Catch of the Day….

Ive caught a fish, ive caught a fish, these were the words all of a sudden echoing from the front of the craft, I thought we were in an Adventure Race, well we were, and no I hadn't fallen asleep, and I wasn't dreaming about a fishing trip. The last time I caught a fish was about 20 years ago, and I was happy to leave it at that.

It was some ungodly hour of the morning, somewhere between two and 3am we were in the middle of a lake surrounded by a featureless horizon, no moon and we were looking for Checkpoints in the Maximum Adventure Kathmandu 24hr Race, and we had just caught a fish !!!! more like the fish had just caught us, and this hadn't been our only run in with wildlife.

So how did we find ourselves in this position, due to work commitments Mike and I found ourselves as the remaining team mates from our original team of four (Team SleepMonsters.com.au) in the Kathmandu Max 24hr.

Adventure Racing involves people getting outside and enjoying parts of the country you may not regularly get into, while challenging yourselves physically and mentally quite often in a team situation, it also has a habit of bringing you a bit closer to nature on occasions. This race was certainly no different.

Race HQ was Bendalong Tourist Park on the NSW South Coast, an area fringed by clear tidal lakes, lush forest and as we would find out plenty of hills.

We had woken at 3.30am, I didn't even think I had fallen asleep, but the wind outside was threatening to blow the windows of the house in, it soon died off and no sooner it was time to get up have a quick bite to eat and get going, pack the car, off to the bike/box drop at Murray's Farm near Fisherman's Paradise, thankfully Mike had done all the prep work for he race, he had the maps marked out, food sorted and all that was left for me was sort out my gear and some specific personal tucker.

Arriving at HQ it wasn't long and we were lining up on the start line with 100 other like minded competitors, we had already checked out the route to the beach to save any confusion. Alas it didn't, The first leg (run, coasteer/swim) took us onto the beach and down to Lake Conjola via a couple of Checkpoints (CPs), route choice was up to us and after the 1st CP picked up the road and headed for the next, after a brief error and discovering we were looking down onto the CP and the rest of the field it was onto Lake Conjola Tourist Park, a brief swim had us crossing the channel, an incoming tide helped the field here and soon enough the competitors were launching there Voyager twos onto the clear waters of Lake Conjola.

Fifty plus craft made their way to Murrays Farm where earlier bikes and a gear box had been deposited, once there teams unpacked cycling gear, food and water for the MTB which would now take them up onto the escarpment via Martins Ridge Rd.

Now we found ourselves climbing, a couple more CPs and then the serious hill started with the climb up to the Lookout, luckily bitumen road, the leaders where already making strong headway and by now were into the abseil. Once at the top we traversed the plateau to the carpark and the next Transition Area (TA). Again a gear box was to be found which earlier had been left at HQ and was to be transported by the organizers to a couple of key points, this being one of them, great more food and a change of clothes for the Trek leg.

First we had to get to the abseil, this would deposit us off Florence Head, a brisk walk/run and we soon found ourselves admiring the spectacular view out towards Pigeon House Mountain. However it did seem our presence was none to welcome certainly in the resident Peregrine Falcons mind anyway, it seemed that these rocky crags where her own and the screeches certainly voiced that. No sooner were we hooked into the abseil, we were dropped into the forest some 30 - 40m below.

Off the rope and it was down, down, down through the undergrowth and via couple of trails, noting the orange tape which indicated our return route up the escarpment. At this point the leaders were heading back up, they had been out about two hours thirty minutes. It was roughly 16km and most of it on fire trails, the added bonus in this team was some local knowledge, however on inspection of the maps the night before the 1 CP that stuck out as putting a cat amongst the pigeons was CP 7, we missed the initial turn, as we were looking for a four wheel drive track, it was actually a motor bike track, after circumnavigating the knoll and taking another couple of teams with us, we picked the ridge out we would ascend to the top, it certainly paid to stay on the ridge as off each side lawyer vine and thicker undergrowth slowed the pace. Eventually we picked the precarious route to the top and retuned to the bottom having found the CP and headed back up the fire trail.

Having already crossed paths with a sizeable red bellied black snake on the MTB earlier, Mike certainly had his wits about him, I didn't, next thing I knew Mike was screaming out my name, I didn't know what to think and almost dropped to the ground in shock, unfortunately this was the same place a rather large brown coloured snake was, Mike later informed me after the snake had slithered into the bush that it had stopped and was prepared to stand its ground, I can only guess upon seeing the size of its opponents thought otherwise. We continued on picking up the remaining CPs, descending considerably and dreading the return as every step down was a step up. Finally it was back up to the orange tape and amazingly the return trip seemed shorter. Our route up the escarpment traversed the cliff bottom before making its way up through boulders and gullies, before emerging back at the top, another couple of km and we were back at the TA.

More food, refill the water bottles after all we had been out for around 5 hrs, and I had gone through 3 litres. We packed our remaining food in our packs and we were off again, competitors were in for about 50kms on their MTBs, the terrain initially looked like a plateau with a good downhill at the end, thankfully, the wind that had been picking up as the night wore on was W, SW and didn't worry us to much. We caught up to a team of 4 and had a brief chat, one of the boys informed us of his close encounter of a furry kind, he had been riding in darkness with only his bike lights for visibility when a bat had taken a shining to him and landed on his arm, I did sense that the bat wasn't as surprised as the rider, it soon left but certainly not without leaving a lasting memory. I had seen many of these little critters in the light of our bike lights which no doubt attracted their foods source. It wasn't long before we came across the unfortunate victim of another close encounter with man, this time the poor wombat was a lot worse off, and only reminded us how cautious you have to be traveling dirt roads. We crossed the top of the plateau but the hills albeit small were adding to the toll already taken in the run leg, and I was heading downhill fast, and not literally. I had to stop, and what seemed like a 15min break I was informed had been closer to an hour, enabling Mike to put some warm gear on.

Rolling again and finally down hill as we left the former armament range of Tianjara behind and headed down from Boyd lookout, now we were talking, our joy was short lived as a diversion had been put in place by way of a CP at the Lookout at Granite Falls, a spectacular 63m waterfall, so back up the hill and it seemed we were amongst several teams, this time gravity was with us and there was no catching us as we hurtled down 1two Mile Rd for the coast and the kayak leg, the route to which was straight forward we had raced here before and could have done it pretty much on memory, we picked up two more CP's after crossing the highway and another team just before Cudmirrah, then darkness really descended, my lights died, I had been piggy backing Mikes lights were possible so we had enough light to get through and about 1km from the bitumen they went out.

We had discussed plans for the kayak before arriving at the boat and after a brief feed we went looking for what had been rumored to be a faster craft but settled on the Voyager two again. The girls were back and we pushed them out into Swan Lake, then we headed off into the pitch black, not before discussing and looking at the map for the whereabouts of the next two CPs, we found out the last one was marked by a cyalumes (chemical light), I had a fair idea where both were bearing wise and we headed for the northern shore line. It was at this point I was looking at the map with my LED light, when shouts of "I've got a fish" came from the front of the boat, a garfish had decided to launch itself on board our craft, and after much laughter and closer inspection of this almost legal sized fish it was sent on its way, it did seem that the boat traveled better in the dark, or was this just our imagination, it was around two.30am, so it was probably my imagination, either way we were making good progress. I knew that CP18 was on the southern side of the lake, but not visible due to a large spit of land half way across the lake, so was very surprised to see a multitude of lights scanning the foreshore midway across the lake for a CP, this was good, we had been in stealth mode for a while, (no lights) so as not to attract any teams to our route choice. As we passed the shore line one team approached and I have to admit was asked to turn their lights off, after all we were looking for a tiny cyalume and our eyes needed all the darkness they could get, almost twokm out we spotted it, right where we thought, and we ploughed on with our earlier wayward team. CP18 acquired and we were heading for home, with now what seemed to be about seven previously lost teams behind us, 6km of coasteering left and that was it

Back on land we quickly had a last minute bite to eat and a drink, repacked our mandatory gear and were off with a new spring in our step, determined not to let our good navigation go to waste. We hit the road for a while, but it wasn't long and we were down to the beach, a low tide meant some good hard packed sand and running was not a chore but achievable. Skirting round the rocky headlands we had one CP left (The Walter Hood Monument), knowing its location having been to the same spot once before we punched our control card, looking back constantly for the indicatory lights of chasing teams, in hindsight we should have gone to the road from here, but opted for the coastal route, more rocks, two small headlands too go, Mike had packed a few extra dry things in his pack for the finish, maybe not such a good idea, two headlands from home and I hear a yell from behind me, followed by lots of cussing, I initially thought Mike had seen the same bloody great big rat I had just seen, on turning round, nope, Mike was picking himself out of the water. We got going again, and it wasn't long and we saw a team in front of us, lights off time, and we were running again, it was a team of three, we caught the guys with 100m to go, we hit the finish at 4.two1am. who won we had no idea except that they were long finished by about 8hrs and asleep, where had we finished, well we suspected about 16 teams behind us still, but all we cared about was getting a shower and some sleep. Hot water never felt so good, our next challenge, bacon and egg rolls for breakfast.

A big thanks to all the teams out there, the camaraderie at these sorts of events makes the sport, thanks to Kathmandu, Maximum Adventure and volunteers. Full results can be found on the website: www.maxadventure.com.au

Steve Cooper / Team SleepMonsters.com.au