Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition can be viewed by clicking on the link}

2016 AUSTRALIAN SCHOOLS ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIPS

by Alicia Ciacic

On Friday, 23^rd September most of the Victorian schools orienteering team met at Tullamarine airport to fly to Queensland for the Australian Orienteering Championships.  We were all very excited.

This year is a bit different to what has happened in the past in that we were going to be moving locations three times. Our first stop was Burleigh Heads.  We were staying here for four nights.  On Saturday, we competed in our first event which was the Australian Sprint Championships at Griffith University.  This was a fun day.

On the Sunday was the Australian Relay championships and I was the third runner with Karina and Sarah being my other team mates. The Monday was the first event of the Secondary Schools championships.  The first event was the sprints and then there was the individuals and then the relays. I found this year to be a lot more challenging than last year.  This was because I moved into senior girls. 

Some of the terrain in Queensland was like Kooyoora. We had a lot of fun and also got to visit Sea World and play mini golf in some of our spare time.

Other members to take part in the Australian Champs Carnival in Queensland were Sue Healy, Geoff Armstrong, Leone Carberry, Jenelle Templeton and John Carberry. Sue Healy won medals in W85 in the Australian Sprint, Middle and Long Champs.

Congratulations: Don and Fiona Fell completed the 4 peaks on Melbourne Cup weekend.

Day 1: Up and down Mystic Mountain near Wandiligong

Day 2: Mt Feathertop from Harrietville as far as the hut as the peak was under snow

Day 3: Mt Hotham from Harrietville

Day 4: Mt Buffalo from the main road before the climb.

Don and Fiona are making a quick recovery to compete in the Marysville half marathon on the following weekend.

http://www.4peaks.com.au/

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

Christmas in July by Jenelle Templeton

Great company, fine food and good fun. This was the reward for venturing out on a chilly winter’s night for the annual NE Christmas in July celebrations. The setting was complete with a beautifully decorated Christmas tree and giant sized blow up Santa.

We were treated to entrée of sushi, followed by a delicious array of roast pork with crackling, turkey, baked vegetables with all the trimmings.

A necessary break from the meal (to make room for dessert) was provided by Rob with several games. They provided an opportunity to get to know our fellow members a little better, a little team building and challenge our map reading skills.

Dessert was well worth the wait, an ice-cream Christmas Pudding as well as a traditional Christmas pudding with custard sauce.

Christmas in July was completed with the mandatory Kris Kringle. It was obvious that a lot of thought had been given to gifts and some were in high demand as they changed ownership several times.

Thank you to all that attended the night. A special thanks goes to Lauris for coordinating and preparing the meal. A truly magnificent effort. Thank you to all the helpers who contributed to make the night such a success.

“Some very creative Kris Kringles were on offer. When I opened my present, I found a large jar filled with the ingredients and a recipe for cookies. They baked up very nicely. Thank you from, Rob.”

Read about the World Rogaining Championships 2016 – Ross River NT

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

Rogaining

The Geelong Cyclogaine/Metrogaine was held on a lovely, Autumn day. The event centre was at the Geelong Canoe Club headquarters on the Moorabool River.

Club members who took part included Phil Giddings who also assisted with admin. Rosemarie de Haas and Michael Horne were in charge of the catering team.

There were 44 teams in the Metrogaine. Michael Hayward & David Ashburner finished 3rd in MensVet and 7th overall with 1650 points. Phil Giddings & Rob Mason were 1st in MensSuperVet and 8th overall with 1610 points.

There were 37 teams in the Cyclogaine. Rob and Helen Edmonds finished 2nd in the mixed and 3rd overall with 2500 points. Peter Maloney & Pam Braithwaite scored 1250 points in finishing 26th overall.

OWLS “Orienteers Who Lunch” by Sue Healy

Nillumbik members who missed out on this year’s OWLs lunch should get in touch with Sue Healy to register their interest in next year’s lunch. This year’s get together was great! The Gisborne Peak Winery did us proud.

There were quite a lot of ex-orienteers who still remember their glory days as well as many regulars to exchange information about their best (not so much their worst) events. Jan recognises that she needs to be careful about the date – school holidays etc. Older orienteers are apt to be grandparents first and lunchers after. But we talked and talked over old triumphs and disasters most of the afternoon.

If you think you would like to be kept informed about next year’s let Sue know. The Davidsons were there; it warms your heart to see how many people are still interested in the sport and people, long after they have stopped competing.

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

Equipment

The club trailer has been rewired with the addition of LED rear lights; The wheel hubs were replaced on both wheels with new with bearing kits. Cost $441.70

Geoff Hudson has procured the club’s new SI gear and is in the process of making up a kit that will make it operationally smooth and convenient. The club has spent about $11,000 on the gear which will make us more self-sufficient. Geoff is also hoping to buy a couple of splits printers for $140.

The club has also paid the update of the OEScore software for $260. We now have the latest software to use in events like the Maxi, The Enduros and Summer Series MTBO events.

The Summer Street Series is coming to an end and the new Winter Series fixtures will soon be out.

Club Website https://nillumbik.wordpress.com/ Please check out the new club website developed by Rob Fell. Let me know what you think about it. The platform is the basic free version of WordPress with limited functionality.

New Maps

Blackhill and Bald Hill maps are nearing completion and are another area of significant club expenditures. Rex Niven is overseeing production and we are hoping to run bush sprint events on them in 2017.

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

Tarrengower Maxi, Maldon

The Maxi was held for the first time on the Mt Tarrengower map, Maldon. Derek Morris took the initiative to course set on the Bendigo OC map; a huge 1:10,000, A2 map. The Maldon Netball/Football club rooms gave the organisers a great venue for admin and catering. Late July can be quite cool and this day was no exception. Fortunately the forest was dry and the 82 competitors who set out soon warmed up. Ben Goonan and Craig Feuerherdt had a very close finish, both finishing the entire course of 30 controls, only 8 minutes apart.

Congratulations to Thorlene Egerton for her superb effort, scoring 1500 points. Bruce Arthur would almost certainly have finished the course and given Ben and Craig a run for their money had he not had a late start Alice and Helen Edmonds were the overall winners in the team category as well as the open female class. Patrick Jaffe won the junior male class and Asha Steer was the winning junior female.

A pleasing aspect was the number of first timers who took part. Competitors enjoyed hot soups, cakes and fruit after the event, provided by Lauris Stirling and the catering crew.

Thank you to everyone who took part and assisted with the running of the event. A big thank you to Derek Morris for the time and effort he put into the event. The courses were well received and there were many positive comments.

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link .}

Alex Shepherd and Robert Foote are heading over to the USA for the World Police and Fire Games again, from the 24th of June to the 9th of July. They will be competing in the Long and Sprint distance Orienteering events. The long distance event is being held at Fountain Head Regional Park in Virginia, near the Potomac River and the sprint is being held at George Mason University in Fairfax Virginia. Alex is also competing in the darts events.

The games are huge with over 12000 competitors from 70 countries taking part. It sounds like an exciting time will be had. Lenore and Alex will then go onto New York for a few days and then take a cruise to the Caribbean.

Saligari Safari MTBO

Threatening Melbourne skies and weather reports weren’t a good omen for Vic State Series mountain bike event in the same area as the foot event the previous fortnight.

However, there were 56 entries and 10 newcomers for the event an the day turned out really well for the riders. As is often the case, poor weather in Melbourne is not a good predictor of conditions north of the divide. Though we did get caught out just as were nearly finishing with the packing up.

Rob and Helen Edmonds placed the controls out on the Saturday. Work included clearing and sweeping tracks. We stayed the night at Peter and Judy Hill’s place in Castlemaine and arrived back at the assembly area about 7:30 Sunday morning to set up the admin area and the club toilet. Ron Wescott, Judy Hill and Helen Schofield along with Ron Frederick and Joyce Rowlands helped out on the day.

The Saligari paddock was an excellent venue for the event and the tracks were fast and dry leading to some fast times on challenging but from all reports enjoyable courses. We used OV SI and DROC’s SIME equipment for the event.

Comments taken from the Eventor online event survey.

 Always amazed how so much is done by what appears to be so few people
 Good having start, finish and rego all together, good pre- event info
 Loved it. Very enjoyable course on a great area.
 Very well run and great area for foot or MTBO. Congrats to all

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

Lindsay Thomas from Tuckonie OC wrote
Peter Beggs mentioned to me tonight that he had heard on the Ericsson network that Sture Lantz had written a novel that was set in Australia. I have done a quick Google, and have come up with this link:

http://www.adlibris.com/se/bok/tuckonie-9789187119392

I’m sharing this email with a couple of other old hands who would probably remember Sture, the member of our founding triumvirate who actually gave the club its name, but I haven’t been in touch with Sture for several years.

For those who don’t read Swedish – Google Translate does a passable job of translating the blurb into English, but I can send that translation separately if you like.

Curiously, I don’t know whether Sture is aware that “Tuckonie” was a black kid (played by actor John Meillon) in the radio serial “The Search for the Golden Boomerang” which ran for 1,444 episodes during the early 40s. Legend has it that Sture found the name in a koori dictionary, said to mean “little man lost in the bush”.

Incidentally, I also have the piano score and words for “The Tuckonie Tree Song” – if anyone is a pianist, we could record it!

Don Fell’s Comment

In the light of this information about “The Tuckonie Tree Song”, maybe we should formally claim “Old Man Emu” as our club theme song. We could run the pants off a kangaroo!

Um-ba-da-lip-ida-da-da

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

Sprint into Spring Series

Eltham Lower Park: This was a popular event on election day. The new sprint map was well received by 120 competitors. Great to welcome Robert Foote to our club team. Robert had another great run, finishing 3rd on Course 2 and was a lucky winner in the random draw prize. Ron Frederick was ably assisted by club members.

Eltham Lower Park provided a less urbanised and more bushland environment than the other maps in the series. The added attractions included the miniature railway, the riverside micro track network, the pony club’s cross country jumps, and a testing hill climb – a whopping 10 contours. From there it was downhill all the way to the finish, through the remnant bushland reserve. All ten club runners completed the course while many other members made sure the event went smoothly by concentrating on event organisation.

It was great to see Sue Healy back and making a steady recovery, with Dave Lotty who made the trip down from NSW for the weekend.

Emus Online

• Edited by Robert Edmonds
• The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.

Island Adventure 6hr Metogaine & 6hr Cyclogaine – Phillip Island

Course Planner: Ron Wescott

Over 90 checkpoints! Spread over all of Phillip Island, mixing up coast, bush and wetland and rural areas. This is going to be a fantastic event. Your choice will include boardwalks, cycle paths and public roads. With so much choice it will be easy to avoid busy roads.

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

Victorian Night Champs & Score’O

Bunjil, Ballan

It was a great evening for the Night’O.  Rex Niven set 36 controls in the open forest. Competitors had a choice of 90 minutes or 150 minutes to locate as many as they could. Maps were distributed at 9PM and competitors quickly studied their options before dispersing with head torches bobbing in the dark. Control 150 worth 100 points was very tempting, and quite a few chose to go even though it was quite remote. No one was going to complete the whole course in the time so it was a matter of choosing the most expeditious route, to maximise points.

Ron Frederick brought up the club equipment and Rex had spent his time putting out controls well beforehand. Laurie Niven organised the registration tent. By late afternoon, Club members had assembled to put up the necessary infrastructure. ARDF were there too, running their night radio event.

The camp site was growing bigger as competitors began arriving, some to stay the night, others to go home after their event.

Next morning, more people arrived to tackle the courses in daylight. Many competitors from the Night’O had another go. This time competitors had only 90 minutes, and the scoring was far  higher than in the night, as expected. After a cool night, the day began brightly and warmed up quickly. In the daylight, everyone was able to appreciate the beautiful carpet of flowers on the forest floor. Thank you Rex and Laurie for a wonderful event.

Other Club members who assisted and took part included Peter Maloney, Ewen Templeton, Rob and Helen Edmonds, Paul and Dorothy Adrian, Jeff and Ann Hughes, Sue Healy, Dave Lotty and Phil Giddings.

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

Hepburn Diggings Report

Glorious sunshine in perfect conditions; a day out of the box greeted competitors at Hepburn Diggings. Rex Niven’s courses were physically tough and navigationally challenging; good preparation for the Championship events. It was a good middle distance course –  requiring continuous attention to navigation and probably the toughest courses set in Victoria since Julie Flynn’s courses on Korong Spur. We had a few abandon courses,  but only mild complaints at the Finish. Most competitors were probably just too exhausted and relieved to finish.

Phil Giddings ensured the event ran smoothly with his tireless attention to detail. Many thanks to everyone who took part and especially those in the Nillumbik Emus Club who assisted with the organisation. Special thanks to Ron Frederick for towing the Club trailer, Phil for taking the toilets back to Kyneton, where he will have to wait till Monday to hand them back, and to Don Fell for SI trailer tow. Ron, Rex and Laurie, Don and Phil enjoyed a fine night’s camping at the event site. Rex will be looking for a new tent after finding it completely rotted when he spread it out.  

Kathy Ewels edged out Aislinn Prendergast in W21A. Bryan Keely had a comfortable margin in winning  M21A with Blair Trewin and Fredrik Johansson running strongly for the minor placings. Craig Feuerherdt had an excellent win in M35A while Isabelle Wymer was a clear winner in W35A.

Our Club had 3 good runs from our stalwarts  in M60. Rob Edmonds 2nd, Ron Frederick 4th and  Alan Watts 7th.. John Carberry finished 3rd in M45AS. Helen Edmonds was a winner in W55. Laurie Niven 5th in W60. Lauris Stirling and Robyn Sunderland battled it out in Long Open B with Lauris finishing 3rd, just 1 second ahead of Robyn. Joyce Rowlands won W89 and Ryan Carberry won Boys 12B.

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

MelBushO You Yangs

Don and Fiona Fell organised the event on the following weekend. We were blessed with great weather, although the wind did kick up as the day  wore on.

Phil Giddings starred by riding the 70 km from Surry Hills before completing the A course and riding home. He claimed he had a tail wind coming down. He certainly had a tail wind going home as the breeze strengthened and switched around. Lucky fella!

There were over 130 participants at the You Yangs and the whole series was very notable for the number of newcomers that took part.

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

Allowing for time spent on orienteering course or in planning an optimum route on a rogaine takes into account many factors. An old rule of thumb for a fit orienteer was to allow 5 minutes per km, 5 minutes per 100 metres climb and 1 minute per control. A course of 12.4 km with 300 metres climb and 13 controls would be expected to take about 90 minutes. Of course, as you get slower and older you learn to make the necessary adjustments. The type of vegetation and terrain you will have to contend with will also affect your time. Naismith’s Rule is handy to use when planning a rogaining route. Once you know your expected speed and you have a rough idea of percentage climb you should be able to calculate the distance you might cover. Nightime adds another dimension. Distance covered is very dependent on the terrain and availability of tracks.

Naismith’s Rule is a rule of thumb that helps in the planning of a walking or hiking expedition by calculating how long it will take to walk the route, including ascents. The rule was devised by William W. Naismith, a Scottish mountaineer, in 1892. The basic rule is as follows:

Allow 1 hour for every 5 km, plus 1 hour for every 600 metres of ascent. The basic rule assumes hikers of reasonable fitness, on typical terrain, under normal conditions. It does not account for delays, such as extended breaks for rest or sight-seeing, or for navigational obstacles. For planning expeditions or walks a party leader may use the rule in putting together the trip plan.

Alternatively, the rule can be used to determine the equivalent flat distance of a route. This is achieved by recognising that Naismith’s Rule implies equivalence between distance and climb in time terms: For convenience an 8 to 1 rule can be used. So, for example, a route of 20 km with 1600 metres of climb has an equivalent flat distance of 20 + 1.6 × 8 = 32.8 km. Assuming an individual can maintain a speed on the flat of 5 km/h (walking pace), the route will take 6 hours and 34 minutes. The simplicity of this approach is that the time taken can be easily adjusted for an individual’s own (chosen) speed on the flat; at 8 km/h (flat speed) the route will take 4 hours and 6 minutes. The rule has been tested on fell running times and found to be reliable.

In practice, the results of Naismith’s Rule are usually considered the minimum time necessary to complete a route. Over the years several “corrections” have been formulated in an attempt to make the rule more accurate. The most common correction is to add 25% or 50% to the time found with Naismith’s Rule. While this may be more accurate for some people or under certain conditions, it does not explicitly account for any additional variables. The accuracy of some corrections is disputed by some, in particular the speed at which walkers descend a gentle slope.

Tranter’s corrections

Tranter’s corrections make adjustments for fitness and fatigue. Fitness is determined by the time it takes to climb 300 m over a distance of 800 m. Additional adjustments for poor terrain or conditions can be estimated by dropping one or more fitness levels.

For example, if Naismith’s Rule estimates a journey time of 9 hours and your fitness level is 25, you should allow 11.5 hours.

Other common corrections are: see full article

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

Victorian MTBO Champs

The Victorian MTBO Championships were held in the Maryborough and Newstead areas in late April. The sprint and the Middle were held on Saturday and the Long on Sunday. Eureka and Nillumbik Emus staged the events in what proved a very successful weekend. We were blessed with a last burst of autumn sunshine for the entire weekend.

The Long was held in the Sandon State Forest near Newstead, on the new “Saligari Safari” map. The map was named after a local landowner and forest track. In the Long, the courses featured several opportunities to ride across farm paddocks adding to the route choice dilemmas. Ridability varied greatly from eroded single tracks to fast 4WD roads. There were 104 riders with representatives from every Australian state. The race was the final selection trial for Australian team to Hungary. It was great to see a large contingent from Braemar College, competing in the long.

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

Rogaining News Melton Meander 5hr Cyclogaine / 6hr Metrogaine

The event was run on a lovely day. The day before had been a complete washout, so it was a great relief for competitors and organisers when the sun shone. Robyn Sunderland spent considerable effort and ingenuity in setting the multiple choice questions. The course took us through historical parts of Melton as well as the newer parts. The course was largely flat and featured linear parklands alongside Toolern and Arnolds Creeks and their tributaries.

Ron Wescott was the admin manager, Ron Wescott & Ron Frederick vetted the course and Phil Giddings assisted in admin, making it a bit of a NE affair.

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

New Zealand 2012 by Rob Edmonds

Club members, Anthony Lynch, Helen and Robert Edmonds were part of a large contingent of Aussie mountain bike orienteers who took on the challenge against the Kiwis in the Central Otago region of the New Zealand’s south island. The tour began in Christchurch and then moved down to Wanaka. Helen and I last visited NZ in 1975, and we were really looking forward to this adventure.

The team gathered in quake torn Christchurch with the unpacking and reassembling of bikes. We took part in two practice events at nearby McLean’s Island and Bottle Lake over the first two days. McLeans Island is a unique natural recreational area of flat land bordering the Waimakariri River and owned by Environment Canterbury. The area is a mix of over 15kms of purpose-built single tracks that wind through pine and exotic forest, stop-banks and 4WD shingle tracks, with some open land where forests have been cleared and some pasture. Bottle Lake is an area of flat plantation forest with intricate MTB track network on the northern coastal outskirts of Christchurch.

Most members, about 30 of the touring party, travelled in 3 mini buses with bikes atop the luggage trailers. Another dozen members travelled independently. We had time to explore Christchurch on the second day when Helen and I rode into the CBD from the North-South Tourist Park. The gardens were beautiful but the city centre was closed down while restoration work continues. Church spires nestle on footpaths and cranes adorn city streets. Most parts of Christchurch remain untouched, with areas on sand belts and marshlands most affected. The locals are suffering the ongoing trauma of coping with the disaster and the constant threat of further shocks. There were a number of shakes on the days before we arrived. Over 5000 homes will be levelled and many others are putting up with burst water and gas mains, and ripples and upwelling on roads from the after shocks.

Wanaka became our base for the next 4 events. We travelled across the Canterbury Plains for morning tea at Geraldine. They fish from quad bikes there. Then lunch at beautiful Lake Tekapo. Past Lake Putaki with views of Mt Cook and then onto the Backpackers Base at Wanaka. Andrew Campbell, Blake Gordon and Tim Hackney shared the driving while Peta Whitford, Kathy Liley, Helen Edmonds, Graham Wallis, Carolyn Matthews and Malcolm Roberts kept the conversation flowing. Yes, we were the older crew, first to get away and get back due to the stringent timelines set by Kathy and Peta.

The Sprint event was held at Roxburgh. This delightful little area is an alluvial terrace adjacent to the Clutha River which has been extensively mined for gold by sluicing. Some of the original land surface remains as flat-topped hills with steep scarps like American mesas; the remainder has been shifted and sifted, though the contours are mostly fairly smooth. There are one or two areas of intense contour detail. There are a few 4WD tracks, but local mountain bikers and a gold-panning tourism operator have created a network of single-track; but as it is little known many tracks are hard to see.

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

Australian Mountain Bike Champs Carnival

It was a great weekend for the 150 mountain bikers taking part in the race carnival. A huge contrast from the “pour” weather we had a fortnight before for the Oceania Carnival.

There were 7 riders from Nillumbik Emus. Joyce Rowlands won her 3 races in the sprint event around Lake Sambell, The middle Distance at Rowdy Flat and the Long at Stanley. Phil Giddings in M50 had our best ride with a terrific 4th in the Long. Anthony Lynch M21E put in 3 consistent rides with a very solid 12th in the Long. Othedr riders were Jim Taylor M50, Rob Edmonds M50, Kevin Maloney M60 and Helen Edmonds W50.

The relay event was held at the Indigo winery. Teams were randomly selected from all entries with a rider in each team riding the long, medium or short course.

Dinner was held at the Hibernian Hotel with guest presenter retelling the Ned Kelly story in an informative and entertaining presentation. Another highlight was the ride through Beechworth after the opening ceremony

Anthony Lynch, Rob and Helen Edmonds will return the Kiwis a favour with a visit to the Otago Carnival in January. Around 60 Australians will be heading over the ditch to try their luck.

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

NEW YORK CORRESPONDENT

Alex Shepherd

Alex took part in the World Police and Fire Games in New York City. He was accompanied by Lenore on the trip.

The orienteering event was held at West Point, and it was the hardest run I’ve ever done. The forest was dark and dense, and very rocky and steep. I had trouble reading the map at times. They are a little different to Aussie maps. However, and there’s a story in it, I managed to get a Silver in Grand Master Section D. I also got a Silver in the darts, the Open Men – Cricket – Doubles, losing the Gold Medal Game 3 sets to 1.

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

Fells from Hoppers Crossing return from the Fells of Great Britain

Don Fell

Trip is over. We (Fiona and Don) are both really suffering from jet lag this time round. Summer on the west coast of Sweden was 20 degree days. However the water temp was up to 19 degrees so we can’t complain.

Summer on the west coast of England and Wales is best forgotten. However we added three more 3000 ft plus peaks to our records.

I think Skafell was the best climb we did. A walk through farm land up the Esk valley, then through a small gorge, a kilometre or so across the “Great Moss” which brought back memories of the sodden Loddon except it was marsh and grass, a scramble up the rocks beside the Cam Spout waterfall, then up an open gully almost to the saddle between Skafell and Skafell Pike, a wet scramble up a steep chute to Foxes Tarn, then a scramble up a scree slope to the summit ridge and a couple of hundred metres along the top to the summit.

Wales was new for us. First two days was sightseeing – castles, beaches, not forgetting going to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch . We climbed Snowdon on our third day and next day went to Ogwen to check out the Idwal Slabs climbs, the Ballad of Idwal Slabs being a part of our MUMC culture.

Here is a link to a Youtube video of a climb up “Hope”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38Dbo90FEhQ.

And here is video of the legendary Ewen Lamb repeating John Christopher Brown’s prenuptial descent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m2HJpGtv70

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

Choice of GPS depends on why you want a GPS

Don Fell

If you want it as a portable atlas which displays where you are then you need a good display unit and must be prepared to pay for the maps to be installed in the unit. I would suggest that learning to read a map is a cheaper alternative. Probably a useful start is to try a car GPS and see how useful they are on roads, and the problems you encounter.

You can do all sorts of things back at home base with downloaded tracks of when, where, and how you went, heart rate, cycling cadence…. However only map makers and athletes in training really need this analysis.

Personally I would hire or borrow a unit and find out if it is really what you want. Most of us on the Victorian orienteering scene are using Garmin Forerunners for our athletic training and there are numerous models of these.

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

Vic MTBO Series #7 at Barkers Creek next Sunday (10 July)

The Hill family have created a new map for this event  at Barkers Creek, near Castlemaine. The map is called “Hills Upsan Downs” and includes eucalypt and pine forest and gold diggings. 

SportIdent timing will be used, so bring your SI cards or hire one. Enter on the day. The usual four Vic MTBO Series line courses. 

There will be a coffee cart available for pre and post race coffees and hot chocolates so please support this local lad who is just starting out on his coffee cart business.

A unique and unusual requirement of the event permit from DSE, the organisers have been asked to ensure ALL riders wear brightly coloured tops, so please make sure you dig out and wear your brightest and lairiest jerseys so that we fully comply.

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

Lauder Mine—Badge Event by Rex Niven

If I say so myself our recent event at Lauder Mine was excellent.  Just about everything went right – weather, terrain, and our experienced club machinery working smoothly.. 

Using the nice amphitheatre paddock was a a decision taken only shortly before.  We had planned two complete events with assembly / start / finish  in different places, with two overlapping sets of control tapes.  Once we were sure the week beforehand that it would be sufficiently dry that we could use the paddock, then we could commit to Plan B.  I think everyone agrees the grassy open sunny site was great. The bridge across the fence was a new engineering feat for us, and the pit toilets provided a bit of nostalgia (and no queues?).

The escarpment at the south end of the map allowed legs using down-and-up or round type route choices, often down and up was best! There were plenty of rocks and mine workings to put controls on and the three-way saddle near control 137 tricked quite a few people.  In the north part of the map are three hills with an octopus of writhing ridges and spurs spreading out in all directions, you really have to keep concentrating. One of them I never mastered properly, I just try to avoid it now.  The big paddocks mean the forest is a strange shape but there were still good O legs up to about 1.3km long for the elites, and even a 700m leg on Course Six just for Sue Healy. 

Putting out all the controls, taped routes, water controls* and fence crossings took me around 15 hours spread over three days which seemed an age, especially when it all has to be done again in reverse.  However, the best part about course setting is how everyone pitches in at course closing time and makes the forest clean again, seemingly in no time at all.  Thanks to all who participated.

Now, please put your route on the Route Gadget so I can see what happened. Bruce Arthur tells me this link will take you there.

Emus Online

^{Edited by Robert Edmonds The full edition with pictures can be viewed by clicking on the link above.}

New Club Jackets

The jackets are made by JB. Fiona went to a lot of effort to come up with a top design at a great price. –  just $35. The jackets have a full zipper through high collar, front pockets (no zip closure), low pill polar fleece. Colour is royal blue (no green trims) except for the club logo etc on front (as with the ‘old’ jackets).