It was still dark at four in the morning. I was numb with the cold, tired and hungry and the horses refused to drink water.

You can take a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. This expression kept running through my mind, and brought a reluctant grin at the harsh reality as I wearily led them back to Noel who was boiling up our first hot drink in twenty- three hours.

At five the previous morning we had broken camp for the start of the Eco-Challenge.

Three of us had to swim out to the kayaks. (A glacier fed lake at 08.30 in the morning, no hot sun and kayaks 200m away!) We, Team North/South had it all planned. I would paddle out and tow the other kayak, raft them and haul Ursula, Noel and Fraser on board as they arrived. (I was very happy about a dry start)

The organisers had other ideas, they moved all teams away from the start area and nominated the paddler, which led to frantic changing of clothes within each team as paddlers became swimmers and vice-versa. The remaining three team members were then separated from each other and led to the start to find that the order of the kayaks out in the lake had been jumbled.

Picture more than 150 similarly dressed people in a line at a lake shore, looking out at more than 100 identical kayaks, 200m away with 50 paddlers shouting for recognition and waving paddles. The "off" is sounded and you are wondering which kayaks to swim for and where your team-mates are. You join the run into the water and immediately it is too deep to wade. Gasps for breath as the cold hits the body, settle down to a steady stroke and keep scanning the boats ahead. Swimmers continually criss-crossing as they pick lines towards their kayaks. Avoid kicking or being kicked, don't drink too much water with all the splashing and gasping for air. Seems like forever later I spot Fraser shouting and waving the paddle, Ursula and Noel have tagged him also and we make the boats together.

Forty miles later we are after two physically exhausting portages (takes four of us to move each kayak) but are dried out and warm. We are nearly two hours behind the leaders.

There is still another twenty miles to go on the water.

The weather changes, those two hours were to make a serious difference. Technically we are in a lake, in reality, because of the vast expanses of water, we are dealing with sea conditions. We were now fighting waves, balancing and steering the boats, often losing sight of the other kayak hidden by the waves. The sun dropped behind the mountains, a cold wind cut through us, had to go ashore to don more clothing. Twice we were surfed ashore in breaking waters, fortunately staying upright. Went ashore to get light sticks and head torches (compulsory for night paddling). The darkness compounds the problems. Some teams went ashore to camp. We continued to the river. Down river in a fast flow to the well-lit kayak finish. The air is black with flies attracted to the lights, each head torch has its own cloud of flies. Landed, a difficult haul of the kayaks up a steep clay bank made worse by the darkness, the thorny bushes, the poor underfoot conditions and the irritation of the flies. Again it took the four of us to move each kayak. The horse stage is next but they are on the other side of the river. We must swim across while carrying food and clothes for the next couple of days. There is a fast flow but a strong eddy down-river across the way. The plan is to swim into the eddy near the tail, and while being carried in it, against the main flow, swim to the bank. A swimmer going into the head of the eddy will be turned around in it and flung back out into the main flow, and carried down a small set of rapids.

We were carrying dry-bags and wearing rucksacks. We shout best of luck to each other and set off with frantic strokes into the flow. There is no time to think of the cold. I made the eddy too high, and went for a longer swim than I hoped, shared the rescue pontoon with Noel and silently cursing my luck, the wet, the dark and the cold made my way back to the horses (at least there were no flies in the river). The mood didn't improve when we found that the dry bags were not secure for extended immersion (we had packed too much in). Most of our clothing was damp at best. Overall it took us an hour to get sorted, the leading teams did it in 20 mins in fading light (definitely darkness compounds problems).

We set off on the horses into the chill night. (Noel querying the possibility of riding bare-back just to get some heat into his body - wishful thinking by all of us).

After four cold hours we pulled into the first compulsory two-hour stop. The Vets were only interested in the condition of the horses and checked each. Ursula and Fraser went for a doze, Noel boiled water and I, as directed, took the horses to water - which is where this missive started.

Eco-Challenge is styled as the world's premier expedition race and ultimate expedition experience. It takes place in a remote region of the world each year (read poorly mapped). It takes mixed teams of four racing together, non-stop over a 200-mile course using all aspects of outdoor pursuits, racing against the clock, against other teams and against the rugged course. This year it was held in Patagonia in South America. Teams needed endurance to cover the 200 miles and sign in at 28 checkpoints, together with ability in lake canoeing, navigation, trekking, white water canoeing, mountaineering, fixed ropes and horse back riding, all the while working as a team under constant physical and mental stress with little food and sleep.

The Irish team consisted of:

Noel Hanna (Captain). Ursula MacPherson (Technical Leader). Fraser Crawford, Timmy Flavin.

We went by the name Team North/South to reflect the cross border make up of the team.

We were given full course details four days before the start. This included a book of Rules and Regs. with the intro. in thirteen languages. We signed various liability waivers and image releases. Credit card details were taken as security for equipment we would be using. We spent two days on assessments or "ability testing" even though we had provided certificates to show competence in Mountaineering, Kayaking and Horse-riding. Each individual had to show ability on ropes, glacier travel, crevasse fall, map and compass, swim to capsized kayaks, right, empty and paddle them, capsize and exit from them and swim back to shore. At fifteen "stations" all equipment was checked against the compulsory list we were given, and they were thorough. (twice we were rejected from the first aid kit test - insufficient individual water purification solutions)

Each team was allowed five gear boxes of defined size. These were made available at three specified locations along the route - (gear changeovers) in addition to this, paddling gear was collected and transported to other wet starts. From the mass start the clock stopped for a team only when they crossed the finish line. There were no individual parts or stages. Some checkpoints had cut-off times, which eliminated some teams. Our lowest margin was 6 hours which we felt was cutting it fine.

Teams every move was detailed with the results book running to twenty pages printed both sides - plenty scope for analysis.

The event can be summed up quickly enough. After a lot of sore hours on the horses we started trekking on legs of jelly. Onto the boats for a beating on the white water (we had to sleep on a little pebble island in the river - huddled together and shivering the darkness away.) We endured dense Bamboo jungles and energy sapping swamps. We had fabulous free abseiling and spectacular scenery. On our last day an alpine start had us on the glacier and getting the peak. The rest of the day had us on steep descents and on through jungle, swamp and dense forest. The late hours saw us having to inflate, paddle and deflate boats, more trekking and paddle sea kayaks in the dark to the finish. At what other event would you need to carry crampons, ice axe and ropes through jungle and in a sea kayak?

The jungle section was severe, dense vegetation and no visibility, walk in single file because of bamboo springing back, part a clump and force your way through to have it spring back between shoulder and rucksack, or pin an arm or leg. We dozed some of the night in the depths of the bamboo, not even finding enough space for the four of us to lay down together. Its hard to imaging bamboo as being a member of the grasses family. Everybody collected numerous splinters. On three other occasions our route choice took us through similar hell.

The days were burning hot, the nights icy cold. It took us over seven days to finish, it was won in just over five days. 51 teams started, 33 finished, we came 26. We had two hours sleep in the first 40, 3 hours sleep in the last 39. We had very good times between controls (comparable with the leading teams) but very bad times at the gear changes. Teams were eliminated (DQ'd to put the local phrase on it) mostly on medical grounds, (hypothermia caught two teams before the first leg was finished.) The medical support was second to none, using it did not mean "assistance" and therefore elimination but was actually compulsory at two checkpoints where a doctor had to see each team before they could continue. Medical aid was freely available as each team finished. (I spent about two hours getting bamboo splinters removed). There were five choppers in the air ñ all available for rescue and film work and capable of lake and swamp landing.

We were supplied with maps of 1/100,000 scale, 50m contour, 250m index contour, 4km grids and maps of 1/50,000 scale, 25m contour, 2km grids. Also a 1/100,000 scale tourist map which was more of a panoramic than a scaled map and used to give an indication of tracks. We were also given full route text description, unfortunately the text and maps did not reflect the actuality on the ground.

We didn't believe stories of teams going over wrong mountain ridges or getting lost in valleys (until it happened to ourselves) Its easy for the event to be an endurance marathon with minimal map info. and forcing routes through dense undergrowth.

Whilst I would love to be fighting it out in the top ten, I think it is a different league and for me, one of the many positive points of the event was the goodwill between teams, it was teams against the course not against each other. Yes, we did loan gear to help another team, and a number of times we called teams onto the correct route - but equally we benefited from other teams generosity towards us.

There are some negative points ñ not least of which is the cost, the feeling of being abandoned once a team is out of the top dozen. Being used for TV fodder, a case in point is our being hammered in the white water (purely for the cameras) to find out later that all the leading teams had done complete portages. (I wonder if I smile when I swim?)

Team North / South set out to be the first Irish team to complete the Eco-challenge and to finish as a happy team, a secondary objective was to complete it in ten days or better. I'm pleased to say we achieved both.

I would like to thank our sponsors for their support. Special thanks to our captain Noel and Joan for the tremendous amount of time, energy and effort they put into getting this trip going.

To Ursula, Noel and Fraser it was a pleasure to be with you. - and yes I would go again.