Photos: Pre-race

We spent Wednesday playing in town and the evening sewing our gaiters on to our shoes. Thursday was the first official event day, with registration, race briefing and kit checks at our hotel, the Park Rotana (divine!).

In our race bibs. A nice touch was having our flag printed on the bib; our team name is on the back at the bottom. Not all teams had this - probably dependant on when they entered. This colour seems weird at first, but it really looks great in photos. Not quite brown, not quite red. Rust, maybe.

Sewing gaiters on to our shoes.

Breakfast before briefing and kit checks. Our white race shirts really worked well.

Recipe for creating mess: Take one really nice hotel room. Add two racers and team crates. Pull stuff out of the crates. Invite the other two racers over. Spread out. Very messy. [most of the mess is to the left, out of shot]

Alex and Francois trying out one of the race's sea kayaks. They paddled together; Christo and I were in the other boat. These boats steer from the back so Francois and Christo got to drive.

Team presentation evening and dinner

Ready to race!