After a very welcome rest day, we steeled ourselves for the Dungaree Challenge.  This involved head to head loop racing in some supposedly fast open spur-gully terrain.  Turned out to be not that fast as there was a lot of fallen sticks and branches on the ground, but it was very much like Bendigo. Pete and I signed up to go head to head, not that we really cared about the outcome. Vic raced Ted, and everyone else raced people assigned to them by the organisers.  My first loop was quite slow thanks to the sticks on the ground. Loop 2 was nicer with more open areas. I never saw Pete, but was quite surprised to find myself only 3-4 minutes slower at the finish.  I was even more surprised when I discovered the map scale was 1:15000 rather than 1: 10!  That explained why it took longer to get to the controls than I expected …

Another rest day, and most of the party headed to Katoomba for a day trip, leaving Ian and I in charge of a very quiet house. Even Rowdy kept his peace.  Friday was the Sprint at Lithgow, which we were all looking forward to.  We arrived very early and had to wait under a drizzly grey sky.  The elites had a 4 person relay race which kept us entertained, trying to figure out where everyone was heading and who was leading.  Then it was our turn.  The school buildings weren’t particularly complex, and over last summer I’d had plenty of practice, so I was not going to be fooled by any tricks.  Fitness was my main issue as I struggled to run up slopes and steps, and I made a poor route choice on one leg near the end, but overall was pleased with my run.

The final day came around, as these things do, and we set off once more down the road, to the Gardens of Stone national park at Cullen Bullen.  Many years ago Ian and I competed here, and we had never forgotten the massive rock pagodas and lines of high cliffs, with tiny crevices to wriggle through.  This was a new map in a different area, and the rock was surprisingly scant.  Instead we had more spur-gully and termite mounds – which could be seen from dozens of metres away.  For a championship, it was pretty easy, and winning times on many courses were about 15 minutes too short.  I only had one error, right at the end in a vague area of undermapped watercourses. Pleasingly, when I compared my time to the W55AS’s (my age group as of Jan next year) I would have been second. After 10 years in W45AS, I’m looking forward to moving up!

A long drive via Wagga Wagga saw us home, and brought another Easter carnival to an end.