rogaining race (24 hr state champs part 1) 12:00:00 [4] 52.0 km (13:51 / km)
shoes: Asics Gel 2130
Knackered at Nackara
Nice, sheep station country off the Broken Hill Rd near Oodla Wirra. Plenty of mallee scrub, not too much spinifex, some steep rocky hills.
Zara & I headed north from the HH at a run, got about 5 controls, dropped our packs at a windmill and did a 20km run loop to the northeast in mostly open farmland. Picked up packs about 3.30pm, climbed Nackara Hill, took a photo at the trig point, by 6pm we had 1130pts and had done 33.5km.
Then it got dark...and we came within 20m of the next control before deciding that we had overshot it because the knoll top looked too open and rocky compared to our expectations. Went down to the creek, came up again, same bloody knoll, control tucked around the back. Then I realised I didn't have my watch any more! Bugger! (I knew the band was prone to separating at a certain point but wasn't aware I had caught it on anything - in hindsight it must have been the fence I got stuck getting through).
This set the tone for the night. We felt good both mentally and physically, our bearings were okay, but our distance estimation was woeful. I don't like night navigation because I use features and contours so much during the daytime, and I can't see any of this at night. Normally I use my watch to estimate time vs distance. Which was of course no longer possible. You'd think I would have remembered to use the ancient and highly-respected skill of pace-counting at this point, but no! Consequently we spent the best part of an hour looking for an 80-point control on a single-contour knoll.
And we didn't find it. 45 minutes later we still hadn't found it. Then it got cold. Then we got really cold. After putting on everything warm we possibly could, we decided to bail out due west to the track. Going by where we hit the track, we must have been so close to the control it's not funny. Damn and bugger!
To be continued....