Weeks and days were quickly flying past and the last weekend before the race suddenly came. My teammate Milan wanted always to come to Qatar to tick another country from “I’ve been to” list and along with one day UAE holiday, this weekend became a perfect opportunity to do so.
So we planned a two day kayak trip southwards along endless Messaieed industrial zone, Sealine beach resort and the beach itself. First plan included a trip to some lonely island 15 kilometers on the sea, but we quickly rejected it because we I had only one spraydeck and one foot high waves were not keeping us completely calm J But 35 kilometers there on Thursday afternoon and Saturday back seemed to be a decent portion anyway.
I came earlier from the office, we loaded the gear and headed to Messaieed flood plains. The day before I spent 2 hours driving back and forth in the night searching for a way through 5 kilometers of dried up mud and sand banks and making sure we wouldn’t lose much time on Thursday. My night mission was successful, so at 2pm we were already paddling hard south.
Milan as former race rower showed his skill and strength and along with my toughly trained paddling routine we were flying 7.5 km/h downwind along the industrial scenery of oil rafineries, fertilizer factories and gas liquification plants. We stopped for a short break on a small island on the way, swithed positions and continued towards sunset.
“Look!! That boat is coming directly towards us” I shouted on Milan, when I spotted a black speed boat quickly approaching. “Ahhh…there we go...Coast Guard…I’ve told you that in Abu Dhabi they immediately find you if you go further to the sea!!”. “Hello…where you go? Here no boat zone” was the next thing we heard from Arabic sea wolf in Coast Guard boat. After that we told them where we go, from where we go, our names, nationalities…basically everything and they began to call to some superior officers, headquarters and other authorities asking for advice what to do. In the meantime we were holding to their boat, jumping on waves and waiting.
“You cannot continue, this no boat zone” finally he told us. “OK…and where we should go then? Should we go back, you will take us somewhere?” I asked. They start talking between each other and on the phone again. After another five minutes the guy spoke again: “You go!!” and pointed south in the night which already came during that hour we were waiting there. “Fair enough J” I thought. “They had no idea what to do with us and they didn’t want to bother” And we quickly paddled into the night.
After 15 kilometers of silent nigh voyage we landed unseen on the private beach inside of fenced Sealine Beach resort. Wet, cold, in shorts and rubber water shoes we walked in and headed straight around the pool to an open pool bar. Nobody seemed surprised to see somebody like us so we sat down and ordered coffee with whiskey, pizza, beer and cake J
With the last bit of the cake cold come to us again, se we disappeared the same way we came a paddled another 10 km further along the beach and along almost continuous line of “State of art” Qatari tent camps with electricity generators, lid beach volleyball pitches and air-conditioned tents with solid wooden doors!!
It was quite hard to find any spot for camping, because the whole desert was covered up to the highest dunes and steepest slopes with car tracks and plenty of lights and roaring engines were still out there. We didn’t want to be torn out of our dreams by a mad Land Cruiser. So after couple of “Let’s go up to that camp, there will be an unoccupied area”, we found a spot on the top of a dune behind a small fence marking somebody’s camp zone and quickly fell asleep on the soft sand.
On Friday we went back the same way and even same style. Breakfast and beer in Sealine resort and meeting with the same Coast Guard in Messaieed. This time they knew exactly where we are and as soon as we entered the Industrial zone border, two guard boats we coming to us immediately. But this time they were prepared what to do with us and they escorted us to the other side of the zone 15km further. Their escort meant that they were slowly following us with their 1000hp boat with our 6km/h speed against the wind and waves. Actually it has an effect on us. We were paddling without stopping those 2 hours to get rid of them as quickly as possible J
And that was it. We went for a barbecue with Onrej, Milan’s friend and former excellent adventure racer to suck some wisdom, went for a short desert run and the last training weekend was over. We had one week left, but we wanted to dedicate it to rest, energy gathering and meditation J OK…I went only for one last desert night run in a full gear and the training and preparation time was up. We would have to show something real now!!
It has been more than three months since I’ve signed up for this. I haven’t taken it lightly and tried to do as much as possible for being ready for something I have no experience with. But closer the race day was approaching and I knew more about what is awaiting there, more and more I was feeling that I was ready. And when sitting now in Park Rotana hotel in Abu Dhabi, drinking the last beer, thinking about tomorrow’s technical verifications and race briefing and about Friday start…I really feel ready, motivated and excited to enjoy the race and experience something new…something unknown…something extreme J
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