Thursday, December 10, 2009

Last day... Like horses bolting for home

Our last day of the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge, yesterday, started for us at 3am!

The bus trip from the end of that awful windy and sandy biking section (certainly par for the course who you are in a desert!) took about 2hrs. We camped at Green Mabarat below the Jebel Hafeet mountain. We were meant to camp on the other side of the mountain but because of the still howling wind organisation changed the venue. And we are so glad they did because the other side, which we saw the next morning
was a sandy and rocky and nasty area.

At Green we took advantage of the stream, man-made, to wash off the day's dust - loads of it. This park area is also covered in grass so it made for good sleeping. Alarm clocks went off at 3am so that we would be ready to transfer to the start at 4.30. It was cold and windy outside so we stayed in the bus for as long as possible.

We started with a night 'orienteering' section and I use quotation marks because it was more of a grab a gps and run like hell section. We had some coordinates for the compulsory controls and Alex worked out the others for the two optionals. We were given 2h45 for the section and with a 2hr penalty per missed optional, it was not an
option to miss them. We were running in the dark - using headlamps - over the most rocky ground I have ever traversed, especially at high pace.

My backpack was loaded and from the gun I was taking strain. After the second compulsory Christo took my mountaineering kit - harness...

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