Blog #25: Canoes, beaches and trot-ups

Only one full day left in Rio for Jane so she spent it zipping all over the place!

Tripple X III was naughty at the first trot up and had a minor naughty moment again today!
Tripple X III was naughty at the first trot-up and had a minor naughty moment again today!

Only one more full day in Rio! How the time has flown – but then again, it does seem like a long time since I flew out from Christchurch.

Today there were no competitions for the jumpers, just the trot-up for them to pass this afternoon. The ground jury made quite a few trot twice and sent one to the hold box, but everyone who presented their horse was approved. I love going to trot-ups, it is the only opportunity you get to see the horses up close. There certainly are some beautiful ones, and most were well behaved today, probably a bit tired from their recent workloads, jumping around the huge courses. One more day horses, and that glory could be yours!

Couldn't buy any tickets today for the canoeing but the cheap seats were great!
Couldn’t buy any tickets today for the canoeing but the cheap seats were great!

I set off to go and watch Lisa Carrington do her thing. I left Deodoro first thing, caught the media bus into the Main Press Centre, and then on to the media bus to Lagoa. It’s a lovely venue and I really was hoping that I could use my media pass to get in, but no such luck at this venue and unfortunately the tickets were sold out! But all was not lost, as there were plenty of vantage points around the perimeter of the fence and I ended up in a great place with a great view and surrounded by other Kiwis who also couldn’t get access! As an added bonus, I saw Richie McCaw go charging past, running a bit late and keen to get there in time to see Lisa. She duly delivered, another bronze to add to her gold medal. Well done, Lisa!

Lisa Carrington just after the finish of her race where she won the gold medal
Lisa Carrington just after the finish of her race where she won the gold medal

I then walked to the beach, and had a nice coffee in a charming cafe. It was the best coffee I have had since being in Brazil. Far better than the brew served at the accommodation village here or even the one at the media centre. You would think the coffee in Brazil would be first-rate but this was the closest I have had to a good one. I had a good walk around Ipanema and decided to try the new metro to get to my next destination. At that point my plan was to head back towards the transport centre, but on ending up on the wrong side of the tracks at the station, I decided to see what the last stop was like, feeling adventurous. Very comfortable trains, air-conditioned, clean and fast. I popped back up on street level and promptly ran into Paul Hobbs from TVNZ who had spent quite a bit of time at the equestrian venue while eventing was on. He pointed me in the direction of the beach and some nice restaurants… so, more walking, then lunch close to the beach. The risotto was lovely, and enough for three, so when they offered to give me a doggy bag, I accepted, and there’s dinner sorted tomorrow night!

IMG_3622I also purchased a few Havaianas from their shop at Barra da Tijuca, beautiful jandals, so that’s Christmas presents done for a few of the relatives. Don’t tell the rellies, but they were a bargain too!

So it was back on the public transport (which is free for those with media accreditation) and it all worked really well. Using the media transport app on my phone, I could see that if I took the media transport, I wasn’t going to make the trot-up, so opted to continue on public transport and, with more buses and a bit of walking, I ended up with half an hour to spare.

Lovely new metro train station!
Lovely new metro train station!

I’ve done over 20,000 steps today, which is over 14kms. No wonder my feet are a bit tender, and I’m ready for bed – and it’s not even 10pm!

Big day tomorrow and then another early start to catch the plane out of here on Saturday morning. Packing? Who knows when?

Previous articlePony Club loses its battle
Next articleHurray for Olympic farriers!