X Lakes Winter 2013

After the wildly successful inaugural X Lakes Summer last year, I am super excited that plans for X Lakes Winter are under way! Details are now available, with the Winter Edition looking similar to the Summer Edition. This will be an amazing event, so get your toys ready, find a partner — whatever it takes for you to enjoy this slice of multisport heaven on the Garden Route!

Where: Wilderness
When: 13 July 2013
Cost: R400 solo | R500 team
Website: www.chaingangevents.co.za
Facebook: Chain-Gang-Events
Twitter: @ChainGangEvents

The details of the event have been announced. It looks like the Winter Edition will be fairly similar to the Summer Edition, but dropping the first MTB stage from George to Wilderness, and instead increasing the remaining two MTB legs. The paddle legs remain the same.

#	Leg	Mode	Distance
1	Wilderness to Island Lake	Paddle	9.2
2	Island Lake to Pine Lake Marina	Bike	20
3	Pine Lake Marina to Hoogekraal	Paddle	9.8
4	Hoogekraal to Old Drift	Bike	49
5	Old Drift to Thesen Island	Paddle	11.0

I am pleased to see that the organisers are sticking to the boat-swapping rules which will allow better boat choices for each leg: I am leaning towards using a K1 on the first leg, and a surfski on the remaining boat legs.

The date is the weekend after the annual Knysna Oyster Festival (29 June — 06 July 2013), so the Garden Route is most definitely the sporting destination for winter!