Orienteering in South East Queensland

12:00 Thursday 29th September 2005
"Stockyard Creek" Brisbane Koala Bushland, Burbank, Brisbane
UBD 203 E16 18km SE of Brisbane CBD
"Long" 11 controls 5km 140m climb (2.8%)

The first really hot and dry event of the season. Bev was worried about her second ever event but it was excellent with the possible exception of number 5 which was hidden below ground level in the stream bed so I lost a couple of minutes.

Discussing heading off with a novice afterwards I realised that this course requires that technique on almost every leg!

I was reasonably happy with my 53 minutes but (old) Clive took 3 minutes off me and (young) Oliver managed around 46.

Thanks to Bev Brunner for the excellent event, Rob and QOA for the map.

09:00 Sunday 18th September 2005
"Clear Mountain" 1992 1:15,000 5m
UBD 86 R18 24km NW of Brisbane CBD
"Red 2" 4km 170m climb (4.3% but it felt like far more)

The courses seemed short but appropriately so - the terrain is very rugged, I was hardly able to run at all, and finished very tired but not puffed in 73 minutes.

My only trouble was at 3 which I overshot - I was able to quickly relocate from the gully junction 200m SW but took a remarkable 19:42 for that leg.

Splits 7:13 6:34 19:42 4:26 4:56 8:40 7:59 5:34 7:31 1:09

Despite the map being 13 years old its only real inaccuracy is the new tracks. Nevertheless it badly needs to be redrawn at 1:10,000.

Thanks to Rob Rapkins for the event, and Trevor Sauer for the map and for telling me all about the ghastly parallel error he did at no 3.

09:00 Sunday 11th September 2005
"Ripley Hills" 2004 1:10,000 5m
Course 3 11 controls 5km 250m climb (5%)

I intended to run course 2 at 6+km until I realised it had 360m climb so I flagged that and ran 2 instead, which is why the map is a mess.

Lots of long grass made running in the paddocks hard work and the hills were a killer. 11>12 (as marked) I went slightly right of the line down the open forest on the spur, then crossed the gully before reaching the darker green at the gully junction. Remarkably it took me 12 minutes, I would have expected far less.

6:04 2:18 7:56 9:22 7:51 2:10 12:07 4:43 2:30 3:14 1:48

Thanks to Matt, Ian Chris and UG for the event, Rob and QOA for the map.

12:00 Thursday 8th September 2005
"Underwood Park" 1:10,000 5m
UBD 222 P8
"Long" 4.5km 125m climb (2.8%)

The course uses the map very well and was very enjoyable.

On the long leg, I took the double road up to the saddle then the minor track all the way to where it doubles back 200m NW of the control.

Thanks to Rob for the map and event.

09:00 Sunday 4th September 2005
"Hemmant Quarry Reserve" ?2005 1:5,000 2m
UBD 162 L9 11km East of Brisbane CBD
"Red" 13 controls 3.1km 31m climb (1%)

My shortest run in a while and the largest scale and smallest contour interval too.

Start>1 straight, 1>2 straight, 4>5 slightly left via indistinct track, 7>8 oops: in my mind I was running 11>10 but recovery was quick when I got to the track network. 9>10 wading the marsh was a really bad idea; 10>11 took the road. 11>12 tried to compass to the pond and missed it, realised I had overshot when I saw the road ahead.

31 minutes was 3 minutes beind the leader as I left but 5 places and half way down the field.

Thanks to Rob Simson, Toohey Forest and Brisbane City for the map; and also Rob for the event.

12:00 Thursday 1st September 2005
"Bergins Hill" 1995 1:10,000 5m
UBD 214 K19 27km SW of Brisbane CBD
"Long" 12 controls


Greg did some limited map updating; with these, the map despite being 10 years old seems OK. But the area is very vague and I never really got into the mapping style properly. Indeed Greg the organiser must have had the same problem because he actually put one control on the wrong feature having understandably misread the map. We think he put no 2 in what is now an erosion gully but was once a very short footpath just to the south of the correct site. I lost 3 or 4 minutes looking for it; Clive never did find it.

I lost maybe 4 minutes at 9, searching on the wrong spur 100m to the SE. Amazing how you can make everything fit. I relocated as I was leaving the control to go find 10, then went back for it. What a vague area.

The highlight of my day was meeting Clive at 11 only to watch him run off to the south - a 180!

My time of 51 minutes was beaten by Clive and Julia who took 38 minutes.

Thanks to Greg for the event, Adrian Rowland for the map.