orienteering race (NOL night) 33:59 [4] 4.2 km (8:05 / km)
shoes: Inov8 X-Talon
George & I turned up at Lok Cabay in plenty of time to direct parking and also to admire the amazing arena set up in which Lachlan had strung tarpaulins (and also the map clothesline) between trees in a natural amphitheatre between huge stromatolites towering nearly 10m above us. And then there were the toilets, brainchild of Susanne & Zoe, which demonstrated the versatility of flowerpots!
Mass start loop race just on nightfall sounded like a fun idea of Lachlan's, and it surely was. We all raced off into no-man's land on a bearing and a prayer, choking in each other's dust and waiting for a hilltop with rocks to appear after about 400m. The stromatolites were very well mapped according to shape, and I caught on to this sooner than most, so came through to pick up my second map with all but about 3 still waiting on the clothesline, then promptly fell flat on my face in the dust as I started the second loop. At least it wasn't among the rocks!
Stuffed up my bearing west off the hilltop and ended up at a control for next day less than 100m north of the night one I wanted (and had been to before) which was enough of an error to lose Anna, and then left the next control at too wide an angle and so lost Tracy, and ran the last loop on my own. Overshot one of the big rocks along the track there and had to double back to its 'inside corner', then was too far east of the last control. So I think I could have been nearly 3 min more efficient all up, but boy did I enjoy myself :) Feel bad for anyone whose light died on them, though. We're not used to equipment failure in foot orienteering!