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Most of the Team were up and out of bed around
5am to begin the journey to County Down although some had to be up and
around at 4am. The province of Northern Ireland may be small but it still takes time to
travel. Leaving County Londonderry/Derry at 0630 (what does
the 0 stand for? Oh what the F*** are we doing up at this time of
the morning?) The first delay was on the road down as the
Roads Service were doing whatever it is they do and we had a little
tour of the back roads of North Antrim. Arriving at Banbridge,
Richard Ts wife Ruth and George's wife Mandy drove the vehicles to
drop us at the start
of the Challenge proper on the roadside above Spelga Dam.
 The Challenge began
at 10am on the road just below the source of the river. We then
walked up the flank of Slieve Muck to the source of the Bann where
photographs were taken to mark the occasion. The weather wasn't bad
at this stage with
some cloud cover and a fairly strong breeze but this helped waken
everyone up. Leaving the source of the river (a small pool of
water that had a tiny stream flowing out of it down the hill) we walked
down through the bogland to reach the road again and moved off in
the direction of Spelga Dam.
We walked down the valley from Spelga Dam to meet the Newry - Castlewellan road south of Hilltown.
Turning toward Castlewellan we followed the course of the
Bann northward and eventually arrived at Ballyroney.
 Sharing the roads for most of this part of the journey with a Vintage
Navigation Rally, some of the old cars brought back happy memories for some of the
older members of the team.
On arriving at Ballyroney we then aimed for Katesbridge followed
shortly after that by a much welcomed break at the garage located at
the junction with the road to Banbridge. That garage sold the best tasting cup of tea that
we
have had in many years! Struggling to move onward and the team
were on the way again and going for Banbridge. The toll on everyone's feet caused by the
hardness
of the asphalt and tarmac of the roads began to show; walking on roads
impacts hard on the bones of the feet and legs.
lan and Peter left us near Richard T's in order to transport the
kayaks to Gilford (our preferred transition stage from foot
to water). On arriving at Banbridge (some 22 odd miles from the
start) we knew that we only had a further 8 miles along the road to
get to Gilford.
 Our
timings were beginning to get a hammering as we had scheduled to
arrive at Gilford around 5pm and leave again at 6pm. We were
eventually ready
to move at 9pm some 3 hours later than planned! We had
been told that there may not be much water in the Bann between
Gilford and Portadown but the decision was taken to launch and be
dammed, our feet may not have stood another lot of miles beating the
roadway.
The trip began okay, there seemed to be water but then.... a small
weir, shallows, more weirs, shallows, fallen trees, and the time
flew past, having to get out and pull the boats, shunting down the
the weirs, sapping the strength of even the strongest members of the
team. All of this was done in near total darkness,
head-torches only able to provide limited help. The water only
became suitable for boating just below the point where the Bann and
the Canal joined. By this time we were starting to get cold,
the breeze coming along the river was very, very cold. Most of
us had to get out of our boats and were not wearing dry suits so
were wet in addition to now being on the road for nearly 19 hours.
We arrived at Portadown (Shillington's Bridge) at 2am, the time that
we had scheduled that we should have been somewhere across Lough Neagh!!!
 We
gathered on the quay and made some warm food and hot drinks to raise
spirits, It was now so cold that hyperthermia was a real
possibility.
Back on the water and the team moved on the river toward Bannfoot. We decided
to stop to get an hours sleep at the
motorway bridge at 5am most team members had been suffering from
extreme fatigue along with the resultant hallucinations - the sleepmonsters
well known to most adventure racers. Unfortunately, the wind caught George's boat,
spinning him against the bridge and he ended up making a wet exit
from his kayak. The wind was driving along at this stage and
urgency was the order of the day to get everyone into dry clothing.
The forecast for the Lough wasn't too bad, but would have meant that we would
have been kayaking at 5 mph head-on into a wind of 20-30 mph.
This would have made the trip across the Lough alter dangerously from 2-3 hours
to 7 hours or longer. A collective decision was taken to stop
the Challenge at this point on the grounds of safety.
Had we continued we may have put several of the team at risk,
everyone was falling asleep, added to which the Lough and the
new timings we had calculated indicated that we would have been arriving at Castlerock closer to
midnight - 2am than our originally predicted time of 4-5 pm. Had
sufficient water
been on the Upper Bann from Gilford to Portadown we may well have made Bannfoot within
the tolerance timings but given all of the circumstances the correct
decision was made
A challenge is exactly that, something that takes us out of our
comfort zones, that makes us, as individuals pull on some sort of
inner strength that normally lays latent within every human being.
Did we complete our challenge? That depends on how you look at
it - we may not have completed the full distance non-stop, but each
person on the team can proudly look back on what they did achieve.
The distances alone should be recognised as extreme and all team
members grinned and bore their personal pain, along with
jokes, chat, some choice language, frustration, annoyance,
determination, grit, good-humour, and all of the rest. Well done
to everyone and special thanks to Big Peter D, Coleraine Kayak Club,
Stephen C, Richard T and family, Mandy C and family, the Governor, inmates
and staff at Magilligan Prison, and everyone else
who in their own way helped us to carry out this challenge.
Please take a moment to remember why attempted this challenge, please
visit www.natashafalls.com.
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