We Now have the C in SCAR
Hi there all. This is going to be a short one as we have finally Arrived at the Apache marina Hotel and the Drive here is positively stunning. It is a dirt Road for most of it – Main Highway by Africa Standards but dirt all the same. We drove the Apache Trail and WOW, the scenery is stunning. Sorry, no photos today as the WIFI here is only in the main Building so I am sitting at the bar surrounded by drink and I am Happy.
A Recap of the day
Again, an early start. Again, I was up at 2 am and busyed myself doing sillly things until we finally rose at 4.30am to get ready and also check out. It is fit to tell you that we have doubled in luggage since we arrived. Thank god we hired a BIG SUV to lug all our rubbish around. It was then about a 45 minute drive to Canyon lake marina. on proper tar road and just for a change, the scenery was stunning. Upon arrival, it was same as the day before. All jump in a speed boat and get moved to the start. Mmmmm Not convinced it is a good idea to do the Whole route before a race. It took us 15 minutes at 55MPH to get to the start. AND WE THEN HAD TO SWIM BACK!!!. Saying that, the scenery was more stunning than the day before (is that possible?) with the lake slightly narrower and the cliffs rising up about 100ft or more straight out of the water. Due to late opening of the marina to get the boats to carry the Kayaks to the start, we spent about an hour on a lovely beach catching up with people, stretching, putting on the requisite suncream and Zinc – probably a good thing there are no photos on this blog – I do not want to scare people off the site!
Kayaks then arrived and were rapidly bundled off the boat only to be replaced with the first wave of swimmers. Swimmers were transported to the start and began the race, catching up with their kayakers before continuing up the Lake. Repeat! We were in the second wave, same as yesterday.
I was in the first 5 of our wave and stayed like that for most of the day. Water was about 23 degrees, sun beating down on our backs and me doing a fair amout of breaststroke to soak up the atmosphere. At about the two mile mark, I could see that I was catching up to the rest of them. After a few more minutes I was REALLY catching up to them. It was then that I realised that most of them had stopped and were looking at a Big Horn Sheep that was sitting about half way up the rock face looking over all the goings on in the lake. He was a stunning specimen and I stopped for about 4 – 5 minutes to watch him. This was the reason that I was catching up with everyone. Sadly they all the carried on so I lost all the time I had made up.
I managed to keep going but today, at about the 3 hour mark, I got my grumpy lazy streak showing its ugly head. Luckily, this just means that I do a lot more breaststoke whilst wrestling the Demons in my head. A few people passed me but I was not too bothered about it and I stayed with them for a while and then let them go on. It was at about this point where we were getting closer to the finish line so the boat traffic increased – and so did the chop and waves. It did not really help when I was in the frame of mind that I was in but I just eased off and just slowly proceeded to the end. The chop was quite rough making it tough for both of us to make any headway but we carried on until we rounded the last bend and then it was about half a mile to the end.
This being the shorter of the two swims that we have done, it was my slowest; perhaps not the best day swimming wise but the most picturesque swim by far- and apparently it gets better How?
Highlights of today are as follows:
1- drive to Canyon lake
2- stunning commute via boat to the start
3 – the Big Horn Sheep.
4 – the awesome scenery on the swim
5 – and the main highlight has to be the drive from Canyon lake to Apache lake along the Apache Trail.
Audra – I don’t have a lot to add but just to say, its been a beautiful day. I was the lucky one today, having the better view of the swim, and it would be hard to say which part was more stunning. From a kayaking perspective, it was difficult to get comfortable today, and the headwind made it a challenge, but I made it and I’m so pleased with that. I’m still functional albeit after a long awaited post kayak massage, (I think hanging on to the door handle so tightly while we traversed the dirt roads this afternoon may have undone some of the masseur’s hard work!!) but tomorrow is going to be our biggest challenge of all. The good news? The last of our early mornings for the trip!
Wish us luck for tomorrow!