Day One

Boxing Day 2009.

We needed to be in Yarrawonga by 1800 hours for the briefing, but we thought it would be more pleasant to arrive in the early afternoon and set up camp without undue stress and generally ease into the event. There was a lot of improvisation to be done in terms of managing loads, campsites & road crewing the boat, but seeing all the physical components in one place made it easier to judge things like space & weight.

I'm not promising a coherent blog - this one has been cobbled together non-synchronously and editing in the photos just isn't that easy. This is some of the group unpacking at Yarrawonga. Note the manager of the roadcrew supervising from a seated position, while crew stand around looking busy. Roles were reversed for the next five days. Paddlers will tell you sitting down is overrated.

The organisers provided what they probably thought was a lot of information, but actually from the point of view of a group of first timers, the information was pretty much useless. (And, jumping ahead a few days, often ... inaccurate ...)

Here you can see a couple of boats being taken in for scrutineering. If you look closely at the boat on wheels (smart idea!) you will see that it is in fact a paddle boat, powered by pedals. One of three in the race, but not the one that finished. The yellow kayak behind is carried in a more typical way - by boatmen, not an engineer. It did finish. A modern kayak weighs (roughly) 10-12 kg per occupant (less as they get more occupants). Contrast this with the 30+kg per occupant of the dragon boat and you will have some idea of why our team wasn't first home. Although, given our boat would fit 20, and only carrried 12, I wonder what damage we could do with a full boat.

Wanting to arrive early and not keen on long drives/early starts, we stayed on Christmas night in Gundagai at a pleasing (very small) motel. Excerpts from the guests' welcome included "Please do not mistake our TV remotes for your mobile phone" and "These are non-smoking rooms. Please step outside for filtered air." The proprietor was very friendly but I was unable to determine if the irony was conscious or unconscious. He had the air of someone teetering on the precipice of sarcasm, with a genuinely warm smile. He could be hosting a TV talent show with that combination. OTOH, it's probably more rewarding running a small motel in Gundagai.

It was hot in Yarrawonga, but for the first time in about 15 years, I was hot without being sticky. It's not often you'll find me nostalgic about Victoria. The dry heat is, especially after many years away, almost refreshing. It looks a bit brutal with those tents in the direct sunlight but they cool down pretty quickly after dark.

The problem at the campsites was more noise than heat. Here we ended up between two schools' teams, and unsurprisingly they were up later than us.