The Australian Champs carnival has rolled around again, as it is wont to do.  This year it’s based around Bathurst in NSW.  Pete and I left Ian and Ilze at home to ensure that streetO ran smoothly in our absence, and along with Pres Pete, pointed the Suby north and drove all day.  The Holbrook Bakery is a highly recommended lunch stop (note for return trip).  We are staying in Millthorpe, which is a National Trust town about 30 minutes west of Bathurst, and have been joined by Mike, Joy and Warwick.

First up was the Australian Sprint Champs – very mean to throw us straight into a major event on day 1.  Record September temperatures for NSW were set as the thermometer soared into the high 30s – just as well we weren’t in the forest today.  The venue was Charles Sturt University, close to Mt Panorama, where all the petrol heads go.

The campus wasn’t too technical, but the course setter did a great job of amplifying the difficulty, and people did make mistakes.  I was one of them.  My first control was almost straight out of the start triangle across a car park, a nice easy start.  The next four controls were straightforward too, and I hit the first spectator control feeling pretty confident.  As I followed the tapes to the second spectator control, I told myself to plan my exit, as there were several possibilities.  “Turn right” I told myself.  I did – but too hard, and made a 90 degree error.  I slowed down, wondering why there were buildings on my right and not my left.  Things didn’t resolve themselves and I ground to a halt.  I knew I was wrong but couldn’t work out where I should be for a couple of minutes.  The penny finally dropped, and I had to backtrack quite a way to correct.

The second half of the course was harder – smaller, irregular buildings and cutthroughs, plus tiredness and heat kicking in.  I made it round safely with only a couple of minor errors.  I caught up to Prue and we played “chasie” through the final controls, with me getting my nose in front and holding her off in the finish chute.  To no avail – I was 21^st of 29, losing about 8 places thanks to my big error.  Otherwise I would have finished midfield, which I would have been pretty pleased about.

Tonight was all about the football of course; then we amused ourselves reading the almost unintelligible instructions for tomorrow – apparently we have to understand the difference between boulders and earth pillars; passable rock faces, impassable earth banks and very high impassable earth banks; tunnels with and without creeks; and the various mine shafts, namely –

• Obvious very dangerous mine shafts (yellow and black tape)
• Not so obvious very dangerous mine shafts (blue and white tape)
• Other mine shafts – some mapped (deep), some unmapped (not particularly deep)
• Covered or fenced off mine shafts
• Mine shafts with bat friendly grates
• Mine shafts with unmapped objects

The safe advice offered at the bottom of the full page of mine shaft explanations is “The organisers have not tested the floor of any pits for safety. Do not run through or jump into any pit”.

We have decided to stay home in bed. Problem solved.