The top teams have covered about a third of the epic paddle along the Walsh River...and taken over nine hours to do it - this is one hell of a kayak leg!
There are two ways to access this river - the route the teams are taking, or via helicopter! This is real wilderness country - there are no roads, towns or any other trappings of civilization. So the only information we can glean is from the GPS tracker, which fortunately for us seems to be working well and updating frequently (http://geocentric.geo-loco.com/geocentric/xpd/Course.aspx).
Blackheart's heard-earned lead has eroded away to nothing, as Orion and Merrel have bunched up. All three teams appear to have spent considerable time at a particular bend in the river, Blackheart have been in one sport for more than 3.5 hours - perhaps searching for a checkpoint in the dark? Or having a quick catnap if the going is as tough as their speed of travel would suggest? Waiting for the friendly local freshwater crocodiles to disperse??
At the time of writing it appears that Orion have taken the lead from Blackheart and moved past whatever was causing the hold-up, whilst Merrel and Blackheart remain. It is hard to judge exactly how accurate the tracking is, but Blackheart's dot appears to have moved South and up to higher ground - we really hope there hasn't been any injury or problem.
Updating our earlier story, an article by ARWC Series Director Geoff Hunt on Sleepmonsters gives some insight into the events at the orienteering stage (http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/racereport.php?page_action=rep&race_id=8473&article_id=6549). It sounds like Blackheart and Orion both excelled at the orienteering leg, posting virtually identical times (3'27 and 3'28). Others teams like Merrel had a bit of a disastor, taking nearly double the time to complete the course!
Comments