Interhall Pool

Two weeks ago Fenner held an 8-ball competition in order to select a team for the interhall competition. 10 players turned up and multiple games at the Maram in Wanniassa led to the selection of four elite players from around the world to represent Fenner Hall. The following Friday the four of us went to uni pub in a bid to retain the interhall pool championship, which we had shared with Ursula and UniLodge last year. Each Hall/College ranked their players one to four, and then played one game against their opposite number from the other colleges. Every player played six games, and each college played 24 games, and after the three hours of pool Fenner had proven its utter dominance in this event. Of a possible 24 wins Fenner walked away with 20. The next closest college was Burgmann with 14 wins. Playing in 1sts for my team I was undeafeted, and it inlcuded an epic battle against the Ursies' 1st player that attracted the attention of all participants. A ring of supporters had formed around the table by the 3rd shot that all watched with bated breath.

The photo may be grainy but our playing wasn't - Pete (played 4ths won 4/6), myself (played 1sts won 6/6, Sanchit (Indian import, played 3rds won 5/6), and Declan (English import, played 2nds won 5/6). In the middle the interhall pool trophy!

The Race

I've been super busy, but finally I have been able to update the blog

About month ago four intrepid adventures set off towards Johns XXIII College for Inward Bound.

Div 1 preparing at Fenner, Justin and Tristanm, my scouts, are in the team shirts

A relatively experienced team we had two particapants who had previuosly run Div 1 before, one who had run div 4, and a new recruit. Jaws dropped when the other team saw our greenest member, Sarah, not many females run in the top division, and even fewer are navigate.

Preparing to be met by my adoring fans

At approximately 11pm we removed our blindfolds in the Yaouk valley on Stewartfield Rd (although we didn't know that at the time). We were told the endpoint was a small town called Jerangle. My scouts reported nothing more than a few farmhouses in the area, which indicated we were 10kms from the nearest main road so quickly we packed up our gear and headed south.

The road to the finish, a prophetic sign perhaps.

Our amazing pace allowed us to catch two teams ahead of us, but we lost our position upon arriving at Bobeyan Rd where we stopped to locate out exact position and plot a course. Johns and Burgmann jogged past and that was the last team we saw for over nine hours.

Sharing stories at the end

We headed east along the road, and up around Shannon's flat heading for ford across the Murrumbidgee River just outside Bredbo. There was a moment of panic when 4wd track we were looking for seemed further away than expected, but in reality the first 35km was relativley easy to run and navigate.

The real reason we run - awesome breakfast

The next 10 kms was the downfall of every team. After crossing Povey's Fire trail most were aiming to head east, but regrowth from the fires in 2008 made many of the paths very difficult to spot. Twice we briefly wandered off course and only my experience kept us on track. At one stage we saw head lamps way off in the distance, quite high up and very far south. Whoever they were, they were lost, the endpoint was not in that direction. We giggled.

The endpoint

Next Sarah led us on an epic bushbash but to our dismay the trail we needed could not be found. For 30 mins we searched before giving up and following a dry creekbed to another trail, which also could not be found. Once again we followed creeks until we came across a barely visible trail. Here we decided to follow the trail (all trails lead somewhere) and it took us south through the forest (somewhat in the wrong direction) and ended at a major creek (dry thankully) which bore east, and we followed this to the last trail on the map, fingers crossed this still existed.

Fenner Hall Div 1 coming in to the finish

It was HUGE (the trial I mean)! the sun had risen and we had a road. Invigorated we plowed on north and then east to Bredbo. We took off our shoes and socks to cross the Murrumbidgee and stopped for a chat with the Burgmann Div 2 team who we met. They had bad news - they were with B&G Div 1 previously so they must be ahead of us. Just as we packed up our gear, low and behold, B&G plowed through the river, the sight of us spurring them on to not even protect their feet. So Burgmann were wrong, and we had a race on our hands.

Sarah leads us home

At this stage we assumed we were second last with B&G close behind. We were the second last team to leave drop off and the nav was relatively easy. We powered through Bredbo and to a checkpoint at the Monaro Highway. We were greeted with huge smiles by those manning the checkpoint. "Div 1 - we've been waiting for all night - Ursies passed by about an hour ago, you guys are in 2nd place!"

35km to go, a well used road to follow and B&G not too far behind. We worked hard, checking off the kms and holding a steady 8.5 kms an hour. Every now and then we would spy Burgmann Div 2 ahead, and every now and then a safety car would follow close behind to protect us from any traffic. Vehicles with supporters driving to the finish would go by tooting their horns and cheering us on.

Some people work harder than others...

5kms left, just before our final food break we caught up to Burgmann div 2. With a big grin I tell them we want to beat them to the end. I receive a confused look from their nav as he points behind us, "I'd be more concerned about them." Only 200 m behind, B&G came striding up the hill.

"No break team, we run the next two hills." My team kicks into action as we push up the hill, down the incline and up the next one. Behind us we can hear the B&G team yelling at each other to work harder. We do the same. Sarah and I start to struggle.My thigh muscles start spasming as cramps set in and I am lose my ability to run up the hills. Sarah and I struggled to keep pace with Tristan and Justin, unsure if we can finish with the pace, yet neither of us wanted to be the first to give in. 2 kms on and we can still hear B&G close behind. As we top the rise in the distance we see endpoint. "Dump any water" I advise, as Tristan turns to check on the enemy.

10 minutes later we round the final corner and stumble to the finish, amongst the cheering supporters from all 7 seven halls and colleges.

Parking! you mean people actually drove here?

For 15 kms the support vehicles had been in radio contact with the endpoint detailing the epic battle that finished in a five kilometer sprint to the end after 70 kms if hard running.

A little tired

2nd place was ours!

Fenner Hall Division 1: Sarah (co-navigator), Tristan, (scout), me (navigator), Justin (scout)

Inward Bound 2010

In just under a fortnight 32 brave residents will once again test their skills in the bushlands surrounding Canberra. We have spent the past 3 weeks training hard in night and day, running through the bush and studying maps in preparation for the big event.

O'Neill '09 nearly crashes through a spider's home

The team at Lake Burley Griffin

Mt Ainslie Summit

xkcd.com - Freedom

Both stripping naked and Fiji are fun...who wants a conversation?

Wee Jasper Comedy Festival

Yes, you have read correctly, the town with a population equal to 10 people and fifty sheep have a comedy festival. One of the many summer adventures I had was taking some friends to this grand occasion. Let me tell you that hilarity ensued.

My type of town!

Jan, the lovely owner of Wee Jasper's local, alerted me to this monumental annual event whilst I was passing through on my way to Melbourne for Christmas. It consists of lots of people sitting on the front lawn of the pub, and about six comedic acts being staged from the back of a truck. Named Capital Punishment, it featured comedians from Sydney, Canberra, and the South Coast. It was used as a way for these young performers to fundraise their way to the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

Comedy on a truck - its funny even before she starts talking.

The MC tried quite hard to be funny, and he succeeded with his story about the hardships of a trolley, but otherwise he struggled a little. On the other hand, the acts (including Daniel Connell, The Stevenson Experience, Dayne Rathbone and Kathryn Bendall) were hilarious and totally worth the 60-odd minute drive. Other highlights included visiting Yass Macdonalds, who were struggling with the changeover to breakfast menu at 12:30am. It only took 40 mins for them to serve 5 people...

Damn straight we'll be back next year.

The rest of Summer

I've been way too busy with work and uni to keep my blog properly updated, so I'm going to shoot through the rest of summer right here.

Christmas was fun in Melbourne, I caught up with my family and met my week old nephew for the first time.
I went to my first boxing day test with Lucas and got to watch the best run out ever and see Ponting smoke the Pakistani bowlers.

Katich smashes one through covers

I returned to Canberra just in time to ride my new bicycle to the coast for a New Years Weekend with friends from when I first moved into Fenner.

The Beast ready to go!

It was my first tour on my bike. I rode about 160km through Hoskingtown, Tallaganda State Forest, Major's Creel, Araluen and Moruya. I camped in Deua National Park where I met some very nice Canberrans who offered my sore and tired body soft drink, a chair and a campfire.

Tallaganda State Forest

My friends and I stayed in a Caravan Park in Tuross Heads. We were right on the lake and only a few kms from the beach.

The Lake on one fine morning

New Years was heaps of fun, we went to the local club and got drunk, we then returned to our cabins to drink more. Many a game of trivial pursuit was played, and we provedthat women are smarter than men (however this assumes means that Peistche is a chic).

Goofy makes another politically correct joke about Kim's sexuality.

The Epic Journey

12 months ago I followed the road 'less traveled by' and found that 'it made all the difference'. So in 2009 I once again followed this philosophy and made the journey part of the holiday as I rode my trusty Suzuki to Melbourne avoiding the Hume Highway like an old high school aquaintance.

Off the usual tracks - empty roads of national parks are the BEST

My route took me from Canberra to Wee Jaspar - I stopped in the pub and made friends with the owner.

The Stables Tavern, Wee Jasper - this pub will feature in another entry shortly to come.

After receiving some directions and stopping by the local caves I took the Wee Jaspar Forest rd to Tumut, reaching some intense speeds on the wide loggers road.

Wee Jaspar caves - there chairs in the back are a ... different touch.

From Tumut I meandered to Tubarumba and camped the night before continuning my journey to Victoria through Corryong.

The Campsite at Paddy's River Falls, where I wish I had stayed.

The Towong bridge- crossing the Murray to Victoria.

I stopped and visited Jack Riley's grave - one of the bushmen who inspired Banjo Patterson's 'The Man from Snowy River'.The amazing winding roads of the Omeo Highway took me to Mitta Mitta and dropped by the local pub for a beer, a chat, and a walk around Australia's pioneer open cut gold mine.

Decorating one wall of the Mitta Mitta pub are these ingenius devices, zoom in on the photo to see what the locals have been up to

The next leg involved 20kms of a horrible dirt road and finished at another pub in the middle of nowhere.

After many years of searching I have finally found point B the location people talk about when going from A to B

Fourtunately there was a campground next door, so I set up camp, gave my credit card to the bar, and joined the Christmas party of local leadership camp group.

View from the Blue Duck Inn, a pub hidden within the bush!

The following day I passed through Omeo on the way to the coast I visited the memorial of one of Australia's earliest air disasters. I spent two ungodly hours on the Princes highway
from Bairnsdale to Moe before turning off and heading north through the logging towns of Noojee and Powelltown.

An old waterwheel at Noojee, used to power illegal gambling during the settlements early years

I finally reached Melbourne two daysafter three days on the road to be greeted by this smiling face.