Orienteering weekend

Well, it's Sunday night. I've been "up north" all weekend at a couple of orienteering events.

FRIDAY: Pump class. No shoulder raises (yay), no sore shoulders afterwards.

SATURDAY: travel up to Beechworth for a MTB-O event at Stanley. Boring terrain - mostly open (felled) pine plantations, and the best route was always along the forestry tracks, rather than single trail though the bush. HOT out in the open. Out of sheer stubborness, I took the longer more scenic route on a couple of occasions. Starting to feel fatigue in the legs on the homeard run, but happy enough, as this is a longer course than I've done before. 16.35 kms in 1:20.

SUNDAY: stayed overnight in Chiltern, so only a short drive to the Bush event just outside the town. Temperature starting to heat up, even early in the morning. Running W35A, course 4. Apart from a dodgy route choice to the first control, I NAILED them... bang! bang! bang! Feeling very pleased with myself... until control #7.

I landed in the correct gully, found the watercourse junction... but where is the pit? Walked up and down the watercourse - yes, I'm definitely in the right gully, but no pit. Walked out to the road, took a bearing, yep - DEFINITELY the right place. But no bloody pit. Arrrrgh. And no one else in sight either. After attacking this from three different angles, I walked up to a different track with the intention of giving up. Passed a mine shaft - marked on the map. Dammit, I am going to GET this control. Took a bearing, and walked from tree to tree, taking a bearing each time. Finally found the bastard.

Walked back up to the track, and decided I was too pissed off to continue. HOT, frustrated, annoyed, and - to quote a friend - cracked the shits. Walked to the finish. 41 minutes on that blasted control - it should have taken 5. Probably about 10 kms.

Still pissed off.