Game Design Why can't you protect the chest?

When doing my first Corkus lootrun after patch 2 was released, I found the Defend The Chest challenge on the beach. But defending something when you can't go near it is almost impossible. Is this intentional? Could the range of the Corkus Traversal be expanded to include that specific beach so people can do the challenge?

It's just annoying because it means you'll fail a challenge if:
A: the cannon cart is out of the range of your spells/melee.
B: you attempt to protect the chest but ten seconds fly by quickly.
C: you get overwhelmed by flashing red text on your screen and die (in game.)

(Also why are there snakes trying to take gold from the chest?)

 

This was a bug.

Those are naturally spawning mobs and not mobs from the defend challenge.