Every night when we get back to power and internet reception, I sit down in front of my laptop and never know quite where to start. There are usually so many encounters during the days with teams and media and medics and marshals; and they all have stories and comments about adventures that they have had…
So I’ll begin tonight by telling you about Heidi’s very stressful map-related adventure.
Heidi’s Mapping 101 lesson (from Stephan)
The river kayak (leg 7) has been on Stephan’s mind since Saturday morning when he flew over the river and saw just how much the water level had dropped since he was there a month ago. Back then it was flooded and flowing at 25km/hr; neither rocks nor sandbanks were visible.
Early on Monday morning – before dawn – he headed down to the put-in to check on the water level. There, in the dark, he was stomping around in the river, trying to gauge the water depth and extent of the sandbanks and exposed rocks. Deciding that the paddle from the original transition location would not be possible – and downright unpleasant – he was back in his car to travel downstream to the Plan B put-in; hoping that the situation there would be as good as he expected.
Meanwhile, back at T3 (Mboyti River Lodge), Heidi was waiting for first-placed Team Seagate to arrive. There she had the maps almost-ready for the next two legs (cycle and river kayak). I say ‘almost’ because she was waiting for Stephan to confirm the transition location so that she could mark it on the Master Map. But she couldn’t get hold of him because he was stomping around in the river) and Seagate was fast approaching – gobbling up the kilometres.
Back on the river, time had moved on and happy with the water level at the Plan B put-in, Stephan ran back at his car, maps spread in front of him. Now, with Seagate closing in and little time remaining, the next challenge: to talk Heidi through where to mark the transition location and which roads to indicate as out-of-bounds.
“If only we’d recorded this conversation,” laughs Stephan. “It would have sounded like a crazy comedy.”
In relating the story, Heidi admits that she’s not one for maps. Talking her through it, Stephan tries to guide her to where she must look, like to the left or the right of this or that road; but they had their maps orientated differently. Then he tries to explain using towns and roads and features to take her from the top of the map to the point. Heidi is near panic as Seagate are only minutes away and most certainly in for a swift transition.
Minutes tick past swiftly and as Seagate walks up the steps and into the Lodge to check-in with the transition marshal, Heidi completes the map markings. Without missing a beat, she casually waves the race leaders over to their new maps and instructions.