Wan Dae in the hills
Last weekend was the final Wan Dae adventure race of the season. I had intended to get to all three races in the series but failed miserably as this was the only one I managed.
Set off from Dunfermline on the 7:05am train, made a quick stop at Scott’s flat to pick up the sunglasses I’d left there the previous weekend and then cycled down to the canal to meet up with Rachel. Although I’ve cycled along the canal to go climbing at Ratho many times, I’ve never turned off to go past the Water of Leith which is where we were heading this time. It’s a beautiful route through the trees and goes nowhere near a road until the last mile or so up to the Harlaw Ranger Centre.
We cycled in waving and shouting hellos to all and sundry and pushed our way into the Centre to find registration already in full swing. I was very surprised to meet Dan Moore there who I haven’t seen since university but we had a good time catching up.
Since I was with transport I was assigned a checkpoint out in the hills. It was great fun getting to it even if I wasn’t particularly trusting of my own navigation on the way out. Normally I’m happy with finding my way somewhere but I think the slight pressure (that I put on myself) in thinking that the racers would be hot on my heels caused me to start second guessing myself. Nevertheless, I made it to my fork in the path after some mild off-roading and spread myself out for the day.
Having done this before, I knew to bring a survival pack. It consists of a waterproof jacket to sit on, plenty of water and a book! In this case, I finished off the third Timewyrm novel in the Dr Who series. That was, of course, in between the bouts of racers who were demanding to punch in to my SI unit. They had to answer my question first though –
There’s a ladder hanging over the side of a boat. The bottom rung of the ladder is just covered by the water, the rungs are 1m apart and the tide rises at 80cm/hour. If this is low tide, how many rungs are covered after four hours?
Yup, it’s a trick question and one that caught me out to begin with. Heard some great maths during the day, was drawn some diagrams in the dirt to prove those maths and saw some amazing faces of realisation when they finally got it.
I was on the checkpoint all day long so in between the racers I snoozed, read and stared at the clouds. Definitely helped that the weather was so good as 7 hours standing in the rain is not nearly so much fun.
On the way back in I came across Dorota, Dan and Martina trying to load the kayaks into the trailer. It’s a job I’ve aided with many times and it’s always a pain. After an hour or so (in which Marty also turned up to lend a hand) we finally got them all loaded and secured so we sped along the last half mile of track back to race base where the prizes had been awarded and most people had already left.
There was an offer of a barbecue and kip space that evening but I decided to cycle back to town and get the train home since getting in and out can be “fun” on a Sunday. More reason to learn to drive.
The train home was packed with drunk Scotland fans and I was glad when we finally pulled into Dunfermline Town. I headed straight to Asda to buy some food and must have looked quite a sight in my mud spattered shorts and top.
As usual, a great day.
