What does my future lies?

MIDNIGHT!/ Sunday, July 16, 2006

NUS race adventura 2006

A total of 9 checkpoints. Starting point: bukit batok nature reserve near some carpark. Time: 0930h. First checkpoint: inside the nature reserve too, somewhere near the toilets. Task: to squeeze water using sponge into the newater bottle to the brim. Our team was like unlucky enough to get a sponge which didn't absorb water well. As a result, though we were one of the first few teams to reach, we were one of the last few teams to leave.

From our first checkpoint, we had to proceed to bukit timah nature reserve. Credit goes to anthony, the babok club president, who knew the area well to led us there. It took us some time to figure our destination though, cos we didn't exactly know how to see which our next checkpoint was on the map until another team told us. At bukit timah nature reserve, we had to proceed to south view hut and tuip tuip hut to look for our clues. The journey was somewhat similar to our training there when we were preparing for the rinjani expedition..there's the familar feeling of climbing all the high stairs and walking down the steep roads..And just like every major odac activity for our batch (with expection of the rinjani expedition since we were in the clouds), it rained. And quite heavily too. As a result, all of us got drenched. So since we were drenched, it didn't whether or not to seek shelther. We just moved on.

I think the furthest distance to travel between checkpoints has to be between the second and third one. We had to walk to some air rifle range if i remember the venue correctly..it was run and walk, run and walk for our team. When we reach a slope, we would run. And when we had to go up a slope, naturally, we walked. Luckily, we didn't have to do anything at that checkpoint. Just get the passport signed, take a map and move on to next checkpoint.

Fourth checkpoint: venus road located near macritche reservoir. Again, some parts of the route was similar to us since we had been there for training before too. Now, I really appreciate the trainings we had at different areas..And finally, after all the travelling on foot, we got to use bicylces to travel to our next checkpoint! Initially, it was a relief for us since we didn't have to travel on foot. However, after a while, problems started to surface. The bikes which we rented aren't that comfortable and the seats weren't adjusted to our desired height.

Moving on from the fourth checkpoint, our next checkpoint was at bishan park. We overshot that checkpoint and had to turn back...And it's only today that I realised that bishan park is big!! Used to kan bian on bishan park last time, but no longer now! haha. At the fifth checkpoint, we had to swing ourselves over from one side to another without our feet touching the ground.I was quite bad at that task; had to attempt thrice before succeeding. To get to our next checkpoint, we had to put together a jigsaw puzzle. We didn't really spend alot of time on that. One look and you'd know that is SAJC.

And so we continued to bike to SAJC. Along the way, we had to carry our bikes so that we could cross the bridge to follow the bicycle path along the canal to SAJC. My first time carrying a bike! I didn't know that I would have the strength to carry my own bike. And it wasn't tiring at all. In fact, it felt lighter than I'd imagined it be. Along the way too, anthony started to get cramps in the leg. Outside SAJC, our task was to send a member to the canal to memorise some pictures within 20 seconds. Anthony completed that.

From SAJC, we had to go all the way to the national stadium, which would be our seventh checkpoint. Anthony's cramps got worst along the way, and we had to stop once in a while so that he could put the deep heat. Not that I'm complaining, it gave us a chance to rest too. The only water activity was at the seventh checkpoint. Kayaking. Using a 2 person kayak, all 3 members had to kayak all the way to under a bidge, get a bottle of drink, finish it, then go to another bridge at the opposite end, attempt to climb up a rope to the top of the birdge to give the empty bottle and passport to the person on top and then go back. We spend the most time at this station. And I conclude, that it's difficult to kayak meant for 2 people with 3 people in it. No matter how we paddled, the kayak didn't seem to be moving. But of course, we finished the task in the end. We managed to find the correct technique. At the other bridge, anthony (yes it's him again cos he's the only guy) attempted to climb the vertical rope up the birdge. That was actually a bonus stage. If you manage to get up, you'll get 5 minutes off your total time. Anothony almost reached the top before he dropeed. It was just so close!! He did a great job though. I tried to climb too, but wasn't successful.

Back to the shore, our next checkpoint was marina promenade. And again, the route which we took was all too familar to us. We just followed the route we took for the big walk to get there. There, we abandoned our bikes. The task to complete at the eight checkpoint was to stand on a rope tied between both trees and move from one end to the other end. After 3 tries, we still didn't manage to clear that station and thus had a forfeit of 10 minutes.

For our last checkpoint,. we had to go to 2 locations, one at keppel towers and another at chinatown. It was 1540 when we left marian promenade and we were afraid that we wouldn't be able to clear all our checkpoints (the cut off time was 7h from flag-off time). Looking at the map given to us, the distance to cover seemed long. However, before we knew it, we reached keppel towers. Again, we nearly overshot had it not been a group of kind souls who stood at the entrance of the area and told us that that was our checkpoint. Task at checkpoint A: rockclimbing and abseiling. 2 people had to do rockclimbing while another had to abseil down. We cleared this station quite fast I think. I've got to say that there wasn't much gripping tiles for the feet for rockclimbing! Either that or cos I wasn't wearing climbing shoes. I kept slipping while climbing.

After completing that checkpoint, we had to proceed to checkpoint B. We all thought that it was another station which we had to complete, but it turned out to be the ending point! So nearing the finsihing point, we all ran. =)

This first adventure race has been an eye opener for me. It's been a great experince, except maybe at the ending part where I found out the phone was soaked in water...But still, I'm thankful to have this experience and to have anthony and agapera as my teammates. And I'm also thankful for the previous odac experiences which I had, which helped me in completing the race.

Past. Present. Future
7/16/2006 10:53:00 PM <3

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