Thirsty Thirties venture to Sydney

Manly Dam 8 May 2004

With the car packed, and the bikes on the roof, our "Thirsty Thirties" team set off to Sydney for the last AROC adventure race in Manly. With all 3 prone to car sickness and only 2 front seats in the car, we had a challenge even before making it to the race.

The sub-zero morning temperatures in Canberra the week before had us a bit worried about going swimming, but race day was beautiful - mild, sunny and calm.

True to form, we didn't read the instructions fully and drove to Manly dam, just to have to do a U-turn and go back to the bike drop-off point before racing back to rego. Perhaps that was good, though, because after that we made a big effort to read all other instructions fully.

All three of us enjoyed this last race the best of all, for a variety of reasons. I really enjoyed the different scenery and vegetation and had to prevent myself from stopping too long to look at the different wildflowers along the way (I guessed that that was probably not what serious adventure racers do). It was also great to eventually get the hang of paddling the kayak with all 3 team members inside. It's a pity that we only achieved that in the last paddle leg of the last race of the season, but I guess it's better late than never.

We had a few extra challenges along the way, with a bee sting probably being the most novel, but had a really fun time all day (yes, for some of us it is nearly a whole day exercise, but we get better value for money that way).

We also met some different teams along the way (thanks particularly to the Anzac cookies guys for their company). We noticed that Sydney teams are happy to point other teams in the right direction to checkpoints. In Canberra we try to sneak in without anyone seeing, and then hope everyone else will run past and miss it!

Thanks again to Tom and Alina and all the volunteers for a wonderful race, and a wonderful series. They were the most fun events I've ever done, even if I'm tired by the end.

Karen, Lesley and Michelle