Pechey Pursuit Adventure Run

Presented by: MOJO Adventure

Like your trail runs mixed with a bit of adventure? There is nothing scary about running through a forest… at night… right? With an 11km and 5.5km option, medals for all runners and prizes for category winners, the Pechey Pursuit is a great way to kick start the MOJO Raid weekend. Headlamp and a sense of fun are compulsory equipment for this race!

Friday 26 August 2022 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM (UTC+10)

LOCATION

Peachey State Forest
Grapetree Road , Grapetree QLD 4352

GET YOUR ENTRY HERE

MOJO Raid 6 Hour Race Report 2017

You can sign us up for 2018 now!

You might think we will be back because of all the wonderful reasons to participate in Adventure Racing and Rogaining. We all know how amazing it is to play and explore in Australia’s natural outdoor environment. I love the native animal sightings, the feeling of adventure taking paths and off trail routes most will never know exist. I love the physical challenge and feeling of accomplishment at each checkpoint. I love the strategy and mindfulness required to plan a route with food and water logistics. Let’s not forget the allure of a good map and finding its meaning play out in the surrounding topography. Climbing that hill for the joy of a beautiful view from the summit. The rogaining community full of warm greetings from now familiar faces. The gear geek in me which loves the bikes, map boards, kayaks, paddles, multiple compasses, favourite hydration pack, specific shoes and clothing.

The Mojo Raid 2017 had all these in spades. Yet they weren’t the highlight for me.

With my son, Noah this was our 3^rd Mojo Raid as team Giant Slayers. Noah is now 13 and I can emphasise the TEEN. His height is shooting up and his voice has broken. As his Dad this new stage has challenged me. When he doesn’t listen (he knows more than me apparently), stubbornly insists on doing things his way, back answers, sleeps in too much. It is all normal teenage patterns of behaviour. It can push my buttons and drive me crazy. My wife points out that I’m hitting cranky old man stage at the same time. Our Father/Son relationship is being challenged and redefined. I spend too much time frustrated and just a bit cranky.

At Mojo Raid we get to come together as team mates. The father son relationship is complemented with the dynamic of working together as teammates to take on the Raid. We spend the Friday night camping and removed from TV, IT, social media. The peaceful bonding starts to happen like magic.

With the wind and waves on Somerset Dam the consensus was Kayaking wasn’t a good option. I thought we weren’t going to get wet. At the race briefing Erren and Jo point out only 1 person from the team would need to get the boat ramp check point for 100 points. Noah very quickly tells me that we have to get the 100 points and that it will be me. When the race starts we head straight to the boat ramp and see the Mojo team’s sense of fun. Checkpoint 52 is an inflatable pool shark about 20 m out into the heavily wind swept, cold and muddy lake with a small crowd of Mojo volunteers on the bank in fits of laughter at the whole scene. Most teams bypass the checkpoint but a few have the lucky team mate removing unnecessary clothing and plunging into the refreshing water. After a quick Mick Fanning impersonation the shark is dispatched. Noah and I are having a hoot. The laughter on the shoreline is absolutely infectious and sets the mood for the entire race.

We trek the long ridge to our high point. Following the taped trails through dense bush and beautiful rocky creek lines keeps the navigation straight forward. There is a 12 hour team in sight behind us and it motivates us to keep moving. As we meet teams moving in the opposite direction we hear several kind warnings about the bees swarming at the base of the waterfall checkpoint. By the time we arrive at the waterfall our minds have hyped the stories into killer bees waiting to strike. Well not quite but Noah has never had a bee sting, he didn’t want to start here. You’ve got to love these opportunities for character development.

Past the bees and we are enjoying the company of that 12 hour team as we now travel together. Their kids at home are a bit younger than Noah. The defined trail means we pass plenty of teams moving in the opposite direction that are all smiles enjoying the event every bit as much as we are.

A couple more checkpoints and we are back to HQ ready for the kayak leg. The wind and waves are stronger than earlier so like most teams we trek easily along the lake edge to the punch the compulsory ‘kayak’ leg checkpoint.

4 hours trekking done with 2 hours to go. The bikes are a welcome change cruising along the dirt roads. I’m thinking we should stick to checkpoints without much elevation. Noah tells me we should push on with our plan and climb the sizeable hill to checkpoints 18 and 16. As we pushed our bikes up the hill we saw plenty of others doing the same and people choosing to walk their bikes down the steepest section rather than ride. We appreciated the view from the top but I more raptured with the joy of being a proud Dad as Noah is pushing his physical boundaries on the climb and testing his determination and bravery when we ride cautiously back down.

A quick ride up the valley as we figure we could squeeze in 2 more checkpoints. Turning for HQ at checkpoint 20 and a 12 hour competitor tells Noah I said I’d treat him to whatever he wants from Maccaa’s. All lies! Noah excitedly puts the proposal to me. The idea has him excited so I agree on condition he rides back to HQ without stopping. Noah is inspired with enthusiasm that outweighs any caution. He races down the dirt road and loses control. His bike and body are swerving all over the dirt rode completely out of sync. I’m riding behind him and immediately have that sick feeling as time slows waiting for the moment of impact, blood and thinking this is going to be carnage. Somehow he pulled off the save of the day and got his bike under control. That sick feeling takes a while to go. We ride with care and finish with a comfortable 10 minutes to spare.

What an awesome event. You can feel the enthusiasm and passion that Erren and Jo put into this event. Thank you so much for allowing us to have this experience.

During our 6 hour event Noah was challenged in quite a few different ways. I got to put away the cranky old man that has been coming out a little too frequently at home. Instead I had the opportunity to be Noah’s teammate and used the opportunities presented to provide encouragement, support and work on our Father/Son bond through this shared experience. What could beat that?

RACE REPORT

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.

Heraclitus

Geoquest 2016… What an adventure!

This weekend we “raced” Geoquest at Port Macquarie, however I think that for the teams in this event like ours,”racing” is not the word that describes it and that perhaps “journeyed” is a better word.

I have done this event enough to understand that if you throw your cards down in the game of Geo that the outcome will always be awesome but never certain.

This year I had collected a few rookies to take them on the journey with me with our goal being to finish the half in good time.

Nik, Tam, E and I had fantastic moments training together and getting stronger and fitter.

Tam had,like me raced 2 previous geos and was experienced and wise and showed us some great ideas on gear prep and sorting gear boxes, which was awesome.

Erren and Nikki had raced smaller events but were fresh blood to the geo sacrificial altar ;).

So to the race..

The first leg was a split rogaine / paddle and we split into teams of two to cialisforsalecanada find CP’s.
With 7 CP’s to find E and I took the ones near the start area and the girls took the far ones.
A dropping tide, turbulent water and mud flats made the going hard for the girls and E and I decided that we could run/ walk faster than we could paddle so we would just ditch our boat to get ours. This proved fortuitous for us and we nailed our bit fairly quickly and then waited for the girls. After a while they returned a bit worse for wear having battled the tide and mud.
Regardless we pressed on to the beach leg and coasteering. Checkpoints secured we had to climb around a headland on a rising tide with waves crashing at the bottom. Not my favourite thing to do it took me a lot of suck it up power and with my heart beating fast and in my throat I tried to go as fast as my sweaty palms and shaking body would take me!
Tam was behind me and kept shouting encouragement and I knew that I wasn’t going to be turning back!
We got through to meet our awesome crew who had coffee for us and then tried to ascertain what to carry for the next 9 hour mountain bike and trek legs.

The mountain bike leg started fast and then we hit the climb to CP 6..

I’ve raced a few races but this was the biggest climb I’ve ever done as a hike a bike.

I felt sorry for Nik who was probably thinking “what the?”

Near the top we were throwing our bikes up the hill and Tam pushed Niks bike up and I pulled Nik up the last bit by hand.

Happy dance as the checkpoint was at the top. Yeah!!!

When you go up so high you must go down and surprise! Checkpoint 7 was down!!

The down track was perilous to say the least and after the storms last weekend was washed out and had a tree across it.

I stayed back of the pack so when Nik did her epic stack scream and heard a crack I was watching. I dumped my bike on the slope and ran to help her – untangled her from her bike and realised she was a bit sore and had hurt her ankle.
Tam and E climbed back up and we managed to get Nik bike etc down to lower ground while barely being able to stand ourselves.

The good thing about big races is you carry a good first aid kit and with the assistance of nurse Erren I assessed the patient, bandaged and drugged her up. Time would only tell if she could keep going.
Realising CP 7 was less than 100m from Niks position Tam and I went to collect it while we left Nik to recover.

Time helped and we got Nik back on the bike with a strategy of seeing if we could collect the balance of this leg and head for the road.

Fast overgrown single track was epic but Tam and Nik seemed to be finding it hard to stay upright on their bikes so I was either following behind untangling them from their bikes or slightly in front hearing them scream.

We found all the rest of the checkpoints and the Travel Play Live girls and got back to the main road.

I knew that at this point would need to reassess the injury and we had a break. Nik’s pain had reduced and we headed off to find CP 13 and our sheet of questions for the next leg..

This one proved a bit tricky because the road we wanted to take proved to be the only one that didn’t match what we saw. We probably spent a bit to long looking in one area, but in the end we used our navigational backstop of Bago Road to realign us.
I found a nice road with a “private” sign on it but told the team it looked like a private residence..
Eventually we decided that it was worth a look up the road. A couple of warning signs made us question our choice and me feeling a bit frustrated at this point made a call to push through this private road to see what happened. Sneaking past a camp with a generator running I was fully expecting someone to challenge us about bring on their property. But then we saw them, bike tracks!! The sign of a million racers having gone before us.. Then the checkpoint – yeah!!!

It was dark now and we set off to what I was calling Panadol town (Herrons Creek) at a rate of knots. Nik could ride flat ok. I was secretly hopeful it would have a pie shop as it was getting colder and I wanted real food.

I took the lead and as I crossed a bridge I saw an official looking car had stopped and a person got out.

They shouted out and I was thinking it was department of transport or something but surprise! It was Craig and Lou,come to check on teams.

We told them about Nik and Craig gave us some input on the technicality of the next legs in relation to Niks injury.,

We knew the top rogaine would be very challenging and that we also had a 2k very steep bike climb ahead.

I said we would make a call at Herrons Creek and asked Craig if we could get a pie there?

He said it was an “interesting” town and that I would see for my self..

Interesting was true and I swear although the lights were on and dogs barked – no one came out or even looked out their curtains.
We were flashing our ayups around trying to answer questions on our sheet about the towns history and very sadly we may have been more likely to get a pie in 1904.

We took a break and as Nik was a bit sore we made a plan to ditch 15 and go straight to the upper TA, ditch the rogaine and try to abseil.

It was around 11pm now which in hind sight was why no one was awake at Herrons Creek.

We set off on our amended route but with a bit of climbing on the bikes poor Nik was limping badly and we had dropped pace too much to stay warm.

A couple of K’s up the road we stopped and had the “conversation”.

No one ever wants to stop racing but at the end of the day team safety and being able to race another day always has to come into play. With potentially a few bad hours ahead we had to make a call on if Nik’s injury would hold up.

E our awesome on point Nav gave us a run down on the tracks ahead, I explained the risks and Tam provided the voice of reason.

After being pulled off course last year hypothermic I knew the pain Nik was feeling and as I ripped open the sealed phone case to call race HQ and I had a little cry in my eyes for her knowing the hard work she had put in.

We could have elected to continue,but knowing a 16k paddle leg ahead was going to be hard with 3 we decided to withdraw.
We rode back to Herron Creek which was just as well because E’s bike was squeaking loudly and the local dingoes were complaining and getting closer!
Back at Herrons Creek we rugged Nik up and told ghost stories and took ghost photos.

When our amazing crew arrived we stole the car and drove our last leg, it was midnight and we wanted hot food so we called for pizza. Back at home we commiserated, ate pizza and drank tea.,

With too much energy left we thought we could offer our help to the media crew and so spent Sunday letting Nik rest, Tam to get a headstart in the journey home and E and I chasing down teams with our buddy James the event photographer.

I am so proud of my team for the team work we demonstrated. We journeyed well and learnt so much.

” No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”

When you start a race like Geoquest I really do believe that you are not the same person who finishes it.

And the best bit about an unfinished journey is that their is always the anticipation of next year…..

J

Well it has been just over 6 weeks since our event at Lake Perseverance and what a blast it was!
With nearly 200 racers lining up to take on the wilderness we call home, the sun shining brightly and lots of enthusiasm it was sure to be a cracker of a day.

To say the week before and day of the event were a blur for us would be an understatement, but it was so awesome to see everyone out there having a blast!

They say a picture tells a thousand words so check out the cool video and photo library from the links below, and don’t forget to save the date for 2017..

https://www.facebook.com/TwoCatsPhotography/photos/?tab=album&album_id=686013718218936

https://www.facebook.com/mojoar/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1260858810614743

Amazing Race in the Burbs’

This Summer the MOJO crew decided we want to see more of you get active and to see a bit of what we do in Adventure Racing.

For the month of January and February we ran two training rogaine events in Toowoomba. (Rogaine is finding a clues using a map on foot)

During the course of the 3 events – 1 night rogaine, 2 Saturday afternoon ones – over 100 people (some return from the January event) ran, skated or rode (kids only) finding clues over approx 18k of course.

It was so awesome to see mums and dads, kids and dogs, babies in prams..skateboards and bikes – all heading off on a big adventure!!

Thanks to everyone who came and joined us. We hope to see more of you in the future.
We hope those who participated enjoyed the MOJO challenges! Stay tuned there will be more!!

Jo and E

…a true yet somewhat misguided account of an adventure

In the beginning a few good friends gathered new toys and discussed ways that they could test their toys on far away waters. These toys or ‘yaks’ where generally the result of inner team wheeling and dealing and no one is really sure which kayak used to be owned by which person or who really owns what now, except the red fast one, which has been owned by one member of the team only… for now anyway.

Anyway enough ‘yakking’- the destination of choice became the Noosa Everglades. Some local publicity yielded a field of willing players and it was decided 3 days would be the best length to ensure adventure and relaxation.

A few come and try paddle days and the field was prepped, well as prepped as they could be so with multiple gear purchases, including a million dry bags, we packed the cars and headed coast ward. In typical MOJO tradition the adventure started with good coffee, and thanks to Gary’s friends some of the crew got to have a Westbrook experience over dinner which ended up being a laugh fest.

An early chilly morning followed, with us gathering at Elanda Point with many tentative thoughts of ‘will the boat float’…

Now it was while loading up our kayaks that the tale takes a strange twist… joining us on the shore was a person whom we shall refer to as ‘the lady of the lake’. To protect the integrity of the person we shall only say that the ‘antics’ of the lady caught us off guard and became the source of an extended tale that grew as the adventure went on. Leaving the lady safely on the shore we set off across the placid but shallow waters of Lake Cootharaba, then after the lake we start the trek up the river via a few pit stops. The river wound and we paddled, laughed, sang and reflected, sometimes alone, sometimes together, and after 24kms and nearly 6 hours we ended up at camp 9. Setting up camp and cooking up great camp food, we laughed some more, felt chilly (no camp fire permitted.. ) and by 7pm we all went to bed… Zzzzzzzz

The next morning we woke up early and set off to camp 5 which was our meeting point for the rest of the crew. Somehow the mythical coconut water appeared and Erren’s well chosen camp spot became known as “coconut point”. After lunch we set off to the sand blow, (approx 14k)at a cracking pace and ended up interval running the incline. The sand blow is incredible and an absolute bucket list thing to see. We carved our MOJO logo into the sand, took some cool photos and then ran down the hill back to camp. Some mentos in a tin tube in Jo’s pack made for some very loud maracas which ensured she wouldn’t get lost. We stayed up a little later that night – until at least 8pm and then off to sleep. It was a bit chilly in our tents except for Lyle who had a -20 degree sleeping bag.

The weather forecast of 20-30km/h SE had always predicted Sundays paddle would be hard with the wind sweeping us backwards. A few of the crew finished at Harry’s hut and the rest of us (read: Jo) unloaded gear that was causing our (her) boats to lose stability in the wind. A few kilos lighter and much more stable it was another 11k of wind and waves to the end. The first lake we crossed gave us an indication of our final journey with wave heights up to 20-30cm. We disembarked for lunch at the Kinaba info centre and a good stretch, some twisties and then the final 4k home.

The wind was really blowing now and when we crossed the lake our boats where being tossed everywhere… now we should have been tired and sore however the lake was such an adrenalin rush that everyone just dug in and rode the waves. It was probably one of the best experiences in a kayak so far.

Finally ashore, and we start loading the boats on the trucks and who should be there? The lady of the lake.
After laughing into out life jackets and having a chat to her we re-packed the vehicles and we where off!

What an excellent adventure with awesome people!

The Crew: Lyle, Gaz, Jo, Andrew, Clayton, Sue, Nikki and Erren.

Some photos from the trip…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With our inaugural adventure race coming up in August we though it appropriate to run another Adventure Racing 101 course to get everyone new to the sport of AR off to a flying start… and hopefully not lost!

The night will be hosted at Tri Running Toowoomba on Tuesday 21st July 2015 @ 7:00pm

Topics that will be covered include:

• Gear
• Navigation
• Race history
• Bike maintenance
• Trail running

Cost is $10 (cash only) and includes a light supper.

If you would like to register your attendance please email info@mojoadventure.com.au or click here for our Facebook events page.

:: r a c e r e p o r t

It was a bright and steamy morning on the Gold Coast, lovely day to herald the start of the first iAdventure race of 2013. Our prep for this race had been good but not stellar, as we are increasingly aware that no matter how much you train you can never really prepare for an Adventure race. Nevertheless we rode and ran trails in an attempt to prepare our bodies for what lay ahead.

The iAdventure team always post up great pre race notes, the ones for this race advised water and lots thereof. Ironically it also advised of water and lack thereof. Slightly bemused and perplexed we waterproofed our gear appropriately and headed off to race HQ.

Compared to other venues the race was based in a very civilized setting. Real toilets and coffee at hand…. Nice!

We checked in and got our maps and started planning. E is our master navigator and with a number of races under our belts and a few bigger races to come this year, our goal was to refine our navigation, and not necessarily go with the crowd. This strategy would prove somewhat interesting and challenging as the race ensued as our navigator was sweating over a few of the decisions he made… actually the sweating was quite literal, we do live and train on a mountain after all.
Maps marked and gear on board, off we trotted into the jungle… I have to admit it doesn’t matter how much we train, the first couple of kilometers are always hard. A combination of nerves and sprinting to keep up always leaves me a little smashed… plus E is not a morning person! It was great to be running to our bikes, but as we had already dropped them to the track , we knew that the bike leg would be muddy, slippery and steep.

The bike leg was fun if not a little congested at times and a low hanging vine almost decapitated me earning me a special “tattoo” across my eyes for my troubles. E had also lost his sunglasses along the way and was a little annoyed to be riding sans glasses as it was very muddy… riding with his eyes closed through the muddy sections seemed quite productive though.

All the bike check points were right where E thought they should be and as the non navigator this was reassuring… as a tip for other potential racers make sure you are either the navigator or the keep your mouth “shutigator”. Matching competitive natures also helps to make the race more pleasant.

There were lots of ups and downs in the race, literal ups and downs that is, with mammoth drops and climbs, I think E got sick of me saying “really? another hill?” We even chose to scramble to the top of one through the bush rogaine style! (or mountain goat style anyway…) Soon enough we were riding again back to race HQ to the mystery leg.

By this stage we were a little muddy and very hot, it was a relief to be told we had to go for a dip and retrieve pool toys. It was so refreshing and we contemplated dropping the pool toys just to stay in the pool a bit longer. E managed to drop his compass in the pool which was thankfully retrieved and returned to him at the end.

A little jog through the ‘burbs ensued and we laughed at the locals reactions, one of the questions we had to answer was “is this the amazing race!” and of course we responded with yes! This leg too involved water and crawling under bridges.

Finally to the second last leg and kayaking… this was the first race we didn’t have to lug our kayak up a hill (thanks Matt) The kayak was relatively pleasant and although tempted to lasso passing jet skiers we thought better of it and kept paddling. We used the upstream leg to discuss race strategy for our next race, well I did and I think E was just confused as we had not yet finished this race! I blame the endorphins as we must have been feeling good by then.
A quick walk/jog to the last checkpoint and we were nearly home. The final checkpoint was on an overpass and then it was a quick dash back to race HQ and the finish line.

Finished!

As a woman adventure racing reminds me a bit of childbirth… lots of pain and effort but strangely rewarding and when you are going through it you think “why?” And “never again!” But off you go and enter again the moment the race entries open…

JT

MOJO Adventure spent the w/end at Neurum Creek Bush Retreat for some good times and came home smashed!

After setting up camp we hit up the creek for some kayak goodness, the paddle was great and the portage was less than comfortable… note to self; invest in better footware for that type of activity.

The dawn of day two and we were up before sunrise, slammed a coffee and hit the hills for some trekking…
we found a nice boulder gully with some waterfalls to climb. Enroute to camp we found a mobile coffee van – WIN! Time for brekky then load up the kayaks for a splash up the Stanley River – nice scenery, a little blowy but a nice workout with the paddle with bananas and mountain bars for lunch. We hit camp for a bit of a rest before prepping the bikes for a peddal up into Mt Mee state forest which was all up hill until we made the call to head back down… there were smoking brakes by the time we pulled up. Totally nuffed we got down some food and sat around the camp fire that night before pulling the plug and crashing… zzzzzzzzzzz.

I think breaking camp was the toughest part of the w/end… glad I had a dry shirt to change into.

Def didn’t get nuff nuff of this place and will be heading back for more adventure now that we have it scoped.

E

Scoping a route up the waterfall…

I once heard a saying that goes like this, ” the further you go the further you see and the further you see the further you go.”
Adventure racing is definitely a sport like this.. Every time I race I see life and racing differently, and there is always so much more to do and be and achieve.

So enough philosophy.. Geoquest 2015…

After racing the half in 2014 I was keen to have another crack at one of the best races on the calendar.. We have lots of up and coming racers in the MOJO crew and it was actually pretty easy to pull together a team of wiling victims. We spent a lot of time training and the team trained a lot without me as I had a few MOJO commitments and a family wedding that meant I was away a bit.

This year my team consisted of Jaime – who had raced with me in 2014 and two new comers to the sport Sue and Graham.

We were all pretty excited and because Sue and I work together we often spent lunch times sharing tales of training adventure to unsuspecting work mates.

The race this year was in Hawkes Nest in NSW.. A beautiful location as always.

This year we decided to have a crack at the full course.. Except we live on a mountain and don’t have an ocean to practice kayaking on. We rode up hills trekked up hills and kayaked heaps. But it’s never really enough and you can always do more..

Finally Friday came – competencies completed and that same declination question got us again causing us to do the nav walk of shame.
(Note to future self: subtract the declination)

Finally map handout and the course was revealed. It was a wet course.. Lots of kayaking and water activity.
We planned a route and finally got some sleep..

First leg: ocean kayak
Yeah well this was always going to be the most gut wrenching for us.. We arrived at the beach to see a moderate swell and dolphins – a good sign?
The course was rerouted due to the conditions which was slightly less stressful.
We waited at the shore then paddled our guts out to get through the breakers. Jamie and I got through somehow but Sue and Graham got caught in the breakers and dumped. We waited beyond the breakers until they got through then realised our rudder was not working well which was going to make this difficult. We paddled a couple of k to round the headland only to find massive swell (about 3 metres high I think)
The wind blew the other way and the chop came a different way creating a washing machine effect.
We hung on tight but unsurprisingly came unstuck and got dumped. We had practiced rescues and felt ok trying to get back in – Sue and Graham managed to get a bit further but knew we had been dumped so alerted the safety boat.
I have to say I was pretty happy to see them..
They circled us to make sure we were ok.
Eventually they asked if they could hold our boat which we gladly said yes to. We got back in and started bilging but we had half a boat of water by then. The chop was getting worse and we weren’t getting anywhere fast so when the surf rescue guy asked if I wanted to jump in his safer looking rubber dinghy I think I nearly leapt into his boat. Jaime jumped in too and they said they would put the kayak across there boat and take us around the head. The surf rescue boat was getting tossed around too but we were grateful not to be negotiating it in our not so sea going kayak.
We couldn’t see Graham and Sue anymore ( it’s pretty challenging to be 100m from your team I those conditions) and the surf rescue guys couldn’t raise anyone on their radio. Eventually we came across the maritime rescue boat, and advised them that we had lost our team and that they might be out there still.
Jaime by now also realised he lost his pack.. Into the ocean. With all his gear..we told the maritime guys who went hunting.
Finally we got to shore and were revealed to see Sue and Graham waving at us! They had been rescued too… But in a bigger boat.
We rang the RD to advise some of our mandatory gear was gone and feeling wet and slightly demoralized we set off on the trek.
Leg 2: It was a lovely trek around the coast, the locals seemed slightly bemused to see us.
This was a quick leg and we met our awesome crew for lunch. Surprisingly the marine guys had found Jaimes pack floating in the pacific!! An awesome moment!
Leg 3: on our bikes.. Yeah!! A quick mountain bike rogaine then down to snorkel in a pretty inlet..fortunately we got there in daylight..
Then another quick ride to the TA
Leg 4: coasteering/ trek… One of the prettiest treks with great views, awesome sand dunes and a lovely landscape with burnt out trees and new growth.. Sadly though only in our memory as Jaime forgot his camera.
This leg ended with us pack rafting across the bay. We arrived here at night and being mountain dwellers had to quiz the poor TA official about tides and channel markers and things. I’m sure he told me there was a kayaker waiting for us – but I was surprised to hear a voice say in the dark ” hello I’ll be your chaperone for the night”
It was great to have a kayaker there and I was really happy we didn’t actually get to bodyboard this leg as was planned originally – that would have been intense! (And long and cold!)
Leg 5: kayak across the bay..
We arrived here at 8pm and by the time we were ready to head off we had a call from Lou to say that we had 3 hours before the maritime boat was scheduled to leave (safety boat) we put the pedal to the metal and did a pretty fast kayak to the next TA.
Leg 6: rogaine
When we planned this route we had a grand plan of diverting to a road and then walking in. When we arrived at the TA the officials told us that we needed to swim across a creek full immersion. Suzie and I couldn’t quite fathom it and we asked the poor lady about 3 times what she meant. It was after midnight and getting quite cold by then.
Suzie and I decided that was stupid and went back to tell the boys we weren’t going to do that leg.. But Graham said ” that’s why we came here, if we don’t do it we will regret it..” There are some details of this swim I am a bit vague on – but what happens on the race stays on the race..
So at 2am in winter I jumped into a freezing probably shark infested river.
Well actually I jumped in.. Freaked out because It was so cold I couldn’t breathe and told the team something to the effect of this is a stupid idea and I’m not going to do it.
Again the voices of reason and somehow they coaxed me back in and then I started swimming like heck and somehow got to the other side. Sadly though my floating bag of dry clothes had hit a rock and had gained 2l of water. With minimal dry clothes it was pretty hard to warm up and by then my body temp had started to drop.
We headed off on the trek and I thought maybe I would warm up but the terrain was hard and it was difficult to move to quicky. We navved straight onto a track and headed off. It was going to be a long night of trekking and somewhere in these hours my body temp dropped a bit too low and things went a bit weird.. I got really sleepy which is strange for me ( I am usually pretty wired when I race) and started to see things.. I felt really cold and the team wrapped me in a pretty orange space blanket..
Sue kept me moving, graham towed me for many kilometres on a bungy and Jaime kept feeding me.. Awesome team.
Finally I was able to rationalize that I wasn’t going to get warmer without help and we broke open the sealed phone to call for help.
Future racers here is a tip.. Put the RD’s phone number in your phone. Also put the support crews number in your phone. We had neither and had to google the number and Facebook message our crew!
Here is another tip: preplan a strategy if someone can’t continue. Thankfully we had decided to continue unranked if one of the team had to stop and this is what we did.
With me back at the warm TA drying and warming the team continued there trek and met me at the TA.
Leg 7: kayak
With 3 people in a double kayak it was always going to be hard but with an epic tow system and ballast in the front it was achievable but challenging.
When the team arrived back to me we made a plan that I would meet them at the final legs for a short version kayak and final ride home.
Leg 8,9,10:
The rest of the team headed out for this one knowing it was going to be epic and long but Craig and Louise after a few hours made contact to advise them they needed to short course. There are so many logistics in a race this big and although disappointed we are totally respectful of how they need to keep things going and also our safety.
I went to HQ before we paddled to confirm that we could do a shorter route and because the night was already cold Craig advised me not to kayak.. My support crew were relieved as they were actually thinking I shouldn’t either and just hadn’t been brave enough to tell me .
As we were unranked we just waited for a text from the guys to say they needed a pick up.
They still thought we would kayak but I think they were a little relieved when I told them we couldn’t. I did offer them the tow kayak option but they didn’t seem to keen??
Leg 12: a quick trip for our tracker down the Pacific highway to Mungo Brush and we were off on the bikes..it was flat and fast and we pace lined the whole way. It was the fastest 22k I have ever ridden but I was really happy to cross the line with my team drink champagne and celebrate with our support crew.

This weekend has changed my life for many reasons and I am grateful for all who played a part.
In particular I want to thank my team and our support crew for all you did. You are amazing people and I am grateful for all your help and assistance.
Was this a perfect race? Not by traditional standards.. Was it epic? Yes it was! The MOJO philosophy is “adventure outside the box” and that’s exactly what we did.. Adventure… Way outside the box!!!

MOJO love to you all x
J