inclines in the wind and cold and finally made the call to find a sheltered spot and take a 20 minute kip. On waking up we made a beeline towards the next CP which we found with relative ease. However, on the way to the last CP of the trek we were once again off our game and lost our togetherness.  We were following a clear track but it petered out and I questioned where we were. My questioning of Anne caused confusion and we ended up back tracking and taking a bearing and ending up back in the same place. We were petrified of going into the out of bounds area in the dark so decided to descend down into a steep gully earlier than we should have. We then decided to head up the other side and attempt to dissect the track to the right but soon found ourselves surrounded by dense bush. As sunrise was only a couple of hours away we made the call to bed down until the sun came up.  It was a blustery sleep on a rocky steep slope but somehow we all slept soundly in a pretty impressive display of team spooning. On waking up at sunrise we checked our messages from the race officials to learn that the kayak had been cancelled. We were stunned and had mixed emotions, we were partly gutted but also partly relieved. It felt liked we’d been ripped off but we were also excited to know the finish was one bike ride away. Anyway it was back to business as Anne and Sakkie relocated and we headed into the bush to bash our way to the summit of Mt Remarkable. What a feeling to get the CP and start the descent to the transition and the last bike ride home to the finish. Spirits were high as we made our way off the mountain. We thought it would be an easy descent but it was a long hard slog along a never ending rough and rocking track that really pushed our sore blistered feet to the limits.

 

Yay!  We had made it to the last TA of the race and found ourselves in a town with people – it was a huge shock to the system. We ordered hot chocolates at the local bike shop and scoffed a pie and sauce – Mmmm pies never tasted so good. For the last time we mounted our bikes and headed off on the final  60km ride back to HQ and the finish line. The problem was we were riding into what felt like a 100 km headwind. Once again we pulled together as a team attempting light banter to take away the pain of the headwind. Anne was suffering from sleep monsters here and spent some time weaving over the road. So we used Sakkie as a wind shield and Emma put Anne on the tow to keep pace. We pulled into a garage in Wilmington and skulled a couple of litres of coke and spent some time out of the wind and heat. The finish took forever to reach and we seemed to skirt around Port Augusta for hours and we spent what felt like half an hour waiting for the longest train in the world to pass! Finally, the finish line was in sight. Wow!  We had achieved our goals of beating the course, managed a third place and finished in good spirits. What an achievement!

Thanks to my teammates – for our first race together we should be very proud. Thanks to our sponsors CYCO bike shop, GU Energy NZ ,  Absolute Wilderness Foods and Gloworm lights. We couldn’t do this sport without you. Thanks to our supporters for your facebook messages and trail mail. Thanks also to the race organisers Craig and Louise – your events are second to none.