The North Queensland Endurance Riding Season has commenced, with the first ride being held at Wondecla on March 29 2009. Wondecla is a small town on the Atherton Tablelands that has abundant state forest and incredible ride trails.

Barry & I competed in the full ride, being 82 kilometers.
We were first over the line, and successfully vetted through.

Jameel was again the ‘camera horse’ and some good pictures were taken from his back, his ears can be seen in many of the endurance ride pictures I have taken, which are in the photo gallery.

The full endurance ride commenced at 6am and the weather was kind, which is a bonus in Wondecla as it can be freezing, however I guess that had something to do with the time of the year as well.

We were about 4km out and I noticed that Jameel appeared a bit fresh giving a couple of pig roots and jumping around a bit, when we were 5km out and Barry says “Stop, you have to stop and get off” I thought that’s strange so I stopped and jumped off, only to find my girth had come undone and flapping around his legs. No wonder he was jumping around.

We caught up with the riders that had passed us around the 20km mark and continued on to make good time. I finished the 82km in 7 hours 1 minute.

The terrain for the two legs was hilly, but not as rough or as steep as some of the other tracks that Wondecla has to offer. I think they were being kind to us, given that it was the first ride for the season. I was pleased that it wasn’t any tougher because coming up to the 60km mark was tough for me, my knees, feet and thighs were hurting. At the 66km mark all I could think about was there was only 14km to go and that was less than our regular training circuit. Then I saw the 70km marker and that meant that in one kilometers time I would be in single digits and it would be over soon.

I didn’t tell Barry that I was totally over it at the 60km mark, how could I! He is 72 years and he wasn’t complaining! Barry Akers - you are incredible.