Day 4 – Easter Day 3

It was another foggy start to what promised to be another sunny autumn day. The final event was on a new map, Cherry Farm. It promised more rock and more steep stuff. It was a long walk from parking down to the arena, which was set in a very picturesque cherry orchard. My objective today was a clean run without the big errors that have been a feature of my orienteering of late.

Once again I set out from the start carefully, double and triple checking everything. The first couple of controls were spur-gully, before a technical rock section, then more spur-gully to finish. Everything fell into place and I nailed no 1 – such a relief! I pressed on happily to no 2 – nailed that as well. I was starting to feel good and enjoy myself. No 3 posed a dilemma – take the direct route up and over through two lines of rock, or run around the long route on a roadside track, avoiding almost all the climb and the rock? It was a no-brainer for me – go round. I ran off, ticking off all the features and coming in directly to the control. Three out of three! The next few posed no problems at all, as I made my way along one of the gullies, picking off controls as I went and enjoying the scenery.

Control 8 was quite a long leg. Leaving the rock canyons behind, I had to follow a gully, climb a spur, take a track till it swung round a U-bend, then drop into a steep gully on top of the control. It all went perfectly to plan until the very last bit, when I finally got down into the gully, and couldn’t see the flag. It was next to a low termite mound, which was buried in vegetation, and completely invisible until you were right next to it. There must have been a dozen other people hunting up and down the gully. I wasted about 5 minutes, to my annoyance, as I knew I was in the right place. It was very poor positioning. After that it was a steep climb out, another steep descent, across a couple of fences, through the orchard, and home. I was another 10 minutes faster, and better yet, no errors. Of course I was still near the bottom of the overall results, but happy that I finished each course in better shape than the previous one, and finally having fun again.

Now the focus shifted to the junior girls. They had a reverse chasing start, meaning Lani was last to go. Asha ran an absolute belter to come second, and move up to fifth overall. We waited interminably for them to call Lani at the radio control, but as the minutes ticked by, we knew she’d lost her overall lead. Finally she appeared, still good enough to take second and claim a podium finish and a certain spot on the JWOC team, with two wins from four races. Turns out she had exactly the same problem as me with the control next to the termite mound. Asha’s place in the team was not as clear cut, and we were hoping they would announce the outcome at the presentations, but they were unable to finalise selection for some technical reason. So we’re still waiting to find out.

Ian and I were the chefs du jour, and we went with an Asian theme and made a huge stirfry. Meanwhile rooster is still off the menu.