A wheelbarrow race is under way
Originally uploaded by Heather and Rob.
Last weekend, I finally made it up to Queensland, to check out the area where Rob spends most of his time. However, the trip wasn't purely tourism and I didn't actually ever make it to the camp where Rob lives. In fact, the real point of the trip was a 150 km relay race, pushing a wheelbarrow the whole way. We set off on Thursday, flying to Cairns, a touristic beach-side town that the start-off point for a lot of scuba divers exploring the Great Barrier Reef. We had enough time only to see the botanical gardens and the beach, however, because later that afternnon we met up with the rest of our wheelbarrowing team. Our team was sponsored by Rob's company. Our teammates included several of the blokes that Rob works with and what a trip to put faces with the names I've heard for months and months. We united as a team for the first time on Thursday night, loading up on pasta and bread and mentally preparing ourselves for what turned out to be a very different race than I'd expected.
This is the way the race works: each team could have up to ten members. One member runs at a time, pushing the wheelbarrow as fast as they can for, say, 50 meters. Meanwhile, the rest of the team is driving along directly behind the runner (our poor teammate who had to drive - imagine following a runner in a stick shift for 3 days!) and then stopping as close to the runner as possible when they give the signal for a change-over. The next runner jumps out and takes a turn. The door of the vehicle is constantly open and people are jumping in and out all of the time (never gets boring!) so that the pace stays quite fast the entire way. Basically, it's a quick sprint, and then back in the cramped confines of a van until your next turn comes around. :)
Can you think of a more fun way to spend three days? It was actually a great time... the competition was firce. Every day the slowest team would start first, and faster teams would start at 2 minute intervals. So, overtaking slower teams was quite a challenge (within the confines of the law - police monitored and ticketed people along the way). Every van had to have a CB to let other teams know they were passing. But there was a bit of strategy with holding a faster team off behind you until you made it to a no passing zone. Then, you could stick them with a bit of extra time. Nasty!
There were about 16 other teams, some dressed up in some great costumes. And at the end of each day, the truck that I'm standing next to in the image would turn on its sirens and lead each team into town so that everybody could get up from their chairs at the pub and clap you in. The most amazing sight was the few people who actually ran the whole race by themselves. This included a 71 year old man, tough as nails.
The route of the course is called the wheelbarrow way. Pioneering miners in the area used to travel from Mareeba to Chillagoe pushing a wheelbarrow to carry all of their possessions. Luckily for us, we didn't have to carry anything in our wheelbarrows as we raced. In fact, each team had to use a regulation wheelbarrow, supplied by the race organizers., and the wheelbarrow had to be empty Mareeba is an aboriginal word for 'the meeting of the waters', and is the political center of the shire (not just for hobbits, as it turns out). So, the scenery becomes less and less populated with people as you head out of Mareeba toward Chillagoe. The race goes through the towns of Dimbulah and Almaden, small towns with great local flavor. I think I heard the phase 'fair dinkum', which basically means 'no shit', used more times that weekend than the whole time I've lived in Oz. We made our way through the high tablelands, and into the wooded Savannah. The start of the race is mango and lychee country, full of lush vegetation, but the route transitions into a forested desert area with huge red soil termite mounds littered across the landscape. The road is variously paved (here they call it 'sealed') and unpaved dirt road. Pushing a wheelbarrow over washboards in a dirt road presents its own set of interesting challenges. You can just imagine me trying to control a wheelbarrow as I race down the bumpy road, wheelbarrow headed in all directions but straight ahead. In fact, I did lose control of the situation a bit during one rapid transition (I must have been doing 20km/hour at this point). My legs kept running, even after handing over the wheelbarrow to the next runner, and I ended up tail over head on the unpaved Wheelbarrow Way. :) Surprisingly (I must have a talent for this), I didn't have a scratch on me. Back up and into the van in no time.
Arriving in Chillagoe on the third day was heaven. We finished fifth in the race, fourth in the mixed gender division (barely missing a thrid place trophy), but actually finished first in the talent division for a silly poem we had written the night before. We were aching... boy were we aching, so we took our aching muscles directly down to local watering hole, a gorgeous blue limestone hole, with rope swings and cool cool water.
What a lovely way to see a bit of Queensland, wheelbarrows and all.
