2007 ACT Championships
"Wadbillibadjagaine Rogaine", 2007 ACT Championships, Badja State Forest and Wadbilliga National Park - 26-27 May 2007
Story by Phil Whitten: Bold was our first impression of the Wadbillibadjagaine Rogaine after arriving at the Hash House at 11 pm on Friday night. Perched on a high exposed saddle, a perfect site for perfect weather. The view over farmland by moonlight was as promising as the weather.
Bold was our second impression of the Rogaine, after getting our maps and realising that course took in a section West of Tuross Gorge - there was no question - we had to visit control 102.
Our chosen route appeared simple enough, head South, then East taking in most of the checkpoints between 103 and 102. After this we planned to head North and use the checkpoints on the ridgeline running West from 50 to find 100.
After finalising our flight plan and handing it in we polished off some sandwiches and went to relieve ourselves on the edge of the clearing. Peering into the forest all I could see was banksia and hakia. In one swift moment our route was changed to include all of the checkpoints in the farm country.
The start of the Rogaine went well, with really enjoyable countryside on the first 10 checkpoints. We had a giggle near checkpoint 45 as there were so many minor ridges and gullies not defined on the map, but present in reality. Somewhere around checkpoint 40 my mate Warwick was feeling sick enough that he started to pop some pills. We overshot 61, but realised quickly enough. The views from 102 were better than we had anticipated. On the climb out of 102 we met a team of three that were rocketing along, the first people we had seen for about 4 hours. Between 70 and 62 we stopped to put on some more clothes, and find our torches. Warwick was now not a happy rogainer. We stopped for about 20 minutes downstream from 62, we had run low on water and found a small soak to fill up from. We struggled a bit with 67, we should have been a bit more conservative in our approach, we also got stuck in the only bit of really thick scrub that we found on the course. Then, three checkpoints later we stuffed up bigtime on 64 our lazy nightime navigation was not going well. We recovered our position near the river and went back and found 64. On our way to 79 we decided to abandon ship and return to the Hash House as Warwick was ill, and had not eaten for more than 5 hours. We met Belinda and Alexa near 49, and were surprised to see Belinda hobbling along with a sore knee. We picked up some points on the way to the Hash House, with 75 being rather tricky. It took us three different approaches to find it, and realised that again we had not been sufficiently conservative in the dark.
We got back to the Hash House, and enjoyed the social atmosphere.
Thanks to the course setters for taking time to set a refreshingly bold course. The navigation and the variety of vegetation were tricky at times.
Read MoreStory by Phil Whitten: Bold was our first impression of the Wadbillibadjagaine Rogaine after arriving at the Hash House at 11 pm on Friday night. Perched on a high exposed saddle, a perfect site for perfect weather. The view over farmland by moonlight was as promising as the weather.
Bold was our second impression of the Rogaine, after getting our maps and realising that course took in a section West of Tuross Gorge - there was no question - we had to visit control 102.
Our chosen route appeared simple enough, head South, then East taking in most of the checkpoints between 103 and 102. After this we planned to head North and use the checkpoints on the ridgeline running West from 50 to find 100.
After finalising our flight plan and handing it in we polished off some sandwiches and went to relieve ourselves on the edge of the clearing. Peering into the forest all I could see was banksia and hakia. In one swift moment our route was changed to include all of the checkpoints in the farm country.
The start of the Rogaine went well, with really enjoyable countryside on the first 10 checkpoints. We had a giggle near checkpoint 45 as there were so many minor ridges and gullies not defined on the map, but present in reality. Somewhere around checkpoint 40 my mate Warwick was feeling sick enough that he started to pop some pills. We overshot 61, but realised quickly enough. The views from 102 were better than we had anticipated. On the climb out of 102 we met a team of three that were rocketing along, the first people we had seen for about 4 hours. Between 70 and 62 we stopped to put on some more clothes, and find our torches. Warwick was now not a happy rogainer. We stopped for about 20 minutes downstream from 62, we had run low on water and found a small soak to fill up from. We struggled a bit with 67, we should have been a bit more conservative in our approach, we also got stuck in the only bit of really thick scrub that we found on the course. Then, three checkpoints later we stuffed up bigtime on 64 our lazy nightime navigation was not going well. We recovered our position near the river and went back and found 64. On our way to 79 we decided to abandon ship and return to the Hash House as Warwick was ill, and had not eaten for more than 5 hours. We met Belinda and Alexa near 49, and were surprised to see Belinda hobbling along with a sore knee. We picked up some points on the way to the Hash House, with 75 being rather tricky. It took us three different approaches to find it, and realised that again we had not been sufficiently conservative in the dark.
We got back to the Hash House, and enjoyed the social atmosphere.
Thanks to the course setters for taking time to set a refreshingly bold course. The navigation and the variety of vegetation were tricky at times.
