Please select a race report below:
Date Added: 22.08.2005
This weekend heralded one of the most fun adventure races I have taken part in - QUAC 2.
Ugene joined up with the Gravity Festival - an annual whitewater extravaganza on the Palmiet river, near Kleinmond - to produce a humdinger of a short course race.
It attracted 60 teams of pairs, with many new faces taking part.
The start was efficiently set off on time, whilst some teams were still getting their act together in the car park - good first lesson from Ugene 'this is not a picnic' Nel.
Using pre-plotted (thank you) 1;20 000 A4 size maps we charged off on the mountain bike leg at 8am. The weather Gods had been appeased with good sacrifice during the week and dealt up a cool morning and sunny afternoon - perfect for this event.
The first k, was flat, but that was the only k that was not either seriously up or down. The trail immediately swung up a hill, via a Peak called Elephant Rock, and just kept on going up and up! This had gears grating and a few unfortunate souls snapped their chains in the early stages. The lead bunch navigated down a dead end, and were caught up by the second wave at the first PC, overlooking awesome views of the Atlantic Ocean from high in the hills. Some racers appreciated the view, but the brutal route continued steadily upwards, to be greeted with a mixture of enthusiasm for the challenge and curses for the pain.
The race to PC 2 - the summit - was won by Evan Price, and closely contested by Michelle Lombardi.
Change down and head down! Squealing brakes replaced gear crunching, as the track veered straight off the mountain on a rollercoaster ride of tight hairpin bends, protea bushes smacking you in the face (don't pick the flowers) and your team-mate becoming your greatest danger. Mixed skills were on show, from world-class downhill extremist, to wide-eyed: "this is my first time on a bike" - good show.
The mtb route took us to the Croc launch pad, on the banks of the Palmiet river, which was full to flooding thanks to good rains. Normally a pleasant family outing, the Palmiet was roaring by at express train speed, it's brown waters mixing up a coffee-like froth at the frequent rapids. We carried our boats down the 100metres of track to the put in and flung ourselves at the torrent. The lead group has 6 teams, 4 of which were the eventual winners. I was lucky to have experienced Palmiet paddler Tatum with me, so the lines through the rapids were well known - not everyone was as fortunate. The safety team from Gravity were ever present and kept busy with re-joining swimmers and their craft after rapids.
2 notable river challenges - the waterfall, has a huge shoot which jettisons you through like a space shuttle launch. Just hang on and all is well, although the wild turbulence below enjoys spilling Crocs over, just to remind paddlers who is boss. The final rapid - Judgement Day - is a real gem of white water. It has a fairly complex entry, which send you flying down into a massive hole. If you are still in your boat, you will enjoy the wave train, whilst frantically paddling to the left of the river, to avoid being crunched into a gnarly, nasty boulder, that adds another wild hole to the experience.
Just surviving is good enough for most teams, racing this section is a special bonus for AR fundis.
2 unlucky victims were later on awarded a bottle of wine each for swimming the whole of Judgement Day, a truly horrible swim. Nice one Martin!
From the take-out, the route followed a river-side trail run, back to the transition area upstream. An important choice was available. Abseil now, or later. The trail run, mountain hike was a circular route, with the abseil at the beginning. 3 teams, including ourselves, elected the early abseil, in the hope of avoiding the queues of back-markers later on. This proved wise, as teams had frustrating half hour waits after the mountain leg.
It also gave us the opportunity to follow the new lead bunch up to PC3, on contour path level. Again, there was navigational confusion, and we found ourselves out front with the eventual open winners, climbing a pleasant 600m fynbos clad hill - Twin Peaks. Some teams found a trail up, others took a direct bundu bashing line. Great views off the summit, where the PC was a knots copying exercise. A near vertical, knee crunching, descent followed to PC5, which turned into a hunt for an elusive substation. The lead teams all bunched up again, athough several still had to abseil.
The final leg home began with a swim across the river to gain the PC. Many teams mis-timed their entry point and were swept off downstream and left gasping and hanging onto the sharp Palmiet. The freezing water was, however, invigorating and not to be dithered around in. Back on our bikes for a quick sprint to the finish and the fun was sadly over........that is until the Croc sprint race later in the day.
Thanks Ugene for yet another great adventure race - everybody should be doing this!
Trevor Ball and Tatum Prins of Team Energy, were winners of the mixed category.
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