At 7pm on Thursday 27th January 2011 Arabia Outdoors are holding a Social Evening with Dan Mazur (most widely known for leading Greg Mortenson’s 1993 K2 expedition in “Three Cups of Tea” and for the rescue of Lincoln Hall, an Australian climber on Mount Everest on May 25, 2006) as guest speaker on Thursday evening at the Lakes Club, Emirates Hills, Dubai
Info:
The main guest speaker Dan Mazur will be presenting a slide show and films, sharing with us his lifetime’s experiences as a high altitude mountaineer and ambassador for The Mount Everest Foundation for Sustainable Development in Nepal
The aim is to raise money for The Mount Everest Foundation for Sustainable Development in Nepal and it will be great to also gather together the UAE’s outdoor community for a social.
I know a few folks will be heading to Freshly Laced afterwards (facebook event link http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=158716934178216 ) afterwards so could be a great all-round night.
For those of you who dont know Freshly Laced has Ian ‘Yeti’ Rendell as one of the DJ’s and Ian is one of the outdoor instructors based here in RAK. The evening is not your normal Dubai night out and is summed up by this quote from the facebook page: “If you haven’t been to Freshly Laced before it’s unlike many a night here in Dubai, where the music is at the forefront, and all the bullshit is left outside. Come down and see what you have been missing.”
The event had 2 races. First out of the gate where the 13 teams of 2 competing in the adventure race. The mountain bike leg climbed up Wadi Khabb Shamsi for 35km to an altitude of 1000m before ditching the bikes and continuing on foot to the summit of Jebel Kiwi then returning back to the bikes to finish.
Adventure Duathlon Start Line
Starting a couple of hours later was the mountain bike event that just raced the 35km to the 1000m high point. There were over 40 competitors and one of them was me.
Now I’m not really the kind of mountain biker that enjoys cycling up hill and as I was sorting my kit I was questioning the wisdom of entering an uphill only event. Even weirder was I started seriously considering entering the duathlon. Fortunately the person I’d most likely have teamed up with didnt have his trainers packed and I was off the hook. Why is it we love to torture ourselves?
For me events like this are as much about the crowd of folks that turn out for them as the event itself. Its a great mix of people, some talented athletes, some not so talented, but all motivated to get up in the morning and facing the challenge of the event with a smile on their face and a positive can do attitude.
The mountain bike race started at a steady pace. My game plan was to take it steady from the start with the aim of not blowing up half way through, which is my normal trick. But in the first half a kilometer I noticed a small peleton form at the front so I put in put in a spurt and made the jump to the group. this proved a good decision as the extra speed I gained before I was dropped got me the jump on a load of folks who didn’t spot the opportunity. it improved my time no end and this reflected in my end placing.
Once I had been dropped I settled into a steady pace. I was by cycling by myself from about the 6km mark all the way up to the steep section at around 25km, my only company was provided by the guys in the support vehicles coming by and taking photos. (Thanks to Adrian of http://www.probike.ae for his).
Wadi Khabb Shamsi is spectacular. The track is has a steady gradient up through the steep water worn cliff sides. For most of the ride I wasn’t having to hunt for shade and was pretty comfortable temperature wise.
At what I estimate to be about 20km (I didnt have a bike computer) the wadi opened up and I caught myself looking for indications of where I might be headed and the finish. This is a psychological road to no where as you’ll either see something that will make you think the finish is closer than it is and be horribly disappointed when it isnt or spot something really high and far away that will just depress you. Fortunately I caught myself and made myself keep my head down, focus on my breathing and grind away as hard as I dare without risking blowing up. I was getting pretty tired at this point and could feel my legs starting to get very heavy.
At around 25km the track really steepens up and climbs at about 23% (apparently) up a series of loose sharp corners. Up to this point I’d been checking behind me every now and then to see who was catching me up but, much to my relief, didn’t see anyone. I was keeping the cushion that extra effort jumping into the front group had brought me. Now just at the bottom of this brutal steepening I heard bike gears changing behind me! Oh no! My heart sank. A quick glance round and I saw 2 cyclists behind me 😦
My energy tank was running pretty low at this point and i just didn’t have enough to keep off the guy who over took me. The track was brutally steep and I was the first of the 3 of us to plump for walking. Once one person walks often the others follow. I heard a clatter behind me and the other rider was lying in the track. It turned out later as we were swapping race stories she’d got caught up in her spd cleats as she’d gone to walk and had the classic but horrible rolling around in the dust experience.
Everything was hurting now, there was nothing good. The sun beat down, my quads cramped, the track was relentlessly steep. I tried cycling, its never good walking, I couldn’t, I cramped up even more and just felt miserable as another ride cycled past much stronger than me. I looked behind me but the girl who’d had the spd fall had fallen back. I put one foot in front of the other until the gradient eased off a bit and I could get back on the bike but the damage was done, I was hurting now.
As I went past Jonathon he shouted “there’s just one girl in front of you, show no mercy!!”
Mercy?!? Mercy was a luxury I could no longer afford, I was hanging in there trying to lose no more places to those behind me. The gradient had easer but my legs were so heavy, I could see the finish line but it was all hurting. I was feeling quite sorry for myself (lol)!!
Crossing the line without losing any more places was the reward though, the harder fought the fight the greater the sense of achievement. I knew I’d done ok and given a fair account of myself. I could now stop moving for a bit, get some fluids down, recover a bit and share race storied with the other riders.
Finished!! 10th overall in 2 hrs 26 minutes
The Duathlon Teams were still out on the run and it seemed quite a while before they started to come in. It sounded like the terrain had been tough. Don’t quite understand why but a big part of me still wishes I’d done that event and as I’m typing this I’m planning to do it next year.
Winning Duathlon Runner near the endWinning Duathlon Team
So a great time was had by all. A huge thanks to John Young and the team of folks and sponsors that gave up their time to enable the event to happen, it really is appreciated.
I need to make a particularly big thank you to Damian for lending me his titanium hardtail. I wouldnt have entered on my big clunky Enduro. It really was appreciated
For more details of the event go to http://www.wadiadventure.com and save it in your favourites so you can find it next year.
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.
Crunchy numbers
The Leaning Tower of Pisa has 296 steps to reach the top. This blog was viewed about 1,100 times in 2010. If those were steps, it would have climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa 4 times
In 2010, there were 12 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 20 posts. There were 34 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 22mb. That’s about 3 pictures per month.
Anyone kayaking on the sea in the UAQ area will see plenty of turtles. This unedited footage was shot by Guida from her kayak at about 1715hrs as the sun was setting and shows 2 or 3 large turtles very near by along with numerous flamingos in the background.
SOLO 35 km Mountain Bike Hill Climb – 1000 m TEAM of 2 35 km Mountain Bike Hill Climb – 1000 m & 10km Mountain Run
“Starting at the Golden Tulip Hotel Dibba , Oman, the route follows the Wadi Bih run course through the dramatic wadi Khabb Shamsi into the stunning Musandam mountains to the high point of the road.”
For details and registration please check out: www.wadiadventure.com
e-mail info@wadiadventure.com
Tel. 04 3429259
Entry fee 150 AED per person
(including post event buffet)
Here’s the article from the Kalba Kayak Photoshoot Phil and myself did. Thats me on the front cover that is!! Click on the photo to access the rest of the article.
“NOC HONORS PYRANHA AND NORTHWEST RIVER SUPPLY WITH 2010 PADDLESPORTS MANUFACTURER AWARDS
WESSER, NC (November 3, 2010)— Nantahala Outdoor Center announces the recipients of the 2010 “Paddlesports Manufacturer of the Year” awards, Britain’s Pyranha USA, Inc. as top kayak manufacturer and Northwest River Supply of Moscow, ID as top paddlesports accessory manufacturer.
Pyranha is recognized as “Kayak Manufacturer of the Year” for its design innovation as well as exemplary dealer and customer support. The high-performance Molan playboat is one of the most successful new freestyle boats in recent years, and the Fusion crossover kayak is the category favorite among Nantahala Outdoor Center’s (NOC) paddlesports staff. Together, these boats have created considerable hype in the industry and amongst paddlers in 2010.
Northwest River Supply (NRS) is selected “Paddlesports Accessory Manufacturer of the Year” for its high quality products and strong dealer support. In 2010, NRS has steadily supported NOC retail efforts and the company’s key paddling events, including the NOC Freestyle Shootout, NOC’s Guest Appreciation Festival, more commonly known as GAF, and the inaugural Canoe Club Challenge.
Chris Hipgrave, NOC’s Retail Director, comments, “Pyranha and NRS have proven their support of NOC and the whitewater paddlesports industry in the 2010 season. Both are brilliant sponsors and have shown stellar support of NOC retail staff and our instruction programs.”
Nantahala Outdoor Center congratulates the 2010 award winners and looks forward to continued support from all paddlesports manufacturers in 2011.” – NOC News Release
For those who aren’t familiar with Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC), NOC is the largest outdoor recreation company in the USA, welcoming over half a million guests annually onto over 80 different courses. Over 22 Olympians and Olympic coaches have called it home and it has recently been recognised as the “Nation’s Premiere Paddling School” by the New York Times, “The Best Place to Learn” by Outside and as “One of the Best Outfitters on Earth” by National Geographic ADVENTURE. They will also be hosting the International Canoe Federation World Freestyle Championships 2013.
Its alway cool to have a plan. The weekends plan was to get out for my first 120km road ride with the Dubai Roadsters early on Friday morning before meeting up with Ben for an overnight kayak foray into Musandam. As we were driving towards Dibba I was wondering if it was such a good plan. My legs were really feeling the morning ride and sitting in a kayak didnt seem such a good plan at all.
With kayaks packed and underway all the doubts vanished
It’s about 15km across the bay. I love the feeling of being off shore. The bay feels full to the brim with life, my favourite are the flying fish apprearing from the bow of the kayak and gliding for impossible distances across the surface of the sea.
We reached camp just in time to settle in in the last of the light. While the location was stunning as a campsite it was lacking. The incoming tide came right up to the stones leaving us sleeping under a clear bright starry night in amoungst the rocks and fishing detritus. It was a hot sweaty night without any breeze. I wish I’d used more deet or a mosi net as I had quite a few small insect bites on my shoulders and arms where they hadn’t been protected by the sleeping bag liner.
Suprise suprise the day dawned bright and clear just like it always seems to in this part of the world.
We spent a great morning drinking tea while laughing and videoing the numerous hermit crabs making their way from the stones, down the sand and into the sea.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
We eventually made a move off the beach and explored the inlet we’d camped in and the surrounding coastline for better campsites with future trips in mind.
On the way back across the bay we had an incredible chance encounter:
A great little trip. Its always good to finish a trip knowing that you’ll be back. There’s lots of coastline I want to explore that I’ve missed out on on previous trips up the coast towards Limah and on up to Khwar Habalayn.
Trip info:Access / Egress point: Public Beach, East of Royal Beach Hotel, Dibba25° 35.812’N 56° 20.884’ECampsite Used: Dawhat Haffah 25° 44.707’N 56° 18.139’E
Ian Ganderton 