5 minute read
NAVIGATION TECHNIQUE
32 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008
Tales of Legs, short and long
at the AUS Champs in Queensland
Michael Hubbert (M65)
It was the Australian Long-distance Championships at Hidden Glen, near Maryborough, Queensland. We’d been told in the information booklet that good summer rains may have caused a growth spurt in the undergrowth so we might expect it to have become thicker and taller since the terrain was mapped. Visibility may be reduced in certain places. Indeed we had seen thicker undergrowth at ARAMARA State Forest earlier in the week where a poor M12 bashed past me through undergrowth way over his head but mapped as ‘slow - good visibility’. My M65 course was allegedly 5.5km (not counting the 1.7km walk to the start): Leg 1 – looked pretty simple – over a broad spur and down into some light green along a creek. All fairly easy to begin with – except that the light green proved to be quite dense undergrowth with a lot of forest debris underfoot. The plan was to keep the creek some metres away on the left and the depression should be easy to see in the open forest. Reality was that the creek was difficult to see at all and progress was slow through the undergrowth and debris. I soon found the small gully SW of the depression, proving I had strayed a little to the left, and shortly after found the depression in an area just as green. Doubts about the reliability of the green area mapping began to grow. Leg 2 – no matter, onward due east to #2. Finding a way through the undergrowth and general debris was becoming more difficult – like wading through sludge. I was forced a little north of my intended line and saw in the distance a control flag on a small round waterhole. The shape of the terrain didn’t look right and I quickly figured #2 was more to the right, though from just 50m away I couldn’t see the waterhole. Got it quickly. Now on to #3 across the creek. Leg 3 – “holy kilometres Batman”, this leg is close to 2km (counting the ups and downs) in a 5.5km course. I quickly decide the best route will be pretty much direct – across the creek, up beside the watercourse, somewhere over the saddle and down beside a deepish watercourse. Then across the west-east creek and up a shallow spur, keeping that unreliable green on my right until I can veer east, cross the creek and head up the well-rounded spur. All goes well and I’m soon over the saddle and approaching the west-east creek. I spy a W75 wandering along the creek and totally geographically embarrassed. Now this is a championship event and the principle of The Silent Forest should apply. But all rules must be flexible to cater for those in genuine need of assistance – and she was in genuine need. I stop to help and soon set her on her way. The stop actually helps me too as I spy the termite mound just north of a small side gully, confirming that I am right on the purple line. I soon cross the second creek and move up the spur, keeping the green on my right. But this light green isn’t nearly as thick as the earlier light green. In fact, a lot of it seems to be just reeds and bracken. So I veer right a little earlier than planned, cross the creek and into a flattish area which turns out to be loose sand (just like Pittwater Dunes in Tassie). More wading. The terrain here is very vague, and so is the map. It crosses my mind that rogainers would be in their element here – they seem to thrive on vagueness. I try to find the spine of this spur so that I can contour off it once I reach the rocky area. The terrain is too vague so I head up on dead-reckoning. The undergrowth becomes thick but I spy the flag some 50m ahead amongst the unmapped green. Again, the mapping of the green is unreliable. Leg 4 – down through a lot of debris to the creek then up over the ridge on dead-reckoning and into the broad gully to skirt north of the erosion gully system through the light green. In fact, there are runnable tracks through this green which is really quite open and I soon come within sight of the main erosion gully, so turn south into #4. #5 was a doddle – across the erosion gully and head SW keeping the southerly erosion gully on my right. Leg 6 – with doubts about vegetation mapping in mind I decide to skirt south of the erosion gully then swing west across the track to the saddle, then south down the spur and across the creek. As it happened the spur over the creek looked a bit thick and debris strewn so I skirt down the creek, across the west-east watercourse and up beside it to #6. Leg 7 – retraced my steps to cross the creek and generally follow the purple line north of the gully with the green in it, then turn SE down and across the side gully, avoiding the green as much as possible. That was the plan, anyway. What happened was that there were TWO green gullies and I skirted the first, but not the second, so ended up in the creek at a wide bend and confronted by a steep earth bank. Oh well – climbed the bank and followed the unmarked track alongside the obvious creek to #7. The supposed green terrain was actually rather fast. Leg 8 – retraced my steps and to the main track. Faced with a confusion of green and creek I elected to follow the track up the spur hoping to see the creek bend close to the track. I saw something like it so crossed the creek but then figured I had crossed too soon, so followed the creek SW through a mass of debris to #8. Leg 9 – got out of the debris as fast as possible and headed roughly up the gully to #9 and then to the Finish. Oh boy – mission accomplished, but at what cost? I had fought through large areas of undergrowth and forest debris marked as light green, followed by more light green which was something of a race track (I just wish I could run like I could years ago), then yet more light green which resembled a fight zone on the ground. Hmmmmmnnnn ……
