Which Milk?

Almond, Oat, Cashew, Soy, Macadaemia, Skinny, Full cream, Lactose free, Unpasturised …. with all the milk options and preferences out there who would know what to choose?

Here I will bring you my summary of the main milks (let me know if I have forgotten one and I will add it!) available at coffee shops and in supermarkets and what you need to be aware of when choosing a milk that is right for you.

Let’s start with the cow.

Cow’s milk

Milk comes from the Cow all creamy, high in fat and pasteurised. But cows aren’t neccesarily clean animals, therefore we heat and treat the milk via pasteurisation to make it less likely to contain any bugs. It’s very important people with compromised immunity (old, young, pregnant or those with medical issues) choose pasteurised milk

Skim / Low Fat Cow’s Milk

To make skim milk all they do is separate the milk so they can remove the fat. Let’s say you have 1 Litre milk and you remove 200mL of the fat component. Here is the important myth buster - they DON’T add sugar! So many people come to me and ask “don’t they add sugar to the skim milk?” I say… what would happen if you bought a litre of milk but only got 800mL because they removed 200mL of fat? You would be ripped off! Therefore they need to replace that 200mL with more of the skim portion of the milk - mainly the protein / lactose (carbs) part of the milk. Therefore on the label it says it has a couple grams more sugar but really it’s just more of the natural parts of milk (minus the fat!). If you have no medical or dietary reason not too - I recommend cows milk through and through for everyone. It is high in some really good quality proteins, contains a bucketload of calcium for our bone health and has amazing properties in it for athletes recovery that we don’t even know how they work yet!

If you are concious of weight, calories or cholesterol I would recommend skim milk. A glass of milk makes for a healthy low cal snack, a great recovery or pre-work out drink and it is very versatile for smoothies, cereals and families to share.

Lactose Free

Some people cannot break down the carbohydrate part of milk called Lactose because their gut has less of the enzyme needed to do this job which is called Lactase. This can result in pain, wind, bloating, diarrhoea and discomfort in mild-severe symptoms. The best way to test if you are lactose intolerant is to do a hydrogen breath test OR under supervision of a dietitian, carefully avoiding lactose only for a few days, then reintroducing it to see if you can manage symptoms via elimination. The best milk for those who are lactose intolerant is Lactose free cows milk. The milk manufacturers add Lactase enzyme to the milk to break down the Lactose before it even gets to your gut therefore you shouldn’t have symptoms. You can also buy tablets which have this enzyme called Lacteeaze from the pharmacy to take at the time of any accidental exposure!

If you do have symptoms with lactose free milk - it could be something else therefore reach out to your GP or Dietitian for assistance. The next best option is Soy milk - see why below.

Soy milk

This would be the next closest - Nutritionally - in my rankings to cows milk if you cannot have either cows or lactose free and for plant based athletes. Soy milk has the highest protein of the plant based milks and if you choose calcium fortified - it also is high in calcium. Making it an ideal replacement if you can’t have dairy, or if you prefer!

Plant based milks - oat, almond, coconut cashew/macadamia/hazelnut, rice

All plant based milks are lower in protein and calcium naturally. The manufacturers often add Calcium in amounts that are normally found in cow’s milk. Dairy is the main source of calcium in our diets as a population therefore most people need to be very concious to meet calcium needs if they choose to or need to avoid dairy. If your milk is organic- forget it. They won’t be able to add calcium under the organic code therefore will have very little nutrients as a milk substitute. How do you know if it is calcium fortified? It will probably say in the advertising. Otherwise flip the bottle over - if it says calcium in the Nutrition Information Panel then it has Calcium. Usually about 80-100mg / 100mL.

Oat is the best tasting in coffee/tea if you are wanting the closest taste to cows and doesn’t curdle as much like almond can. It also has some great heart health properties such as fibre, B-glucans and vitamins /minerals of oats

Almond milk is very low carb and calorie - so good for athletes with diabetes or following a keto diet not wanting to worry about carb counting their morning coffee or low carb brekkie. However it is also low in nutrients and protein.

Coconut milk often comes in a can and is mostly best for cooking - it contains saturated fats which aren’t great for our cholesterol but it is also available in low fat options.

Cashew/Macadaemia/Hazelnut milks are all a yummy slightly different nutty flavour, relatively low in carbs but contain healthy fats and small amounts of nut containing vitamin and minerals. When they make nut milks they squeeze / milk the moisure in the nut and discard the solids which discards many of the nutrients of the nut too.

Some plant based milks are sweetened to make them taste better or flavoured - remember to try and use unsweetened most of the time, but you may choose a sweetened soy for example as a recovery drink or to add flavour to your smoothie / bowl at breakkie.

Rice milk not everyones “flavour of the month” and tends to be higher in carbohydrates compared with other plant milks. Try if you prefer but no real benefit over any other plant based milk.

So what milk should I use if….

I’m Pregnant?

Cows milk has the highest nutrients - particularly protein and calcium which is great for both you and baby. You may choose skim or full cream depending on your weight gain during pregnancy. Just make sure you choose pasteurised milk to reduce the risk of getting a bug whilst your immune system is down during pregnancy!

I’m Lactose Intolerant?

Try lactose free milk first and check out Lacteeze tablets for any accidental exposure! Soy is your second best bet with being higher in protein. Otherwise if you get enough protein elsewhere in your diet just choose your fav milk and check it is Calcium fortified.

I have an allergy to milk?

You might also consider if you have an allergy to soy - there is a greater chance if you are allergic to milk. A2 is worth trying if it is considered safe by your Dr as it is a different protein in the milk.

I’m making smoothies / acai bowls?

Try a variety of nut milks for some yummy flavour combos.

I want a plant based alternative for my tea/coffee?

Try oat milk - I think it tastes the most familiar for a hot drink!

I’m your “average” Joe Bloggs athlete with no dietary requirements or intolerances?

Opt for stock standard regular cows milk - why wouldn’t you go for the best nutritionally if its readily available and not to mention usually the cheapest! Choose lower fat cows milk if you are calorie/weight/cholesterol concious.

Any Qs or things I have missed flick me a message and I will add!

Nicole Walker

Dietitian

One Hells Bells of a weekend!

I had been looking forward to the next Adventure Racing A1 series Mountain Designs 24hr Hells Bells event ever since I crossed the line at GeoQuest back in June. I moved to Australia in August 2018 with one of my intentions being to settle my life enough in order to get into Adventure Racing and Brisbane met this criteria for me at the time.

The first few months in was pretty typical of living in a new country – finding your bearings, bike route to work, getting your head around a new job, new supermarket names, remembering others will make fun of your accent and making friends. Moving to Brisbane was by far the easiest place I found to make new friends and from knowing nobody within a week I was offered a ride to the Sunny Coast (thanks to my new awesome housemates), was invited to a social event, someone cooked me dinner for my birthday and had found my local bike shop (just 2 mins down the road!) which proved to be much more than just a bike shop!

Within the first month I had a cycling buddy in whom I sparked up a conversation with cycling out of my driveway one morning and has now introduced me to more cyclists and awesome people than I can count on two hands. I had a regular shop ride that I now sadly miss regularly due to other adventure invites and I found a swim squad.

But it was my old and dearest friend from New Zealand who truely started the cascade of events that led me to Tiger Adventure. As kiwi’s do she told me I MUST catch up with her mate Lucy – a tough as nails Scottswoman cyclist who lives up on the Sunny Coast. It took until December for the stars to align but that they did. Lucy met a group of friends and I for a picnic – Day 1. All very civilised. During the convo she said “Well, if you want to adventure race I know a guy in Brisbane you need to get in touch with – Trev, he is always organising adventurous stuff!”. Day 2 of us meeting I agreed to go on a road ride with Lucy (at this point I will mention she is ex-Commonweath games Road Cyclist). I turned up with a banana and a litre of water ready for a ride. “So,” she says, “we can either do a 120km loop with heaps of hills or 150km loop round the coast on the flat, you choose”. I reply… “Uh, have you got another banana?”. Consequently sealing the friendship.

Early in 2019 I gave Trev a text not quite knowing what to expect. Well, in two days time I had been offered a seat in a kayak, invited to stay at his house before a hike on the following Sunday and sent an email with training weekends and events for the first half of the year. I didn’t know this guy from a bar of soap so first impressions are “he’s keen!”, and realising he was going to be a good person to know!

Wanting to make a good first impression I was in for the kayak, knowing I had a pretty strong kayaking background I wasn’t too nervous about my abilities to handle the 5am 2 hour kayak. However when I woke up on that morning at 5.30am – with a dreadful sinking feeling knowing I was horribly late for my first session with this adventure guy and a text saying – “Are you far away?”. My lovely housemates heard me yell “SH*****T” and helped me get out the door. What made matters worse was they were double kayaks and Trev had to wait otherwise he couldn’t paddle himself! Thankfully we got an hour in and my paddling skills outweighed any potential annoyance from Trev and my Tiger Adventure journey began! Let’s just say it has made me extremely vigilant with getting up for every training since and I have not repeated the offence!

One year on from my arrival to Brisbane marked the 24hr Hells Bells race – my second in what I consider to be a decent sized adventure race. Feeling miles more prepared since Geo – my only purchase included a bike computer and top up’s of race food, chaf cream and Gurney Goo which was a much sorter (and cheaper!) list than the last one. This time for example – I knew how much my team mates and I loved baked potatoes, savoury “real food” and my infamous Weetbix Slice racing therefore I came prepared. See race food pics below! (And stay tuned for a blog dedicated specifically to the Weetbix Slice).

Receiving the race brief sheet 2 weeks and having a few fun, helpful hints of the course terrain and locations from course director prior to the weekend revealed an “elite trek” stage mid way through, a rock hopping leg, a leg within the local MTB park and potential for a bus ride out to the start. Finishing at Maroochydoore – it was likely the paddle went down the Maroochy river to the end.

Hells Bells Logistics Planner – 2 weeks out

Firstly, not knowing the course and secondly guessing the course is part of the fun of it all and I am sure Chris loves hearing the wildest and most accurate speculations commented on FB with every hint he drops! Thankfully, Sara’s local knowledge had us pretty spot on in terms of predicting the highlights of the course in advance. A major difference in this race was that we had to drop the first Box A before we were able to look at the course. So packing up the boxes the night before there was still guessing and speculation as to how long it would take us for food planning and the gear we would need for the terrain.

Joel was a new appearance to the team and didn’t I know how it felt to be a rookie! He seemed cool, calm and collected probably having already been schooled from training buddie Rob Preston and with the support from Sara that afternoon seemed to have his shit sorted and was excited to race! With some crazy length endurance running events and titles under his belt Craig, Sara and I were sure we were going to have our work cut out for us keeping up with Joel!

Nevertheless after a night at Sara’s with plan A, B and C up our sleeves we dropped the bikes and Box A at the beautiful picnic area above Kondalilla falls behind Montville. Left our helmets unclipped, socks in shoes ready for a smooth transition. Then backtracking to the Maroochydoore esplanade to HQ we set up our table and chairs ready for mapping the course. Map handout was at 7.30am and briefing at 9am allowing just 1.5hrs for our trusty Navigators Craig (Batman) and Sara (Robin) to do what they do best.

Briefing at 9am revealed some interesting course notes! Lifejackets were compulsory for the first trek up the canyon – running in lifejackets….perhaps swimming is faster? The crunch point for this race our team needed to decide on was whether we were going to attempt the elite Trek. Having a cut off time of 6.30pm we had to fair hoof it through the first 3 legs in order to firstly make it, and secondly make it comfortably enough to be able to get all the CP’s within the trek as there were big time penalties if we didn’t, which may have dropped us well down the ranks. Additionally there was a tough time penalty the next morning for the final kayak that if we didn’t make we could be short coursed. Tricky decisions – we decided on a personal team cut off of 5.30pm to have a chance at clearing the trek, and to play it by ear from there.

Lifejackets on the first Trek? Hmmm. And where is this out of bounds cliff face?

After the usual controversies of the briefing we were bussed to Lake Baroon for the start, just over the back of the hill from Maleny and Montville. I’d been to this spot just a few months before with my parents and had thought at the time what a nice kayak this would be! Unfortunately on race day the Ekka winds showed up right on time and the lake was a mess with white caps and chop which was about to make the paddle ahead a bit more of a mission!

Kayaks set up and waiting with a light patter of butterflies in the stomach

Team Tiger Adventure Ready to Rumble!

Alright lets go! Leg 1 we ended up taking an anti-clockwise paddle direction, the opposite to most teams which meant for a quieter route around the lake except for the headwind to start. Dodging dead trees made for interesting steering and maneuvering of these big old boats. I bet Sara had fun up front in my boat guessing where I would turn next and what tree we would crash into!

Sweeping the lake in a bit over and hour we were next into Leg 2 this Trek-that-required-lifejackets which we were all absolutely looking forward to.

Heading for the Obi Obi Gorge out of the Kayak

The first part of the track was out of bounds, meaning we were making our way up the Obi Obi Gorge, The terrain quickly got very steep up each side of the creek plunging down into a narrow Gorge of boulders and deep creek pools. Progress was slow and calculated climbing over the slippery rocks and eventually succumbing to swimming after Sara showed off her amazing flexibility – slipping on one of her strides ending up in full splits between two rocks! It was one of those times when you burst out laughing only to realise they might actually be hurt and its horrible to be laughing but you cannot stop yourself! Thankfully she was fine and managed to contort her way out of trouble and I appreciated it wasn’t me in that situation – as many friends would know my fitness does not extend to a great deal of flexibility! Swimming along was rather pleasant, albeit slow progress, but nice to be in the cool fresh water during the heat of the sunshine coast winter day. This is a skill I actually love from my Coast to Coast training – negotiating routes up a creek considering if bush bashing going to be faster than running up the slippery rocks on the creek bed vs clamboring slightly up the bank or swimming along in the pool, making this leg an absolute highlight for me and I think most of the team also.

This lifejacket was made for running…

My favourite leg and putting to the test some of the fun skills of Trekking in general!

After finding a couple of sneaky checkpoints up the side creeks we found the Sunshine Coast Hinterland Great Walk track and broke into a jog on the comparative highway-like terrain. Running up past the stunning Kondalilla falls (I still have trouble both spelling and saying this name!) we made it to TA at the picnic area to transition onto our bikes. At this stage we made a call coming in to TA at 3.30pm … by the time we transitioned and did a 2-2.5hr bike we wouldn’t make our cut off for the Elite hike and decided it was a smart move to skip it. No longer on a nervously tight deadline I noticed our mood and enjoyment lifted somewhat at this point.

The magnificent Kondalilla falls back in May when I visited with friends.

On our bikes we made our way up to the road – one of my favourite road rides – along the ridge between Montville and Mapleton in the late afternoon sunshine to the serene Mapleton National Park. Seen below, tall dense trees provided a canopy of shade from the late afternoon sun in classically beautiful South East Queensland sub tropical rainforest bush.

Leg 3: MTB in Mapleton National Park with Race Director in tow making sure everyone fines a sunset CP!

Pic of the Race! CP at the lookout, our sunset pic! Mapleton National Park

Throughout Leg 3 we had the pleasure of riding with Lukas and teamate whom Sara knew well. Not only was it more fun in a 6 person wolf pack but we were exceptionally thankful for Lukas saving the day by giving us his spare chain link when Sara had a mechanical, managing to snap her chain link with her quads of steel. I got a quick lesson in the middle of nowhere how to swap out the broken link (noted!) and we were back on track!

As the sun set the temp cooled but with a dry night ahead it was perfect conditions for racing. Coming into TA2.5 – we arrived at 6.15pm, 45mins past our personal team cut off but 15mins early for the deadline to enter the Elite trek. We were solid on our decision to skip it and stopped for a quick yarn to the TA volunteers, grabbed a couple complementary snakes and headed on our merry way back into the darkness for part two of the now 5ish hr ride. The only part I remember from this second bike leg was losing our trusty companions, some seriously steep and technical downhills on the fire roads that I was stoked and surprised I made it down riding in one piece and one nasty hike-a-bike section when I was just starting to think…this is a nice course I had ridden the whole way!

But onwards with what I do remember. Leg 4 was a cool rogaine around Wappa Dam with some really decent undulating terrain! It was here about 11pm that again I hit my low point, along with Craig and Sara came into her element as team Mum “Nicole what do you need? Snake? NoDoz? Ibuprofen? Electrolytes? Hey why not have all of the above?”…”You’re not chatty, something’s up”. It was here that Craig was back in his element bearing after bearing onto CP’s in the darkness of night straight through whatever bush was in our path.

Now just to take a side story here. One thing I find really exciting in adventure racing is when you find yourself just with these four people (aka four headlamps) in the middle of the night running round in the bush. You feel like the only people on earth….until you come round the corner over the hill and through the bushes flashes 4 other little bobbing lights coming down the creek towards you, bobbing, bobbing getting bigger until next minute … you have team Thoughtsports jogging past. What was cool about this race was because of the elite trek it meant that teams that did not do the elite trek were then caught up either in Wappa Dam or on the next bike leg in Parklands. I love it! It was great seeing the fast guys move through the bush, nailing checkpoints, not stopping to smell the roses and the one poor person who happened to be feeling it at the time being towed along or straggling behind.

Out of the dam we found our bikes again and headed down to Parklands MTB park “Parkies” on Leg 6 for the wee hours of the morning. Parklands had a similar experience except the bush was this time full of headlamps, a crazy flurry of lights looking a bit like a crime scene at times with front and rear bike lights going off on abandoned bikes as people search for checkpoints up and down creeks with headlamps on their heads. One of the first CP’s had a few teams (including the top 3) a bit confused as to which creek it was up. Seeing the winners team Avengers hunting around for the same CP we were looking for was humbling.

Sara did so well navving in the maze of Parklands and the highlight was heading up to the radio tower at the top of the park. The dark descent on the fire trail was epic and one last CP on the way down we broke out onto wide open farmland and with a sky flooded with stars above us, it felt like a rush of energy to the muscles and the brain coming into our final leg.

Arriving at TA a frigid wind cooled us down quick and we donned our wet weather gear for the 3-4 hour paddle ahead. It was at this point at 4am, TA4 I heard the harrowing news…. The All Blacks had lost to the Wallabies just a few hours ago. It was also at this point that poor Craig lots the contents of his guts on the side of the Maroochy river and was really not feeling to flash at all. Once we had finished rugging up we were on our way.

I thought by now I had learnt to never assume in an Adventure Race, never assume, never underestimate and you can never plan enough! I had imagined this paddle later in the morning after thinking we would be in for the elite trek. I envisaged a glassy river, dawn breaking, sun rising over the sea ahead cruising into the finish beach after a stunning long paddle. Just.Don’t.Assume. Raincheck, it was more like… 4am start, “feels like 4 degrees” wind chill (Yes in Sunshine Coast Australia), howling swirling wind which although was overall a tail wind because the river was so windy it was also a solid head and side wind at some points along the way. Our poor tootsies, pinkies and snozzers were rather frozen after the 3 hours and we were chasing the sunny side of the river for a bit of warmth once dawn broke.

Paddling into the finish I appreciated finishing in daylight this time! Once again Race Director Chris was there to shake hands at the finish and take the magic shot below. We were done in a respectable 7th place and rather acceptable 20ish hours, allowing a sleep and shower before Prizegiving.

Finished and still smiling! Team Tiger Adventure

Thanks to Chris for an epic race once again, we loved travelling round in the backyard of the Sunny Coast. We are absolutely so lucky to have land this beautiful around us in South East Queensland to explore and Chris showed us some cool local spots that’s for sure. Highlight was definitely the Gorge for our team and for me I loved the riding in Mapleton too. Thank you Craig and Sara for your fabulous navigation. once again I felt super confident with you two in charge! Joel – mate well done on your first AR! Enjoyed your company out there and you held your own brilliantly, can’t wait to see you again on the circuit in future. Trev – we missed you whilst you holidayed in Peru but we had you there in spirit and probably dot watching, we hope we did your A1 team proud! Until next time, bring on Wildside down in Kangaroo Valley, NSW. Ka Kite Ano!

The man behind the mastermind – Cheers!

How to Carry Nutrition & Hydration for your next Adventure

This article is for Adventure Racers, Runners, Cyclists, Kayakers, some triathletes, multi-sporters and for anyone else getting out there for an adventure for at least a couple hours needing a place to carry food.

Running/Trekking

Backpacks/ running vests

• If you are getting into adventure racing, multisport or trail running it is SUCH a useful investment to get a quality running vest. Also comfy for mountain biking. They fit snuggly on your body to limit chafe and come in a useful variety of sizes. If you are running anything up to 12hrs generally about an 8-12L is plenty big enough. The best part? Lots of pockets at the FRONT for food! Back pockets mean having to stop and get food out or asking your team mate to reach in all meaning slowing down. The other awesome thing is they come with soft flasks – lightweight 500mL bottles that are great for sports drink, water or electrolytes and easy to fill. Most have a spot for a water bladder in the back (very useful) for extra water – up to 3L depending on the bag and bladder you choose (Tip! Only use water in your bladder and dry it out after every use otherwise it will go mouldy quickly!) Salomon and Ultimate Direction have heaps of great options! If you are just starting out – Anaconda and Rebel have fantastic bags for a fraction of the cost.

Tights & Shorts Pockets

• Tights nowadays are fashionable with pockets – well why not? Super useful for a quick snack spot. However also think about these pockets usefulness for chucking the map and compass in your pocket for a quick shoelace tie – often it can be more comfortable to keep them free and empty. Have a try on your next training run!

Bum bags

• Personally, I don’t find them as comfortable as a good running vest however they are useful for shorter sprint events where a whole pack isn’t necessary or if water is supplied on the course and you just need a few bits of nutrition. Bottom line (mind the pun) get one that fits snuggly and is comfortable on your hips or waist. If it makes your tummy sore or flops around while running – try something else. You can also get pretty snug drink bottle holders for your waist too; I haven’t tried these so cannot comment! Just make sure to avoid the drink bottle hand holders if you want your hands free for navigation, grabbing trees, scrambling or if doing a multi discipline event.

Kayaking

Always remember to have a way to waterproof your food in the kayak – nothing worse than soggy race food!

Lifejacket

• If you are choosing to invest in a lifejacket go for one that has big pockets on the front and a pocket on the back for a water bladder. Some have drinking mechanisms you can set up to be “hands free” or you can rig these up yourself. If you are borrowing one – then you may not have time to pack it with food – so perhaps you just need to keep your new back pack handy to get food out! Often in an adventure race you’ll need to keep your mandatory gear on you anyway.

On the kayak and paddle itself!

• Depending on what you’ll be doing most of the time it is safe to carry a drink bottle in the front of the kayak near your feet. Just take care not to lose it if you need to get in and out for checkpoints on an adventure race!

• If you are using your own kayak you may already have a spot to store a picnic, stash a drink bottle or have a water bladder on the bottom of the boat under your legs.

• Some bars stick well to your paddle – so for a shorter multisport event consider sticking bite sized chunks to your paddle the night before and wrap it in glad wrap for the night. For adventure races there is just no time for this pre-race prep and often your paddle is thrown in a bag somewhere. Or if you are borrowing a paddle – don’t even bother considering this!

Cycling

There are three main places to carry food and hydration for cycling – on the bike, on yourself and in bike bags. Cycling is often a good leg (if you are doing other disciplines also) to catch up on any missed nutrition or hydration such as after a swim leg of a triathlon.

On the bike

• Check out how many bottle cages you can have on your bike and have as many as you can because you never know when you will step up the distance or rides in the heat and will want them all! Most road and gravel bikes can take two or three (one underneath) and it is the benefit of having a bigger frame if you are a tall person! Hard tail mountain bikes can take one or two and usually dual suspension can only hold one. Ask your local bike store if you are unsure!

• Check out the size of your cycling bottles – they go up to 1 Litre! Which will fit in most frames (I am a shorty and I fit them in all bottle cages). Cycling tends to have a trend for little bottles because they are light. If you are sacrificing your hydration, you may be “that person” who is always asking for a water fill stop, then adding 500g to your bike will not be slower in comparison.

• What can you tape to the frame? For a short distance triathlon, multisport or adventure race you might decide you don’t need a bag on your bike and you can get away with taping a gel, or bar to the top tube of your bike so it is staring you in the face as a reminder to “Eat Me”! Use electrical tape to not damage your beautiful carbon … or use it anyway as it is easy to get off!

Cycling clothing

• Cycling Jerseys are awesome if you are not planning on wearing a back pack. They generally have 2-3 pockets and sometimes a zip for the car key or credit card! Usually there is enough room for some repair kit, nutrition and sometimes an extra bottle in the heat. Just get used to pulling food out of your back pocket, have your place for nutrition in the side pockets for easy access and keep your repair kit in the middle as hopefully you won’t need this one! A perfect spot for bananas and lollies (Tip: keep lollies in a little snack sized snap lock bag!)

• Cycling knicks, bib shorts, tri shorts or tights some but not most have mesh pockets on the sides which are super handy for extra nutrition like bars and gels. Avoid storing things that are not going to fall out or get squished like lollies and bananas.

Cycling Bags & Backpacks

• Backpacks – see up in “Running/Trekking”

• Top tube bags (also known as the “Gas Tank”) a seemingly small bag that ties on to the front or back of your top tube but can carry oh so much food! In perfect position to nibble away at your hearts content. This would be the first bag I would go for on shorter events such as the Maximum Adventure Race! Generally, I get sideways looks if I use this on my road bike due to breaking road cyclists fashion code (but for ironman length or long road races they simply are perfect!). Mountain bikers are much more forgiving and Adventure Racers will actually come over and ask where you got it from. Here is a full review from Bikepacking.com for the gear junkies out there!

• Snack pouches. These can hang between the handlebars and front of top tube on your bike. You can carry just one or both. Awesome for a hungry rider to access a handful of goodies, stash a bunch of bars, snakes, a curled-up Sammie, potatoes or a banana. They also fit drink bottles but just check how well they handle the weight – maybe use your fashionable 500mL or 750mL bottles here! There are also some purpose built that attach to the outside of some gravel and mountain bike forks.

• Handlebar bags vary in size. Kmart actually has a great little one for small adventures which would work well off road with an extra zip tie. For long events or adventures that need something more robust – my personal favourite which I have truly tried and tested on my Gravel bikepacking trip to Tassie is the Ortileb Bikepacking Accessory bag (waterproof, 3.5L, easy to unclip while riding) which either goes directly on your handlebars or goes nicely over top of a front roll bag. Awesome for bike packing or storing mandatory gear to get it off your back. Fits filled rolls, freeze dried meals – the lot!

• “Not for race” food bags Saddle bags, panniers and lightweight bike racks are all possibilities for carrying stuff on your bike – but you don’t want your race / cycling food in them as they are not easily accessible! Unless of course you don’t need it until dinner.

Got an event coming up? Logistics driving you nuts? Book in an appointment and we can nut it out together. Or check out this webinar recording: Planning Nutrition and Logistics for your next Adventure Race.

If you need help with your Race Day Nutrition plan, Training Nutrition Essentials or have other dietary requirements. Nicole, your Sports Dietitian can help you out in Brisbane, Gold Coast or Online via Telehealth.

Carb Loading, Pasta, Weetbix galore? – Nutrition before your next Adventure Race

Pre-event nutrition is like topping up the fuel tank before you head away on a long drive. You are maximising your muscle glycogen fuel stores for the adventure ahead.

Pre-Race Dinner

The pre-race dinner is important to prepare you or your athlete to wake up feeling rested, with a happy stomach and fuelled for the event ahead. We want to eat food you are familiar with ensuring you are catering to your USUAL dietary needs eg: gluten free, lactose free, avoiding onion or garlic. Don’t try anything new the night before race day if you can help it! Have a carbohydrate drink with the meal or after to top it up.

Hydration – Try to sip water throughout the day and especially in the evening before an event. It does not pay to scull just before bedtime so you are not up all night to the bathroom so get started early in the day and keep on top of your fluids. Have a drink containing carbs with your meal such as a natural fruit juice or a milo/hot chocolate (each have 25g carbs per cup) before bed to top up the carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates - It true in a way to “eat lots of pasta”. Carbohydrates are the main source of fuel for exercise that we want to keep the tank topped up with. By combining rest and a high carbohydrate meal the day before a race we are maximising carbohydrate available for during the race.

Protein and other “normal foods” to keep including! -  Some vegetables and a lean protein source is still important the night before – for muscle repair, fullness and to keep your bowels going in their regular routine the night before. Don’t try anything fancy here and they don’t need to be the star of the show on the plate just part of the action on the side!

How much should I eat? This is so individual I cannot tell you! Aim for at least 50g but if you are a bigger or hungry person you will need more! My suggestion? Eat until you are comfortably full but not bursting! Eat a greater proportion of the carbohydrate on your plate than normal (half your plate of food).

Some perfect Examples (with carbs):

-        Fried Rice (50g per cooked cup) with added chicken, lean beef, tofu and/or egg + chopped vegetables

-        Chicken Enchiladas (30g per wrap) with a side of homemade sweet potato or baked potato wedges (30g per cup)

-        Pasta bake (30g per cup cooked pasta) with a topping of tomato base sauce, vegetables and chicken or beans topped with cheese

-        Spaghetti bolognaise pasta (30g per cup cooked pasta) with lean mince, added vegetables and cheese with a side of garlic bread.  

-        Roasted vegetable salad including good portions of potato and sweet potato (30g per cup) + some other vegetables such as zucchini, carrot or capsicum topped with chicken, feta (add a tablespoon of pesto per person for some yummy flavour!) and/or chickpeas for a vegetarian option!

-        Stir fry with lean beef or chicken, vegetables and rice (50g per cooked cup of rice)

Need a convenient meal on the go?

-        Try Radix or another freeze-dried meal – just add hot water (service stations, campgrounds can have or take a cooker)

-        Grab 3 ingredients:

o   Microwave rice/quinoa pot / packet

o   Microwave vegetable pouch / pre made salad

o   Can of flavoured tuna, salmon, chicken, beans or chickpeas

-        For the team:

o   Pre-roasted chicken +

o   White buns or wraps +

o   Coleslaw or salad +

o   Hummus / Avocado as desired

-        Subway with steak / chicken and vegetables – go for safe sauces that you have had before!

-        Service station sandwiches / toasted sandwiches + juice

What about carb loading?

Carbohydrate Loading is effective to “super-compensate” your muscle glycogen and fuel stores. It is like filling up the tank AND taking a spare jerry can of fuel for the journey. Great for the biggest events of the season and when done well, it does improve performance and the bodies fuelling capacity. However, there are ways and means of doing it properly without compromising; weight, good nutrition in the lead up and picking what events to do it with. Get in touch with me if you want to talk about carbohydrate loading for your next event!

Pre-Race Breakfast

You want to E-A-T:

-        Easily digestible carbohydrates that are not too high in fibre. How much? At least 1g carbohydrate per kg body weight for your pre-race breakfast. Eg: if you are a 60kg person eating 60g carbohydrates.

-        Add some protein to keep you full

-        Time it 2-4 hrs prior to your event You may also need a Top up snack if it is more than 2hrs before like a gel, banana, or sports drink.

Examples (including carbohydrates) might include:

- 3 x weetbix + skim milk + banana and a fruit yoghurt (85g carbs)

- 2 x white or wholemeal bread with Honey or Jam on one + Peanut butter / an egg on the other + glass of juice (65g carbs)

- 1 medium can (approx. 200g) creamed rice + banana (70g carbs)

- Smoothie made with banana or 1 cup other fruit + 200mL skim milk + honey (55g carbs)

- Porridge (1/2 cup oats) with skim milk (1 cup) , dried fruit (2 Tablespoons) and some honey or maple syrup or brown sugar on top (75g carbs) or try this Bircher Muesli Recipe

- 1 large Up and Go (65g carbs)

- Baked beans (the one for two) on 2 x toast (70g carbs)

- Weetbix Slice and glass of juice (60g carbs)

Got an event coming up? Get your nutrition sorted now! Book an appointment with Nicole, your Adventure Racing Sports Dietitian today! Or get in touch: ascentsportsnutrition@gmail.com

What makes a good competition day breakfast?

You have spent months training, early mornings, exhausted evenings, missing sleep in’s and the odd social occasion because you are focussed on your goal. Whether it be your first 10k, wanting to break 3hrs for a marathon, complete an ironman, your standard Saturday netball, the season AFL final or a day hike you have had planned for months – you have worked hard. But what are you going to have for breakfast on that important day?  

So often we plan and train for months for a sporting event whilst we plan nutrition the night before! Good nutrition won’t make a weekend warrior an elite athlete. However, it will quickly make an elite athlete mediocre if not done well! What nutrition will do is make YOU (weekend warrior, average athlete, elite athlete or whoever you are!) feel like an absolute superstar on the day and perform at the absolute best you can be. Great nutrition is like a secret weapon you have above all the others – you can always mask a certain amount of pain, fatigue, those few sleep in’s and missed trainings, or that slightly slower speed if you have the best fuel to keep you going. 

Where does good nutrition start? Well on race or competition day of course it starts with a good breakfast.

Key Ingredient #1 Carbohydrate

Eating carbohydrates at breakfast is like topping up the fuel tank. Carbohydrate is the primary source of fuel for our bodies during sport. When we work at a higher intensity (race day, competition day, finals in particular) we also burn through carbs a lot faster. In fact, our muscles can only store 60-90mins of carbohydrate therefore we have to maximise that by topping it right up for the meal before. It is also why we often need to think about nutrition DURING an event too!

Key Ingredient #2 Type of carbs

This mostly depends on how you tolerate food before training. Fibre is great for day to day health however on race day it can be a bit of a problem if you are feeling those butterfly tummy nerves or have difficulty with stomach discomfort during sport. Fibre isn’t crucial for performance so on event day we can leave it out. Go for things like white bread, cornflakes, bananas, juice, sports drink or smoothies in particular if you have stomach issues or want to keep the carbs simple and easy to digest. Liquids do not sit for a long time in your stomach making them more comfortable again if you have a few butterflies.

Key Ingredient #3 How many carbs

Generally, about 1g per kg body weight eg: a 60kg person needs about 60g carbohydrate for breakfast. What does this even look like? Check out the examples below based on a 60kg athlete. If you have a bigger engine then you need more fuel! Smaller engine? Less fuel required – on paper however you still might have a good appetite! If you can eat more – comfortably then go for it! Remember this is your time to maximise the fuel within your body and make the most of that precious 60-90mins worth!

Key Ingredient #4 Add a bit of protein

Day to day protein is essential at breakfast as it to keep us full throughout the morning. It also helps with recovery if brekkie is post exercise and helps with recovery anyway even if our training was at a different time in the day. On event day we still need to feel satisfied and not hungry, it is still beneficial to have amino acids around for recovery however if we are talking the main event of the season… the carbs trump in the priority list. Plan your brekkie based on Key Ingredients 1, 2 and 3 (the right amount and type of carbohydrates) first – then include some protein. Protein is better when it is low in fat where possible to reduce the risk of stomach upset during that high intensity activity coming up or to prevent irritating those butterflies in the stomach. Include things like; low fat milk, fruit flavoured yoghurt (as it has extra carbohydrates), peanut butter or eggs.

Key Ingredient #5 Timing

Breakfast timing is important – if you have problems with your tummy then having breakfast 3-4hrs before an event helps for your food to digest before you get started. It is then important to have a small top up snack within an hour of starting such as 250mL sports drink, a banana, some lollies or a gel. Breakfast within 2hrs of the event start is fine without a top up snack and good for those who tolerate food well before an event.

This is all well and good but sleep may also be compromised in the process if your marathon starts at 7am for example. It is always a balance to get both right, but make sure nutrition is just as much of a priority as sleep. Consider for you the impact of 30mins less sleep vs having a decent pre-race breakfast and what performance different that might make.

What are some ideas that have all the ingredients?

-        3 x weetbix with a Banana, skim milk and a fruit yoghurt

-        2 x white or wholemeal bread with honey or jam with a glass of juice

-        1 medium can of creamed rice

-        A smoothie made with a banana, 200mL skim milk, honey

-        Porridge with skim milk, dried fruit and some honey or maple syrup on top

-        A large (350mL) up and go and breakfast biscuit or muesli bar

-        Baked beans on 2 x toast

-        French toast with maple syrup

-        Weetbix Slice and a glass of juice

But where does good nutrition actually start?

With your breakfast every day to fuel your training too! Imagine if you could have a race day quality breakfast every day of your life to fuel your body and brain to be the absolute best it can be. Now this one is more individual and the above factors might vary day to day. For example; you are more likely to tolerate things like fibre, fruit, healthy fats and need things like a certain amount of protein to contribute to the day to keep you fuelled for more than just sport. There are also the longer-term considerations of having foods that include lots of vitamins and minerals to ensure you have enough of things like iron to keep up with a heavy training load.

Training for Breakfast

Yes, there are some trainings where it is beneficial not to eat beforehand – but these fasted sessions are best used strategically. Just remember when “Breakfast is best”, before high intensity, skill sessions or long trainings that mimic a race or competition. The other thing we often forget is that training is not only training muscles but also training our gut. If you are the person who struggles to eat before exercise or the above suggestions have made your stomach curl just at the thought of trying to eat all that prior to race day – your gut needs training too! Starting with just a small bite of something before training morning or afternoon can help to overcome this.

““Breakfast is best” before high intensity, skill sessions or long trainings that mimic a race or competition”

Where to next?

Breakfast is where good nutrition starts – however the pre-event meal, carb loading, race plan nutrition and recovery nutrition are all very important parts of your race or competition day nutrition plans too!

Get in touch!

If you need help with your Race Day Nutrition plan, Training Nutrition Essentials or have other dietary requirements Nicole can help you out. She is an Accredited Sports Dietitian with Sports Dietitians Australia and works with athletes from many sporting codes to be the best they can be with elite level sports nutrition. From ballet dancers, to boxers to ultra-endurance runners to rugby players Nicole loves personalising nutrition to your sporting logistics! She has worked with people with medical conditions such as Irritable Bowel syndrome, Diabetes, Coeliac disease and requiring weight loss and can work with you to alter metabolism and body composition.

Book an appointment with Nicole, your Sports Dietitian today! Now based on site with the team at Physiologic.

What's the deal with Caffeine?

Caffeine is part of every day life for most - in our daily fix from the local coffee shop, your cup of tea in the afternoon or that delicious square of chocolate (or two!) in the evenings. It is also very common on the shelves in our sports drinks, gels, pre-workouts and all by itself in the form of NoDoz. It is a bit of a minefield knowing how to take caffeine, when to take it and know the risks. There are certainly proven performance benefits and it is one of the only legal performance enhancing drugs available therefore it is worth considering in your performance nutrition plan.

I hope to guide you through the evidence - read on below!

What does caffeine do?

Caffeine is a stimulant drug that affects our central nervous system. It allows us to work at a higher intensity before our brain tells us we are working too hard. We FEEL like we are working at about 80% when actually we might be hitting 100%. There is also some evidence to say caffeine may help us use fat as a fuel source for energy at higher intensities therefore somewhat sparing our glycogen stores, always useful for endurance sports! The other factor of course is it improves our alertness - great for anyone needing to stay awake overnight, concentrate in events where navigation, skill or precision is involved.

Where is caffeine found?

Sources include:

• Espresso & plunger type Coffee (80-200mg per serve)

• Tea & Instant coffee (30-40mg)

• Chocolate (

• Coke / Cola (50mg)

• Energy drinks such as Red Bull, V & Mother (80-160mg)

• NoDoz (100mg per tab)

• Sports Gels (

• Sports drinks (

• Pre-workout supplements (

Given the range of caffeine in sources such as a cup of coffee - it is better to use more prescriptive sources for race day to ensure you are getting in what you had planned!

Photo: espressoexpert

Who benefits from taking caffeine?

• Caffeine improves performance to a greater extent in longer events, lasting more than one hour so is good for cyclists, long distance runners, triathletes, multisporters, mountain bikers and adventure racers to trial.

• It improves alertness so is excellent for navigation events, technical skills and for events requiring sharp focus

• There are also responders and non-responders to caffeine. The non-responders do not experience any of the performance enhancing effects of caffeine - nor the alertness felt from a cup of coffee in the morning. It is really a simple test to know if you respond or not. Are you a person that can have a cup of coffee in the evening and go straight to sleep? You’re likely a non-responder.

• If you regularly consume a large intake of caffeine you can become desensitised to the effects for performance. Sometimes it can be useful to reduce your day to day intake in order to gain performance enhancing benefits on race day. DO THIS SLOWLY! You certainly don’t want to be experiencing withdrawal symptoms in the week leading up to an event only to feel a tad more normal on race day

How much should I take?

1-3mg per kg of body weight.

Therefore a 70kg athlete should try a 70mg dose then experiment with doses up to 210mg. If you start experiencing side effects (see Cautions! below) it is best to go for a lower dose. Taking more than this range has not shown to give any further performance benefits and can actually be harmful.

When should I take it?

Take the dose approximately 1 hour before you want to peak in your race because it takes about this long to kick in. For example if you are running a marathon perhaps you will take it 1 hour in so that you get the caffeine in your system after the start nervous jiggles, but kicking in right when it would be amazing to have a lower perceived exertion (i.e PAIN) at halfway or towards the end of the race. It is also important to know that caffeine wears off after 3-4 hours. If your race is longer than this you may need to take a second dose. Also think about this when you have late afternoon races as you might forgo a decent night’s sleep! For those competing in very long events 24 hrs + duration it isn’t feasible to have the benefits of caffeine for the entire race so you might decide when would be strategic. Eg: around your usual bedtime so you feel awake in the hours after that, in the middle of the night 2-4am when there is still a few hours until daylight or at any sleepy times in the following days / sleepy disciplines / slow moving times as required!

Cautions!

Try in training first! Some people hyper-respond to caffeine and experience shakes, intense nervousness  or headaches, impaired sleep and sometimes need to urinate frequently which can affect negatively on performance. From experience this isn’t fun! This can be especially detrimental for those sports in which concentration or skill is required. The first time I tried caffeine in a race it was a 12 hr adventure race in Central South Island New Zealand in September in the snow and I won’t forget how annoying it was to have to get off the bike in the snow to empty my bladder every 20 minutes! Let alone how distracted I was from navigating on the map and on technical mountain bike sections. I learned my own lesson of what trialling in training means!

It is also possible to overdose caffeine and therefore it is important to plan for and know how much you are taking. Watch out for high caffeine products such as pre-workouts or gels/sports products containing caffeine. Because of course you want your sports nutrition - if you only have gels with caffeine you have no choice but to consume it. If you mix it up and have some with and some without, or if you take your caffeine separately in the form of NoDoz then you have more flexibility.

Keen to try caffeine in your next event? Unsure where to start in tailoring a caffeine strategy for your sport?

Get in touch for my Race Day Nutrition package or an Initial Consultation.

Beginners Guide to Adventure Racing Nutrition

Image: Maximum Adventure Race

New to adventure racing? Or have you done a couple before but have no idea what to eat? Tried your best to plan nutrition but felt sick or bonked halfway? Do you have a 3-6hr event coming up? Read on to get your nutrition plan sorted.

How long are you out there for?

It is good to plan your nutrition per hour that you are out. Are you doing a 3hr, 4hr, or 6hr race? Is it all running or is it multi-sports? If you are racing over a mealtime eg: 8am – 2pm you might need to think about something more substantial to have mid-way through as you are skipping a meal and might find yourself a bit peckish! Is it going to be hot, rainy or cold? Think about the environment as a good starting point!

What type of food do I need and how much of it?

• You mainly want to be eating easily digested carbohydrates that are low in fibre and high GI. Fat and protein are not as useful for fuelling shorter events but they do get more important for longer events

• Start in training with 30-60g CARBOHYDRATES per hour and progress up to what you want to eat in a race

• In a race aim for 60-90g CARBOHYDRATES per hour but see how you go in training

• Always practice in training first and then stick with whatever you get to. If you can only eat 45g per hour in training without feeling sick then that is also your goal for race day.
  

Approx. 30g carb examples:

o   3 x snakes lollies

o   2 x small baked potato in tinfoil

o   2 x pieces of white bread in a vegemite sandwich

o   1 x white bread with a thick layer of honey or jam

o   1 x large slice of cold pizza

o   1 x white bread roll

o   1 x Weetbix slice (check out recipe!)

o   1 x oat-based muesli bar from the supermarket

o   1 x creamed rice pottle

o   1 x bottle sports drink (made at 4% carbohydrates)

o   1 x sports gel

o   1/2 cup of pretzels

o   4 x Cliff brand Bloks

o   1 x 250mL juice box

o   10 dried apricots

o   1 x 300mL can coke

o   2 x mini packets of shapes crackers

o   1 x banana

What a smorgasbord of snacks!

Tips for planning

• Take a variety of foods: some liquids, some sweets, some savoury, some snacky, some substantial

• Consider eating something a bit more substantial mid race like a mini lunch or whenever is convenient if you are racing for more than 3 hrs

• Try out a bunch of different combos in training, in a similar temperature to race day if possible and for the different disciplines

• Consider taking a couple of items just for “Mood Foods” that aren’t necessarily the perfect nutrition but they perk you up mid race! Eg: Mini chocolate bars, your favourite chips, a mandarin or other small fresh fruit

• Another golden rule is to eat a little bit, often. Aim to eat every 15-30mins. If you want to keep it simple you might choose 1 x snack option from the above list and eat every 30mins on the hour and half hour and you should be right!

• Remember to remind your team mates to do this too especially if they are distracted by navigating!

• Golden rule ALWAYS TRY IN TRAINING!

What should I drink and how much?

Some drinks can also contain carbohydrates and serve two purposes such as sports drink. Electrolytes are handy as they can taste good, making you drink more and replace lost electrolytes from sweat. However, water is just fine as long as you are fuelling at the same time! Remember that 1 Litre = 1kg so it is also important not to take way too much fluid. Know where along the course you can fill up your bottle and if you are prepared to take the time to stop.

How much? It is very individual and it depends how hot it is! In the heat you might need 750mL – 1 Litre or more per hour, in the cold might only need 300-500mL per hour. Try in training and go with your thirst! You might use a bladder in your backpack too. Make sure you know how much it holds and how much you need. You might not need to fill it all up! Also, try to keep just water in your bladder as any sugar or electrolytes causes it to go mouldy really fast even with a clean!

Image: Triadventure’s Wild Women Adventure Race

How do I carry my food?

• Clothing: you might wear a bike shirt that has pockets at the back for the whole race, or tights/cycling shorts that have pockets

• Backpack: a small hydration backpack or vest is handy. The best ones have lots of pockets on the front for storing food eg: one for your lollies, one for your muesli bars and a bladder pocket for your fluids or soft flask pockets

• Belt or hip bag: with a drink bottle holder – good if you hate backpacks but I find them particularly hard to sit tight

• Bike bags: a top tube bag is a really handy food storage and easily accessible.

• Drink bottle cages: are essential on your bike. Try and fit two on there if your bike allows and if you are in a hot environment, I love using 1 Litre bottles (normal bottles are 750mL).

• Lifejacket pockets: if you are buying your own lifejacket look for one with pockets in the font for easily accessible snacks!

Big pockets on lifejackets come in handy for kayaking nutrition.

Know the course rules and logistics

If you know that you are passing through a transition where you can pick up and leave gear, consider leaving a little bag of food and filled drink bottles. Then you just have to swap the bottles out (not spend time filling them up) and you can pick up more food without having to carry the whole 3 or 6 hours’ worth. Consider eating your heavy food in transition eg: a juice box or creamed rice.  

Should I eat different things on different legs?

Kayaking: Make sure your kayaking nutrition is waterproof! Otherwise, it might not look like anything nutritious at all! Even if you plan not to fall in (don’t we all?) you often get wet by just paddling and if you need to get in and out of the boat to collect checkpoints. Good options are gels or muesli bars.

Running / trekking: it is easier to eat your sandwiches because you have more hands than in the kayak or on the bike and you might walk for a little while. If you are competitive and running fast, you might not feel like large amounts of food and your sugary snacky foods more often might be best.

Riding nutrition: needs to be easy to access that is why stem bags are great and easily accessible pockets. Nibbling on snacks and muesli bars you can hold and bite easily are great (that’s why snakes are the best compared to smaller lollies!). The ultimate nutrition cycling skill is being able to open and eat a banana then throw away the skin without stopping pedalling!

Weetbix Slice - a favourite amongst Tiger Adventure teammates

Need more help?

Join me for my webinar: Planning Nutrition and Logistics for your next Adventure Race on at 6PM AEST Thursday 25th March 2021. Missed it? No worries it is available via recording here.

This advice is a is great place to start for most people, however some of you may need more individual advice. You might decide to get help if you:

• Have tummy upset problems, specific nutrition needs or medical conditions

• Are getting more competitive and want to maximise your nutrition to win!

• Want to attempt a longer race and are not sure where to start

Get in touch with a Sports Dietitian if this is you! I am available for consultations in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Online at Ascent Sports Nutrition and would absolutely love to help you maximise your Adventure Racing dreams!

Gravel Bikepacking the Tasmanian Trail

The Tasmanian Trail

Tasmania is beautiful, no doubt about it but Tasmania is also rugged, wildly unkempt and sparsely populated making it the perfect place for two adventurous souls to explore for a challenging yet rewarding holiday. This was my first visit to Tasmania, therefore I am no expert however I would describe the Tasmanian Trail as the heartbeat of the true Tasmania, wild, challenging, remote and yet stunningly, ruggedly beautiful.

What is the Tasmanian Trail?

The Tassie trail runs between Devonport on the North coast to Dover on the South coast of Tasmanian interconnecting 500km of mostly (85%) gravel or off road trails. It is a multi-use trail for hikers, horse riders and moutain bikers kept (remarkably well) by the Tasmanian Trail association. There are many free campsites and basic facilites along the way and it passes through enough small towns to avoid needing to camp or carry multi-day supplies should you choose this style of adventure. The traditional route runs from south to north and it is recommended to take 7-10 days on mountain bikes. However we are all for unconventional adventures and decided to ride from north to south… in 4 days… on gravel bikes.

Tasmanian Trail markers subtley and sometimes scarcely dotted along the trail to guide your adventure

Planning your ride

In terms of finding info about the trail there is a whole Tasmanian Trail website (free and super helpful) and Tasmanian Trail guidebook ($40 membership + $30 for the book and GPX file for your device). There are a few cool blogs out there including the one we found the most useful for our North - South adventure by “Where’s Thor”, also a friend of mine with similar fitness so we based our plans mostly off this. The trail is marked the whole way with red/yellow striped triangles as shown above. However I would not like to rely on these, as we noticed some trees down with markers (therefore not pointed in the right direction), some were a little overgrown and hard to find, some were confusing as to which direction to take and others were non-existant at intersections. Although it was obvious the amazing Tasmanian Trail association had done a great job with upkeep - it is near impossible to get it perfect with the length, remoteness and weather of Tassie. I would encourage everyone to have another form of map - preferably a well chosen Garmin file showing you the way with Trail markers to confirm!

Day 0: Riding to the trail - Launceston to Sheffield

Day 0: Lanceston to Sheffield via Railton

Distance: 101km Elevation: 943m Moving Time: 4hr 49min Total Time: 6hrs

We flew to Hobart at the start of our Tassie trail adventure, did a cool hire car road trip up the East Coast and dropped the rental off in Launceston. It was inconvenient for us to get to Devonport for the absolute beginning of the trail, so we continued to be unconventional and decided to ride from Launceston to meet the trail in Railton (the “almost” start). It was a rather dull first day but great to warm up the legs and get used to the loaded bikes. We managed to find some pretty quiet roads and only were on the main highway for a total of 2km to prevent a 16km detour.

Along the way we discovered we were following the Cradle to Coast Tasting Trail when we stumbled across the Dixie Blue Gelato Cafe in Deloraine which had an impressive Gelato selection! Being mid morning we made the sensible mistake of having our homemade wraps for lunch and a coffee first, sadly then being too full for their amazing looking Gelato! Picking up our Cradle to Coast Tasting Trail map we vowed to try out some of the other tasty looking delights along our path. We had been recommended The Elizabeth Town Bakery by our Lanceston taxi driver the day before which was only just up the road. However we also didn’t stop - tragedy for all the foodies reading this… I know, but it was a really good lunch wrap ok!

Onwards for the afternoon, we intended to ride to our destination for the evening Sheffield, but with some time up our sleeve in the day we decided to tack on an extra 10km and a few hills to head up further to Railton for a beer at the Seven Sheds Brewery just about the only attraction in the town. The sun was shining, the weather pleasent as we rolled in to this cute little old railway town at 4pm just in time for a cold beverage. Only to be a touch heartbroken when we realised it was closed Mondays and Tuesdays! This first day we learnt an important lesson about the trail - expect everywhere to be closed, unless you have looked up the opening hours and in many cases ALSO called to confirm! Since COVID, many places did not have updated opening hours on Google. Given the towns we passed through were very small they didn’t have early nor late hours either. Therefore without planning ahead we might have been in trouble rolling in late without checking where would be open. So instead we took a moment to try and enjoy the other “attraction” in Railton, known as “The town of Topiary” which I guessed was something along the lines of hedge trimming. So we posed with a hedge, had a banana next to the hedge and utlised the clean and tidy public toilets next to the hedge before sighing and carrying on out of the town to find the trail.

The trail entrance is located on Railton Road just slightly south of the main Foster St/Railton intersection and the gate to head south is on the western side of the road.

Starting the trail in Railton, excited to get onto the dirt path.

Bumping along the track, getting used to my first gravel experience on the new bike and a fully loaded gravel bike we took it slow for the 10 ish km to Sheffield. Getting used to the arrows and enjoying the peacefulnes of the forest, we certainly were getting excited for the journey to come. After a couple of (small) hills we broke out of the forest into a field doused beautifully in late afternoon sunshine.

One of the few gates that were open without a trail key

We rode in to check out the town of Sheffield, actually rather stunning in the wake of Mt Roland. I have a recommended habit with serious bikepacking (as in long days, hard riding). Always find your recovery food before going back to camp or your accomodation - you’ll thank yourself a million times over later! It is all too easy to want to get to your accomodation or set up camp and unload the bike however it’s always at least a couple hours until you actually find food, if you manage to get out again at all and shops close in small places too! By that time you are ravenous, not thinking straight and all seized up. Especially if the weather is bad or it’s cold outside. Of course we are bikepacking here, it’s not a race so of course be as laxy daisy as you like! But to feel good for 4 days, 500km and thousands of metres elevation…it will help! So choccy milks, iced coffees and sandwiches later from "The Don Store” we were ready to go and find our camp for the night.

Parked up in the Park Sheffield

Riding to find recovery food in Sheffield with Mt Roland stealing the show in the photo

“Always find your recovery food before going back to camp or your accomodation - you’ll thank yourself a million times over later!”

— A Bikepacking Sports Dietitian

Free Tasmanian Trail users camping is located in the Sheffield Football and Cricket Club on Spring Street. There are signs where the RV free camping is located that explicitly say tents not allowed, users must be self contained. However behind the dog park and in the next field over from the RV’s there is a little Tasmanian trail marker on the fence where the field meets with E Victoria Street. Toilets are accessible if you order a Tasmanian trail key (we just used the ones in town before and after we camped leaving no waste). Setting up our home, having a little lie down, airing out sweaty cycling gear and cooking up our freeze dried meals we settled in for a chilly night in Central Tassie.

Day 1: Sheffield to Poatina

Day 1. Sheffield to Poatina

Distance: 122km Elevation: 2060m Moving Time: 6hr 45min Total Time: 8hrs

It was a slow start leaving the campsite around 8.30am, once the tent had dried a little of dew and we made the mistake of deciding to go to the Mountain Mamma cafe for a delicious breakfast. Don’t get me wrong it was a delicious brekkie spot, highly recommend except for us it was slow. Because we were slow to pack up camp and didn’t have brekkie on the go we didn’t end up riding out of town until 10am! Whoops. Only to set off for what we didn’t realise would be an 8hr day…!

Riding to the Gog

Riding out of town we found the trail on Formby Street, which started with a nice little downhill, giving us a view of the hills to come. Today’s ride didn’t pass through any towns so we were ladened with riding food for our journey. The first section of the ride took us through the Gog Range which started with pretty nice fire road through a logging site, a decent little climb before our first taste of the amazing Tasmanian trail descents. Still getting used to the bags I took it a little cautious at the start but my Giant Revolt Advanced 0 was made for it and Ortlieb bags hung on amazingly well. So it wasn’t long before I was letting rip and flying behind Cameron through the tall green trees, down the smooth fire road and dodging the odd threatening pot hole. I learnt at this point that it is smoother to descend and not use the brakes, especially on the lumpy bits of the road - if I was game enough!

Riding the Gog Range

The smooth wide road started to turn a bit lumpier and overgrown as we got closer to the Gog Range Camp alongside the Mersey River. At the Gog Range Camp, we had a snack break (for us 5-10mins, a muesli bar and a toilet stop) and massaged our cramping hands from all the braking down the last little slippery slope. We came across a cute little hut - although in this Aussie bush I would much rather sleep in my tent than share that house with all the spiders and who knows what else!

Gog Range Camp

Soon after leaving the hut we had our first river crossing! We had a little debate at this point - to keep shoes on or take shoes off! I felt like I wanted a little more protection from the slippery looking rocks, and generally wouldn’t bother from adventure racing ventures but Cameron was determined to keep his feet dry! I have to swallow my pride and admit - dry feet was a good call and worth the 5mins of taking off and putting back on, considering we had another 6 hours in our shoes. It was a decent crossing and would need to be considered carefully after rain with a fully loaded bike - as the sign suggested on the other side “check river height and cross without gear first”.

Taking the bikes for a swim, yes it did get a little deeper…

I would also recommend always having the bike downstream of you - unlike in this photo - so you can (if needed!) let go without taking yourself out

Looking back on the Mersey River crossing

Keeping the feet nice and dry! Smarty pants

After our river crossing the terrain got much slower, we had to navigate the trail amongst a few fallen trees and the trail wasn’t obvious whilst hike-a-biking the small ridge out the other side. Looking back it was certainly the trail, but it had been pretty smooth sailing until this point making us question if we were on the right track! Finally getting back into rideable territory, we knew all too well had done a mere 30km in 3 hours and knowing we had 120ishk to do that day that was rather daunting! The road climbed once again out of the valley up and up and only got steeper in the midday sun. Once again I was impressed with the gravel bikes and gear range for climbing, enabling us to stay riding and preventing the dreaded hike a bike!

Finding the Trail was sometimes a mission

And the Trail itself was sometimes a mission!

Working the Granny Gear on these hilllsss

Views totally worth it!

Popping out over the top and out of the forest

Out of the forest for a short while we rolled through farmland on a nice descent with views that made it all worthwhile! Crossing a bitumen road very close to Deloraine (the gelato place we stopped for lunch in yesterday!) and rolling down another for all of 5 minutes we shortly got back onto dirt. Getting a bit peckish now we decided not to head into town but carry on to the 41 degrees South salmon farm for a late lunch. Crossing our fingers and toes that it was open in these quiet tourist times due to COVID-19 we were pleased to see it open. I was also super stoked they had simple salmon sandwiches on the menu! Perfect for hungry bikepackers that still had 70k of riding and plenty of hills to go! For those on a more leisurely day their platters also looked amazing!

41 degrees salmon did not disappoint!

Lovely spot, time to move on - we still had a load of riding to fit in before … well night I guess. But prepared with lights I guess it really wasn’t a problem how long we rode for! Heading out we had a relatively easy run for the next 20k - here we missed a turn not quite knowing what the “alternative route” had in store and we instead followed the road around through Golden Valley to Quamby Brook. Then we had our final and very noteworthy 500m of elevation hill for the day! Rather nice terrain, steep yes but rideable and chatting away the good hour of climbing time passed enjoyably for a hill section! Amongst tall forests and on amazing gravel, the afternoon was what this adventure was all about!

Tassie Gravel at it’s best - finally riding along the top!

The downhill was epic! For me also a skills test on some messy 4WD tracks, getting steeper and steeper as we descended! A true adventure for the gravel bikes on Day 1! Getting right back in the saddle (as far as the saddle bags would allow) and braking hard (but not braking because then you skid) and navigating the slope for rocks and fallen branches made for a fun time!

Finally breaking out into the clear again and onto Bracknell Road we had a decision to make - call it quits for the night (5pm ish already!) and head into Bracknell. Or ride on for a final 30km to Poatina and sticking to the orginial plan. We decided on the latter to get it done. Not before calling ahead to the Poatina Chalet asking if there might be anywhere open for food when we arrive at 6-7pm! The guy had good and bad news. No - everywhere closed at 4pm. Yikes. But he said the Chalet would be more than happy to make us a ham roll for dinner - STOKED and check us in late.

Decisions Decisions - tomorrow’s hill in the background

Thankfully a tail wind and flat roads made it super fast going and a good choice to get those k’s under our belt! We stuck to the road as the trail was quite indirect here given we decided not to go up the hike a bike the next day and instead the Poatina road climb. We hooned for an hour on the flat, until I realised Poatina is yes indeed a cute looking little town. But it is a cute looking little town perched on the top of a decent little hill (probably explains the views!) and by that stage - I was struggling!

We finally rolled into the little town - not seeing a single soul. The Poatina Chalet chef was one of those people you feel like you have always known and told us we not only had ham rolls waiting but a full Ploughman’s platter AND the campsite was freshly mowed just for us (how special can a girl feel in one day?)!

So the Chalet has proper fully catered motel rooms, hostel type accomodation and a patch of grass out the back they let campers use too for all of about $10 a night. Laundry facilities and hot showers were a treat too. If we got their early enough we could have paid for a full restaurant meal. Lucky for us we could still join the continental breakfast in the morning before an early start too. Did I mention the resturant had the most incredible mountain views? This all makes the Poatina Chalet a great spot for Tassie Trail goers - if you choose to pass through it!

Pretty sweet view for $10! Note - freshly mowed! Soft for sleeping too!

Well only day 1 of the trail proper and we were feeling buggered, elated and content with adventure. The only downside to day 1? I lost a jandel. On one of the bumpy rough descents - a single jandel bumped it’s way out of my straps on the saddle bag. Alas I was down to hobbling on one - much to Cameron’s embarrassment in hanging out with me. One is always better than none!

One is better than none right?

Day 2: Poatina to Ouse

Day 2: Poatina to Ouse

Distance: 144km Elevation: 2101m Moving Time: 7hr 54min Total Time: 10.5hrs

This time we got our butts out of bed earlier and managed to get the tent etc all packed up for our continental brekkie at 7ish. Saying goodbye to our lovely hosts we rolled out of town feeling creaky and sore but also excitedly nervous for the day ahead. We knew it would be our biggest day yet and had heard rumours of the mighty Poatina Rd climb which apparently features on many of the road cycling tour races in Tassie. Poatina climb snaked up the hill without too much traffic as feared, but unfortunately without many views either, from 300m to 1100m elevation over 10km. We were passed by an old dude in his 60’s riding 200km that day for fun - keeping us grounded that we weren’t considered that hardcore afterall in Tasmania! It was actually a nice gradient with smooth roads and some cool switchbacks - I love that sort of thing so I’d recommend it for any cyclists visiting Tassie. Or people who like to drive that sort of thing too!

Getting to the top - we were definitely in elevation now. Feeling familiar to me like the central plateau of the North Island, NZ. Tall trees and dirt turned to scrub and rocks as we snaked around the lakes in the Great Lake Conservation Area riding at between 1100 - 1200m and thanking our lucky stars the weather gods were on our side! It was super exposed and would be a nightmare to ride for these two resident Queenslanders if the weather was even slightly unfavourable.

Riding along the top! Central Lakes

The Trail markers directed us down to ride on some “big gravel” trails alongside Arthur’s lake - a seemingly popular camping and fishing spot I’d imagine in summertime. By “big gravel” I mean small rocks. On smaller tyres like we had this means your tyres slip between many small rocks as you ride making it quite a workout and quite the balancing act at times!

Riding down to Arthurs lake

Enjoying Arthurs Lake

Arthurs lake

Big Gravel

After mucking around with a few pics and having a snack stop the trail sharply headed back up towards the road. We basically just crossed and then it turned back onto a fire road again. Well up what looked like a wall of steepness in front of us! After a quick delayer and mental pep talk at the bottom we got into it. I was pretty happy to make it up this one without walking - but it was very close! I find that these sort of challenges you just have to tackle all by yourself. It is mostly mental. Yes physically I was busting my ass for several minutes - possibly half an hour but my key to keep me going is to have a mix of both intense concentration, talking bullshit to myself and an element of distraction. In my mind I think of every breath being refreshing for my legs, I count down, I just think of the next corner, I never tell myself I am near the top until I ACTUALLY am and I drift into a song that matches the beat of my legs. I let my mind wander to a topic I can ponder on for hours or I am concentrating on the technical aspects of the ride - avoiding the big rocks, loose dirt, soft sections and ensuring my pedals are turning as steady as possible to prevent them slipping. Red-lining for sure but always just keeping a tad below blowing up and therefore having the ability to just. keep. going. I have no idea if there is proper strategy behind that but it works for me and I am pretty good at just keeping on going.

This photo doesn’t do the hill justice alright!

Popping out at the top we rode alongside a cool canal! Flat but ever so slightly downhill along the top made for an awesome few kms. Topping it off with a few echidna spottings - life was good! Descending down to the road - we were destined for 10km or so of road with a massive headwind to Miena. Thankfully my company is a bit of a machine that I am allowed to hide behind sometimes - just ensuring I throw the occasional “you are doing great dear!” forward in appreciation, and shout the iced coffee at the end.

Canal cruising

Cute little Echidna fella - they seem to think they are invicible and hidden as long as they tuck their head in

Riding fuel - can you tell we were just a little bit hungry shopping?

After fuelling up at the Great Lake General Store (full of hot, cold and pre-made goodies) at about 1pm we knew still had 85km to go to Ouse. Once again we checked where the campsite was before Ouse in case we had to stop shy of our goal for the day but decided to push on if we could, and it was downhill after all! Rolling out of Miena we immediately started an awesome decent on some cool gravel. Although the fun was thwart with massive trucks travelling at speed around blind corners leaving a trail of dust and the odd steep pinchy hill to keep us from enjoying it too much. But the descent continued and continued and continued - it was actually amazing! Starting through the plataeu with the tussocks and rocks and wide open landscapes, moving into the trees again whilst warming up in temperature at a pretty steady rate. Then all of a sudden we burst out on to a road cut into the side of a hill with a steep drop down one side into views of the most amazing valley with a ribbon of water running many feet down. We took about a kilometre to stop - going 50kmph on steep gravel roads it takes a while! And a moment to take it all in with a few pics.

Popping out just above Bronte Park

Still a fair way down!

Rolling on

27km later after lunch and 500m elevation loss we rolled into the Bronte Park General Store with it’s hilarious signage - looking vastly different from the landscapes of Miena. Here we massaged our once again cramping hands from the brakes (common theme!) Refilled water and grabbed another snack. We made the mistake of filling up from a random tap at the service station in Miena. DO NOT DO THIS! It tasted like I had just had a drink of the water that comes directly out of a boat motor. I am still alive a month later at writing this so it wasn’t deadly, just disgusting, but it can’t have been good!

Bronte Park General Store - another handy supplies stop

Eye catching Coronavirus signage

Rolling out of Bronte Park we soon turned off the Lyell Hwy heading towards more smaller ups and down hills. It was quite a pleasent ride alongside Dee Lagoon that had a cute little island in the middle reminding me of a Slovenia-type scene. I was rather enjoying myself tootling along, while Cameron was patiently reminding me we still had a long way to go! Heading into the dense forest for a while we then started to descend again. Starting on some wider, more open trails it then turned rougher and steeper and once again the nerves and the bikes were tested! Flying down this fire trail I thought to myself there is no place in the world I would rather be than right there in that moment. Next minute a 4WD comes flying around the corner just missing Cameron in front of me and I had to roll over some pretty sketchy bit of track to steer clear! Sharp turns certainly aren’t an easy manouvre on the gravel and we thanked our lucky stars when we got to the bottom safe and sound! And once again - nursed cramping hands for a couple seconds!

Rolling along Dee Lagoon - those ducks look keen for a swim

Feeling like we were on the way out with farmland now blanketing the landscape, we enjoyed scattering cows (ok yes I know I enjoyed it) and giving sheep a fright (that was more entertaining for the Australian part of this duo). Rolling over the hills in the next few kms we definitely had some incredibly ruggedly beautiful sights that to this day still sum up the trail in one photo for us.

Photo highlights of the trip

Photo highlights of the trip

By the time we rolled the final descent (yes there was still downward elevation to go!) to just 90m elevation it was 6pm - another huge day in the saddle. This time we scoped out our campsite but decided to eat dinner at the Lachlan Hotel first (we called ahead of course!) as rain was starting to splatter. They seemed very pleased to have non-local guests after I would imagine COVID probably kept them away for a long while. With homecooked meals on the board and specials like apple pie and sticky date pudding we soon realised this was about to be the best meal of the trip to top off an awesome day. The Lachlan Hotel also had rooms which would make for a cute little stay in Ouse if you decided not to camp!

Lachlan Hotel Legends

The Tasmanian Trail free campsite in Ouse is at the end of Ticknell Street in a large paddock. Roll through the gates at the end of the road and look for a shed and toilet a few hundred metres away slightly to the right. The little hut was a nice sheltered spot to dry our gear and prevent too much moisture getting on the tent overnight. We had a quick “tap shower” getting our kit off in the paddock and using baby wipes and the drizzle of cold water to get ourselves clean. The other great bonus here was the unlocked flushing toilet. All a duo of bikepackers could want at the end of a long day! Feeling chuffed we had made it through our last day we decided to sleep a little longer the next morning for it was our “easy day” after all. Little did we know….

Ouse campsite not without it’s marker

Tasmanian Trail free camp in Ouse

Day 3: Ouse to New Norfolk

Day 3: Ouse to New Norfolk

Distance: 76km Elevation: 1715m Moving Time: 5hr 45min Total Time: 9.5hrs

One word of advice - don’t leave your bananas out of a bag overnight. Possums like them too. We started a bit slow and creaky, dropping into the local IGA Xpress for some breakfast goodies, the spork always coming in handy for some fresh yoghurt! Today on the menu: pikelets topped with yoghurt and blueberries washed down with iced coffee (without bothering to find a hot one!).

Breakfast of Champions

Breakfast in a bus stop with a map of the Tassie trail in the background to keep us occupied!

Rolling out of town at about 9.30am we had a few ups and downs, photo ops then a down to this cool bridge - which of course we crossed *rebels*.

View back towards Ouse

Beware cattle stops with skinny tyres!

Rebel with a cause

We then made our way up and down again to Broad River crossing. Which was a tad swifter than our crossings two days before and I was glad I made sure I held the bike downstream as it did try to run away on me at times! The key to crossing a “light on bottom, heavy on top” full loaded gravel bike I realised is to not lift the bike but keep the wheels rolling and keep upright at all costs! The moment I lifted the bike or pulled the top of the bike toward me the wheels swept out and I was left awkwardly stuck up to my waist in the middle of the river! Made it to the other side - no real dramas just a bit of fun really!

Time to take the shoes off (for both of us this time!)

Swifter and deeper than you think!

Caution - try crossing first without gear!

Making our way out of there going got a little slower as the fire trail got rougher. Bogs pictured below were not uncommon and although riding that on a mountain bike you could probably get by, with our smaller tyres, bags and uncertainty over what holes and rocks lay under the dirty water we took our time to walk around. There was a few steep gnarly ish down’s and up’s, then some cruisier fire road but eventually all things come to an end and we popped out onto Ellendale Road.

Boggy bits in this section - and it hadn’t been raining much at all that we were aware of!

And some steep bits

But of course also Tassie Trail beauty (the scenery I mean)

Hearing about Ellendale from Thor’s blog I was excited to visit. After all that hard work from the morning in the pretty warm sunshine I was ready for a lovely ice cream. Rolling along behind Cameron I was a little confused when he turned left on Ellendale road. But he was following the Garmin route which largely to this point was directing us just fine. It was a steep very fast roll down before a sharp quick right turn and didn’t allow much time for chat as we were rolling along some pretty nice gravel farmland roads with only beautifully long downhill sections ahead. The roads stretch out in the distance like a golden ribbon - enticing us for more!

It does look nice - but don’t take this road to Mt Bethune…you’ll read why soon

Heading to Mt Bethune

Cam’s Mates

We then got to a confusing turn off which you could go down to the river (which we eventually figured out was directions to the campsite only) or up the hill and through a gate - the trail. However it does pay to remember (more frequently than we did) that this trail is for horseriders and walkers as well as mountain bikers. We didn’t look at the guidebook which I am sure would have said to take the road through Ellendale on a bike. Instead, we started hike-a-biking Mt Bethune. See, it started not too crazy. Being able to ride through the long grass and zig zag up the hill a bit. Hike a biking wasn’t unheard of on this trail either. So we hiked and hiked and hiked. There was what looked like the top in front of us - which we arrived at only to find there was another hill behind it. My shoe broke from so much hike a biking. We (thought we) summited the second hill 45 mins later and decided we needed lunch, this was a little ridiculous!

How do I stop my Garmin beeping at me on Autopause because I am going too slow?

Not impressed

Thinking we got to the top

Markers are no different for Bike / Hike / Horse sections

We had a yummy vegemite and avo sandwich on the side of Mt Bethune with admittedly quite a nice view. Gathering up the bikes we pushed on - only to find 100m later that there was yet another ugly steep looking summit in the distance! I definitely uncharacteristically swore a few times at this moment! After a total of 2 hours (another 1 hr 15min after lunch) and 300 vertical metres hike a biking later we did actually reach the summit. It was a rather disappointing summit as when we saw where the trail took us down the other side we also realised we weren’t going to be riding out bikes anytime soon. Clambering over large piles of rocks the going got even slower again and my swearing did get worse until the point where I was actually grumpy whilst adventuring!

Spot for lunch

Finally we found where the trail snaked down a small valley (still not yet rideable!) ending up in steep paddocks filled with patches of large prickles. Jumping on our bikes for the first time in about 3 hrs we dodged prickles, found the gates along barbed wire fences and finally got back onto the road! Ahhh what a feeling. I was hammered. It was still a few kms to get back to Ellendale road and when we got there it was a little disheartening to know we had taken about a 4 hour detour over Mt Bethune, compared with rolling through Ellendale town along the road about 20km! After a quick debrief - I was buggered and we were low on supplies - we decided to skip one of the sections of the trail which immediately turned off Ellendale road to head over another hill. Instead we rode into the next available “town” called Bushy Park to the closest shop at Bushy Park Roadhouse to get water, fuel, mood food (in this case the long awaited ice cream!). We learnt here you can definitely NOT drink the tap water so again had to buy water as our only opportunity before heading back into the bush.

Riding out of Bushy Park it was getting pretty late around 4/4.30pm or so, the sun was pretty warm but my spirits had improved after the ice cream and actually being able to ride the bike had never felt so good. After a small road section we once again crossed Lyell Hwy onto Black Hills Road and soon greeted by some friendly baby Alpacas and a horse at the start of the climb. The name says it all from 26m elevation near Bushy Park up to 518m at the top of Black Hills Range. The gravel was perfect, the road steep and challenging and in the beautiful afternoon light, life was again good.

Hey guys hows life?

Friendly gal

Views from Black Hills Road

Life is good

Riding along the top of Black Hills Range

Riding along the top was pleasant through the trees and we were looking forward to getting to our destination that night for some proper campground facilities and larger town supermarket food options. Chatting away we started to approach the descent - probably the best of the trip! The Tassie trail sure knows how to keep on giving! A good 25 minutes later we reach the river and town centre of New Norfolk rolling in at 6.30pm - so much for our shorter day! Beautiful river setting for the town - and for our campsite right on the riverside! We stopped off at Coles on the way (so we didn’t need to venture out again!) and stocked up with pasta, veges and some choccy for dessert of course!

At the New Norfolk Caravan Park for just $30 total we had a sweet camp spot, bagged a picnic table and a BBQ and had access to free hot showers…winning! Another tip which I frustrated myself with a couple times is to also always ask “So what’s the deal with the Laundry here?” when checking in. Campgrounds are large places and walking to the laundry to find you need coins you don’t have, then going back to the tent to get your cash to exchange, then calling the office because it’s after hours and finally getting your coins all takes about 30mins of precious “I could be eating my dinner already” time for a hungry bikepacker. Doing your washing is usually also the factor that keeps you from going to bed earlier as it usually takes a couple hours to wash and dry. An even better idea is to handwash clothes and just use the dryer. Although unfortunately our wringing out skills aren’t as good as a commercial washing machine so the one cycle in the dryer isn’t enough to fully dry them!

“Always ask on the way into a campground - “So, what’s the deal with the Laundry and Showers here?” Things like what coins you need and how many for the shower, washer and dryer is super useful information up front!”

Yummy tucker - mastering the art of single pot cooking

After sorting petty laundry woes we cooked and enjoyed our picnic table until the washing was done and the mozzies drove us into the tent for another night. No picture of our camp spot this night, I was too busy sorting out the washing!

Day 4: New Norfolk to Dover (the end)

Day 4: New Norfolk to Dover

Distance: 100km Elevation: 2362m Moving Time: 7.5 hr Total Time: 11hrs

We did rise early this day as we knew we had another long day ahead with our most elevation in one day but it was our last day also! It was a chilly start in the valley of New Norfolk and we rolled out to get brekkie from Mood Food - a very well stocked servo just down the road. We ate breakfast in the carpark and loaded up the bags with lunch and morning tea + ride snacks as we didn’t plan to pass though a town for the first 70km - therefore most of the day.

We rode steady alongside the Lachlan river for a while before turning up into the hills. Boy was it a hill! Rideable for the most part of the 800m elevation gained - starting with quite a nice gravel section, turning to rough gravel, turning then to super rough and rocky 4WD territory. Although we did take great satisfaction toodling up the rough deep 4WD sections on our skinny little bikes whilst the noisy dirt bikes and big 4WD truck drivers watched us with a confused look. Then proceeding to take their time navigating the rough terrain with their big vehicles. We were quietly pretty happy with ourselves in front of these guys until just up the road when I realised I had a slow leak that wasn’t sealing due to a side wall graze and we had to stop. We popped a tube in and carried on but it did feel like the end of good progress for a while and not to mention slightly deflating our egos.

We mostly had to walk across the top as it was super rocky. Fine to ride with a mountain bike, without bags or with plenty of spare tubes but the fact we didn’t have any of those luxuries it wasn’t worth another flat (and our last tube in the middle of nowhere!) to ride rough.

Rock gardens everywhere

Bogs again

4WD heaven

A couple km’s later we got hungry again, had stopped climbing and decided it was time for a yummy roll from Mood Food on the side of the track near White Timber Mountain. Nutrition wise - always a good idea to eat a bigger meal at the top of the hill, you aren’t going to be working hard again too soon after lunch and mentally it is nice to know you are about to jump back on the bike for a fun downhill! We were able to ride again by this point and so we got back on and started to head down. Again, I keep repeating myself but it is true! An amazing downhill, long long long and fun but we had to stop several times just to give the hands a rest from the brakes! We crossed a cool ford on the way down, chatted to some kiwis filling up their water tank and topped up our bottles with fresh mountain water yay!

Time for lunch

Finally able to ride again

Massive downhill stretch

Several km’s down the road we popped out under some powerlines which is usually a bit of a firebreak and you can usually ride or run in the clear underneath them. However this one was MEGA steep! It was a little terrifying setting off at the top to give it a go, gravel bike, no dropper post, bags stopping you from getting back from the saddle and little tyres in sometimes deep gravel. Off we went skiding and sliding so slowly, we could have walked faster for the first section but gathering a bit of speed and confidence as we made our way down to the bottom. Once again having an adrenaline break, stetching the hands before carrying on down the cool forestry roads into Judbury.

The top of the powerlines downhill section - impressively steep!

The mega steep bit right at the top - photos never do it justice!

By this stage it was warm again and familiar thoughts of ice creams popped into my head. Alas we knew there would not be shops and Judbury confirmed this - I forget how small town, small towns can be! Crossing the mighty Huon River (by bridge of course) we got a very short section of sealed road before heading up onto gravel Bermuda Road. This was another one of my favourite Tassie Trail climbs - Cameron rode up ahead of me for a little while this time, leaving me in the serenity of my own sweat, appreciation for the views, pain and dreams of ice cream. Climbing the ridge alongside Dickson’s creek was pretty in the afternoon sunshine and we soon met back up as the road came out of the trees and snaked around a foresty section. It was then I bugged him enough to crack open the emergency can of coke he had been carrying for two days (yes that included over Bethune!). It wasn’t even an emergency, I just felt like some caffeine. But thank goodness we did because heading around another corner we wer fronted with one of the steepest (rideable) climbs of the trail. Using the snaking technique riding in S shapes up the hill, we got there in the end! Not long later we had a lovely local lady call out to us as we were riding past offering a cup of tea and a biscuit. It was tempting but we had to press on - many km’s left and the day once again slipping away from us!

Don’t forget the Vegemite we are in Australia after all!

We headed down into Geeveston arriving about 5pm - still with 30km to go. We stopped for a refuel of water and food at the famous Geeveston One Stop shop which conveniently is at the intersection on the trail. After a quick tour of this cute looking little town (definitely didn’t do it justice!) we rode on again to tackle yet another couple climbs before home.

Out on to forestry roads we came across the first two people we have seen on the whole trail! Two fellow gravel bikers from Sydney! Taking their time more than we did and following the trail in its classic format - a little more conventional and probably wiser so. Well after that excitement we headed up some mild hills in comparison to the rest of our trip, chatting away and remembering how much fun we had the last few days. Reaching the top of the first section we realised there was an old detour signed that was no longer required. Cameron had read about a bushfire that had passed through a section of the trail and a boggy, hilly, less than ideal detour that had been put in place in the meantime. Folks - you no longer need to take the detour. Follow my Strava and you’ll be right. The Tassie trail markers were super confusing through here so be careful if that is all you are using.

Wide open forestry roads - nice way to finish

Heading towards the final descent

Snaking our way through the forestry and some unremarkable but yet still beautiful gravel riding we finally reached the final downhill. Zipping up our vests and popping the gloves on as it was after 6pm by this stage, we rolled on down. What a great final descent! Fire roads were laced with beautiful ferns and a nice gradient to save our sore hands from braking too much. Then all of a sudden we broke out of the ferns onto a straight downhill section with uninterrupted views of the trail ahead to the ocean in front. I am pretty sure there was a few celebratory calls at this point, we did pose for a few pics of course and Cameron did some fun skids before rolling into Dover.

Boys will be boys

Just to pause the finish line elation I have there for a second - the end is quite confusing. We rolled in and it is quite obvious you turn left to the centre of town. But there must have been a turn halfway down the road where the magnificent view was with a trail marker on it. We missed it completely but didn’t care - we found the Start/End Tasmanian Trail marker on Chapel Lane. After a few pics we decided we needed to eat and realised the time! It was almost 7pm and knowing these small Tassie towns we were super lucky the Dover Top Shop was still open across the road (until 7pm!). Quickly getting some food, we sat in a nice park in the centre of town and toasted ginger beers for our finish.

We rolled into to the campsite for the night weary, sore but elated to have completed this part of our Tassie Adventure. We stayed at the Dover Beachside Tourist Park for just $25 total including UNLIMITED hot showers, a little shed with a kettle, toaster and some tables and chairs and laundry facilities. The other awesome addition to this friendly campground was the cockatoo at reception greeting you as you walked in “hello, hello, hello” then mimicking your conversation. I can’t remember his name but he was a delight. We checked in at the office about 7.45pm - thankfully as the office closed at 8pm! But we also learnt (after my laundry questions of course) that the laundry closed at 8pm also - eek! Doing a very fast unpack, change and handwash we managed to just get the clothes in the dryer in time. A late set up of the tent, charging of the electronics and finally our bikepacking admin was complete and we could rest for what was the longest day.

Who’s a pretty boy then?

Dover Beachside Tourist Park

Aftermath

The following days we went on to ride to Kettering, then catch the ferry to Bruny for two days of cruisy riding and food touring around the island but that story is for another day. Totalling: 787km and 11,882m elevation by the end of the week.

Trip stats: Across 5 days of Tassie trail from Railton to Dover + riding from Launceston to start

Distance: 543km Elevation: 8238m Moving Time: 28 hrs Total Time: 39hrs

Also for you bike gear nerds…

Cameron’s bike + gear weighed: 22.1kg My bike + gear weighed: 17.6kg

The Tassie trail was an epic adventure, not for the faint hearted nor ill-prepared but certainly for the intrepid and those seeking a peaceful, challenging adventure that exists in the beautifully rugged true Tasmanian wilderness.

I see it being enjoyed by such a range of people! You could;

• Ride it fast as we did in 3-5 days on a gravel or MTB with big days, lots of elevation and km’s

• Ride it slow and take 7-10 days, enjoy the afternoons, long lunches and stay at more cool small towns along the way

• Ride it fully self supported as we did with tent, cooker, gas and sleeping gear (therefore heavier but also cheaper in free campsites)

• Flashpack without all the camping gear and just take minimal emergency gear, stay in cute little bnb, hotel and campground cabins and choose either the fast long days or the slow and enjoyable days

• Of course you could hike / run it too (or horse ride but I know nothing about that mode of transport!)

• Then for the crazy people out there (you know who you are and I admire you) you could just give it a go non-stop with a bivvy and lots of food (due to limited fill up stops that would have to be well timed along the way)

However you choose, just do it. When we booked our first trip to Tassie I was hesitant - will it be as good as all the other stuff people rave about? It’s just a bunch of farm roads isn’t it? Should we take MTB’s for Derby etc instead? Should we do a trip around East Coast on the bikes? I was wrong to question the idea, it absolutely turned out to be the highlight of the trip.

Feel free to check out my Strava for the GPX files. Just be aware the following sections:

• We started in Launceston and met the trail in Railton

• Look out for the trail marker leading down to Quamby Brook - we missed it and went around the road through Golden Valley instead, which was fine

• We skipped a section and went via road to Poatina and up Poatina road climb - highly recommend avoiding that hike a bike

• Go through Ellendale instead of over Mt Bethune - and enjoy an ice cream for my sake please!

• After Ellendale but before Bushy Park there was a section of the trail we missed - follow trail markers or another person’s route for this section

• Definitely follow our route from Geeveston to Dover - avoid using the trail markers they point in confusing directions and are potentially still encouraging the old detour due to the bushfire

Thanks for reading, Happy riding!

Take us to the Wildside

The 5th and final race in the Australian Adventure Racing series took place on the first weekend of October down in Kangaroo Valley, 2hrs drive south of Sydney. The ruthless, unrelenting, technical and raw adventure of Richard’s 36hr Wildside was simply an incredible race.

With yet another loaded team of legends, Trev back from Peru to captain his team Tiger Adventure, fellow inseparable pocket rocket Sara, Aurelien lead nav / gorge hopping moutain goat and myself completely and hopelessly in love with Adventure racing therefore the first to say yes to this kind of team!

Team Tiger Adventure #19

This race was a slightly different from the beginning as we were not given Race Logistics prior to the event, merely a list of the “order of events” therefore had absolutely no idea about how long each leg would take and what we would be doing during the day or night. We didn’t know where we would see our gear boxes making it very difficult to plan both food and gear for each leg. My method for this was to pack a supermarket bag for each leg with 3hrs food for each, earlier legs having food I could eat at higher intensities and later legs having more “morale” foods and things I could eat while going more slowly. I packed a change of clothes into each leg and figured I can always take them out.

Checking the weather a week out – it was going to be cold. Checking the weather half a week out – it was going to be hot. Checking the weather the day before – it was going to rain and be early 20’s down to 8 degrees overnight on Saturday then fine up on Sunday to over 30 degrees. Brilliant for when you need to pack your gear and food a week before the race for your team mates to drive it down and have no idea what time you will be doing each leg! Basically the best of planning will be planning at best, as always with adventure racing!

I flew down to Sydney midday on Friday with good mate and training buddie Milford chatting logistics, predictions and strategy the whole way especially as it was Milford’s first race in a while. Greeting our friendly ride and new mate Pierro helped to get excited about the adventure to come. By the time we neared Kangaroo Valley the mist rolled in, the landscape became greener, hillier and more densely packed bush I was buzzing to get into the wilderness surrounds. The setting reminded me more of NZ, a stark contrast to the brown, dry, prickly and relatively quite flat terrain of Queensland. There was one particular road that I am writing in this blog to refer back to for good reason – Moss Vale Road. Remember the name road cyclists if you are ever in the area. Descending into Kangaroo Valley this road offered Tour De France quality switchbacks in dense beautiful green bush descending/climbing almost 600m across 8km. I will definitely be keen to give it a ride someday, but as this weekend called for a lot more activity off road – it was an adventure to be had another day.

Arriving at camp my team mates had already taken over our cabin with gear and packing. Trev and Sara – legends – had done the 12hr car trip the day before, truck packed up to the sky with gear. The immense amount of gear required for these races is unbelievable, I will detail this more in one of my blogs over the summer – look out for it newbies as I will share my gear lists after three races of my experience to get you started. My first gear packing venture took two weeks. I now have it down to about 2 days.

Just one corner of the house packed with gear. This was the area of the floor with the most walking room!

Arriving about 5pm, some excited hugs were shared and had a brief meet and greet with my newest team mate Aurélien Penneman. Aurélien has raced many times with Trevor including twice at New Zealand’s prestigeous GODZone 7 day expedition event. He is a very experienced racer having raced in many events in home country France and other AR World Series Expedition events in the Nordic Islands, Scotland and others. I was pretty proud to be racing with this speedy, experienced Frenchman and had full confidence in his role as Lead Navigator – just as much as I always had in Craig. This for me is such an important factor as a team member who is still pretty new to the sport. With Aurélien leading Tiger Adventure #19 and my trusty faithful’s ever strong Packhorse and Team Captain Trev, and motivational, everlasting side kick Sara it was set to be a solid team. With a few of the big dawg teams still recovering from Eco Challenge the field was looking promising for us to rank well. I knew I would need my game face on in order to pull my weight with this team, time to pull up the socks for whatever was to come our way!

Favourite Race Tucker – Baked spuds and the increasingly famous Weetbix Slice

Packing last minute sammies and baked potatoes before Rego at 6pm where we get the customary “fresh as a daisy” team pics and Map handout and briefing was at 7pm – after which the course is revealed and we can finally pack our bags.

Briefing was a little different to normal – we didn’t have the maps before we were introduced to the course. I actually loved the way Race Director Richard introduced the race. Telling a story of how we would pass through the course revealing one epic leg after another, having full attention of all 60 odd racers in the crowd listening to every detail of the adventure ahead.

Hearing we would be bussed up the river to start with a 7km kayaking up one of the side creeks as far as it would take us on water into the start of the Bundanoon creek gorge. Where we would then navigate up the gorge with approx. 500m vertical elevation over 12km. At the top we would find our mountain bikes and a box of gear in the hub of a large trail network to complete a 50km MTB rogaine. After the rogaine – back at the box to change or restock food again we would head back down the neighbouring Tallowa gorge for 14km descending back to our kayaks. Next a 24km kayak down the lake would take us to our next and last Transition Area (TA2) before finding again our bikes to complete Part 1 of a 70km Mountain bike (MTB) that would end by taking us approx 600 vertical metres up Meryla pass. At the top we were to complete a 20km Foot Rogaine before completing Part 2 of the mountain bike back to town and the finish line. The second MTB would include a compulsory walk with the bikes along a tourist walking trail and a fast downhill to reclaim all the elevation gained in the earlier part of the MTB. By the end of his description I had butterflies in my stomach – two epic canyon/gorge hikes (my absolute favourite trekking terrain but by far the most energy draining also) and a total of 46km trekking/running, a huge hill on the MTB with 120km to pedal all up and 30km of paddling we would have our work cut out for us across the ~200km course in just 36 hours racing time. What made things more tricky was the two time cut offs at the MTB rogaine and the Foot Rogaine which were essential to make in order to not be short-coursed. We thought at the time we would have a good chance at meeting the cut offs if we were moving steadily through the course but it certainly wasn’t a guarantee. Throughout the brief and course notes Richard still did not give us an estimated time for any of the legs meaning we had to give it a go ourselves after maps.

After mapping the course and Richard’s adventurous tale we had the best idea we were going to get of what was in store – time to pack our gear and food for the mission ahead. Now remember – briefing started at 7pm, it was 8pm by the time we got back to mark up the maps. By 9pm we were packing our gear and approx 10.30pm we were getting into bed for a measly 5 hours sleep prior to our 36 hour venture. We were due on the bus at 5am to be shipped to the start. Sometimes the adventure racing mission starts well before and clean up certainly ends well after the race itself.

We woke to steady rain on the roof at 4am, shovelled in some breakfast, last minute packing gear in and out – rethinking how wet and cold it could potentially get. I had already done some sleep “packing” overnight, poor Sara waking at about 3am to me grabbing the duvet of the bed we were sharing and trying to “pack” what I thought was clothes into a “bag”. I woke from the eventful slumber in the middle of the night to Sara’s “You ‘right mate?”, us both taking a second to realise I was in fact “sleep walking/packing”. At least no one can say I am not organised right? Off to the start line and onto the bus. Bus trips at the start of an adventure race I find incredibly amusing. Just to paint a picture. Think of 50-60 odd athletes wearing kayaking gear, carring brightly coloured dry bags, lifejackets, packs and paddles, wearing race bibs, tight shorts, rain coats, compasses around their necks, carrying maps and the last minute banana tucked in a pocket somewhere all trying to walk down the aisle of a bus, and fit into the tiny two man seats. I imagine these bus drivers must find it quite a unique crowd compared to their normal shipments!

Arriving at the start at the Tallowa Dam picnic area in Kangaroo Valley to a steady drizzle everyone is collecting their barge of a kayak off the trailer and lugging it down to the waters edge, having last minute toilet stops, taking off and putting on last minute clothing changes, tying dry bags to the kayaks and putting split paddles together. The lake is beautiful – glassy, misty and green and I am feeling pumped to get going.

I love the colour of adventure racing kit with the contrasting rich greens, browns and greys of the rainy wilderness surrounds.

Before we know it 6am arrives and the hooter goes. There is not many formalities at the start of an adventure race I have discovered, no countdown, no warning just a hooter so often people are caught out and it requires you to be organised and time keep for yourself. So, off we go!

And we are off!

The kayak was a fast and uneventful 7km starting in fairly clear weather which slowly closed into a steady downpour heading up the arm of the lake to our transition into the gorge. With banks getting steeper on either side and some cool rock formations and cliffs at the top we were getting more excited for the depths of the gorge to come.

Getting to Dougie – the man with the flag on the bank at the top of the arm of the gorge. At the end of the kayak we ran our boats up the bank, ditched our kayaking gear and grabbed our packs out of the dry bags. There was no box at this transition therefore we had to carry everything for the Trek and the next 4hr paddle on our boats – a real staged adventure in my eyes, I loved it! Getting a couple minutes into the Trek a team member from Team Rogue was running back at us – only for Sara to thankfully ask Trevor if he had grabbed our tracker (one of the absolute essential pieces of equipment). Something so easily forgotten was actually forgotten so Trev back tracked and we vowed to make a team effort to remind him at each transition from then on. Thankfully it was only a 2 minute mistake on this occasion!

Heading on up the gorge was fast at first, travelling with team Rogue was pretty fun, knowing they were in the running for the win and having the title to defend from last year we were pretty stoked to be comfortably travelling with these guys up the Bundanoon Creek. It felt fast at first, running over rocks, clambering around trees moving at a fast pace we were travelling well and quickly caught our fellow Tigers team Tiger Shackleton containing my mates Milford and Pete 250cc, previous team mate Joel and the experienced Kevin. Finding the right junction easily with these other teams we turned up Nyes Creek where the going got a little tougher and a little slower. The boulders got bigger, the terrain thicker and the ascent steeper. We came to a junction where we could take a right up the waterfall or a longer left up a steep spur and Sara and I, pulling up our courage we put our trust into the boys faith in our ability to climb up the waterfall while team Rogue and Shackleton headed up the spur. It was a potential shortcut that turned out to be a little slower but nevertheless that sort of decision is impossible to know how it will go until its gone and can potentially mean a nifty shortcut or that you fall behind slightly. In our case this was where we lost sight of the leaders team Rogue. We quickly caught and passed our Tiger Shackleton mates again to head deeper into the gorge. Aurélien showed his true strengths at this stage, our team now alone in the gorge he led us with a finesse over the rocks that I could only dream to be able to move with and he did this while navigating with a map in hand. We often had to call back our nimble French mountain goat so we were in sight of his movements, finding it much more efficient to follow his footsteps than bumble our own way through the terrain with an eye on him in the distance. It was at this point I taught him the game Marco Polo often losing sight just 10m away behind the boulder in front. Sara and I held our own well enough with half the length sized legs and strength of the boys while we all collected our fair share of bumps, brusies and scratches on the unforgiving slippery moss covered, wet creek bed. It was absolutely fantastic.

Approaching CP 3 we were certain we were in the right place and double checked the area before heading further up and down then around the creek to find the CP. Unfortunately by this time, we had missed the 11am cut off we were racing for at the mountain bike transition and 50mins later we orientated ourselves and had found the CP. We were passed by three other teams in this time, the Avengers (who had also made an earlier nav error costing them the cut off), Mont (who apparently chose the high road out of the canyon for a while) and the trusty Shackleton boys who were impressively without errors in the gorge. Soon learning as we arrived at the mountain bike transition that Rogue were the only team to make the 11am cut off and not be short-coursed for the rest of the race, meaning as long as they finished they had won the race just 5 hours in.

This timing gives you an idea of how slow going it is in the gorge. The fastest team, without nav errors moved at a speed of 23 minutes per kilometre and took approx. 4.5 hrs to complete the 12km gorge. Personal speed is important to know to be able to time when you might be approaching a creek, CP or judging the distance travelled in a race. I am usually timekeeper for the team and Trev has a keen feel for our pacing meaning we always had a fair idea how we were travelling.

By the end of the gorge and transitioning into the MTB Rogaine, simply put I felt like shite. My knee was starting to niggle at the end of the gorge and I was terrified and ashamed that my body was starting to crack this early in the race. I was especially worried because I knew downhill is always worse on joints and we had another, longer gorge in reverse to take back to the kayaks in Leg 4 to come. I popped my first Ibuprofen at around 10am just 4 hours in and was hobbling along the roads to the MTB TA1, this was not good news. I spoke up early to my team – it is always a hard pill to swallow to admit the first niggles for yourself and the team but absolutely essential to be able to go on and complete the race. Often your team mates will have suggestions that will save you that you hadn’t thought of or if you are dehydrated, low on fuel you often cannot see the correct solution yourself. From experience I knew I needed drugs and Sara also told me she had stronger anti-inflammatories I should take next time and reminded me to hand over weight to the boys if it was still niggling on the way back down the gorge.

At the TA we got our MTB Rogaine maps and Aurélien and Sara quickly decided and mapped out which 5 CP’s we were getting.

The Nav man himself, refuelling on Baby Bells – legend.

Setting into the bike I was red lining it trying to keep on the wheel of my team mates and quickly falling behind I had to also try and play catch up with food shovelling snakes into my mouth as much as my heavy breathing would allow. Trev dropped back and mentioned I might need a tow. Towing is an important part of a race – the team is fastest when it stays together and helps one another out. Although I was gutted. They were words I never wanted to hear 7 hours in. I have pride in my cycling fitness from the past two years but at this point I was busting my ass and only making 20kph on the flat – something else was definitely up. Thankfully with the word “tow” mentioned and a couple of helpful pushes from Trev and Aurélien I was able to keep on Sara and Aurélien’s wheel…just! Trying not to think of the later consequences of a 2 hour sprint session, I did what I had to to keep up with my strong team.

This was definitely the lowest moment of my adventure racing so far and although I ate something in TA, it was a quick transition and probably not enough. Looking back – the gorge and kayak took us almost 6 hours and I definitely had not had my usual 6hrs of food whilst trying to clamber over rocks and keep up with my speedy team therefore was likely running very low on fuel. Lesson learned the hard way.

Back at TA I shovelled in as much food as I dared before our run ahead. At this point it is super important to realise what is coming. Yes I was underfuelled and we had a 14km trek – during which I would be able to handle a large volume of food in my stomach as we slowly worked our way down the gorge. However to get to the mouth of the gorge we had a 6km run on fire roads – for which we would definitely run at a solid pace. Chatting quickly to my navigators I soon figured this out. Therefore TA food was calculated – liquids with sugar, potatoes, couple of mouthfuls only of rice pudding and baked beans but nothing crazy to upset the stomach. Even some of you may think, I could never run on that! This shows the importance of not only running for training but training the stomach to deal with food whilst running.

Girls on Tour

Running to the edge of the gorge and slipping into our second canyon of the day we starting making our way down the impressive Tallowa Gorge realising it will take us into the evening to get to the end of it. So, we set off with haste to get as far down in daylight as possible and after I had popped my second lot of Ibuprofen, egg sammie for dinner courtesy of Sara (wham bam thank you maam!) and sucking up my knee issues for the bumpy road ahead. Tallowa Gorge was more knarly than the first with boulders the size and height of cars and sheds often requiring negotiation around or down. For us pocket rockets – we become rather height challenged in this environment. Sara at 1.57m and I at 1.62m understandably find it a little difficult to clamber down the front of a boulder with a two metre rock face. Whereas Trev and Aurélien standing at near 2 metres tall themselves they quickly became essential to getting us down the gorge. Aurélien used the bear hug method standing front on to us and essentially grabbing us like small children and lowering down to the ground or grabbing our hands to pull up a tall boulder absent of footholds. Trev used the tree trunk method, standing strong whilst we climbed onto his shoulders and slid down his back to the rock below and giving us a leg up from the ground for the tall rocks whilst Aurélien gave us a pull up. Thanks boys, we would have definitely had trouble without you!

Finally dark descended on us in the gorge and the progress became slower, but who should come upon us at this time – our mates Rogue Adventure who had been travelling with us in this section of the Bundanoon creek earlier in the day. With 8 pairs of eyes and headlamps, spotting routes in the creek was much easier and we kept up a good pace for the remainder of the gorge, the need to keep up with Rogue outweighing nagging knees and other niggles. Finally we came across our kayaks once again that we had left so long ago that day, after a mighty 11 ish hours in gorges and just 2 hours on our bikes, it was safe to say most bodies were pretty glad to be sitting in a kayak for the next 4 hours.

Usually kayaking at night is sleep-inducing, disorientating and difficult to keep a decent pace however this particular 24km course I really enjoyed. Aurélien and I worked well in the navigating boat, me keeping timing and pacing at approx. 7km/hr and my spotlight on the obstacles ahead and the shoreline for orientation whilst Aurélien kept his eye on the features of the lake matching to the map. He chatted to me about the map and what to look for ahead which was really helpful in both of us keeping our orientation. A strong headlight beam up front was essential to find our way in the pitch black. With cloud cover and no moon there really was a deep velvety black colour in the night. We luckily had Rogue to follow in the distance and kept pace well. Collecting CP’s without error, as we paddled to more populated areas of the river we came across campers and the lights of distance campfires along our travels who were startled to see paddlers at this time of night, and in an intoxicated state called out “what are you doing!!?”. I feel once they got their answer they were probably more confused as we informed them we were in a race and had 12 odd kilometres more to paddle and were only halfway through our race! Nearing the end Trev and Sara became a little dozy and I was in the mood for a song, having downloaded some Elton John words in my mind earlier that week I cracked out some Crocodile Rock and Tiny Dancer to keep the brains of my team going. Nothing like the cliffs of a river to accentuate and echo the voice of an undiscovered star bellowing out a Rocket Man chorus (I always knew I sounded amazing, why did Mum never agree?). Unfortunately I didn’t hear Sara’s request for Eminem whose songs I have had unashamedly memorised since I was 12, oh well I will save it for next time mate!

Making it to TA2 in a nifty 3.5hrs and the second and only TA with a box of gear to restock we were feeling good. My team mates were pretty chilly at this CP however I was thankful for my NZ blood and slight winter layer at this point finally being the one not in discomfort. It all swings in roundabouts over 36hrs! Just to paint a picture at this point – we spent approximately 45 minutes at this checkpoint. You may be thinking woah thats a huge amount of wasted time! But this was our last and only overnight transition, the last place in the race (with 15hrs to go) where we could change clothes, pack extra clothes for warmth, rain, the heat of the next day, shoes for the foot Rogaine to come, reapply chaff cream and gurney goo, eat a decent feed that weighs alot eg: tin of beans or can of coke, refill water and electrolytes, fit lights to our bike, use the bush bathroom and dump the gear we didn’t need. We need to pack up our kayak gear, close up the boxes and carry the kayaks to wherever the transition volunteers direct us. Its not a fast process and almost essential to take this time in order to have the energy and gear later on to survive the race. I am sure the fast guys reading this will be thinking that it is a long time but relatively I bet they spent there longest break here also.

Setting off on our bikes we had a big night ahead, zooming through the first few CP’s on the road we set off into the bush, thankfully my bike legs were pretty much back and I mostly kept up with my team, except for the odd hill here and there. There was one descent that lulled all of the team to sleep especially classic snoozer Trev, I become increasingly worried about the lack of NoDoz taken by Trev at this point compared with his usual requirements by 2am and his veering towards the cliff on the side of the road. So I directed him to ride on the inside of Sara and I so at least we could try and wake him before disaster. Falling asleep whilst biking downhill does sound funny, and is certainly laughable at times but the consequences are potentially very severe so it does need to be taken seriously! Paddling is a little safer, and in fact falling in would probably solve the problem! The packs were heavy on our backs with 15hrs of food and 6 hours of fluid plus rogaining shoes and clothes heading up some steep hills including the intimidating and epic Meryla Pass. This was one helluva hill on which once again we found team Rogue curled up asleep in the ditch halfway up. Disturbing their peace they joined us for the walk / granny gear slog after 20 hours of racing up the 550m of elevation over approx 3.5km required to get to the Foot Rogaine at the top. However at least it kept us awake and as we neared the top we were rewarded by dawn breaking across the Crackey’s Creek canyon looking very similar to the picture of the Blue Mountains I had seen.

After frustratingly looking for a CP15 with Rogue for a good half an hour that some little bugger had nicked off with and no longer existed we approached the Rogaine. Now in full daylight, breezing within the first 7am cut off by about half an hour. Us girls and Trev were pretty knackered by now (Aurélien barely seemed to break a sweat the whole race … machine!), with probably 2000m elevation, 25 hours of racing and 11 hours of gorge trekking in our tired legs, a 20km fire trail run ahead was not a welcoming task.

Got to love that superstar Tiger’s grin

Collecting our rogaine maps we set off, quickly realising that Sara and I , the pocket rocket twins that we are, had now both developed twin ITB knee pain issues and running was not an option at least for now. Keeping to a fast walk we were pretty bored at this point, collecting CP after CP at a slow pace to our usual in the increasing heat of the morning. With knees becoming increasingly painful and our minds more, to be honest, disappointed in this relatively boring leg of the course we started to get savvy with our race decisions. Trev, realising we wouldn’t catch the teams ahead at our current max pace and that we had been the last team to enter at the 7am cut off suggested we get 5 checkpoints out of our potential 7 CPs allowed which was one more than the 4 CPs allowed for those who reached the rogaine after 7am. To still come ahead of those teams but also to not bust our girls knees completely and take an extra 1.5hrs on course for no change in placings. It was a welcomed and motivating call so, giving the boys our backpacks we were able to hobble an interesting style of jog for the last 2 CP’s.

Looking buggered in the early hours of the morning

Now for the last stage – the MTB back to the finish. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy but somewhere involved 600m of elevation loss and a section of sealed road, can’t be too hard right? Wrong.

Zooming through the first few fire roads through massive puddles was super fun to start and then we got to the section of the race where we had to walk our bikes for 3.5km along a tourist scenic walk called the East Rim Walking Track. Reaching the entrance we were greeted with absolutely breathtaking views at Twin Falls lookout over the incredible Yarrunga Creek gorge. Looking even more similar to the Blue Mountains pictures I had seen this was confirmed by team mate Aurélien who knew the Blue Mountains well, that this sight was potentially even more impressive.

What incredible views! Definitely looking like we are 30 hours in!

Yarrunga Creek Canyon from one of the lookouts on the East Rim Walking Track.

Walking our bikes along what was admittedly one of the most incredible short walks I have ever seen past many waterfalls and lookouts, was also extremely frustrating at the time! Just imagine midday on a beautiful Sunday long weekend at the end of school holidays how many tourists and families were out enjoying the trail in the good weather. And here we are now 30 hours in, sleep deprived, hungry, tired, exhausted, now hot and some who-will-not-be-named very grumpy racers trying to keep up a pace through the mahem. Thankfully the pictures don’t look as bad as we felt!

Dodging tourists…took some of them out with those handlebars, whoops!

Finally out of the circus, smiling again we came to the Fitzroy canal, we hooned along the fire road keen to get to the finish line. A couple CPs collected and our last hill done and dusted, we had the most epic section of riding to go! A massively steep and fun switchback fire road down down down losing all our elevation in one go, certainly testing my down hilling guts and skills with butt right back behind the seat, brakes on, conservatively pumping, it was a cautious descent for this weary rider. I made sure Trev was behind me knowing I would slow him down and how tired he had been getting in the last few km’s. Sara and Aurélien were fast out of sight with skills vast excelling mine in this terrain. Hitting the road we were almost home. With our second to last CP under the main bridge into town at the popular swimming bend on the Kangaroo River, Sara and I couldn’t resist jumping in fully clothed shoes and all to cool off on what was now a 30+ degree afternoon. Looking a little out of place amongst the other bathers, thankfully our boys joined us for safety in numbers. What an amazing feeling!

Riding into the finish I thought back to that moment in the gorge when I had to admit my knee was niggly and the worry I had at the time about completing the race. Adventure racing really digs deep into your abilities as a human, through sleep deprivation, physical exhaustion, mental obstacles and real physical pain shine qualities of endurance, determination, grit, teamwork, strategy and mental toughness. It really is an amazing discovery of self, of those supporting you and those that you are there to support along the journey.

I did finish with the team, honest, I am hiding behind Aurélien, camera shy after all those hours in the bush!

Another race finished, another adventure had, job done superstars. That’s my team of which I am immensely proud to be part of, Tiger Adventure. This pic will always bring a giddy smile to my face. We came away with 5th overall and 4th in the premier mixed my best result yet. This meant that overall for the year team Tiger Adventure finished 6th in the A1 National Australian Adventure Race series of which I was able to be part of for three amazing events with five incredibly gutsy, awesome humans Trev, Sara, Aurélien, Joel and Craig. Thanks for the adventure guys!

Some of you may be wondering why my race report has come out so fast, usually it’s a month later! Well, the aftermath of this race in the last few days have been a tough ride. Scratched and bruised, hobbling with the knee that managed to persevere the remaining 29hrs after the original niggle, a creaking back from carrying 15hrs worth of supplies by bike over the pass and sore muscles I never knew existed after the gorge. On the drive home the immune system started to fail also, leaving me with a head cold, sore throat and mouth ulcers that are yet to heal meaning a week sick at home alternating between bed and couch writing my race blog! Probably didn’t help having by far the greatest the volume of long events back to back throughout the year, it caught up on me and I am wrecked. Lesson learned…But what better test of endurance, sometimes you learn more about yourself from the tests in life that hurt the most or don’t go to plan.

That’s a wrap for racing for 2019 my debut year into the sport I feel I am truly made for. I’ll be taking a break until March but over summer I plan to blog about stuff that will help those newbies out there get started comfortably into Adventure Racing with gear lists, discussions, recommendations especially for the ladies! Also my forte of food, what to eat, when and how to plan it. So if you are interested, getting in to it or perhaps are still working on getting it right, then I will share all the secrets for your 2020 debut! Stay tuned to my adventures, share the blog with your mates and comment away! I love hearing your stories and advice.

Bring on 2020 with first race in the calendar in March, 24hr Explore Gippsland run by AR, Rogaine and Orienteering Aussie legend Rob Preston in Gippsland, Victoria. However, next years overall goal is bigger than 24 hours. It’s been my life dream since its inception in 2011, the world class 9 day expedition race in Rotorua, New Zealand, GODZone 2020. Bring it on Tiger Adventure! Lets get training!

Thanks Trev for all the amazing Tiger efforts you do to bring together fantastic people for incredible adventures.
You are Awesome.

“Awesome (defn): extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring awe.”

12 Hour Mojo Madness

It’s not the birthday present most would ask for, let alone agree to and grasp the gift of opportunity with two hands. When Gary Bit-Of-A-Legend-Round-Here Sutherland asked if I wanted to join him for the 12 hr Mojo Raid Rogaine on my 30th last month I thought, I am sure this is a decision I will ask myself “why?” many times over but also knowing it would be a fantastic experience I didn’t hesitate to sign up. Also with 12hrs running round in the bush, what better way to get to know someone new? Since it seemed to bring together two of my favourite past times AR + making new friends, I would be silly to say no…right?

4.30am Saturday 14th September morning leaving Brisbane watching the moon set, bright orange from the recent bushfires and then the dawn break was quite spectacular in itself – a reward for being up at sparrow’s fart in my mind. I had it easy, the drive from the Goldy for team mate Gary had him leaving in the 3am’s *shudder*.

I must admit I was feeling a little nervous, will I keep up?, will I do something stupid that would stuff up the race? – mostly centered around gear worries! Forgetting mandatory, or lights or to take shoes or getting blisters, injury etc just so much can go wrong over 12 hours and 3 disciplines. So I have decided that instead of stressing over the million and one things that can go wrong, just imagine it will go right and I like to walk myself through the race, “dress myself” with the gear, look at the temp try to imagine racing in 31 degrees, the impact of the dry, dusty terrain on what food and water and gear I will need. It pays to work on the mind from there and I just told myself this guy is good but he asked me and knows I’m a novvie therefore he probably knows better than I do what he’s getting himself in for!

Bike drop was one country block down the road before checking in at Race HQ Lake Moogerah with the passionate and welcoming Jo and Erran from the Mojo crew. Next thing briefing was up and maps were handed out 1 hr pre race start.

WARNING: I don’t have many photos of this race due to the lack of a Go Pro and energy from my behalf to stop and take pics whilst keeping up with Gary therefore I have photo credited / borrowed up a storm and patched it together with maps for your reading enjoyment.

12hr: Kayak, Moutain Bike, Hike, Mountain Bike, Hike, Mountain bike

We were off to a beautiful kayak start on a glassy lake filled with the classic look in this area of dead white/grey trees protruding boldly from the surface, a perfect place to hang checkpoints apparently…

Photo Cred: Nic Droste

Kayak CP descriptions – Dead trees a winner!

Most of the paddle was pretty straight forward with one particularly epic CP – up into one of the small corners of the lake with surrounding cliffs proving to be pretty spectacular. Gary and I enjoyed a good yarn, a little too much so in that our chat distracted us from navigating, and I realised he was only human after all having to backtrack a couple hundred metres to a CP we breezed passed moments before. From then we sharpened up, keeping up a solid pace in the barge like double kayaks provided at these events. Turning up to the next CP watching team Mountain Designs Wild Women portaging across a mudflat – exposed only because the dam was at just 50% capacity meaning the CP was now more on the shore than in the lake mapped out. Thankfully this observation gave us the advantage we needed to steal back into lead position on the kayak. However we had to get to this CP first! The mud threatended to swallow us whole, taking two steps and falling flat stuck up to the thighs and elbows in mud is not an easy possie to get out of! Gary called his technique the “paddle crab maneuver” to swim/slide on the mud into the puddle of water where the checkpoint was. I decided I didn’t particularly want another mud facial therefore took a look around – just 2 metres to the left was a river bank looking more like gravel than mud – I took my chances and strolled out of there no sweat, mud or tears! Hopefully others didn’t follow the first couple sets of footprints! Cruising around the rest of the kayak was rather pleasant and we took the opportunity to drink and eat up finishing in about 1 hr 50mins – 10min ahead of schedule!

Amazing CP views

Transition to the first Run/Trek leg was calculated by me – I made a call to change shoes, unnecessary time that race-mode-Gary didn’t require. I was willing to consider this call except for the fact that I was only 3 days out from taping up my blisters for work shoes from a hike the weekend before and I wasn’t keen to risk blisters on blisters in wet kayaking shoes. Sometimes a little more time here, saves a hell of a lot of issues down the track! But of course with only one shoe off – I look over and Gary is in different shoes, mostly eaten a tin of baked beans, ready to go and saying so how are you getting on? I get my A into G and a couple minutes later I am running out of transition still dressing, finding my map, compass tucked too far away, half a banana in my gob trying to run on Gary’s heels towards the first CP. So with my head still in a flurry, at first fence we come to with barbed wire, Gary kindly steps on two of the wires, lifts the other two – a handy slot for me to crouch through. Then rude and oblivious old me…. keeps running! Only to hear behind me “Really!!!???”. I turn around and here is my poor team mate stuck on the other side of the fence due to me not repaying the parting-fence favour! I think he realised in that moment truely how rookie I am with some of this stuff! Feeling truely embarrassed I quickly got schooled on Rogaining courtesy on how to “hold the fence” for your team mate, and how best to avoid a barb to the bum while maneuvering ones self through the fence. I need to sharpen up my game here!

Tiny bits of shady reprieve from the heat of the day

One CP down I was at least dressed. Two CP’s down I had the map out. By the third I found where we were on the map and was able to call out the clues at least! Some team mate! I then spotted the next CP (stoked!) to gain the nickname “Eagle-Eye” to which began the day’s customary Eagle bird call by the first CP spotter. After this admittedly – I did wonder why we weren’t going up the creek which was the route we had marked on the map. But I trusted the experience of my team mate and was happy enough that I was keeping up + enjoying this race so far. 10mins later I said to Gary, so which high point is it? This one ahead or that one? … … *crickets*… … “oh no”… ” I can’t believe it” he says, ” I’ve done a 180!” 10mins later … we were back at the creek. I needed to play a part of this team especially with the heat boiling our brains and the best I could do was keep convo strategic and support my personal GPS!

CP of the day

The rest of the run was a bit of a blur and looking back I was probably a bit ill from the early – mid 30 degree heat after a winter of 12 degree morning trainings. Feeling my heartbeat in my mouth going uphill, a little nauseous and definitely struggling to eat much more than snakes, face like a tomato and sweat struggling to trickle out I identified that I was on the cusp of having to stop. But I did manage to take in the stunning views from the high points, slot canyons and all the other incredibly placed CP’s. Sprouting bird calls with every find, it was overall a great time! Popping out to the CP with surrounding cliff marks on the map was definitely one of the highlight CP’s on this leg. By this stage I remember only blood running down my leg from a nasty vine scratch that I didn’t feel due to the heat, trekking turned rock climbing up the cliff face – challenged by Gary to follow him up the climb vs taking the slow and safe way round, and some amazing person taking the only pic of the day of us as a team!

Finally making it to our bikes at TA and some more fluids it was a welcomed change. My can of baked beans however was not welcomed while feeling so off colour, unfortunately it meant I had to carry the extra 220g with me! Setting off the breeze but soon again finding heat demons on the hills skirting round the first couple of CPs on farmland was hard yakka and it wasn’t until we got to the glorious CP 42 that life changed for the better. What awaited us was a cool, blue billabong which we took no time in deciding to dive into – it was absolute heaven in the moment and the 10 points for the CP was worth a hell of a lot more. Favourite bike CP of the day… apparently unintended by the organisers but absolutely adored by us at least!

It is amazing the amount of joy and reprieve we got from that tiny blue squiggle!

Feeling alive again and now having hope I would actually finish we set off for the range. Riding up Spicers Gap Rd was a darn good hill! 3.5km, 370m elevation according to Google maps (no GPS allowed in adventure races to Strava it) and after 6 hrs of racing it was no easy feat but a fantastic climb! Arriving at Spicers Gap in the cool shade of the trees, at higher elevation was lovely and after a short TA we set off into the stunning Main Range National Park. I wish in some respects I had more energy at this point or we had been here earlier in the race as it was a remote beauty full of amazingly tall trees providing a fairly dense canopy, bird sounds loud and a bright green surround in colour. A stark contrast to the barren, burnt farmland of the land surrounding the dry lake. But this also meant for big hills and very dense, uncomfortable looking bush bashing terrain. We got the closest CP worth just 30 pts at the Well and progressed up to the Lizard Point Lookout CP for a 70 pointer which offered incredible views back of Lake Moogerah. At this stage we re-grouped, weighed up our options and decided on our priorities.

Govenors Chair lookout, Main Range National Park

The call was made to return home comfortably, enjoyably – avoiding some dense bush bashing and steep terrain. And besides, by this stage a cold beer with Craig Keeling back at HQ was high on the priority list. So we made our way back down the range, stopping at the Governors Chair lookout for a “mental photo” and once again amazing views. I made a promise to myself at this point to return to this stunning place and really get amongst the Main Range National Park another day.

Who is that serious person? Can’t be me

Finally tucking into my baked beans back at TA (well I wasn’t going to carry them for 3 hrs, up a 350m climb for nothing!) fuelling up for the downhill ahead!! Hooning down the dirt road we felt absolutely high on life, while the sun set on the hills around us and the moon rose again in the crimson sky ahead – the exact opposite scene to my drive that morning seeming so long ago now.

Just a handful of CP’s to go in the dark and I was still learning things from my awesome team mate. Such as, that mountain bikes can be ridden almost anywhere until proven otherwise, don’t leave your bike and run, take it with you! And that consequently, long farm grass makes a comfortable landing for when the enevitable happens anyway! And that etiquette with farm gates is not the same as barbed wire fences – it is perhaps strategic for the fastest person to open and close the gate and the slower not to wait or be polite but to simply ride on and be quickly caught up again.

We made it in at a respectable 6ish pm, with 2500 points under our belts, happy, high spirited, not broken but understanding our enjoyment may not have been strategic for the best placing possible. I was stoked at this point to have achieved my goal of finishing in one piece and feeling like I somewhat kept up with my something-of-a-legend-round-here team mate’s “social pace”. Cruising over to camp we find the other legends on site Craig Keeling and his 3hr race team mate his brave 9 yr old daughter. Craig had those ice cold beers waiting for us – the ones we had been dreaming and talking about since 10am that morning! By 8pm and official race finish time I was pretty pleased I had managed to pitch my tent for the night, pack away my gear, have a long deserved shower and sink our first beer.

Coming away with the overall win was a nice surprise after deciding to cut it short a touch but absolutely stoked with this wicked trophy from the Mojo team! Gary got his name on the 12hr Mojo trophy to match his name on the 6hr from the year before but I was pretty proud to have my name on an adventure race trophy of any sort for the first time and especially next to Gary’s.

Thanks to Jo and Erran at Mojo for a fantastic race and absolutely brilliant course! Cheers to Gary my new team mate and adventure buddy for sharing your skills and apologies for the early race rude manners! Massive high five to Craig for the cool beers at the finish. And of course Tiger Adventure for enabling my two favourite past times as always the rich spirit adventure combined with getting to know some amazing people along the way. Nothing could make me feel more alive!

Stay tuned for my long awaited Hells Bells post now I am back on track with the blogs and the next Adventure Race … 36hr Wildside in October.

Pocket Rocket Tigers debut at Wildfire 6hr

This blog was originally published 1 August 2019

Brought to you by Pocket Rocket #2 Nicole Walker

I had such a ball bashing through the bush, hooning round MTB tracks and just general gas bagging with my new found adventure buddie Sara Barrett at GeoQuest in June that I didn’t hesitate to sign up when she asked if I wanted to join her racing at the 6hr Wildfire Raid at Mt Joyce and Wyaralong Dam last weekend.

Introducing the Pocket Rocket Tigers

This 6hr Rogaine had three legs – kayaking, mountain biking and running. For those readers unfamiliar with Rogaining… Definition from Google: a competitive event in which participants find their way with a map and compass. My definition: turn up to an event and having no idea where you are going, how long you’ll be doing each distance for or the terrain, only that you’ll be doing “it” for about 6hrs!

One hour before race start you are given a map with some circles on it and then 59 mins to go, have to figure out how to find them in the bush. Isn’t that like orienteering you say? Well the key difference that I understand between a rogaine and orienteering is that a rogaine you can collect checkpoints in any order, and orienteering you have to collect in the order the race directors set. Or to those that ask, why can’t you just use Google Maps? The IDEA is that part of the challenge of racing a rogaine is the tactical navigational component rather than just pure speed around a pre marked course.

Note to those who want to try rogaining… Things to pack: Fold out table, fold out chairs, highlighters in a few different bold colours (yellow is crap FYI), standard writing pen, black marker pen, ruler, scissors, clear contact. Oh and of course a compass! Be prepared food, drink and gear wise for what you expect (we expected kayaking on a lake, mountain biking on mostly trails and running through scrubby scratchy bush off trail for a total of 6 hrs). Once you get your map the time is ticking to figure out what you need to do and how to do it in the most savvy way to collect the most points. Each circle is a checkpoint and each checkpoint is assigned a number. The number refers to the amount of points you’ll get for “punching in” at that checkpoint. Eg: checkpoint 91 was worth a damn sight more points then checkpoint 14…. and they are rounded down to the nearest 10 - worth 90 and 10 points respectively. The big checkpoints are generally because they are harder and will take longer to reach. In this case checkpoint 91 was a top of Mt Joyce…400m higher than the Hash House (HH) or aka race HQ.

Checkpoint 91 Mt Joyce 469m above sea level, 406m above race HQ

So what I learned is there are a few things consider when planning a route: 1. Big points are good targets provided they are not going to be too time consuming to collect and to determine this we need to take into account distance – ruler handy here, elevation – looking at contour lines and terrain (this one is still yet to be revealed until you get out there!). 2. Look at what route makes sense to get lots of checkpoints eg: if there are a few in quick succession they may add up to more than the 90 pointer and be quicker to get! 3. Paddle points don’t have elevation so may be more predictable timing. 4. Whatever plan you make, also plan to change the plan…. several times! There’s probably many more tips and perhaps I got these ones wrong but I’ll be keeping these learnings in mind for next time!

We mapped out our route with highlighters, stuck the clues for each checkpoint somewhere handy to look at and decided what food/equipment/fluid we’ll need where, had a last minute toilet stop then lined up all within the precious 59 minutes.

We had a ball! Starting out on the trek choosing an ambitious, albeit beautiful route around the headlands of the lake, practising counting corners, walking up Spurs for stunning Wyaralong Dam views and getting thrashed by speargrass and thick Lantana. For those kiwi readers and Aussies who don’t go bush often I intended on finding a photo of this awful stuff but I couldn’t find anything that did it justice so stay tuned for my next blog during which I’m sure I’ll have another exfoliating session I can take a picture of. Try to imagine walking through a crowd of people where everyone has their fingernails out ready to scratch you as best they can and then the odd child has a stick in hand which they decide to prod you with unexpectedly wherever they like and that’s about Lantana! Why would you walk through that? Well to find a checkpoint off the track we need to follow “handrails” (thanks Rob Preston’s nav lessons!) which are features in the terrain that help you know you’re on track. Such as a fence line, ridge, spur or finding a “flat spot” in the hill. Now if you decide to avoid the scratch fest it’s very easy to lose these landmarks and therefore lose your position on the map, the checkpoint and waste time “beating round the bush”. So basically you can’t go under, over or around it you just have to go through it!

We took an anti clockwise route and decided that no matter the cost we wanted to get up Mt Joyce and would not miss out on the “scenic” route. It was a steep old track but pretty easy to follow so gave the brains a bit of a breather. The views gave us a boost (as well as the bananas consumed at the top) for a steep technical jog down to find CP 22. This one was a little sneaky out and back for us but we found with no dramas and no unnecessary elevation loss or gain. At this point in the race we’d had a feel for what the MTB would be like running on some of the trails and decided to flag most of these checkpoints. Steep fire trails, technical downhills sure looked fun…but time consuming and we were racing after all!

Spectacular views up Mt Joyce on this gorgeous Queensland “winter’s” day

We got a few mountain bike check points on the way into the run course and left our bikes with the friendly TA1 volunteers / go pro photography extraordinaires. It was nice to get back there, have a mid race Sambo (what Aussie’s call sandwiches FYI) and nail a few easy bike checkpoints on the way out. The one actual MTB trail we did get onto gave us a sweet little taster of what fun the park had to offer and Sara and I vowed to get back out there for a bike sesh another day!

I have to say cutting the mountain bike a little short was attractive to me as a paddler at this stage. Having looked out over the completely glassy dam running around in temps of the mid 20’s for a couple hours, getting in that gorgeous water was too good to wait! We got to the paddle leg with 2.5 hrs to go and decided to give it a shot to sweep the paddle course. Hilariously we were so keen to get paddling we forgot to get the easiest bike checkpoint on course a little 14 pointer basically in the carpark… whoops!

Wyaralong Dam flat as a pancake

The paddle was the other highlight for sure. Absolutely flat as a pancake it’s rare to paddle on water like that in the middle of the day, especially being used to NZ winds! We took an anti clockwise route deciding it would be an easier way to drop just one or two checkpoints and still getting the high pointers if we ran short of time. Paddling without any navigational mistakes, at a modest pace for these pocket rockets, enjoying a Sunday yarn it was a rather pleasent way to spend an afternoon actually. Seeing other teams pretty regularly meant for some good banter on course too. We got nearer to the end and realised we would sweep the kayak course and get all the checkpoints meant we had to knuckle down to ensure some safety time to get back to the finish. And of course time for a selfie to wrap up the arvo!

Stoked to sweep the kayak course!

Absolutely not forgetting checkpoint 14 on the way out after getting back our land legs we were off and away to the finish line! Finished in a time of 5 hrs 49 mins and 1060 points on our belts we managed second placed female team and 7th overall! With the calibre of athletes around us Sara and I were pretty stoked with that!

That’s a wrap!

The Wildfire Raid 6hr at Mt Joyce this year was well supported with some awesome volunteers spending their Sunday help make this fun event happen and certainly the organisers did a great job making it fun yet challenging, scenic yet shitty enough to keep us toughened up and for the top teams it seems to have the goal of clearing the course kept in sight without being easily achieved. Liam and Adam seem to be the main men behind the manpower – thank you gents!

After some post race yarns, a cold lemonade and fresh Subway Sambo that was a wrap. Watch out for next edition… Pocket Rockets 2.0. Looking forward to the next A1 series adventure race in our backyard Maroochydore on the Sunny Coast in two weeks time….the 24hr Hell’s Bells!

Post race Lantana scratches made for a few interesting conversations in my work skirt on Monday… Back to work reality after another stunning adventure weekend!

A Rookie's Race Report

Tiger Adventure #12 - GeoQuest

Team Tiger Adventure #12

Kayaks lined up on the beach ready to go, the air thick with salt spray, kitted up ready for the ocean, feeling puffed up from wearing lifejackets full of food and water, helmets on…just in case! Everyone chatting excitedly, nervously, last minute toilet stops and all of a sudden the hooter goes and the nerves are gone. We are racing.

How it all began

48hr GeoQuest in Yamba was my first adventure race over 12 hours, launching myself into a true adventure racing challenge! Ever since I discovered this sport existed back in 2012 after watching GODzone chapter 2 in Queenstown with some Uni mates I knew I wanted to be an adventure racer. I have not been able to ever focus on one discipline and I get bored with on road triathlon style training and racing I have always felt “half pie” training for things. Competing in Coast to Coast in 2012 and other multisport events was where I started to feel like I had fallen into what feels “right” as a sport. Always striving for longer, more adventurous and a challenge that seems just that little bit out of reach to begin with, I felt this year was the right time to adventure race. Since watching GODzone, I have followed a convoluted path to becoming ready to race seriously, working on my bike fitness on the road, skills on the trails, bush skills for day and night, my fear of heights and slowly purchasing the vast quantities of gear required. So to line up on the start line for Geo felt like an achievement in itself (competing in an adventure race before I am 30… tick!), especially with such a high calibre field!

Leg 1: 21km Ocean paddle

The Race

My amazing, smiley, well experienced all-rounders and simply tough-as-nails team mates of the original Tiger Adventure team #12 Trevor, Sara and Craig and I set off early Saturday the 8th June at 8am fresh into a 21km ocean paddle. With conditions promising a 5.5ft swell and a decent headwind we started strong, finishing in just over 3 hours for a fantastic Geo start!

Transition was slow with some cold bodies then we launched into a speedy but super muddy 24km mountain bike, flying along on a beachside 4WD road trying to decide whether wearing sunglasses caked in mud offered more visibility than having dirt flicked directly on the eyeball. The highlight was a fun “obstacle” mid-way through the leg where we had to kayak our 4 bikes across a narrow rivermouth then return the kayaks to the other side. In true blue team captain and “packhorse” style Trevor volunteered to wash off the mud, dropping the kayaks to the original spot and then swimming back to us the other side.

A note on Transitioning!

Quite possibly the most difficult and crucial part of the race for me. TA’s were a mix of hectic clothing changes, sometimes being pretty relaxed enjoying a good feed and when tired sitting on the ground saying “I can’t think straight right now...help me!”. A forgotten mandatory item could have cost us the race but forgetting to top up my water, not changing a certain item of clothing, reapplying chaff cream or putting a crucial item into a box I would not see again could have also been pretty detrimental to a good race! Nothing like a triathlon transition where you can just practice tying your shoelaces faster or wear a tri-suit so you don’t have to change, adventure race transitions involve many steps:

Dry feet, remove sand, apply cream to feet, change socks, change shoes, change clothes, swap mandatory items from box to bag, pack other gear that is just as mandatory to survival eg: both warm gloves!, re-stock food, re-stock water, find a place to use the bush bathroom, assemble bike, pack certain things into box A you don’t want again during the whole race, pack certain things into your bike box you want to see again! Tidy up – no litter or disqualified. Team – don’t forget these straps, or the right map! After that first three transitions I definitely felt out of my comfort zone and mostly relied on copying my team mates and asking (much like girls preparing for a night out) “So… what are you wearing?” but rather than “Can I borrow your hair straightener?” more like, “Please can I use some Gurney Goo and Ibuprofen?”

TA2: MTB to Run Feeling good

Back to racing

Then we launched into a faster-than-anticipated moody weather 19km beach run but unfortunately not as enjoyable due to the silt in my shorts from the bike ride that chaff cream didn’t quite fix! (Maybe I should have volunteered for that swim!).

Leg 3: Our muddy butts on the run

Ahead of our predicted times coming into TA3 we were keen to get to TA4 and get this next paddle done in as much daylight as possible. Only the tide and water level of the creek was not on our side making for a tedious and then very dark and quite cold (even for this kiwi!) 14km upstream paddle. We finally reached TA4 around 7pm for the beginning of the overnight mountain bike – Trek- mountain bike stage.

Leg 4. Kayak

Chris (race director) did not disappoint when he said there was one pretty awful bike leg in the race… steep, knarly fire trails with plenty of elevation gain, then made slippery and very muddy by persistent rain meant for a tiring start to the night. 29km, several 100m elevation, 4hrs and couple of sneakily hidden checkpoints later, we arrived at beloved TA5 to our wonderful fellow tigers Di Rosser and Neil Tahi cooking up sausages, hot chockies and banter by the fire... we took our time here knowing what was to come.

Setting off shortly after midnight for what ended up a 9.5hr trek consisting of either bush bashing or jogging on fire roads over a tough navigational course. We made it through the entire course stoked to get all the checkpoints, some admittedly taking up to 2hrs each…! Craig (aka nav extraordinaire) – hats off to you mate, excellent job! And suburb calls made by TC Trev and back up nav from Sara. I was merely a timekeeper and was numerously impressed by my teams’ skills in the thick Aussie bush. I had my first pretty good tired moment around 2-3am where the team must have thought they had a mute zombie in tow … not Nicole that’s for sure! But nothing a NoDoz, a Snickers and finding a checkpoint couldn’t fix! After getting the first two tricky CP’s we were on a roll smashing out two more from following a bearing in quick succession. The sun surely rose to see another day just in time for us to summit the highest point of the area Mt Clarence.

Notes to self for next time

I learnt a thing or two on this trek:

1. Tough shoes for tough terrain would have been better for my (now black) big toenails.

2. Take Ibuprofen early for niggles (thanks Trev!)

3. Speak up early with niggles and discomfort to your experienced team mates as they will know the answer to help make things more comfortable! (thanks Craig for asking directly “Nicole you are waddling… tell me how you are tracking?”) and

4. Take dry socks. Lots. Of. Dry. Socks. (Thanks Sara for saving my life by lending your spare pair - well my feet!). Once out of the bush we enjoyed breakfast at TA5 and a quick feet dry out in the sunshine as both mine as Sara’s looked worse than this…. (trust me, we won for worst feet on course if this was the benchmark!)

Not the worst feet on course!

Into the second day

Leaving the Trek about 11am we had a fast mostly downhill 19km mountain bike to wake up again...only to enter into what felt like the longest paddle I have ever done (not even halfway close!) battling to keep awake in the warm afternoon sun! But it was simply stunning starting up stream in a small side creek kayaking 27km through vines and under logs then breaking out into the glassy vast waters on the Clarence with local jetty fishermen out cheering us on and some great chat within the team it was a fine afternoon after the wet 24hrs of day 1! A cold beer would have topped it off just nicely!

Leg 8: Kayak

We made it in to TA7 after 4hrs paddling, perfectly timed on sunset as planned (because we had enough of dark paddling the night before!) and were now keen to get the rest done and dusted and to not have a full second night out on the course.

Bike Nav master Sara was on fire and we motored around the fairly flat fire trails, 30k MTB 9th leg to be greeted by the lovely volunteer family of three generations, Grandpa, Dad and Son and the warm fire at TA8.

The first 16km of our next 22km trek leg was mind numbing but beautiful, running under the carpet of stars on the sand before hitting the checkpoint headland. It got trickier with large fallen trees creating tiring obstacles through our sandy path, other options being wet feet and waves (not appealing late at night with blistered sore feet) or bush bashing on the dune. We chose well, heading up the dune for some bush bashing which helped us move fast. See below pics from the route in daylight.

Trev’s NoDoz had no effect from this point onwards and we all worked hard to keep him awake whilst running trying to reduce the number of times he ran into the sea while falling asleep on his feet!

The Final Countdown

Before we knew it, we were on the home straight. After a quick transition taking our bags with us we jumped excited but weary into our last leg just after midnight after being awake for 43hours and racing for 40hours just a 6km paddle, an hour should do it I thought….I was wrong. For the sake of mental and physical longevity in the race I have learnt to never underestimate any section of the race and always treat the upcoming tasks with an appropriate level of respect. It's wise never to be blasé!

Final Leg 11: The 6km kayak course in daylight - finding our way through the rock walls was not an easy task in the middle of the night!

One hour into what we thought would be a one hour paddle we realised we weren't yet halfway across and we were paddling into a swift current which was the incoming tide. The lights were disorientating and at 1.30am our brains had had enough. It was a slow and difficult paddle across the Clarence river mouth. Compounded by the funny but unfortunate fact that Trevor’s foot had a habit of pressing on the right turning kayak peddle when he frequently he fell asleep (away from the teammates boat when trying to discuss nav tactics!). We decided at one point in a less finer moment of decision making to “ask for directions” of a nearby boat (?)… at 2.30am… yeah then reality of that idea sunk in and we somehow found our direction towards the finish! Only to nearly (actually scarily close!) to being run over by a large fishing boat 300m from the finish!  But to be fair, I bet that guy didn’t expect to come across two kayaks at 3am in the middle of the Clarence.

We made it.

3 hrs later. Our supporters had (rightly so) gone to bed, our online trackers given up on watching our dot moving in circles in the Clarence and also gone to bed but we finally saw the finish line at an unsocial hour of 3.30am all had given up on our predicted 45min paddle time as much as we had! It was a lonely finish line shared with just Chris the committed race director and his cellphone to take our finish pic! The elation on our faces in the pic below truly describes how I felt. Exhausted, wet, hungry, blistered and chaffed but exhilaratingly happy and so proud of my amazing team. I could not have imagined a better first adventure race!

On reflection

The logistics prep was worse than the race itself! Organising my entire race clothing, food and shoes for essentially 11 normal length races into 4 boxes ... no thanks, I would take 43hrs of racing over that part any day! I decided wisely to keep a list so I don’t find it as bad for next time (hopefully!) And as Craig pointed out I made some pretty funny “RRRROOOOKIIIEEE” errors, I mean who forgets socks of all crucial pieces of equipment? But with the experience of my team I could rely on them to make up for my inaugural mishaps (and thanks to a feet saving spare pair of socks from Sara!).

I cannot think of a more amazing sport – navigating untouched country as our ancestors did crossing bodies of water, climbing mountains, bush bashing the natural land and, although they probably didn’t have full suss mountain bikes back then I’m sure they would have also appreciated two wheels to cover some fast ground! And never has training been so fun! Going on missions combining all the disciplines into all the hours you can logistically handle every weekend with fantastic like-minded people, exploring the best of the Gold Coast and Sunny Coast hinterland and coastline. Hiking with mates, MTB on the single trails, giving climbing a go and even going out for a surf in the arvo all counts to what you never know you will have to prepare for come race day. For anyone out there adventure minded – just give it a go! You won’t look back.

Pics below: Mapping the course – the Navigational component of Adventure Racing.

Thanks firstly to my team for providing me with such a great first adventure race experience! I always felt safe, supported and in capable hands which was my most important requirement in a team. I felt privileged to race with these high calibre mates and athletes and for the original Tiger Adventure team. Especially to Trevor Mullens for helping me get started into my dream of becoming an adventure racer and to adequately prepare with many hours of 4.30am trainings and all weekend adventures in the last few months whilst chatting non-stop about other adventures mishaps along the way! Thank you to my housemates, friends and family for putting up with the time and energy required of me to train for this. And for supporting me with a healthy level of doubt to fuel me to challenge my limits and worry to keep me grounded to the risks of the sport to adequately prepare.

This was one of the best experiences of my life and I will absolutely be back for more. Stay tuned for more of Tiger’s Adventures.

Thanks Chris and Mountain Designs for a fantastic 2019 and my inaugral adventure race GeoGuest!

What put the “Sport” in Sports Dietitian

I grew up in a small town called Palmerston North in New Zealand with plenty of Swimming, Surf Lifesaving, Football, friends, family camping and fishing holidays to keep a kid out of trouble. Surf-lifesaving was where I found my first true love in the waves and I have been boldly calling myself a “surfer” ever since.

Competing at the New Zealand National Surf Lifesaving Championships for St Clair SLSC

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.”

Going to university in Dunedin, Otago (NZ) in 2008 was where my true adventurous spirit was born. Cultivated and nurtured well by friends around me and fuelled by wanting to get off my bum and have a break from study. I remember looking out the window on many cold and dreary winter Dunedin days, choosing a hill, putting on my shoes and running out the door for hours to see if I could get to the top of it.

Otago Peninsula - picking a hill and running to the top!

In second year (and also in winter) I took up kayaking in K1 boats for fitness for my surf lifesaving in the summer months and I remember wearing almost my entire wardrobe of warm clothes to ride to and from the kayak sheds to paddle in the pitch black wintery nights. I was also introduced to some (very!) muddy and slippery mountain biking and hilly road cycles through my different circles of adventurous friends. This is probably how I have become such a lover of the mountains and hills now - the bigger the better both on the bike and running. Naturally these interests (and lack of commitment to a single sport!) led to multi-sport racing in 2010.

Peak to Peak Multisport race involving skiing, mountain biking, kayaking and running from the top of the Remarkables skifield to the top of Coronet Peak Skifield in Queenstown, New Zealand

Side step - I wanted to be a Physio and went to university with this intention, however after taking up a couple of sports nutrition papers my interests shifted to the power of nutrition in fueling human performance and maximising potential in sport and health. Physiology and the human body in health and disease or injury has always fascinated me therefore naturally after staying on the nutrition path, I continued on to being a Sports and Clinical Dietitian. This I have always used as my secret weapon in sport. I have never been the fastest, fittest, nor had the lightest gear or the most dedicated training schedule however I have the power of nutrition up my sleeve to always perform and keep up much better than I should on paper!

2012 brought my first major event Coast to Coast where I scrimped, saved, fundraised, begged, borrowed (but stopped short of stealing as the saying goes) and trained my butt off to get a car, mountain bike, kayak and other gear, pay the race entry fee and complete the 2-day event. Coming in at 9th place as a 22 year old in the Open Women category I was stoked.

Since those days I have enjoyed many smaller events mountain biking, rogaining, multisports, trail runs, three half ironman distance events and a couple of marathons. Exciting travel also got in the way of any major events but in that time I enjoyed some overseas events and cycle touring as a means of travel through Cyprus, France, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and now Australia. I also landed an amazing job with the British Army on their base in Cyprus for 2 years, where I was also exposed to living, training and competing in some pretty extreme heat! Travelling between NZ and Cyprus I realised the uniqueness of both hot and cold environments and despite moving to yet another hot location in Queensland, Australia I cannot say which environment I favour most for adventure!

Competing in Cyprus at “Olympus Man” the half ironman with a twist - from Sea to Summit (Mt Olympus at 2000m).

Reaching the top of Mt Ventoux, a famous road cycling climb in the middle of a 5 day cycle tour around the south of France with this awesome friend of mine

In 2018 I moved to the big brother country (to many kiwi’s like me) of Queensland, Australia. It was the surf and the weather that brought me here, especially after spending 4 months cycling and surfing around Europe earlier that year. But it has been the Hinterland and diversity of Australia that has kept me here, exploring every weekend and even some weekdays before or nights after work.

2019 brought with it new goals and challenges getting into Adventure Racing. It was also the year I established Ascent Sports Nutrition. These two ventures are where my need for a blog started. I hope to share with you a mash of my sport, local and overseas adventures and sports nutrition insights.

Enjoy!

Hiking Mt Barney - tallest South East Queensland peak