Damn Van Man

Honestly - how difficult can it be to rent a van? Sadly, it's impossible. After MONTHS of effort, we simply CANNOT rent what we want.

I'll explain. As our team support vehicle we need a van under 5m in length (so it fits on the ferry) which means a short wheel-base Transit-type van. So far so good - plenty of them around to rent.

However, we have to carry the sea kayak. Since it's over 5m long, it has to go on the roof (obviously) so the van must have roof bars. A truly amazing number of rental companies don't supply vans with roof bars. Options rapidly diminish.

And note the term I used "roof bars" not "roof rack". Van roof RACKS are different, as they have sides. As such, the kayak wouldn't strap onto them. Weeks later, we were down to about three possible suppliers in a big city like Glasgow.

Another problem. All five of the team have to be registered to drive it. One of our great hopes quoted us £400 for the van with exactly the roof bars we wanted, but then asked for a further £400 for insurance - £800 to rent a van for 10 days. No thanks.

And another hassle. We have four bikes (2 road, 2 mountain). We planned to put two on a back rack and two on the roof alongside the kayak. Problem - van roof bars tend to be at either end of the roof, too far apart to put a bike carrier between them. Could we move the bars closer together? No. Could we add a third bar between them? No.

You see that I mean? This has taken months, absolutely months. My team-mate Jerry, who took on this role, started with long hair and now has a skinhead. (That might be a different story).

NOW we think we have a solution, but only by re-framing the problem. We'll rent a van from Arnold Clark (the best price) with two roof bars (not as far apart as some) so we can carry the kayak. Then we'll hang three bikes on the rear rack and put one inside for long trips. For short trips, we might consider adding a rear rack to the FRONT of the vehicle and carry a bike there - totally illegal of course, but perhaps necessary.

Vans.... I tell you!

Training is light relief.

Get Lost!

.... or rather, don't!

All of TeamTGO except me went on an Adventure Race training weekend last March run by Joe Faulkner (www.joefaulkner.com). I'd injured my back and couldn't make it, as in entry March 15th.

Robyn felt she'd learnt a lot last time she wanted to do it again. So last weekend, the two of us joined five other would-be navigators at Joe's base in Bampton village hall, between Penrith and Shap in the Lake District National Park.

FRIDAY
Friday night was an informal gather in the pub and a camp in the field next to the hall, although I slept in my car.

SATURDAY
Saturday started with an upsum of what lies ahead; a discussion of what we individuals wanted to learn; then we were split into two groups (one of three one of four) and we were off onto the hill for five hours with our instructor Richard. Last time, Robyn said, the focus had been on taking and running on compass bearings. This time we all but forgot the compass and developed more sophisticated navigation skills, such as running on contours.

I've always thought I'm a pretty good navigator. I'd learnt about "fine" navigation to a certain extent during my summer MLTB training at Plas y Brenin (a decade ago!) but when hill walking I'm rarely looking for micro features. Now we were looking for VERY micro-features, and finding our way to them without a compass. Having the techniques explained formalises many of the things I do intuitively, sometimes without knowing why. Making mistakes is good too. I learn most from them, and the different with kayaking is that a mistake doesn't automatically mean a swim!

Saturday afternoon, John talked us through Adventure Race equipment - fitting a towing system onto a bike and onto a rucksack. Marcus talked us through his equipment choice for Elite mountain marathons. Mike Parsons of Karrimor told us more than we really want to know about denier gradients (don't ask).

Saturday evening was meant to be night navigation, except it was really twilight. After quickly marking maps Robyn and I raced around the course and were at the pub in just over an hour, running all the way without head-torches!

SUNDAY
Sunday was race day. A small score-course. We were given control grid references which we ploted onto the map. Each control has a different value. Usually the controls furthest away have a higher value. The idea on such a "Score Course" is to visit as many controls, gaining as high a value of points, as possible and arrive back at the finish within a certain period of time. Arrive late, and suffer heavy point penalties.

I'll not talk you through our day, except to say I reckon we run/navigate at 3-4km per hour on the fell, and 5-6km per hour on downhill tracks and roads. That timing was one of the key lessons of the weekend.

Robyn and I had a great day. We worked as a team, enjoyed each others company, and I almost wish I was one of the land-based competitors in the Hebridean Challenge rather than the sea kayaker. In fact, I've already visited the KIMM website, and will try to persuade Liz to attempt it in October.

UPSUM
Joe will tailor the course to individual needs. If you want to learn about camp-cooking, you can (after five months under a tarp, my camp-craft is pretty slick). The navigation element will help ANY hill-goer, not just racers.

The "feel" of our course was more Mountain-Marathon than Adventure Race, but there was a section on fitting out bikes for AR, and Joe can work in more mountain biking in if required.

In short - Joe has a good team, who know their stuff which they teach effortlessly. Highly recommended.

Four Star

I passed my Four Star Sea Kayak award, so that means I can compete in the Hebridean Challenge. Phew! I suppose if I hadn't passed, then TeamTGO would have become a four-person unit, but now that's not an issue.

I've also bought a new sea kayak. Well, third hand actually, but new to me. An all white P&H Quest, previously owned by Douglas Wilcox and before him Mike Thomson of Scottish Paddler Supplies. I pick it up Friday.

I'm recovering well from my series of injuries. My neck and back held up well throughout the four star training and paddling, I had a good run around Richmond park in London on Saturday night, and my personal trainer Scott Masterton has started putting me through physical hell again. And nothing new has strained, snapped or broken, which is good.

Jerry and I will look at a rental van tonight, checking out whether it has the sort of roof rack to which we can add kayak bars and bike carriers.

So... without wishing to tempt fate... all seems to be going well for TeamTGO.