Merrell Adventure Addicts won 7th position in the XPD Adventure Racing World Championships 2011. Extracts from their race reports reveal the determination it took to compete against almost 100 of the world’s best adventure racing teams, and their awe inspiring experience.
Graham ‘Tweet’ Bird
An aerial view of our world amazes me. Urban areas contrast with rural, and landscapes are etched with the disparities between wealth and poverty. I see vast areas of open land – green, lush, arid, flat, mountainous and wet. The majority explored, yet some untouched. Raw and simple, my experiences in the wild outdoors allow me to recharge. 
The tough course was broken down into 15 legs, 37 maps, 120km paddling, 180km trekking and 430km mountain biking. Expedition-style legs characterised the second half of the race, with shorter, faster legs in the first half. This suited our team, as we are stronger in later stages. We decided on a good first half and to communicate with top teams at Mid Camp.
We arrived at Mid Camp in 9th position on the afternoon of the third day, just 4-5 hours off the top 4. Our race speed was good and we had only made one error – searching for a CP in the wrong area had cost us a few hours during the second morning. Leaving Mid Camp, we had three big legs (65km trek, 150km MTB, 87km paddle) to complete before shorter legs toward the finish. We made up good time on the 65km trek, completing it in 5th place.
The fourth night of the race was probably our lowest point and I struggled to sleep. I was so tired that I fell asleep while riding and awoke with a jolt when I hit the tar road. Our thoughts became negative and we began to see the race slip away from us. To our surprise, we finished in 6th place, a mere few hours behind 4th, and we discovered we weren’t the only team to suffer in this leg.
Crossing the finishing line is indescribable, unless you’ve done it. You push yourself to physical extremes, during days of minimal sleep and eating. Mentally, you visit dark places as you drag yourself through bad patches. Spiritually, you ask yourself about life. One thing is clear: you have to be strong enough to deal with physical and mental exertions.
Tatum ‘Hobbit’ Prins
One particularly scenic moment that really stands out for me was the most perfectly placed checkpoint in a mine on Mount Cumberland. It felt like we had a 360° view of Tasmania. Truly breathtaking. Just a pity we couldn’t stop to enjoy it.
When I close my eyes, I still feel one of my coldest moments. The four of us stripped down for an ice-cold river crossing in the middle of the night and the experience literally took our breath away. However, naked racers with boobs and bums for all to see were amusing. 
My most emotional leg was an 8km, muddy MTB section, during the 150km leg. As we pushed our bikes through the mud, I was frustrated, tired and had lost my sense of humour. Nobody would find comedy in an experience like that after a few days of racing.
During our camping excursion on the Arthur River, the dark zone forced us to camp alongside three other teams. It was strange to come to a grinding halt after all that racing, sit around a campfire and share our war stories. It was as if we had been granted a holiday, in the middle of a gruelling race. Sharing a two man tent with three overgrown, smelly men brought me back to reality.
Donovan ‘Tiny’ Sims
The hiking leg was was one of my favourite sections of the race. We decided to try a “short cut”, but ended up hiking through a kloof too many. Our hike was breathtaking, as we made our way to the top of the abseil. A quick downhill scramble and we found ourselves on one of the coldest, wet kloofing sections I`ve attempted in long time. We criss-crossed the river a few times making our way to start of the next paddling leg.
After a speedy transition, all four of us paddled a blow-up boat, which was pretty cool, so long as you were not at the back of the boat. Tweet had the back spot and he was completely frozen by our next transition. At the end of this paddle we had to portage our boats to the next river.
Hano ‘Smelly’ Smit
The location was the beautiful and untouched North Western part of Tasmania. The latitude is around 40° south and that means that the wind consistently blows hard, fuelled by the many cold fronts that pass by, and regularly pours rain. The temperatures were low, compared to what we’re used to, and would typically not exceed the mid teens in centigrade. The terrain is forested wilderness, where gigantic Eucalyptus tower over pristine rainforests, rivers and streams. 
The first half of the race dissected Tasmania, from the town of Burnie to the harbour town of Strahan, halfway down the West Coast. The legs were short and undaunting and the going easy. The race covered three epic expeditionary legs, through the Arkine region, before three shorter legs, from the Arkine to the Northern coast. The finish line was in the coastal town of Burnie.
This race had all the essentials of a great race: the competition was fierce, the terrain was beautiful, wild and demanding, the route was challenging, but enjoyable and conditions were testing.
Words by Graham Bird, Tatum Prins, Hanno Smit and Donovan Sims, photographs courtesy of Andreas Strand.
Loading ...
No comments yet.