More about the leeches later. To start I must thank thank Keelen Birch, Mark Hurry and a bunch of other people for putting on a really good rogaine. I had high expectations before the event and I was not disappointed. I really enjoyed exploring a new area and a stellar course under some trying conditions, so thanks very much.

Memories

Rogainers, I think, live for experience and the accumulation of memories. While I forget the last 1,000 times I have walked home from the train station, I think I will never forget Saturday’s rogaine.

You’re probably not a human if you didn’t think at least once during the event, “What the hell am I doing here?”. These thoughts then quickly disappeared when you saw a new bend in the creek or something orange through the bush and your thoughts turn once again to the job at hand, as you plunge further into the dark, wet and thick bush.

The Course

When the event notes suggest full body coverage you know you are in for a tough day at the office. I was expecting “wait a while” and lantana and there was certainly both on the course. At least the “wait a while” is an Australian native, so that is some consolation as you quietly bleed out from the many lacerations. Actually, the bush I moved through wasn’t that bad. I have had worse days in the Watagans and almost all of the blood I spilt this time was from the leeches.

I applaud the course setting. It was clear to me that Mark Hurry and his vetters Helen O’Callaghan, Tony Woolford and Oscar Woolford had actually spent some quality time in the bush and thought about their control placements. They worked hard to avoid the worst of the scrub, but still provide a really good expereince.

Sometimes when you are rogaining it is clear to you that the course setter has hung a control from a car and did not walk the course or the likely routes the competitors will take. On Saturday, it was clear to me that Mark had spent considerable time and effort thinking about the course, control placements and how the competitors would interact with the course.

A Navigator’s Rogaine

I think Saturday was very much a navigator’s rogaine. Our maps these days are so accurate and easy to follow that bagging controls can be as easy as falling off a log (something I did plenty of on Saturday). Bagging controls on Saturday was difficult. It wasn’t until about my 5th control that I felt I had a good handle on the country and how to get through it. Fortunately for me, for the first 5 controls there were plenty of other teams around, so I could use them to help lead me to the controls. After the 5th control, team mate John and I had some alone time and we were able to be at one with the course without being distracted by other teams.

The fact that visibility was so low through the bush made this a real navigator’s course. Visibility through the bush was not much more than10m and if you couldn’t use your map and compass to get close to a control, you were going to spend a long time wandering in circles.

I really enjoyed the traverse from 83 – 51 – 72, which, I think, was a good navigational challenge. If you dufferred the first control you were at risk of not finding the next two. The only strong handrail, once you were committed, was the control you had just bagged. The creeks were pretty obvious, but you could waste a lot of time wandering up and down them looking for the control if your bearing wasn’t a good one. I don’t think anyone would have enjoyed backtracking to find a control in that bush.

Tracks

As the rogaine went on tracks leading to controls started to develop. After about three hours, it seems that most of the controls we were visiting had some sort of vague track heading in the right direction. So the trick was to get to the best attack point for that particular control and then look for signs of an indistinct track before heading in. This saved us a lot of time (and a lot of skin). Hopefully, earlier teams had battled the lantana and the “wait a while” and pushed it down for us.

This is where I must pay tribute to the really good teams who get to controls first and for most of the course do not have the luxury of following other people’s tracks. I think control 82 is a good example of this. When my team mate and I arrived, there was a track to follow and while the track was vague and you had to know when to stop, it was there. This control, would have been much more difficult to find if there was no track, due to the fact the nose of the spur was vague and the visbility through the bush was low.

The Rain

It is fair to say it was expected to rain heavily during the event and it did. I much prefer the rain to the heat. In my dotage I find I am prone to heat stress so, if given a choice, “let it rain”. Having said that, it was sometimes hard to remain focussed when it was really bucketing down. We did the 6 hour event and towards the end of the event I was, on occassion, having real trouble seeing anything. My glasses were covered with water and fogging up. I had nothing dry to wipe them with and the world was becoming very blurry. I eventually realised that I could wipe off the worst of the fog and rain drops between two fingers and I used this technique to get through the rest of the event.

I might be a bit of a masochist, but I’m pretty sure that I am not the only one. I quite like stepping into murky streams not knowing whether you will sink a couple of centimetres or a metre. There was only one time that I ended up waist deep. I think plunging into creeks of unknown depths is one of the simple pleasures of rogaining.

By about 7:30 pm I was sitting back in our hotel room at Coffs when a particularly heavy band of rain moved through and my thoughts turned towards those competitors still out on the course. My thoughts were varied but included:

• “Gee I’m glad we did the 6 hour”
• “It must be hard to find anything in the dark with this driving rain”
• “Oh that is terrible luck for the 12 hour competitors 😀”

The Leeches

Bucca, you win the prize for the most leech bites I have ever had, and that is saying something. I had many leech bites organising and settting the Cherry Pyegaine a few years back, during a period of heavy rain. Then my leech bites went to a new level during the Bantry Bay Leechgaine, but both of those events paled into insignificance in comparison to Saturday. I am not sure how many leeches I pulled off during or immediately after the event but I will forever remember taking my gaiters and boots off back at the motel and pulling off another 20+ leeches. The organisers had effectively cursed the particpants by saying in the final instructions, “Leeches were rarely encountered on the course.”

It was almost comical. When we arrived at the hotel team mate John and I started pulling off leeches and putting them down the toilet. There were so many leeches going down the toilet we were concerned about blocking Coff’s sewerage system. Then having removed all the leeches, all I could do was sit on a towel dabbing my bites with toilet paper wating for coagulation to take place so I could move without trailing blood everywhere.

When eventally I could move without leaving a snail trail of blood, my first action was try try and clean all my blood off the carpet. Our hotel room resembled a slaughterhouse and I am still vaguely expecting police to knock on the door to ask who we killed in that room.

Team mate John and I have done many rogaines togethor, possibly more than 50, but I learned something new about John on Saturday, that is he is a really good coagulator. He stopped dripping blood about 20 mins after the final leech was removed, while it took me more like two hours. So after 50 + events I have discovered John’s super power. It’s not quite as sexy as being able to fly, but being a super coagulator is still a pretty good super power.

The only thing I really don’t like about leeches is the itching. So my last day and a half has been a combination of anti-histamines and steroid cream to prevent me from ripping my own leg off to stop the damn itching.

The New Guard

It is really good to see some younger rogainers taking on organising rogaines. For most of its history, rogaining in NSW has been dominated by an old guard of rogainers who are now moving into their 70s. It is pleasing to see that the future of rogaining is in safe hands as a range of younger rogainers step up and organise high quailty events, like Keelan Birch did on Saturday.

Thanks to everyone involved in Saturday’s event. I had a great time, It was a well organised event with a good course in a new location with some challenging conditions. What’s not to love.