XPD - Blogg from CP9 - Keegans Bridge 9.48pm The Gurus: We smashed ourselves to get in before the darkzone and are still one of the few remaining full-coursers! Survival mode has kicked in with most suffering knee and calf problems, except for Chris who *normally* suffers from both all the time. Freezing weather is coming and we have a plan... as long the Dingo can ride tomorrow... we shal live to fight another day! :) 9.18pm Team Little Miss Sunshine: We are about to head out to brave the wicked conditions that the Australian Alps is throwing at us... It feels as though we have been taken to the knackery time and time again. Still we perservere! We are all very happy to finally be off the feet, but are not sure how we will cope with the 210km Bike. 20.46 Team Mawson. We've off on the little ride, if its anything like the 85Km hike (Russ says it was more like 95km) then well we'll see...on the bright side the blisters are coming along nicely. Had a fantastic view on the way up to Bogong only to loose it when we reached the top! Big hi's to Diana and sonia. Hi all, Tricky again. Just finished a nice paddle a couple of hoours ago and saturated all my gear so not looking forward to carrying it on the bike on this 210km ride. Horror! Forecast for tomorrow is blizzards and snow. I think our tent may get a bit of a workout. 17.15 Team Yogi Bears. We are about to leave the TA, ready (?) for our 210km. I'm sure it will be flat, straight forward and a cruisy ride with beuautiful sunshine all day evey day... We're all Pretty nervous about the weather and on top of that have managed to misplace our first 2 maps (out of 9 for this leg). Paddle was absolutely awesome, great river, amazing scenery and just lovely. Only one boat went upside down under a tree, lost a paddle and managed to find it more than 1km downstream! Lucky ;-) Miss you Jon, haven't seen any messages from anybody yet, but please keep sending them as we have been told we will see them at midcamp. Only a few days away... Hoping the weather will not do as forecasted (they always get the forecasts wrong right?!) As 1 degree max on Sun sounds a little cold to us... Talk to you all at the next TA! Just to confirm - very fuckin nervous!!!! Oh, and we all miss our warm beds and partners!!! Happy (and cold) days! 20:00 team cyclepath: Daniel sarah kyle and christopher...we send love. Heading up to the mountains within the hour, predictions are for snow. We all have blisters and are suffering to various degrees........wish us luck! love dad 19:28 Austrelaps We arrived at the end of the monster trek in good spirits- happy to have survived and ready for some paddling. Survival is probably the best description - we're all a bit footsore and competing for the world's ugliest feet award with various blisters, maimed toenails and wrinkled white stuff that is meant to be skin. The news we had to do a futher 8k road trek prior to paddling wasnt greeted with glee, but we tramped through and have rolled in from the paddle with no misadventures to report. Food and a short sleep is on the agenda prior to heading out on the 210k mtb leg! 18:58 4TC 3/4 Of the team finished the tramp over from Falls Creek, and I met them at the paddle transition. I thought the 6K road walk would loosen the ITB up a bit, turns out I was wrong, but at least I got into the river a couple of times to try and cool it down. One such visit was after Dave and Danielle managed to drive their boat into a piece of railway line and rip the bottom out of it. Hicksy paddled half a boat down the rest of the river while the rest of us crammed into the boat with all of the gear - not sure who had the more difficult job after that! I waved the others off onto the ride about half an hour ago, and will hopefully see them again sometime tomorrow after a monster MTB! 18.34 securify.co.nz Update from Jerome here to the family and friends over the ditch. Would prefer to be at home with Jan and planning how i can get something over the kids. The race is a bit like that lord of the rings movie, all we seem to be doing is journey from one place to another, mostly in the rain and dark. Finished the paddle, tried to drown Colin but he wouln't get out so ended up manhandling the boat over the rock. Haven't got the lost yet, and hope this continues- anyway off journeying again on the mtb. Auf wedrsen to the german connection. 17:35 Friday Team securify.co.nz Just finished the paddle where Jerry and Colin displayed the inability to follow left/right instructions and parked their boat in the middle of the major rapid ! NO major damage - most ego related.The trek was huge and had an additional 6km at the end which was almost the straw that borke the camels back b ut we made it without major incident. Trek was ugly in the first half - really wet and cold. We managed to have converstaion this morning for the first time - hoods and jackets are not conducive to having a blether on the go. 17.23 Friday Team More Invincible with Girls on Top Well here we are at the end of the paddle. Yeah. Unfortunately, we had to part with Fil at the beginning of the trek. It was not an ideal situation but we all felt it was in the team's best interest if Fil did not continue with us. The trek was awesome. After being put on the short course we thought we would be out for a bit of a doddle but hey this is the XPD and doddle is not in the race directors vocabulary. It turned out to be yet another major effort and we were more than pleased with our selves when we wandered into transition this morning. Oh what a feeling. We managed a 3 hour sleep out there last night which was cosy :) Now off for the mega major 210 km epic mtb. So I guess it could be a few days before we check in with you all again. Adios :) 1647 Friday Team Nga Rakai (Fi) After all our worries about being wet and cold at the last reporrt, the weather cleared up and wee had a great second half of our trek with starry skies and mist. We grabbed a couple of hours sleep in a nice cosy hut after Mt Bogon, wih a wee campfire keeping us toasty! Just had a great white water paddle, me and mark got ourselves stuck on a rock at one point, but really it was a good esxcuse to get wet and cool off (that's right its hot here at the moment!). Still some pretty bad weather in the forecast for the next few days, so we're taking lots of warm gear for the next epic - a 210km mtb estimated time 35 hours!! So you won't hear form us for a while :-) But we're all having fun. 1500 Friday Team Goldfish Its been a heroic moving feast, from snack stop to gourmet meal. Snackman Pete has so many goodies on board. He's also packman Pete so is carrying way more than his share of the load. Hiking up high, we noted that we arrived at Federation Hut the only ones clad in shorts. It wasn't that cold, except for the stalwart volunteers manning the CP on the summit. No view except horizontal rain turning to hail for them or us. We have taken the scenic shortcut back out of the mountains, visiting the quaint MUMC hut, then almost Harrietville, almost Bright and almost Mount Beauty. Each town we just missed on being able to buy extra snacks. Today's paddle was what Goldfish really like, especially back as the original foursome for the leg. The change from kayak to a little more hike went down a bit like a lead balloon, but our feet lasted the distance and we've loved the reward. We had Ryvita, slightly soggy, cheese, salami, pineapple and dried tomato sandwiches for gourmet lunch on the cruise. Made all but one rapid in style. That one, Mardi and I led and got stuck, then like two corks in one bottle, Buzz and Pete got stuck alongside. Unfortunately the film crew caught all the ignomiy on video. We thought we saw a platypus. Sun shining, just to prove the snow ahead isn't the norm. Heading out with trepidation. 210km will be make or break for the tandem and for the Goldfish. Hope to see you all when we return. Coffee would be nice. Friday 14h40.Tean Bull Of Africa.We had a hage trek last night , starting at 01h30 Thursday morninng and finished this morning at about 05h00 , lots of rain very cold and misty. Conditions are really extreme , we have just had blizzard warnings handed to us. WHATS A BLIZZARD? Suppose I will find out soon enough.Stephan had a bad spell last night but his back to normal again. OUR SPIRITS ARE STILL HIGH AND WE KEEN TO GET GOING. Athena , tell the kids I am missing you guys big time and I will see you soon. Friday 1:15 - Team Tangerine. So after what seemed an epic trek we've all woken up with sore feet and a little worse for wear. We slept at TA but it was cold and our gear was inadequate so to say we slept isn't quite true. Now after a fun paddle in the mighty Sevelors we're off on another epic, this time on the bikes. It's going to be a long night and the weather still seems to be a choice topic of conversation. See you all on the other side, in not too long hopefully. Love and kisses to all at home watching online and potentially living vicariously. Friday 12:45 - Team Blackheart/Salomon. Just had a paddle down some nice rapids but had a run in with a strainer and lost a paddle. got to the dark zone last night with time to spare and had a good 5 hour kip. Probably over did it and got an extra half hour before starting the paddle at 6:30 this morning. Wayne says hello to Cat - misses you and hopes Ralfie is keeping you company and seeking lots of pats and walks. All good so far. Off for a fun-packed 210km bike ride. 11:20 - BlackheAart. Just enjoyed a fun paddle. The donkey made a show again. Looking forward to a hell ride tonight, just saw the weather forecast and it going to be pretty shitty. Dave - Kim loves you heaps and can't wait to see you. Managed a 5 hour sleep last night waiting for the dark zone after filling up with pies and baked beans. Josh overdid it and nearly spewed but was desperate not to lose any food and held it in. Latest on the Rob Preston bum situation - it's been getting better as the race goes on, 3B has been liberally applied. Quote of the day - no matter how cold, wet, miserable lost we are, it's still better than being at work! These blogs will just get worse as the race goes on... Friday 0910 - It's warm and sunny and we're waiting for the first teams to arrive, probably in about an hour.