Orienteering in South East Queensland

14:00 Saturday 29th August 2009
"Samford Forest" 2004 1:10,000 5m
UBD 117C17 14km NW of Brisbane CBD
"Red Long" 12 controls 4.5km 300m climb (6.7%)

An eventful race. [The numbers on the map are upside down.]

2 I couldn't find when I attacked fomr the track junction and Brenton caught me up by two minutes there. It may be a little further north than shown.

3 is a naff control site but I found it OK.

5 Brenton and I left the track before the bend yet still managed to miss the spur to the east. My compass told me I was travelling NE instead of N so I recovered quickly. (Brenton didn't 8^)

7 I traversed round to the north; Brenton went over the top. 200m instead of 7 contours sounded good to me.

8 Note the horrible climb. The map ain't real great there... I attacked from the track junction, couldn't make anything fit then spotted the control a good 100m+ away to the SE. Go figure.

9 I took the track which looked good until I screwed up. The bends in the track are subtle but seemed to fit, wrong wrong wrong, I found myself in the gullies to the east. My compass told me which one.

81 minutes looked OK until Brenton turned in 80 minutes and Karl 50 minutes (!) but at least I was 3rd on the Long course 8^)

09:00 Sunday 23rd August 2009
"Cotswold Bluff" 2009 1:10,000 5m
100km S of Brisbane CBD
"Red 3" 5.4km 210m climb (3.9%)

I took this very steadily, worked very hard for accuracy (and for climbing all those hills) - the time flew by and suddenly I found myself on the last leg without making a single error. I was 4th of ?15 with 67 minutes, 12 behind Su-Yan.

1 Aimed off right, worked well
2 Veered right to cross the gully, rough compass to find the gully system
3 Straight - ditch / watercourse / rocky gully
4 Aimed off left to pick up the watercourse, worked perfectly
5 Aimed off left, could see the fence for some idea where I was and found the control by picking my way along
6 Vague!
7 Straightish, slightly right, picked up the gully system on the way down, the N-S spur south of the main gully was obvious
8 This trapped many but I carefully found the bend in the track below and no problem, still took me 12 minutes, not sure why, maybe I was tiring
9 Countered, easy
10 Must have swung left a bit so I spotted the road and used it as a handrail

13:00 Saturday 15th August 2009
"Old Hidden Vale" 2004 1:10,000 5m
80km W of Brisbane CBD
"Red 3" 15 controls 6.2km 180m climb (2.9%)

It felt steeper... My only difficulty was approaching 6 where I wasn't entirely sure where I was and had to relocate from the shapes of the gullies. My only winning split was 11 but I managed 3rd of 12, 3 minutes behind Su Yan. 61 minutes is 9.9mpk; Red 2 was won in 7.5mpk.

09:00 Sunday 2nd August 2009
"Parkinson Bushland Reserve" 2009 1:10,000 5m
UBD 220C10 20km S of Brisbane CBD
"Long" 13 controls 5.4km 95m climb (1.8%)

3: Aimed left to pick up the track but ran straight onto the control.
5: Aimed left to pick up the track.
6: 1.2km leg through nothing. Probably should have gone south to the big track but tried to go straight. Terrain is very vague and I was unsure about track rating so I wasted time before I finally found the vehicle track before the control, climbed until I found the pit by the track then ran straight onto the control.