Chefprefers BLOG

Over the last few Easter holidays, my wife and I have enjoyed attending the National 3-day Orienteering Carnival. Each year, the venue is in a different state. Last year’s was in South Australia, and this year’s is in Central Western Victoria. Each day, we attended a different area, first in the gold fields near  Inglewood, then a granite outcrop North of Wedderburn and a wooded area near Tarnagulla. Okay, you’re probably thinking, “Where the heck are these places?” Well, if you drive three hours northwest of Melbourne, you would see.

Jen, the expert at organising accommodation, found a cheap motel at Bridgewater on Loddon. We drove 10 hours from Canberra via Wagga Wagga since we were catching up with friends for lunch. It was Good Friday, so most places were shut for business. Jen grabbed the frozen leftovers out of the freezer before we left, so it was a good choice since we had two meals from them. The Carnival was the only thing happening at Bridgewater/ Inglewood during Easter this year. So most stays were populated by orienteers. Our motel, across the water near the bridge, was occupied with the standard Orienteering fitout SUVs. In the morning, you could hear Corellas nearby. That evening, we walked down to the pub near the water and were Wowed by thousands of Corellas flying over the river trees in unison. We found out later that they had become a nuisance, and the locals generated a partition to cull the flock. It appears to be a problem throughout the rivers of North Victoria.

I found them fascinating, although they would be annoying if I lived near them.

Most orienteering events have categories for different age and gender groups and distances. The elite category makes up mostly of late teens and twenty year olds. My category this year could be the Mens 60 plus, but I’ve decided to enter the Sledge competition. Sledge is a fun category made up of people who dress up. This year, Superman, Spiderman, ninja turtles, and Elvis could be seen running around the forest. I dressed up this year as Startrek’s Spock. A black wig and ears were all I needed, although the ears fell off after the first start, so they ended up in my pocket for the event.

There were 30 participants. Half were dressed up, and the other half were serious runners. There are Booby prizes in the form of boxer shorts; you had to wear the boxers if you won the previous day/ year. Overall leader, youngest, fastest from the nominated controls, biggest stuff up, first female and overall last. I won the biggest stuff up last year, so I wore them on the first day and stuffed them up on day 2. Also, you are not allowed to wash them so that they could get smelly. I performed very poorly at this year’s event, so my overall tally was third last. I had no excuses; I just stuffed up too much in conjunction with Superman, who also stuffed up. We followed each other to the wrong control. Spock didn’t bring home the chocolate this year; perhaps next year in Tasmania.