Ian and I are in Sydney this weekend, purely for orienteering – specifically, the first Sydney City Race.  It took them 5 years to copy us, but they have gone all out with a $1000 prize for the outright winner.  We just had to come and run it, being the ones who introduced the popular City Race concept to Australia.

Surprisingly, Sydney is somewhere we hardly ever go.  I’ve never been a fan, and trips here have been years, if not decades apart.  We’ve spent more time in places like London, Paris, Vienna, LA and Orlando.  Sydney is a nightmare to drive in, so if we head up this way, we tend to dodge around it via the Blue Mountains.  We used to stay in Lane Cove on family caravanning trips, but after getting seriously rained out one year, we avoided it from thereon in. 

I remember a trip in the early 1980s? with my family and Ian’s.  We took an overnight bus, to see Cats – the mot popular musical in the world at the time, and Sydney was the only place it was playing.  We stopped in Goulburn at 4am, to be greeted by the Big Merino, floodlit.  I thought I was hallucinating.  I have vague memories of going to the top of the Centrepoint Tower, and riding the monorail.  My next visit was in 2000, for the Olympics, when the Darling Harbour redevelopment was brand new.  After that, it was 2009, to compete in the World Masters Orienteering, but we stayed in a holiday park out in the sticks, and raced at Macquarie University, and Homebush.  It’s a very long time since we’ve seen the city centre.

We flew up, and are staying in a very nice apartment hotel near the airport, conveniently close to the train, and to a good sized supermarket.  We’re travelling light with one small suitcase and one big backpack.  It’s nice to be mobile even with luggage!

We set off late this morning, taking the train into the city.  The double decker trains are very new and clean looking, and the stations have had a big spruce-up.  You pay by tapping your credit/debit card, very easy.  Our first stop was the Lego store in the Pitt Street Mall, the world’s largest.  It was two floors of over-excited kids and adults.  We could tell we were in Sydney by the absolutely enormous Harbour Bridge, and the absolutely enormous rainbow tree full of koalas, kookaburras, and cockatoos.

Lunch was at the Wholegreen Bakery café, a 100% gluten free eatery nearby.  We had delicious home made pies and salad, just the thing to set us up for running later this afternoon.  Then it was a very interesting walk across the Pyrmont Bridge, a swing bridge which became pedestrian and bike only in 1981.  The monorail used to run above it, but was removed about 10 years ago.  We had great views of Cockle Bay and Darling Harbour, albeit against dull gloomy skies.  With all the new buildings trying to outdo each other for architectural variety, it was more like Singapore than the Sydney we remembered (just not as humid).

Pressing on, we passed the Star Casino, then the enormous sandstone cliffs that played a significant part in today’s race.  En route we caught our first glimpse of the Coathanger, aka the Harbour Bridge; and we spotted two controls (neither were on our course as it turns out).

Assembling in Pirrama Park next to the water, the start was up several flights of stairs which ascended said cliff.  “Phew” I thought, “we don’t have to climb up here during the race”.  But as soon as I picked up my control descriptions, I could see that stairs were going to feature prominently, with almost half the controls at the top, bottom, or partway up, stairways.  If you look at the photo of the light rail station hewn into the sandstone cliff (above, middle right), you will see the difference in elevation; the first section of the course was all on top, the mid section was at water level, then the final loop went gradually back up, and dramatically down. More on that shortly!

We chose our own start times, so I headed off first. The map scale at 1:5000 meant that the all important detail was sometimes hard to read.  We began in a tiny park with stairs in one corner, these were the exit point.  However it took me a few seconds to get orientated.  My vestibular was behaving itself today, so I was running where I could.  The first two controls were straightforward enough.  No 3 was on a fence bend, but I wasn’t sure which side of the fence. I misread the description and ran down the wrong side, only to find the flag dangling high out of my reach.  I had to backtrack and correct that little boo-boo! 

From there, things started to get more complicated, with controls accessible via tiny laneways that were easy to miss.  I took care on 4 and 5 and had no trouble. Then I got slack.  There were two ways out of no 5 – one an obvious pathway, the other up a set of less obvious steps.  Neglecting to check the map, I took the obvious pathway, which ended up in a basketball court with no way out, other than a rope and crampons.  Damn.  Another backtrack, this one longer and slower, and 2 minutes lost.

The next four controls were easy enough, and led us ever further downhill, to the waterfront.  I was hoping we’d stay down there, but alas, controls 11 to 13 all required reclimbing, and by no 14 we were almost back to where we started, atop the cliff.  Remember the dramatic descent?  It involved a very long steep set of stairs that would take us vertically from cliff top to cliff bottom.  Luckily there was also a lift!  Even more luckily, the mapper (who I know well) arrived, and confirmed that the lift was legal.  In I jumped, along with another competitor, and we caught our breath with relief.  Those stairs would have taken me a loooong time. 

The last stretch was straightforward running out to the end of Pyrmont Point, and around to the finish. My 2.5 km course took me about 3.4 km, well over the stated optimal distance of 3 km.  Needless to say I was not ranked near the top of the results.  Ian finished in a much more respectable time of 21 minutes, and a much more respectable placing of second.

We boarded the light rail back to Central Station, passing through Haymarket and Chinatown. Central Station is huge, and we navigated through its Grand Concourse to our far flung platform. I couldn’t help comparing it to Melbourne’s city stations, which are dirty, noisy, smelly and unpleasant.  Sydney has spent a lot of money on its public transport, and cleaned it all up, and it shows.

We whiled away the rest of the evening studying our maps, comparing route choices and determining who “won” each leg – if I do a leg in less than half Ian’s time, then I deem my choice to be better.

Tomorrow is the City Race proper, and Captain K will be joining us. I have promised him a ride on the Manly Ferry – not up to his usual standard of marine transport, but the best I can do.