georges River a Challenge

By Tony Carr

We’d obviously missed the checkpoint.

“It’s on the bridge,” yelled my paddling partner, neck deep in swamp water, clutching his boat with one arm and pointing towards the bridge with the other. My boat was wedged between a log and the bank in the narrow creek, so I figured it would be a good time for us both to vacate the mosquito-infested salt marsh, scale the steep and greasy bank and bush bash our way through thick scrub to the bridge. Got there just as the thunderstorm hit …

Adventure racing is fun!

Meantime, those who knew what they were doing, like Lane Cove’s Matt Blundell and his doubles partner Mike Snell blitzed the field to win the Max Adventure Challenge on the Georges River on February 3rd. They scored a perfect 550 points, cleared all 24 checkpoints and did it in just over 3 hours 57 minutes, well ahead of all other competitors and an hour ahead of the time limit of 5 hours. It was a great day, helped along by the professionalism of Gary Farebrother and his Maximum Adventure team, who put the 100 plus paddlers through their paces in quick smart fashion. One nice touch was the availability of rental boats, which encouraged a lot of people who wouldn’t otherwise have taken part to give it a go. This is the way to grow a sport.

Paddlers gathered at the delightfully named Cattle Duffers Flat in the Georges River National Park – an ideal location for a 5-hour race that combined paddling with orienteering. The river twists and turns, has lots of tricky creeks and inlets, with bush tracks on either side.

Gary has plans for lots more events like this. Keep an eye out for them and get involved. Just don’t forget the Aerogard!