The 4x4 Club of Sri Lanka and Dimo Lanka jointly organized a unique outdoor sports event at Waters Edge on the 16th. This was different from the "usual" 4x4 events as it included three stages - cycling, rowing and driving.
Me, my brother and Anuradha Weeraman were at Waters Edge by around 8:30. The climate was very sunny and bright. Soon it became very hot, but Waters Edge is much closer to the nature than the rest of the city with lots of greens and water, and the effect of the bright sun was not that bad. Also, it was much easier to take sharp photographs with lower shutter speeds. I had borrowed a Fuji FinePix S5100 from a friend, as my Canon was no longer working. Its 10x optical zoom proved to be very useful.
The first stage of this outdoor triathlon was to to cycle round the lake. The course was somewhat "off-road", but not difficult. Lanka Sportreizen had provided mountain bikes and other cycling gear.
The second stage turned out to be diffult for competitors who were new to rowing. Some teams already had rowing experience while some others quickly got the hang of it. But there were still a few teams who found it extremely diffult to get the steering right, including one team whose canoe went all over the lake... :-) An organization in Kitulgala had provided the boats (can someone please update me of the exact name?). Lifeguards were also on the alert, but no incident happened for them to take action.
We were mostly interested in the third stage. Two Jeep Wranglers were provided by Dimo. Both were equiped with automatic transmission (yuk) and powerful 4l straight-6 petrol engines. The co-driver of each team was supposed to hold a 2 letre jar of water and each mililetre spilt reculted in reduced points. Therefore drivers had to be very mild in maneuvering. Obviously Dimo didn't want their new Wranglers to be harshly handled... :-)
The course was nicely laid out, but not very difficult nor challenging when compared to usual 4x4-only events. Most notably, the presence of mud was limited to one shallow crossing. I'm sure it should have been loads of fun for the participants, but after some time, it became a bit boring to watch. So we started checking out various Jeep models parked for observation including Commanders, Charokees and Grand Charokees in addition to another Wrangler.
The event was good in general and unique, and we had a good time. Photos are in my flickr gallery as usual.
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