(Posted - 02 Dec 2009)
Yes, this is new Leader of the Opposition - Mr Tony Abbott and yes, he has done the Anaconda Adventure Race!
It was September 2007 and we were gearing up for the inaugural Forster Anaconda Adventure Race and about 4 days before the event we got a call from Mr. Abbott’s office saying he would like to come up and do the event – was that OK? And, could he borrow a boat and a bike (and just about everything in between as well!). Of course we said yes. After some tooing and froing over the next few days (during which we never really expected him to actually attend) he arrived at Forster about 20 minutes before the start saying "what do I do?".
So we quickly rustled up the gear he needed and set him on his way with the rest of the competitors around the course. He had arrived in time for Day One of the two day Forster race, and commenced with a 3km run, which was followed by a 1.9km swim, a 13.8km paddle, 19km mountain bike and 11km run that is broken in half by a 500m surf board paddle. And you know what – he did the whole thing in his sluggos! This gained him the instant respect of Race Director John Jacoby who is still remembered as the crazy Aussie who came over to race (and win on three occasions) the famous Coast to Coast Race in New Zealand – in sluggos!
He made it through the swim OK – although it looked like his arms were about to fall off when he exited the water. Then for the paddle we gave him a Finn Endorfinn plastic surf ski and his instability on the craft was later explained by the fact he had never kayaked on the ocean before! He cruised the mountain bike and even when the weather turned miserable with some pouring rain and driving wind he continued on to ultimately finish the day an Anaconda Hero and stone cold last – still in his sluggos.
There is one other funny little addition to this story. September 2007 was about the time we were all expecting the announcement of the election (that would eventually turf Mr Abbott out of his role as Minister for Health and into the opposition) and about half way through the race I got a call from his office saying, “I need to speak to Tony – can you get him to the phone ASAP". I explained to them that he was doing this off road race and he did not have a phone on him and that in fact we did not even know exactly where he was.
This was not acceptable to his advisor who insisted that we get him on a phone ASAP. So we called around the check points to see where he had made it to thus far and about 15 minutes later we tracked him down and handed him a phone whilst he was standing in the pouring rain with mud up to his knees and a surf board under his arm! He made two phone calls – but who did he call? There were many rumours that he spoke to Prime Minister John Howard to discuss the election date but we’ll never know – we’ve never had the balls to call the numbers again just in case we got through to old Johnny.
So there you go, we feel like we know Mr Abbott and have respect for him as having soldiered his way through an Anaconda Adventure Race – in his sluggos. Maybe if he ever makes it into the Lodge he’ll make Adventure Racing a national sport, we hope so!