Spring 6/12 hr

The spring rogaine was held at Slap-Up in Jerangle to the south-east of Canberra.  Beautiful country ranging from open farmland with wooded granite knolls to basalt hills with crater lakes.  The event was run out of Lisa Phillips and Dick Walker’s flash shearing shed, which has to be the ultimate in event admin areas.  Congratulations to overall 6 hr winners Paul Veldkamp, Vince Craig and David Singleton and to overall 12 hr winners Phil Whitten and Pam Muston.  Phil and Pam cleared the course along with five other teams.  Full results are on the website.  A big thank you to Mike and Marg Harrap who set the course and also helped on the day and collecting controls.  A thanks also to Aaron Coles, event organiser, and Glenn Bridgart and Julie Quinn for on-the-day help.

CLOSE the gate

One unfortunate incident at our spring rogaine was a team leaving a gate open – to the paddock containing Lisa and Dick’s prize bull.  Fortunately they were nearby and convinced him to return.  However, we say it every event and I have to reiterate it here – LEAVE THE GATE AS YOU FOUND IT.  Make sure your whole team goes through the gate simultaneously (wait if your partner is lagging) and do NOT expect the next team to do the right thing.  It’s not that hard.  Please do the right thing  with gates so that we can continue to use farmland.

Lost property

We are accumulating a nice stash of gear from the last few rogaines.  While it would be nice to have a new compass, AyUp battery, sunnies, and left hand glove we would also like to reunite these items with their owners.  If these sound like they might be yours send Julie an email. 

2012 Calendar

The ACTRA events for 2012 are on the website.  The year will be kicked off in March with the 6 hr Paddy Palin event.  The ACT Champs have been moved to June 2-3 so as not to clash with the Australian Rogaining Champs, World Rogaining Champs, and Victoria and New South Wales Champs.  After all, ACTRA has current world champions, Australian champions, and university champions!  We have also tried to avoid clashes with major orienteering events.

It is worth also checking out the events that New South Wales Rogaining Association is offering as many of them are close by, especially for many of our NSW members! 

Australian Rogaining Champs – 5-6 May 2012

The Australian Rogaining Champs are going to be held at Parachilna in the Flinders Ranges.  This will be an absolutely stunning area to rogaine and anyone can enter – don’t be put off by the fact it is the champs.  It just means that the course will be well set and vetted!  If you are keen to go, we could look at coordinating a mini-van or similar for the drive from Adelaide.  More on this in the next newsletter.

World Rogaining Champs – 1-2 September 2012

The World Rogaining Champs are to be held at Prebuz in the Czech Republic.  Entries are likely to open for pre-qualified people on 1 December 2011.  The places will be sought after so, if you qualify, make sure you register your intent.

Volunteers for the 2012 year

We need volunteers to help set, vet, organize and do admin for events next year.  We would like to put names to events as soon as possible so please have a look at the calendar, and have a look at the different roles available and let Julie know what you would like to do.  The committee will help you select a site, get landholder permission, tell you how to go about running an event, show you the computer side or whatever skills you need.  You will also be rewarded for your time with a free entry or voucher.

Committee members for 2012 (March 2012-March 2013)

The Annual General Meeting for the ACTRA will be held after the Paddy Palin 6hr event in March.  At this time we will be seeking officers for the committee.  Roles that are available include president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary, equipment officer, publicity officer, volunteer coordinator, website manager, ARA council rep, and general committee.  This is just a list of all the positions – we aren’t all abandoning the ACTRA ship!  If you think you might be interested in joining the committee but don’t know what a role might involve?  Pop an email to the current person or to Julie and we will fill you in.  We also need a member protection officer, which is not a committee position.

Your membership

Memberships of the ACTRA run on calendar years so renewals for everyone will be due in January.  There will be a reminder in the next newsletter.

Profile – Jean Douglass (Equipment Officer)

I did my first 24-hour event when I was 45 and, much to my surprise, I couldn't wait for the next one!  The great thing about rogaining is you can do it no matter what your fitness level or age.  Combined with being out in the bush, I love it.  Best of all, every event is challenging.  Doing events and each time I set a course it helps improve my navigation skills.  They say 10,000 hours of practice should do it - so I want to do a few more.
Ron and I are off to the World Champs next year to defend our title (Super Vets) and it will be tricky against lots of Europeans and the Kiwis (not to mention the Victorians!!)  We're hoping for a combination of terrible weather and tough going so our good old Aussie bushwalking skills come to the fore.
Speeding around on my mountain bike, sea kayaking trips, cross-country skiing and bushwalking are all part of the outdoor mix that keeps me fit. And I have this uncontrollable urge to fix things, so being the ACTRA gear officer is very therapeutic.
See you at the next event and don't be late!

Presidents soapbox

The spring rogaine was a great note to end our events for the year – great weather, great location and lots of happy rogainers.  I certainly enjoyed the event, even if I only saw a small bit of the course when I snuck out after you’d all disappeared into the bush.  Anyone hankering for a bit of navigation between now and March?  Check out the local orienteering calendar for Monday night street events and Wednesday night bush events in the local nature reserves.  They are great for a bit of fun, fast navigating.

For the other extreme, some of our members including committee members Keith Conley and Aaron Coles competed in the XPD adventure race in Tasmania over 5-10 days at the beginning of November.  This involved non-stop paddling, mountain biking and hiking around the north-west (very roughly Burnie to Strahan and back), navigating on the way.  Very impressive.

Congratulations to our vice-president Susie Sprague (and Philo and Luca) on the birth of a little girl, Mischa Nieve.