'The Likely Lads' - Hells Bells 2009

Team 26 - ‘The Likely Lads’

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….” so wrote Charles Dickens, presumably after he had finished his inaugural 19th century adventure race. Team ‘The Likely Lads’ were Jamie, Snelly and Grahame who set out on their Hell’s Bell’s adventure in good heart, having managed to drop off their bikes in Nambour without too much incident. Snelly had noticed a tyre split which could easily be remedied through buying a new tyre in Mooloolaba and carrying it until we got back to the bikes, but nothing that couldn’t be managed.

Race HQ was a hive of activity as maps were handed out and teams realised that they were on the bus back to bike drop-off for race start. “The Likely Lads’ attacked map waterproofing with a vigour seldom seen in previous races, masterminded by Jamie who demonstrated a cool head and steady hand at critical points. Boxes were packed and handed in and the team tried, like all other teams, to moderate toilet visits whilst waiting for the bus to arrive.

Once at bike drop-off ‘The Likely Lads’ were a frenzy of activity as Snelly’s front tyre was changed out in record time and we set off for the start line. It was during this short ride that Grahame noticed a blister on his front tyre, generally a bit of an issue with tubeless tyres and not good when facing 60km+ of riding. After some soul-searching and general dithering the team decided it was best to fix the problem before we got underway. Grahame’s attempts to get Jamie and Snelly to form a team of two and leave him behind were met with cynical laughter – we were a team of three or not competing apparently. We managed to insert an inner tube into the blistered tyre and got underway some 15 minutes after everyone else but unfortunately 200m down the road the tyre went flat. The race organisers kindly offered to drive into town to buy a new tyre from the local bike shop whilst Grahame figured out why the tyre was deflating. Once he had discovered and fixed the bent valve lock team ‘The Likely Lads’ was away proper, some 30 mins behind the main field and feeling a little hard done by.

Remarkably we passed a couple of teams before arriving at a checkpoint in a rock pool (CP1 or 2) and found a couple more teams wondering how to collect the control in the middle of the pool. Ten seconds later, with Grahame fashionably wet, we were officially 4th from last and on our way to the canyoning leg. This was superb and great fun, marred only by the first aid kit inspection which was commendably thorough. Grahame was sure the kit contained all mandatory items when he packed it, but given that was three years ago could only conclude that a number of items had in fact been used since. Anyway the team got back on the bikes and pushed on without incident up to Point Glorious, collecting the extra map segments and heading out for the high-roping checkpoint which we thought should be achievable just on nightfall. Grahame was also carrying an additional new tyre which the team organisers had thoughtfully left on his bike whilst in the canyon.

Some two hours past nightfall the team hit CP9 and the high ropes, with Jamie looking a little downcast. A bold navigation move had found us on the wrong side of the creek/gorge from CP9 and although we could hear the whoops of joy as fellow adventurers took the flying fox to ground level, we couldn’t get across to the sound source. We tried. Across the top of the dam? No. Through the dense scrub and across the creek? No. Bit further up the creek perhaps? No. What about the dam wall again? No. Let’s look at the map. We eventually worked out that back along the road and around offered the best solution.

High-roping and the walking section was a scream and team ‘The Likely Lads’ was soon off to Parklands, and some heart-stopping moments on great, but sometimes steep, single track. The team’s strategy included knocking off checkpoint ‘G’ and Jamie got his mojo back by putting us pretty much on top of the control. The cruisey ride from Parklands down to the start of the kayak leg was a joy after the climbing we’d just done.

Transition into the kayaks involved inflating a Sevylor that turned out to be punctured, and then inflating another one. Always good for a laugh having to inflate two instead of one. At this point Jamie started looking worried for no discernable reason and looking with increasing desperation in the transition box and each of our backpacks. He couldn’t find the maps for the last stage or the control instructions. The team looked high and low but no trace of the missing documents was found. Hindsight is a wonderful thing as we all know but you would have thought an obvious place for us all to look would have been the mapboard on Jamie’s bike. But no.

So off we went in the kayak for a great paddle down the Maroochy River with a spectacular sunrise to greet us half way down the river. The walk from Cotton Tree to the finish was uneventful, save for us unexpectedly finding a control on the headland without any guidance from the (missing) map. We arrived at the deserted finish line around 6am on Sunday morning, however the race organisers were soon out cheering our last steps across the line. What a great feeling to be back at HQ after a truly memorable adventure.

Following our post-race bacon and egg butty, the team concluded that it just wasn’t our day. If it could go wrong, it would go wrong. But we had a whale of a time, the course was a lot of fun and the course organisers helped wherever they could.

Grahame and Snelly shot off home pretty soon after the team finished. It was no surprise when Jamie, who had hung around for the awards, let Grahame know that his name was first out of the hat in the lucky draw and he wasn’t there to claim the prize.

Bring on next year!

The Likely Lads - Jamie, Snelly and Grahame