Arrival in Brazil
Had written a great chapter on our arrival last night on the hotel computer only to lose it all as it timed out. Glorious day here and will spend it lounging on the beach and doing a final gear check. Meet up with 7 others last night briefly and will catch up with them tonight. This place is so much like Fiji as is everything runs in slow and relaxed mode. Getting rather excited now. One of the Aussie girls had arrived with no luggage probably still in Australia she thinks. Being a smart girl she has all her racing gear with her so will still compete just lacking extras for her weeks stay after the race. All the girls appear to be doing the long race and still to meet one more.
WiFi very hard to obtain so this is from my phone. Will endeavour to send a short update each day.
Currently have no electricity until lunchtime but who cares least I had a warm shower. We are off to the beach.
Had written a great chapter on our arrival last night on the hotel computer only to lose it all as it timed out. Glorious day here and will spend it lounging on the beach and doing a final gear check. Meet up with 7 others last night briefly and will catch up with them tonight. This place is so much like Fiji as is everything runs in slow and relaxed mode. Getting rather excited now. One of the Aussie girls had arrived with no luggage probably still in Australia she thinks. Being a smart girl she has all her racing gear with her so will still compete just lacking extras for her weeks stay after the race. All the girls appear to be doing the long race and still to meet one more.
WiFi very hard to obtain so this is from my phone. Will endeavour to send a short update each day.
Currently have no electricity until lunchtime but who cares least I had a warm shower. We are off to the beach.
Stage 1
Yesterday we had a day of briefings including wild animals, flora and fauna and our medical checks followed by the race briefing. that left us all very excited. With a 5.00am wake up we finished the last organising of the packs and headed to the start line. At 7.00am we countdown in Portuguese and off we go.
There were compulsory check point stops on the first stage to ensure that everyone had respite from the heat. Nicely spaced aid stations with medics, locals and military police. 15 mins stop at each check point. First aid station was in a river which was very nice. The swamps today were mainly bogs but we were promised better swamps tomorrow. The danger was leaving shoe 1m deep in the swamp unable to be retrieved. The swamp came upon me by complete surprise but if I looked ahead a bit I would have seen the TV crew waiting in the shadows for unsuspecting persons to make a fool of themselves. Hey that was me. Great laughs had by me and the cameraman.
Then the climbs and my oh my were they climbs made all the more difficult because of the lack of oxygen in the air. what goes up needs to go down and the downhills were just as steep and to be taken slowly. No snakes or other nasties made themselves known to us but I am sure they were out there.
I finished stage one of 22k today in 5 hours 55 about middle of the pack. Stage two tomorrow starts with a swim across the river here at Hotel Hammock and a fairly simple day but snake infested. So there is another issue to deal with.
No injuries just quite tired as hammock sleeping is still not ideal. 4 hours the other night and none last night. Hopefully tonight I will be more successful.
Geoff came in 5:30 hours with the local kids all running with him the last 100m. Very pleased with himself.
We are the centre of a japanese TV documentary being husband and wife so cameras pop up when you least expect it. But they are such lovely crew.
Yesterday we had a day of briefings including wild animals, flora and fauna and our medical checks followed by the race briefing. that left us all very excited. With a 5.00am wake up we finished the last organising of the packs and headed to the start line. At 7.00am we countdown in Portuguese and off we go.
There were compulsory check point stops on the first stage to ensure that everyone had respite from the heat. Nicely spaced aid stations with medics, locals and military police. 15 mins stop at each check point. First aid station was in a river which was very nice. The swamps today were mainly bogs but we were promised better swamps tomorrow. The danger was leaving shoe 1m deep in the swamp unable to be retrieved. The swamp came upon me by complete surprise but if I looked ahead a bit I would have seen the TV crew waiting in the shadows for unsuspecting persons to make a fool of themselves. Hey that was me. Great laughs had by me and the cameraman.
Then the climbs and my oh my were they climbs made all the more difficult because of the lack of oxygen in the air. what goes up needs to go down and the downhills were just as steep and to be taken slowly. No snakes or other nasties made themselves known to us but I am sure they were out there.
I finished stage one of 22k today in 5 hours 55 about middle of the pack. Stage two tomorrow starts with a swim across the river here at Hotel Hammock and a fairly simple day but snake infested. So there is another issue to deal with.
No injuries just quite tired as hammock sleeping is still not ideal. 4 hours the other night and none last night. Hopefully tonight I will be more successful.
Geoff came in 5:30 hours with the local kids all running with him the last 100m. Very pleased with himself.
We are the centre of a japanese TV documentary being husband and wife so cameras pop up when you least expect it. But they are such lovely crew.
