Now in it’s 23rd edition GeoQuest never fails to deliver genuine adventure for those looking to push the limits.
The annual Mountain Designs Geoquest has taken place every year since 2002, challenging teams to explore and enjoy the best of the NSW coast and hinterland. Rick White, the founder of Mountain Designs was there at the inaugural race and he loved what he saw – as a result Mountain Designs have sponsored every edition of GeoQuest since and it’s always been a great fit.
This year the race was based out of the small town of North Haven in the Port Macquarie region near the mouth of the Camden Haven river. Teams travelled from as far as Tasmania and South Australia to take their place at the start of this epic adventure and it was great to see 5 teams and their support crews from the Kaiarahi Cultural Collective back again after their 36 hour non-stop adventure in 2023.
The race has a 48 hour time limit, two distances (full and half course), which are on some of the same trails and rivers much of the time, and is open to pairs and fours, supported and unsupported.
This year both courses started and finished in the town of North Haven. The full course started with an exciting ocean kayak leg and beach landing in the waves at Bonny Hills with the half course following along on the coastal path to re-joining the full course at the first transition for the first bike stage, a 42km journey through the Jolly Nose mountain bike park and through the Bago state forest.
A novel feature of the 2024 course was a ‘Maze’ for leg 3 at the Bago Winery – an incredibly beautiful transition area appreciated by the support crews. This leg required teams to navigate their way through a maze without a map to find a series of features. This really challenged many of the team navigators as the challenge lent itself to a different problem solving skill set. The fastest team through the maze was ‘Broken Compass’ in a time of 13 minutes with the slowest time going to ‘Wicking through the Marshes’ in a time of 45 minutes.
Following the Bago Maze the two courses split again on the next bike leg with the full course heading deeper into the hills to Comboyne Rock and the half course down to the country town on Kendall to start a kayak journey that would take them down the Camden Haven river towards the coast to climb ‘Middle Brother’ the mountain that dominates the landscape above North Haven.
Full course teams had some big navigation decisions on the bike to reach the high point of the course, Comboyne Rock at 690m. Almost all teams chose different routes to get there, some off trail, with the fastest time being recorded by the Mountain Designs V Wild Women.
After a clear blue sky day with mild temperatures, teams headed into their first night with the temperatures dropping to around 3 degrees in the hills. Many of the Half course teams took on their big paddle leg as the sun set, while the fun course teams took on a challenging rogaine leg that involved lots of scrambling along a river bed and cross country around the swans crossing camp ground.
A big feature of the area around Port Macquarie are three ‘brother mountains’ – North Brother, Middle Brother and South Brother. The course took full course teams over Middle Brother on the second day before heading to Kendall for an extended version of the paddle that half course teams completed and then over North Brother to the Finish line.
In the half course Resultz Racing (13:58:35) took out the win followed by Hype Reloaded (15:40:43) and then FGR (15:58:54).
In the full course Thunderbolt (27:32:50) again took out the win followed by 3 People on Contract (30:13:39) and Mountain Designs V Wild Women (30:24:08).
Although thunderbolt took the early lead and held onto it, the next 5 teams faught hard for places on the podium.
Again for 2024 the most emotional finish came from the five teams from the Kaiarahi Cultural Collective, which supports the health and well being of those in need in the Maori community. Last year Jeremy Nikora led 4 teams and the team building and racing experience was so positive and life affirming he came back with 5 teams this year, plus a support crew of 10. They trained together for months, completed the course together and were welcomed on the finish line by a Haka from their supporters.
Teams were lucky with the weather this year and experienced a classic Geoquest course, and already many have said they will be back again in 2025.
That’s why the tradition lives on and the Mountain Designs Geoquest is a fixture on the Australian Adventure Racing calendar.
You can see the race tracking and full results at https://live.trackmelive.com.au/geoquest24 and find out more about the race at www.geoquest.com.au
The race is organised by sports event management company Wild&Co who have a full programme of races throughout the year.
For a full calendar of events see - www.wldnco.com
