Today was Day 1 proper – the first of three days of technical (ie rock) bush orienteering. The program held all sorts of dire warnings about the complexities that awaited us.  It’s been a long time since I tackled a Hard course at this level; first of all my vestibular problems saw me relegated to Easy courses in New Zealand two years ago; in Europe I wasn’t brave enough to do more than Moderate standard; and of course nothing happened in 2020. So I really had no idea at all how my head would hold together in such difficult terrain, having had almost no experience of it for so long.  I made sure to take my trusty walking pole to help me get up and down through the rocks.

It’s kinda weird to be at an orienteering carnival where everything is pretty much normal – sure there are sanitizer bottles everywhere, there are no results screens, and we’re reminded to keep our distance, but in almost every respect its just like any other Easter.  Yet apart from New Zealand, nowhere else would people be congregating on such a scale for a sporting event. We feel extremely privileged.

DROC members gathered, and the Flag was ceremoniously raised for the first time in a year. We stopped short of saluting, but it was good to see our red, white and blue lyrebird fluttering in the breeze over our heads.

The first finishers were soon appearing in the chute, and reports were heard of rock everywhere, lots of fallen timber, go slow and stick to your plan (Plan? What plan??), very physical, etc.  Others were saying there were places to get out of the rock and onto clearer areas, and to “follow the lines”.  We meandered down to the start via a surprisingly non existent loo queue, and watched competitors approaching a control under a cliff line, giving us an idea of what lay ahead.

All too soon it was time to start.  I picked up my map and just saw black squiggly lines and shapes everywhere, and a bunch of control circles with red lines criss crossing all over the place. It was going to take some care to unpick this one. The first thing I noted was that the circles for controls 1 and 3 were almost on top of each other, and I couldn’t pick where no 1 was meant to be because the circle was so heavily cut. And I was way more focused on figuring out how to get myself up into the rocks in the first place, to think about control location. As a result I went up too high, meandered around hopefully, and losing the small grain of confidence I’d begun with. Eventually I identified the cliff line, but still couldn’t spot the control until someone else approached it from the other direction and leaned in to punch.  Fourteen minutes wasted and morale sunk.

From there things improved.  No 2 was the control I’d watched from below so I found that OK. After that it was a matter of zig zagging between two long lines of rock, with a cleared, grassed strip between them (hence the advice to follow the lines). The legs were very short with constant changes of direction, and I really had to focus hard to keep contact with the map, but I began to move steadily through the controls, and realised that a) I was reading the rock well, b) finding the controls without error and c) most importantly, beginning to enjoy myself.

It took me 70 minutes to complete the course – without the problems on no 1 it would have been under an hour, and a midfield result. As it was, I wasn’t last, and was very happy to know that in spite of a complete lack of preparation, and the slowness of my pace these days, I can still get around a Hard course and not be right off the mark.  Today was make or break – if it all turned to crap, I probably wouldn’t orienteer at this level again. But I emerged happy and looking forward to the next two days, and other competitions in technical terrain to come.  As for my head, it held together really well for about 50 minutes before the familiar light-headedness was felt; but it never got to the point where it bothered me.

Pete and Ilze also survived, and both had plenty of names under theirs on the results lists. Ilze’s B course was definitely on the hard side of the equation, so she did particularly well, as rock is not her forte. Pete was amongst the last starters and had to deal with a warm day, but he was relatively unscathed and not displeased with his result.

Easter is all about attrition; you can have a slow time, but if you mispunch it’s Game Over. So we will all do our best to hang in there and still be standing in two days’ time. And that will be achievement enough.  If I come out of it wanting more, so much the better.