Hot off the press! Orion have pulled out on the last leg. They were pretty broken at start of the paddle, so was alpineepic. Both with serious skin infections. McCain were last seen powering through the jungle! The suspense is killing me. Got Tats a big choc cake with candles! Go McCain go!
Just in case you are all wondering why the leaderboard is looking so dodge… the coverage at both Mt Mulligan and Nine Mile and pretty much Tinaroo too is either non-existant or really bad.
Now, 15h00 (SA, 23h00 Oz), McCain are off the water and back on their feet for the final hike to the finish. The race website describes this leg as “Trekking over the Lamb Range and down to the ocean. This is some of Australia’s unspoiled country…
McCain have completed the bike leg. Email just received (10h22 SA time; 18h22 Oz) from race admin. The first comments Graham Bird had: “Boy, some teams are going to be in that trek a long time”. They took food for 16hrs but it took 33hrs – Tatum Prins confirms they were hungry.
At last I have some comms. We have been in the real real real outback. As I sit here we have just said a huge hooray as the truck has eventually arrived with the team’s gear and they are not too far away; we were all having a mild panic! Yay!
While we were sleeping our team slept at CP17, leaving after a good rest and feed on their bikes. An sms came through from Nikki at 00h52 (SA time; 08h52 Oz time): “Hi all. Finally have reception again. The past few days have been epic…
As we head for bed, sunrise is on its way. McCain spent two nights out on this 60km trekking stage! They have completed that long 60km trek, finishing at CP17, Mt Mulligan. They seem to have decided to sleep there – a good decent sleep of a few hours – waiting to take off at first light.
It’s now 01h40 and McCain are still trekking – in the dark again. Good news is that they’re on what looks like easier terrain and they should be at CP17, the end of the hike, within the next hour or two. Merrell has slipped ahead of them – not much ahead.
McCain have been on foot since around 15h15 on Saturday, 22 May. Their latest tracking dot shows 14h26 (just over an hour ago) on Sunday, 23 May – and they’ve still got a stretch to go.
As I type now, on Sat at12h50 (20h40 Oz time), McCain appear to be in the lead. Their tracking dot (grey) is ahead of Orion’s (navy). Merrell is in beige (the cluster of beige – outlying on is City Bike Depot team). The orienteering flag is CP15 (end of paddle). They’re heading to the top right of our screen.
