NSW Rogaining Association

"Your Guide to Rogaining in NSW"

Hash House site 1

Results

Photos  (Set 1)  (Set 2)

Trevor Gollan talks to the course setter and the winning teams.

Route Maps ... 

Safety Officer's Report

Organiser's Report

When Trevor Gollan suggested that we call this the High'nDry rogaine, after the rain and snow dealt out to the setting and vetting teams, I admit to having my doubts about tempting fate. But Trevor must be much closer to the Gods than me, because the weather for the event was spectacular - a sunny afternoon with a few clouds, a cold but not bitter night with clear skies allowing teams to take advantage of the bright moonlight and a calm, sunny Sunday morning to spark up the spirits in the run (or should that be hobble?) to the finish.

At the nicely grassed hash house site, the resident flock of sheep seemed quite bemused to find a small village spring up in their paddock, and gave us a pretty wide berth all weekend as they passed on their daily loop around their domain. The wombat on the knoll was a bit shy, only appearing once in the night for a few quick mouthfuls behind the VRA/BWRS tent before scuttling back into its burrow. Thanks to Dave Griffith for re-asking the landholder, when he visited the site, for permission for a fire, which allowed us to have the lovely bonfire enjoyed by many through the Saturday night. And thank you also to everyone for otherwise sticking with the no on-ground fires and no pets restrictions.

Abercrombie River National Park sits in the belt of basalt/limestone country that runs from Bathurst to south of Goulburn. It contains many cave systems – the best known being Abercrombie, Jenolan and Wombeyan. The good soil and reasonable rainfall gives good tree cover with limited scratchy undergrowth. The thin basalt caps and deep limestones with granitoid inclusions make for highly varying terrain – ideal rogaining territory.

Mike Hotchkis’s course setting used the large area and mix of terrain – from the flatter areas around the hash house and on the plateau tops having more rounded features, to varied ridge and gully country – to set a course challenging navigationally and deceptive physically. Those clear, direct ridge roads look to be easy travelling between course sections and with the lack of undergrowth, the direct traverses from control to control don’t look too deep or steep either. But the total up and down quickly adds up, and gets be to quite wearing. The flag hangers had their issues, too, in the more subtle terrain areas with 66, for example, needing three attempts to hang in an area quite difficult to get re-oriented if one lost the plot.

The event can claim a bit of a record – everyone who booked turned up and registered; there weren’t any no-shows! With a couple of additional teams on the day, we had 67 teams and 150 entrants – a bit down on previous years. All teams returned safely to the hash house, with only two teams out of time and no really serious injuries.

In the 24 hour event, Julie Quinn and David Baldwin were the overall winners, with 2510 points out of 3030 available. A remarkable effort – the setters/vetters estimated 2100/2200 to win – and they were still looking comfortable as they jogged in to the finish. Phil Whitten and Jonathon Worswick were a very creditable second with 2090 points, having to return to the hash-house to drop off Joel Mackay with a sprained ankle. After reforming their team from three to two and restarting with zero points, they headed back out on the course having given the rest of the field a four hour start. Gill Fowler and Alexa McAuley – the only women’s team in the 24 hour event - claimed third spot overall, with 1830. The veterans and super-veterans categories were, as usual, hotly contested, with Malcolm Bradley, Alison Curtin and Geoffrey Barnes winning vets with 1630 and 4th overall; and Jean Douglass and Ron Simpson taking out super-vets with 1590 and 5th overall.

For the 15 in 24 event, Martin Lefmann and Peter Thomas won with 1480; Martin Kraus and Brad Simmons were second on 1370, also winning the vets; and John and Mardi Barnes were third with 1360, also winning the mixed. First in the super-vets were Greg Bacon and Gary Sundin on 750; for women were Shelly Bambrook and Telia Curtis on 590; for family were the Nikolaevs on 560; and for the novices, Bryce Bishop and Bernie Morris on 430.

No rogaining event runs without a hash house site so thanks to Pat Cosgrove for the use of his land, and an extensive competition area so thanks to NPWS for permission to access ARNP.

Many thanks must go to the volunteers - those who work behind the scenes to find a course, set, vet, flag hang and retrieve, buy the food, ferry trailers, draw maps and prepare notes – as well as the sometimes tired but still smiling faces who greet and minister to competitors at admin, the hash house, first aid and the safety patrols.

Safety/First Aid/Water – the VRA/BWRS team of Dug, Jacob, Thais and Geoff.

Setting/Vetting/Hanging/Maps/Notes – Mike Hotchkis, Michael Watts, Trevor Gollan, David Griffith, Chris Waring, Ian Brown, Tom Griffith and Maurice Ripley

Hash House – Trevor Gollan (the sweets and fruit at the water drops were Trevor’s work, too), Ted Booth, Phil Allen, Renate & David Griffith, Nat & Aleks Rachlewicz, Elizabeth Barnes, Clare Watts, Vicki Cooper, Judy & Paul Shea, John Carolan and Cathy Watts

Trailers – Jason Hollard, Mike Hotchkis

Admin – Graeme & Vicki Cooper, Matt Palmer, Lindsay Young, Mike Hotchkis, Clare Watts, Renate Griffith and Tom Griffith

Best regards, and see you at the coming events,
Michael Watts
Organiser.

For general information about this event, contact  ...

Michael Watts
email:  michaeljwatts@optusnet.com.au  
phone:  02 9568 3016

For entry or results related matters contact ...

Lindsay Young
phone:  02 9525 6403
email:   admin@nswrogaining.org

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Competition Categories

This event offers an "Under 23" age category in place of the "Junior - under 18" category.  The other age/gender based categories plus the 'Novice" and "Family" category are the same as usual.

See the  " Competition Categories "  page for more details.