We’re back on the road – Pete, Ilze and I headed off to South Australia for the Easter 3 days, an annual tradition. SA is one of my favourite places to orienteer – not too steep, not too thick, technical enough to be interesting without being impossible.

We forget what most of Australia is like, living in a big city. You very quickly remember, about the time you leave Wedderburn heading north. Miles and miles of flat dry paddocks, largely bare of trees, or anything else. The few desultory towns feature wheat silos, a railway line, maybe a takeaway or petrol station, and a couple of houses. The Wimmera gives way to the Mallee – scrub, sand and saltbush. As you approach Mildura, there are grapevines, but many of them are dead or dying – the wine glut has caused many would-be grape growers to walk away.

We had an excellent dinner at the famous Grand Hotel, which has half a dozen different restaurants. Next morning we pressed on, following the Murray River into South Australia, and a windback of our watches 30 minutes. In Renmark, we stopped for a loo break, and came across the world’s most impressive roadside public toilets! Not only were they sparkling clean, they featured sensor dispensers, an Airblade hand dryer (there’s no going back from those), even a huge mural. They would not have been out of place in a 5 star hotel.

Lunch was at Burra, an old copper mining town full of historic sandstone buildings, from grand edifices to miners’ cottages. After that it was a quick drive to our destination for Day 1, Jamestown.

The first race of Easter is always a short “Prologue” – a warmup race before the main 3 day competition begins in earnest. We had a park-street-sprint race this year, starting off with some very easy controls in the local streets and small parks, then crossing the railway line into an area of disused rail buildings, dirt mounds, water tanks, fences, and small patches of vegetation – quite complex. From there we headed into the school for a final loop around the buildings. My only real concern was how my foot would hold up – it’s continued to improve but its form can be patchy.

The first few legs were simple enough – along roads and across open parks. A bit of hesitation when I found myself on the wrong side of a fence. Back on track, trying to keep running as much as possible without getting over fatigued. Into the railway underpass, out the other side, turn right just north of the rail line. Oops – there are two rail lines, and my brain failed to register that I’d crossed the first one when I went through the tunnel. Backtracking wasted 30 seconds or so. The next control was on a small mound – follow the disused rail line to its end, and swing left towards the fence. Huh – where is it? I’ve gone way too far. Another backtrack, another minute lost at least.

Into a complex area of tiny creeks – no problems there. Then on into the schoolgrounds. This is familiar terrain – our spring sprinting has given us practice on much more complex areas than this. The buildings look complicated but in fact there are straight run-throughs. Check control descriptions – make sure I’m on the right side of the fence. No 22 is tricky but I read it right, and finish cleanly with a hard run up the chute. My midcourse errors have cost me a few places, and of course with 130 competitors, I am always going to finish amongst the also-rans. But it’s great fun and my foot feels ok.