An exciting night at Gougane Barra as fireworks lit up the skies and Turas teams wheeled in on their bikes! Proprietors of Ostan Gougane Barra, Neil and Katie Lucey, put on a huge show of live music featuring Elanor Shanley, and bonfires by the lake for the traditional Feile Tine. Never in an adventure race has there been such a warm welcome for teams as they come into transition.

First across the gates of Ostan Gougane Barra was Team Sport 2000-Vibram-La Fuma from France. They zoomed in the driveway lit with flashing blue lights to a huge crowd of cheers as people ran out of the bar and marquee to see the long awaited arrival of the lead team. Into the transition tent they had were put into ‘jail’ for 8 minutes where they paid a time penalty accrued from Stage 1 in Dingle. As soon as they paid their sentence, they changed clothes, packed up their bikes got some food and headed out into an absolutely gruelling night hike of 100km. As punishing a 100km hike is on a beautiful day, imagine how challenging it would be in the rain, wind and dark of night!
About 40 minutes after La Fuma passed through the transition last night, the lead Kiwi team, Orion Health followed in suit. We were all ears as the first thing out of their mouths was “We want to protest!” They turned themselves in admitting they didn’t follow the prescribed route and took a shorter course through Bantry town, they called Lafumas bluff too who also took a detour to the race route! Orion Health decided to pay their 3 hour penalty in the comfort of Gougane Barra, out of the wind and rain and recharge their batteries.

As we sit here in Gougane Barra about 13 hours after the first team arrived, teams are still meandering through the transition area and we caught up with a few of them as they grab a cup of coffee in the dining room. At about 7.15am this morning team Irish AR Denny got to Gougane Barra looking a bit tired as they housed one member who was feeling particularly washed out after a gruelling night on the hills. “We are doing ok, we just need to look after him and get him ready to go out there again” siad ‘Bionic Woman’ Roisin Mac Donnell. Margot Buckhorn from Irish team Midlands AR has also just walked in the door with a big smile on her face “I’ve been having such a good time, I can’t believe we are doing so well, we are holding up really well”. As they sit at the table next to us, they are in cheery spirits and catching up with the previous night’s gossip and race reports from the operations crew. They found the orienteering at night very difficult. It was like a blanket search out there, all we could see were little lights from head torches bobbing around the place” team leader Pat Marhshall. They will continue to race despite missing some checkpoints and are going to head out and look for them! Go guys! The remaining Irish team to check in at Gougane Barra is Team Gaeilgoir. Transition manager Micheal Concannon checked them out of the previous stage at Kilcrohane at about 8.02am this morning “They looked fairly tired, the biggest difficulty for Team Gaeilgoir now is that they spent the majority of the night out on the mountains whereas most of the lead teams have had a rest in a dry warm place. It was most extroardinary to watch the team dynamics while they were in transition. Although teams may see their faults, the less experienced ones when wet and cold, find it hard to resolve their problems”.

Team Buff Coolmax from Spain have officially retired from the race due to non-serious medical reasons.

As the Turas packs up in Gougane Barra we are moving on to Kilmacillogue and Sneem where there will be further festivities and shenanigans. The excitement continues!