Explore Gippsland Adventure Race
Fourth Time Lucky as Explore Gippsland Starts the A1 Australia Series
Rob Howard / 09.04.2021
It’s the Explore Gippsland Adventure Race this weekend, at 4th time of asking after many Covid disruptions and rearrangements during the past 6 months.
The race is the first event in the Mountain Designs A1 Australian Series and includes 30 and 13 hour courses, as well as a sprint 3 hour event. Teams will be registering at the Erica Caravan Park and setting off on Saturday from 6am onwards to explore the Walhalla and Mountain Rivers area of Gippsland.
The race is organised by Rob and Kathryn Preston under their Thought Sports company and is in the area they’ve made home and explored extensively, so the course will take in the best of the surrounding area.
Teams have been told strength in the hills and team work will be the key to a good result, and to expect a very tough challenge. Given Rob’s experience of completing 25 expedition races, with many podium places (most recently at Eco-Challenge), that’s to be expected. The instructions also say, “Race Director has overall power, don’t mess with him”.
The course for the 30 hour race has 6 transitions and features two pack raft stages. The second of these is optional, but both together could account for 11-14 hours of racing. The first one, at 5-8 hours, is the longest and is immediately followed by a 4-6 hour trek on which teams will have to carry all of their packrafting gear to the next transition.
They’ve been told they will need at least 3x 40 litre packs, and this long stage, which comes early in the race, will be the crux of the course. (The 13 hour race has a 4-6 hour paddle in double kayaks.) Teams will have to contend with some poor weather as the forecast is cold and wet.
There is a very strong entry in the long course with many of the top names in Australian racing lining up for this first A1 series race. These include Alpine Adventure/Peak Adventure, Rogue, Thought Sports and The Thunderbolt Bandits.
There will be tracking and a live site on the ‘Living it Live’ platform, and we’ll post information on the SleepMonsters Facebook page as the race progresses.
SleepMonsters
