Discussion: Doing a rogaine the hard way

West. Aust. recently held it's state 24hr rogaining championships about 1.5hrs SE of Perth. A fellow from Singapore has other reasons to go to Perth and decides to do the rogaine as well. Finds a partner from the local rogaine partner matching service - someone he has never met before. Flies into Perth at midnight on the Friday before the event. At the airport, he realises he doesn't know how to get to the event, so finds a 24/7 internet cafe and finds a very, very basic mud map of where the event is. Hires a car at the airport and using the complimentary street directory decides that of the three probable major highways heading out of Perth, one is heading too much southerly, one is heading too much easterly but the third looks like it is heading in the right direction. At 1am on the Saturday he leaves Perth airport, finds a 24hr petrol station and buys food he might eat during the event from the limited selection available. At 2am, he decides to pull over and sleep in the car for a couple of hours on the roadside. He wakes at 4am and then heads down the chosen highway, hoping to spot other cars loaded with people and camping gear on the basis they may be heading to the rogaine as well. A bit later on he gets lucky and spots a rogaine direction sign and makes his way to the hash house. There he wanders around hoping his team mate will be looking for a foreigner looking lost. They meet, plan a course and go on to come third in the event! Amazing story I think.

Wow. This guy should definitely buy a lottery ticket.

It is Wilson Low, right?... when we lived in Singapore and I registered with all kind of blogs and groups in search of orienteering, with little to no success, it was a Wilson Low who was the only one that ever answered, and actually knew of the sport of orienteering, and was hoping for it to get started in Singapore, too (not just as part of the army, all secretive, 50 year old base maps, as one could steal some secrets), but was not able to help as he was living in Australia at that time. We never managed to connect...
I wonder if it is the same Wilson Low...

Results.

One of his teammates originally didn't like Wilson so tried to join another team but after his new teammate decided he didn't like the deserter also he slunk back to rejoin Wilson's team.

Keeping a 3-person team together and happy is a true rogaine art.

So, thanks to tRicky and the results link, it would be safe to say that it is the same Wilson Low. I believe the original team planned to come into the hash house at midnight and get a few hours sleep, which I believe they did.

How about a five person team?

I remember thinking at one time to fly from Singapore to Perth for orienteering, at least once in a while, but the flight schedules were terrible, at least for semi-affordable options. We scratched that thought when we realized the taxes were something like 60x the price, and still impossible schedules

The five person team was easy. Jon couldn't get too grumpy, as he couldn't read a map, so had to do what he was told, Bjorn was always happy (except when his limited English didn't extend to the world laxative)... should be able to make larger teams :)

Geez Tooms you're having to go back almost as far as me to find your glory days!

He doesn't have to back that far to win a rogaine - just to find the one we did with 5 people in the team.

I made top ten in that event! I haven't done that in a while now, must be something like two months or more.

Stop showing off. :-)