My enthusiasm was slightly less apparent at 5am, just before the alarm went off, and the world outside was dark.  We dragged ourselves out of bed, and were on the road at 6, the sky brightening already with promise of another lovely day.

There was an upside and a downside to my pre-9am start. The upside – cooler weather, and shorter queues for food afterwards. The downside – the elephant tracks through the long grass had not had time to form definitively. The map looked much the same as yesterdays – hardly surprising given it was the same property – but my course was 800 metres longer.  I left the start triangle confidently, reminding myself to stay focused at the end of the course, so as not to repeat yesterday’s errors.

No problem there as it turned out – I got all my errors over and done with on the first two controls instead.  Relying too much on being able to read both rock and vegetation, and not enough on a good accurate compass bearing, I found myself meandering around in very long tangly grass, past various nondescript rocks, and open areas that may or may not be the right clearing.  After a while I realised this was fruitless, and I needed a Plan B.  Heading north to an unmissable watercourse, then relocating and navigating back to my control, seemed the best solution.  It seemed to take ages, and I was beginning to seriously doubt the wisdom of my Plan B.  Plan C was to turn around and head back to the start, and begin over again – this would involve a degree of slinking and hiding, to avoid embarrassment.

Luckily I popped out in a clearing with a rock – but even better, with two of my fellow competitors, and a control!  Phew – I’d stumbled across it using the tried and tested “hope and pray” method.  Fifteen minutes used already.  Things could only get better …

I picked my way down a rocky slope with grass grabbing at my feet, towards a nice flat cleared area.  Find the three termite mounds and follow them uphill, to the rocky spur above.  I did all that, but could not spot the flag.  I decided I was too low, so climbed some more and hunted some more.  I found a control, but it wasn’t mine.  I think my lip began quivering at this point. It was all going wrong.

Retreat back down to where I was before, and there is my control sitting up and waving at me.  Why couldn’t I see it before???  I looked at my watch – 30 minutes gone, and still 8 controls to go.  I sighed, and mustered my intestinal fortitude. 

The next section of the course was much less rocky and grassy, and my pace quickened.  Now I was easily recognising features, and moving in straight lines.  The controls flowed nicely, navigating aided by accurately mapped termite mounds in the flat, vague, Queensland scrub.  Leg 6 was the “long” leg, but it was straightforward – more termite mounds, cross a creek, cross another creek, sight an enormous boulder off to my right, and straight in to my control.

Now I was back in the proper rocks, with several controls placed along a long spur.  Although the rocks here were huge, they were separated by open grassland, so it was easy to recognise one from another, and I simply followed the line of the spur, ticking them off as I went.  I particularly liked the boulder balancing on a slab of bare rock – dramatic and very easy to pick on the map!  (Look immediately to the left of no 7).  This section was really fun and I wished we had a few more controls in there.

Before long I was at no 8, then no 9 – the dreaded second last control.  No problems at all today, as by now I was in the “finish train”, making its way up the chute at varying speeds.  Another course completed, another mixed bag of good and bad, much the same as yesterday.  Again, moving with a lot more confidence, and surprisingly I moved up from 10^th to 8^th, despite losing about 15 minutes in the first part of the course.  Deducting those 15 minutes put me in about 6^th today, a position I would have been very happy with.  There is a real split in the field now, with the top 5 or 6 close to each other, but a big gap to the rest of us.  I have a shot at overtaking 2 people, if I have an error free run tomorrow – a big “if”.

Pete had a clean run and finished in under an hour.  Ilze wisely decided not to risk injury to her shoulder, but she plans to go out tomorrow.

We are now devouring a bowl of popcorn before dinner.  The joys of guilt free snacking.