The 2010 Geo Quest was held in Port Macquarie four hours’ drive North of Sydney. The logistics of racing overseas are always quite complicated but we are lucky to have the support of Steve Cooper from sleepmonsters.com.au. Not only does he supply us with lightweight Ruahine Adventure Duet kayaks and a vehicle with a trailer but he also is a key member of our support crew. This year we were also lucky enough to have my parents who flew over especially to crew for us.
Our team for this race was myself, Anne Lowerson, Erin Roberts and Marquita Gelderman. Although this was the first overseas race we had done together we had raced together a few times back in New Zealand and had done a reasonable amount of training as a group. As with every race our goal was to race as efficiently and effectively as possible and to give the premier mixed and all male teams a run for their money.
The course was revealed at 3pm on the Friday afternoon so Anne and Marquita then spent the afternoon and early evening plotting the checkpoints and working out route choices, whilst Erin and I sorted out the food, the gear and logistics of transporting gear etc. to the various transitions around the course. The race covered a distance of over 200 kms with around 120kms of mountain biking, 53 kms of kayaking and 53 kms of trekking.
Before we knew it we were lined up on a beach near Kempsey at 8.00am Saturday morning for a 12km ocean paddle with a 500m portage to the first checkpoint. Helmets were compulsory on this paddle which indicated that we could have been in for a surf entry or exit from the paddle. We were more than relieved on arrival at the beach to see that the surf was a mere ripple and although we had to take our helmets with us we did not need to wear them. The kayak leg was beautiful the water was a deep blue colour and the white sandy beaches of the coastline were stunning. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any dolphins or whales which are common in the area. Although there was a bit of swell and chop on this leg we got through with no casualties and all managed to hold onto our breakfast.
The next leg was 13km trek. We had a military like efficient transition thanks to our support crew being super organised and then set off on this leg at a reasonable pace settling in to a light jog. Our efforts paid off and we soon came up behind one of the other NZ teams in the race Team Cartera maps – I think we may have shocked them into action as after a wee chat they scurried off into the dust in front of us. We somehow lost a bit of urgency at the end of this leg and were passed by Team Australian Geographic Outdoor Magazine a team which we then spent the rest of the race playing leap frog with.
The next leg was a river kayak up the Maria River for 12kms, ending at Kundabung. The water was flat arse calm, the scenery was stunning and the paddling was easy. We were given a further boost of confidence as we powered past the half teams paddling up the river in blow up boats supplied by the organisers. The poor people, it must have been so demoralising for them to see us effortlessly glide past in a straight line whilst they zig zagged all over the river at snail’s pace. We tried to console them by commenting that they would be tucked up in bed way before us. I am sure they were cursing us though. This leg finished with a kayak carry and had us thankful that we had boats that weighed 25kg rather than 35 or more as some of the other team’s craft did.
Once again we had a fairly slick transition after this leg and we fired off into the mountain bike full of enthusiasm as it tends to be our team’s strongest discipline. The 40km MTB started in state forest near Smiths Creek and headed up towards the Kumbatine National Park. We made a bit of a booboo on this leg and cycled passed the checkpoint which lost us a bit of time but overall we made good progress enjoying the thrills of hurtling downhill through the Aussie bush and pushing ourselves a bit on the ups and flats. We knew that the sooner we got to the next leg the better it would be as we wanted to complete the canyoning leg in daylight if we could.
Once off the bikes we donned our wetsuits, had a quick feed of hot two minute noodles and made sure we had plenty of warm clothes before heading off for the canyoning leg in water which was reported to be around 9 degrees Celsius. Brrr!! Lucky for us we got through this leg just as night fell and thanks to Marquita only one of us (her) had to get completely wet – you rock Marquita !! The fire at the end of transition was a godsend and we huddled around it whilst changing into warm dry gear before heading of onto the mystery activity which was a flying fox across the river. The flying fox looked heaps of fun as the teams ahead of us went screaming across the river; unfortunately as we are all lightweights we didn’t carry as much speed and almost had to will ourselves across the last few metres.
Once on terra firma again we were faced with taking a compass bearing and heading directly up a large hill. It was a perfect way to warm Marquita up after her heroic swims up the canyon. We attacked this leg with gusto and made pretty good progress with Marquita leading the way and the rest of us checking her direction with our compasses and doing our best not to lose her in the thick bush. It was pretty rugged country and a pretty hard out bush bash through prickly Lantana and thick undergrowth. We had our ups and downs on this leg making a couple of reasonably serious errors which had has bushbashing in dense undergrowth for no reason and later heading the wrong way up an unmarked road. But we also made some very impressive route choices and nailed a couple of checkpoints other teams appeared to be struggling with. We were pretty happy to finally find our way out to the road and to the next transition which was unsupported. Unfortunately Erin suffered a bit of blister damage to her feet on this leg – not a pretty sight.
By now it was the middle of the night and absolutely freezing. Our map boards were covered in ice and we had to put all our compulsory gear on to stay warm. As we cycled out of transition into the night air for the 40km mountain bike leg ahead of us we were forced to stop and put on our dishwashing gloves as our hands were frozen solid and we couldn’t feel our brakes or gear levers. It was enough to bring tears to our eyes. We looked a bit odd with pink and yellow rubber gloves but boy did it make a difference. This leg was reasonably navigationally challenging with numerous small tracks created by cyclists and 4WDs not marked on the maps. But with Marquita at the helm we managed to get through reasonably unscathed. The single track downhill ride into the next transition was primo – yehah!! We rolled into the next transition around 8.00am. Unfortunately, somehow we lost a bit of focus here and did a bit of a faff in transition – must have been the lack of sleep setting in. …
Ahead of us lay our third and final paddle from Telegraph Point to Wauchope. This 29km river paddle was to be the longest of the paddle legs it also included a 1 km portage to cut off a large 5 km bend in the river. Once again we were thankful for the lighter kayaks as we steamed passed Team Australian Geographic Outdoor Magazine who had much heavier boats but trolleys to help with the portages. We had spent most of the race duelling with these guys so it was a cool feeling to get the jump on them. The paddle was long and tough and we were all moaning of sore bums and shoulders. We were all pretty relieved to see the finish of this leg in sight and keen to get back onto the bikes. We were keen to get out of the boats so quickly beached ourselves on the first sandy beach about 50m passed the bridge as our instructions stated and dragged our boats up the bank. We were shocked to find that we were actually 100 metres too early and were forced to take the boats back to the water get back in and paddle another 100 meters or so to the actual get out point where the marshalls were. Here we were stung a 2 hour penalty for not having our glow sticks attached to the boat.. Doh.. We should have known better… we should have read the rules…. !!!! Silly girls !!
This next bike leg which took us through Broken Bago State Forest and Bago Bluff National Park allowed us to split up into two groups. Marquita and Erin set off in one direction and Anne and I in another. We then regrouped at the top of a massive hill that had us hiking our bikes and basically rock climbing with our bikes on our backs. Perhaps not our best route choice and not quite our idea of fun but I guess that is all part of the adventure. This kind of terrain and activity was particularly no fun for Erin and her blisters. Ouch. The ride off the top down to sea level and the start of the final trek was awesome. Once again we had the odd mishap with route finding but overall managed to make reasonable progress and rolled into the final transition just after dark. Thanks Mum for the awesome avocado sandwiches they were delicious.
The final leg involved a scenic coastal trek along the beach from Lake Cathie around Nobby Head and into Port Macquarie. It was absolutely stunning even in the dark. For some reason we lost momentum here and allowed ourselves to be passed once again by the boys from Team Australian Geographic Outdoor Magazine who we had been duelling with for the entire race. This is something that we are kicking ourselves for letting happen and something that we will be working on in future races.
Wow what a race!!! We finished in a time of 36 hours 8th overall just behind the boys and won the all-female category for the fourth year in a row. A huge thanks to Steve Cooper and Mum and Dad for pampering us for 48 hours non-stop. Thanks also to Macpac for providing us with good quality gear that kept us warm even in freezing temperatures.
For results, reports and photos go to: www.geocentricoutdoors.com.au/geoquest/
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