Sorry been a bit quiet on the blogging, too busy getting lost/cold the past 36 hrs...

It's been an epic second leg but we somehow managed to finish ranked but unfortunately I wasn't able to be asleep by the second sunrise! next year...

A leg involved a 3 hr paddle from Forster to the highway followed by a long bike ride through the Wang Wung to Bulladelah, on foot up and over the mountains behind Bulladelah with a rock climb thrown in for good measure, the adventure gain took us almost 16 hours to complete.

Once we found the TA, we built a raft and paddled the bath tub for another 4 hours including a portage. Still freezing and in our wet clothes we headed off on an epic kayak leg of 22 km including a 3km portage of the heavy 30kg boats to get into Smiths lake.

Setting off from Smiths lake we swam/tubed over to the beach and headed north towards the finish in the early hours of Monday morning, the breeze was up and Luke started to get cold. By the time we were out of the wind Luke was looking fairly bad, unable to talk, move more than a shuffle pace. Fearing the worst we were prepared to call the Search and Rescue team when we next crossed near a road but somehow Luke pulled it together and 20 minutes before Blueys beach he picked up and starting talking and interacting with us again. Not long after the sun rose and we had an excellent run into the Sailing club just south of Forster.

Pulling out of the sailing club in the boat, with just a few minutes on another team with a few gun paddlers, we managed to hold them all the way the Forster Tunncurry bridge and to the finish line.

All in all a great race, we finished, but only just. We had some issues which slowed us down but we got there in the end. Just finishing the race and the wrong end of the field placed us 20th amongst 31 teams, Adventure Racing traditionally has a very high attrition rate.

Full race report to follow shortly, check in soon.

Finishing team including our 'Fully Rad' (thanks Graz) support crew.

Luke and AOB

Leg 1 Satellite Log

Here is the latest GPS log.... see the link to the right to get the most update to date position.

Unfortunate News

We have a 3hr compulsory break, so a good time to get a blog in.

Some unfortunate news from the trail, Andrew Renwick has a confirm collar bone break and is resting up at Gloucster Hospital.

We arrived on the scene shortly after, he took a tumble over the top of the handlebars and then was run over by someone following close behind.

Team Ozwinereview.com spen half an hour helping out where we could until Serach and Rescue arrived.

Kudos goes to team Outdoor Australia, they continued on and we have see them several times on the trail.

The first 8 hours or so we comprised of a mountain bike from Barrington tops down to Gloucster and rogain throw in the middle for good measure.

Tsalina is wheezing a little on the hills and to quote "Graz is feeling great, 2 out 10 on the hardness scale, I'm just so raaaaad!!"

Maps have been delivered!

We have just received the maps.

A whooping 270,000 hectares of maps covering between Barrington Tops and Foster!!

the morning before

This time tomorrow we would have already raced for 1.5hrs, but for now, i listen to 3.5kg of potatoes boiling and squabble with luke about the mechanics of a throwbag and whether a little orange flag tied to rope constitutes to one.

It is a beautiful calm and joyous morning, which somewhat masks and air of anticipation and excitement of the team and the questions we continually ask ourselves. Will we start with a rafting leg? The whitewater section will be unsupported. It'll be a long long paddle home on the 2nd night. Barrington Tops is just 1 massive hill connected to another. Either way I'm so excited! This is going to be so fun!

All around us is lots of expensive and shiny gear, boats, bikes, technical clothes, all soon going to be the same colour in a days time. It's going to be muddy out there!!! Some of the best races I've had involved playing in the rain and the mud with friends.

Missing gear to date - and we haven't even started!

AOB - bento box, red glove, kayak compass, bike computer

Graz - dog leash ordered 3 weeks ago

Tsal - pogies & gaitors

Luke - pogies

Team - 1 mandatory compass

We have lots to do between now and midday when the competency tests start

- fit mandatory gear into boat

- fix rudder of boat

- make sure our bikes work

- afix lights onto bikes

Even tho' we've been planning and strategising for weeks and weeks, i wish we were more organised!!!

Tsalina

Geoquest Live Site Announced

http://www.geocentricoutdoors.com.au/geoquest/race09/geo_live_09_site/course.htm

Team ozwinereview.com

Team ozwinereview.com - From left to right - Andrew Graham (me), Tsalina Phang, Luke Su, Andrew O'Brien. In background you can also see our racing skis - Force Field & Big Blue

Whilst not wading through wine samples of verticals of classified growths (A daily occurrence :)), I manage to sneak in a bit of sport. One of my sports of choice is Adventure Racing - a foolhardy pursuit, involving multiple disciplines and often spread over several days, further heightened by the challenges of navigation, through wild environs & in increasingly remote places.

Its been called the greatest sport on earth (though every sport seems to claim that tag) and suffice to say I'm a believer...

So anyway, the June long weekend annually hosts one of the biggest (& most challenging) events on the Australian Adventure Racing Calendar - The Mountain Designs Geoquest 48hr race. Set in a different location every year (usually somewhere on the NSW North Coast), it pits teams of 4 against the elements for 48 nonstop hours (though the winners come in closer to 30 hours), combining mountain biking, running/trekking & kayaking plus assorted random disciplines (this year it is rafting - including building the raft) & all with intensive navigation required.

In 2009 the race is based in Forster, on the NSW mid north coast, with teams expected to make their way to the beautiful Barrington Tops during the race, but with skant other details given until maps are handed out 15 hrs before the race starts. The race is supported, with each team having a small posse of support crew to help both transport gear from transition to transition & also to facilitate the removal of wet booties at 4am at some random transition point in the middle of the bush. Outside of transitions however, teams are absolutely on their own, guided only by a topographical map and a compass.

Practising Raft Building (and we are still afloat!).

Racing Geoquest has become a semi annual event for our group of friends, with a few of my teammates this year notching up their third time around in one capacity or another. Three of us have raced together before and have good results before, with a second placing in the Red Yeti 36hr Race a few years ago, but otherwise this will be our first Geoquest with this lineup.
Suffice to say we are under no illusions as to how well we will go, but are keen to crack the 45 hours mark and come in feeling good.

As you can imagine, Adventure Racing is an obscenely expensive sport, with an entry cost of hundreds of dollars a person, coupled with the stupid amounts of high tech ultra light gear, bikes, lights, jackets, kayaks & liquid food required. In this fashion, many teams get corporate sponsorships to help pay for (at least) the entry costs, or approach appropriate companies to access reduced prices on gear & nutrition.

This year our team is sponsored by me, or at least ozwinereview.com. In return for the naming rights for the team, I negotiated to give the team Stickers. They asked for money, tubs of Heed & new Linebreaks and I explained to them that they would only get 'good' items if we started winning and/or if the website was rebuilt into an online gambling site. Luckily the stickers look really good so the team is happy (or at least they have no better option at this stage).

So this weekend (race starts early am Sat 6th June, finishes Monday 8th June) if you have a quiet moment, do check out the Geoquest website and follow the prompts to the live site (I'll post the live site URL later in the week) so you can watch our progress through the race, read the live commentary & check out the pictures.

As the late Big Kev would say, I'm Excited.

Our team bio pic incorporating half of the awesome sticker design

By Andrew Graham