Adventure Racing in Guadeloupe - IGWA

Adventure Racing in Guadeloupe - IGWA Nov 24th - Dec 1st, Team CamRacers

Emerging into the evening warmth from the Paris flight, we hadn’t left the airport before we had a kit check, then were issued with bibs and transported with harnesses and headtorches at the ready into the main square of the capital, Pointe-a-Pitre. We climbed up inside an old building expecting a simple abseil, but no one had spotted the dramatic zip wire running from the roof across the river to the glass fronted restaurant opposite. As we shot across, a spotlight followed us descending into the glare of TV lights. Adventure racing had arrived in Guadeloupe!

This first 'IGWA' - Iles Guadeloupe Aventure comprised of 30 selected pairs from Europe, North America & Brazil. With 15 years experience of organising the Corsica Raid, we were promised something beyond a multi-day race - a chance to discover the cuisine, history and ecology of the islands as well as the scenery.

The race proper started conventionally enough in Saint-Francois on Grande-Terre with a beach run past palm trees but the main activities for the day were reached on foot in small groups. First was golf, earning points for distance and accurate putting. Surprisingly, we were ok at this. Next though was windsurfing. We earned some points for standing up despite not making it around the course. We laughed a lot and watched the Guadeloupean team whizzing around taking maximum points. The sun and 25°C water made defeat easier to accept.

Surfing was my low point. After 30 minutes of being thrown around attached to a surfboard, I was awarded 'nil points'. Luckily Tarquin had enough talent to manage a score. Next, two snorkeling sessions. One searching for letters on the seafloor to solve an anagram and another on a reef with a quiz identifying what we had seen. Finally to the market identifying spices and being marked for cooking a manioc flour crepe. It might not have been a perfect specimen but certainly passed our taste test!

We exchanged tales over a buffet before word hunting around the golf course with no map or torches - just the glow from the clubhouse lights. A novel idea that worked despite confusion over what to do with the words! Around midnight there was a more familiar discipline: a map, 10km course and a chance to stretch our legs. Route choice was significant when confronted with indistinct paths through prickly scrub, especially for those of us in shorts! Our luggage was transported to the far end to camp on an isolated beach falling asleep to the sound of the waves.

Day 2: Coasteering via an orienteering section, roped scrambles and tyroleans along the cliffs before regrouping for a spectacular coastal hike. The sharp rocks were unforgiving of any stumble and the medic was patching and stitching people as necessary. Water was provided and we carried around 3 litres each.

Day 3: After a ferry to the island of Marie-Galante, teams were paired off into hire cars to drive between stages consisting of ropework, a beach run and swim, a canoe through the mangroves identifying flora and three discovery events in Grand-Bourg, Capesterre and Saint-Louis. It was ambitious to let us loose in cars but the only incident was a team losing their keys. The discovery events covered local history, sugarcane processing and rum production.

At first most teams thought the discovery events were padding around the physical challenges, but they soon became favorites for many especially those with a smattering of French. It was fun interacting with the friendly people and there were also four Guadeloupean teams eager to tell us more about their home. English speaking staff helped with translations and event literature was in English and French, although of course the language of the islands and the event was French. Indeed the five Guadeloupe islands are part of France and the currency is the Euro.

After the daily presentation of the leader’s jerseys we had a coastal night hike with route choices along the beach, in the water, through the forest or battling the sugarcane. The only features to fear were the Manchineel trees whose sap causes skin burns. In fact, for a tropical island there are few worries. No snakes, no scorpions, some mosquitoes but no malaria and the hurricane risk has passed by November. One of the biggest hazards was falling coconuts in the beach camps!

Day 4: We returned to the western island, Basse-Terre. In contrast to the rolling terrain of Grande Terre, Basse-Terre has more forest and is dominated by the volcanic summit of La Soufriere (1467m) with a network of marked trails, which naturally we would visit. The altitude and being shaded by the trees made this more akin to a fell run in the UK, especially emerging onto muddy tracks in the summit mist. There was a circuit of the sulphur-emitting summit before a rapid descent. A hot pool at the end was the perfect spot to cheer in finishers.

The final days were disrupted by a 7.4 magnitude earthquake on the nearby island of Martinique which closed some roads and stopped competitive events. We were however still able to descend a spectacular waterfall before leaving the mountains and paddled sea kayaks into the mangroves before finishing with a discovery event in Pointe-a-Pitre.

CamRacers managed to claw their way back up to 18th place, but the trophies went to TSL Outdoors from France, Buff Sweden in 2nd/first foreign team and Tainos in 7th as first Guadeloupean team.

We raced in some stunning locations and saw that Guadeloupe has a lot to offer for adventure sports. There were problems with logistics and explanations but hopefully these can be improved. The concept of a staged race with discovery events is something I could see being used elsewhere overseas and the communal atmosphere amongst the racers made this a very social event. Many friendships were formed and benefits of this are already apparent with Fernanda from the Brazilian team Atenah Natura joining the Spanish Teva-La Pinilla to win the World Series Portugal XPD race last week.

Links

• IGWA Race
• Guardarun - 150km staged run in Guadeloupe
• Guadeloupe tourism