Day 2 – we anticipated more of the same, but over a larger area, as this was billed as Long Distance.  Again, we were on the riverlands north of Renmark, but it was quite different.  More vegetation, bigger hills, deeper gullies.  In fact, most of the map was on a giant sand plateau, with steep drops down to the river flats.  Those contours made great catching features. 

Out of the start, the red line took us straight up onto the plateau, and we were rapidly doing snowplough technique to gain momentum in the soft loose sand. Once on top, there were an array of mounds, depressions, and small gullies. It took a little while to come to grips with, and I was navigating messily for the first couple of controls.  I think I found my first one by sheer luck; I found no 2 by relocating off the feature that my no 5 was one (handy as I put that in the memory bank for later).

Taking more care, I was approaching no 3 but hadn’t started seriously looking for it, when Simon flew past with purpose and intent, and I realised the flag was just a few metres to my left (thanks Simon!)  No 4 was easy, and of course I knew where to look for no 5.  The next leg was longer, diagonally across the top of the plateau, more ploughing through the sand and dodging the scrub. I was looking for a series of short but deep gullies; they were unmistakeable. My control was on a spur between two of them; unfortunately I picked the wrong spur, and wasted a few minutes.

The last few controls from there were straightforward; scramble through a fence, onto open ground where you could see for miles; down into the creek bed; punch.  Angle across, climb another hill, drop down into some more of those narrow sharp gullies; too high. Adjust and come further down the hill; punch.  Head for home!  Making a silly assumption, I didn’t read the map properly, and just tried to wing it across to a track. I missed by quite a bit and found myself on a road instead. Another minute or so lost, through carelessness. Punch the last control, and run through the sandy chute to the finish. 

Made it in just under an hour – surprisingly, enough to place 3^rd!  The three placegetters all did times between 53 and 57 minutes, so really any of us could have won; 4^th place took 90 minutes so there was a massive time gap, and I was very happy  to be on the right side of it for once.  So now I have a very nice souvenir to bring home – as do Simon and Sarah.

Momentary panic when I couldn’t find the house keys. Crisis averted after upending all my belongings and emptying half the contents of Pete’s car.

Recovery time. We’re now at that wonderful stage of any holiday when you realise you’ve over catered, you can’t take it home, and you have no choice but to spend the rest of the afternoon eating everything in sight.