Too many thorns!

Recently I received an email informing me of a $1500 sponsored trip to Perth. To earn this cash all I had to do was be in the top placed student team in the upcoming ACT rogaining championship. We would then have to enter the national university rogaining championship held in conjunction with the WA state champs. Never one to pass up honour and glory (and a bit if cash) I quickly snaffled the services of fellow Fenner Hall IB navigator Miss Sarah Buckerfied, orienteer extraordinaire.

Sarah and I pick up 100 points on the top of Pig Hill

We had somewhat unorthodox preparation techniques. I trained by running a total of 9 kms over three training session before deciding my ankle (pre IB injury) was still to sore to run on and I decided to eat Maccas instead of training. Sarah, prepped by rolling her own ankle and limping around for the four days before the race.

A vehicle found on the course. Double points were earned if you pulled it to another checkpoint

This year the event was held just north of Tinbinbilla in the Brindabella National Park. It was a sunny day, but relatively cold. After planning an exciting route that looked about 60 kms long we set off on our journey. From 12pm until dusk we covered just under 30kms and picked up 990 points, mostly from checkpoints hidden in dense bush that would be too hard to find at night.

A giant sling shot was also available for teams willing to risk life and limb to reach the other side of the course

Our first three checkpoints after the sun set did not go as planned. We missed one and wasted a lot of time bashing around the bush trying to find the other two. However, after that we had a string of good luck finding controls hidden in very thick bush. At night in dense bush visibility is extremely limited even with powerful torches and I spent most of the time ripping through brambles and tripping over roots and rocks. By 4:00am the temperature had dropped to about seven below zero and our energies levels started to wan along with the batteries powering my torch. Just before the sun rose we were greeted by the astronomical phenomenon of the aligned planets which greatly bouyed our spirits. By the time the sun had risen we had secured a further 1340 points.

A shot of Tinker's Creek. This was about 9:30am on our way to our second last control

At 8am we stopped by the Hash House for cheese toasted sandwiches, a change of shoes and socks, and a toilet break. We deviated slightly from out original plan, but spent the final four hours picking controls in open farmland finding another 500 and multiple electrified fences. We strode back to the finish at 11:30am finishing at the same time as the rival Ursies team with a total of 2830 points.

The last control for us: Sarah and I had a quick bite to eat before heading back.

The student teams all regaled each other with the tales of their journeys as we eagerly awaited the results. Sarah and I were excited to find we had won the mixed team category and we also managed to be the highest placed student team (Perth here we come!). However, it was a huge surprise when we found out we were leaving the Brindies as the 2011 ACT rogaining champions.

2011 ACT rogaining champions