WA Day 12 Captain fawcett 4WD track and catching up with the cousins.

We had another idyllic day today and made pretty good use of it, taking our expected 4WD track drive.

The Captain Fawcett track commemorates one of the early pioneers of the district, Captain Theo Fawcett. He held large amounts of land at Pinjarra but realised that he would need heavier land as well. He also took up land near Marradong (on the other side of the Darling Range), and then displayed remarkable bush skills by making his journey directly home through the bush, blazing his way as he went to show the way for his workers.  His blazed track is now the present road between Marradong and Dwellingup that we drove on today.

The commemorative trail starts quite some distance South East of Dwellingup and runs through an area of the Lane Poole Conservation Reserve. Much of it runs along old rail embankments where the trains once hauled timber, but as we found today, the old trestle  rail bridges which we were looking forward to seeing no longer exist.  No doubt the last bushfire destroyed them.

As we entered the forest track at the start of the trail the signs of bushfire were very evident. New growth of palms and xanthorrea was very green among the dark burned wood. Small bright tufts of bright red and lime green shoots were shining translucent in the sunlight  as we navigated the excellent route directions on our brochure and the large mud holes along the way.

The Murray River ran alongside us for the first 15-20 km of the track, before we turned up into drier  country.

Somewhere in there Trev checked the tyres while I took photos of the impressive grass trees, and found the front left down quite a bit. So we took a brief break and used the compressor to pump it up again.  It went fine after that, so we are not sure about the cause.

 Approximately 40km (and 2 hours) later we turned out of the native bush onto a dirt road which soon became a bitumen road, and decided not to bother with the rest of the route, which appeared to follow the black top for the majority of the way. The track is published as 115km long, but it seems that only this 40km or so stretch (and possibly a little at the end) is actually 4WD. After 1 hr,  and only 20km we had been wondering how on earth the track was going to take us about 3 to 4 hours! The bitumen bit explained that.

We crossed over  the rather interesting conveyor belt carrying produce between the large Huntley Bauxite Mine to the Pinjarra refinery and then crossed back under it a few more km along the road after we had headed back towards home. It is pretty noisy.

On the way towards home we pulled in on a lovely old bush track to have our lunch and then took a short look at the tourist railway station (and sculpture) at Dwellingup.

The late afternoon and evening were passed very happily up in Perth catching up with cousin Tim, cousin John and his good wife Lou, and Aunty Joc, who fussed over us and fed us too much good food. We never have long enough with these rellies, so it was a pity to say goodnight and head back towards Mandurah.

We forgot to get a photo of the relatives,  sorry.

WA day 9- orienteering at Malmalling and catching up with the Castelijns

For the first time in the entire holiday we set the alarm to make sure we were up in time. We had planned to orienteering at Malmalling,  which meant and hour and a half to drive, skirting Perth city and heading to the east (towards Kalgoorlie).
Our trusty navigator came to the fore once more, and we arrived at the orienteering in good time. It was good to see the familiar direction signs as we neared the event. Surprisingly, we followed a ute with SA number plates to the event. It turned out to be Gary Ettridge from Pt. Lincoln!!

The WA orienteers made us very welcome as we registered our SI sticks into their system and they already had our names on file!!!

The area is a mix of native bush and pine, but we were all in the native bush for our courses (running across one open area of felled pine early on). The native bush was largely made up of grass trees, which hid boulders beautifully, and gave us some excellent experience with low visibility orienteering.

It's hard to pick out a rock between the close growing grass trees. In many places they were much thicker than this example.

Trevor and I both opted to do the H3 (third hardest) course which was 4.9 km long according to the notices. It is always a good experience to orienteer somewhere new, and this area certainly taught us some more. It was difficult to move fast amongst the rocky ground and thick grass trees, and easy to lose contact with exactly where we were on the map,  as we couldn't get a clear view of the terrain. This caused us some difficulties, but the locals appeared to have as much trouble as we did.
We both took a good long time to complete our courses (Trevor took 1 hr 35 in and Erica 1 hr 43, but Trevor covered almost 2 km more ground at a much better run rate!). Erica was surprised by a mispunch result, having not checked the control  number at 2, and punched 6 instead. (Trap for new players still catching out an old player). Control 5 (low visibility, and hard to tell where on the hill you were), 6 (a long leg with some vague areas, where you really needed to stay in touch with the map) and 9 (we both had to relocate at least once to find the small boulder which  was hidden nicely between the grass trees) were controls where we both wasted time.

Trev's  course download. 

Orienteering WA have a volunteer run shop with basic O supplies. All profits go to the juniors transport fund so that they can make it to the national events each year. They also have a caravan/trailer which is the registration and download point, with info and results on one side and the people with the computer on the other side.

We liked their easy registration procedure where each person comes to the window, pays their money and "dibs" their SI stick to register, and personally tells the person doing the computing which course they are running .

Results were printed out from the splits printer and placed on the info side of the van (small to read, but available if people wanted them)

Results in course order from the splits printer

The event was a schools selection race, so the kids were out in full and the juniors were selling soup and cakes to fund raise for their travel.

Having taken much longer than we had anticipated at the event with our time out on the course and our chatting with the WA crowd, we made a  quick lunch stop at Mandaring on the way in to Perth to catch up with our good friends Maggie and Nick and their lovely daughters  Sarah and Rebekah.

We spent a lovely few hours chatting, eating and helping them to complete the jigsaw puzzle they were working on before reluctantly saying goodbye and leaving them to their preparations or school and work today.

Another excellent day in WA.

Australian Relays

Today we had the state relays.

SA did Ok , with our W16 girls, M12 and M16 teams on the podium.  M21AS also won, and we had a mixed team and M65 also in the places.
It was another long hard day with warm weather and tough courses.
Results were a bit tricky with the relay software and don't appear to be up online yet.
Trevor ran a longer course than usual, pretending that he is still 45 years old, and I also  ran in the W45.  As usual Trevor ran better than I did on a longer course,  but we were both well outclassed by others who can push through bush as though it isn't there and run up and down hills endlessly. After yesterday's courses today was just a bit too much, with step gullies and quite poor visibility.

It is always fun, however to run in the relays.  The excitement of being a part of a team  representing the state and the camaraderie is terrific.   I particularly enjoyed my team mates Susan and Jill this year who came into the relays with the attitude that we were all there to do our best, have fun and enjoy it. And we did.

I went out first runner, so there are no photos of early runners, but I have a few of those who came along in the later part of the day.

My two fabulous team mates:

Meredith

John

Peter

This one was taken waiting formthe second mass start to leave the arena. Note the good looking bloke in the foreground.

It has been great fun, but now it is over for another year, and us SA people start to think about 2018 and how we can supply a carnival of this calibre for the Aussie orienteering fraternity. 

Australian middle distance champs-Sunday 27th September

I'm writing this on Monday because we came home yesterday and were very very lazy- blog included. We were feeling every bit of our lack of fitness and lack of training after two days of challenging courses. They may have been only middle distance courses, but they have required more mind power and more fitness than we really had to offer (and have consequently been super enjoyable). As I said to someone yesterday-if I could spend every day of the rest of my life doing a course on these maps I would still have a lot to learn..Maybe I'm a slow learner, but they continue to give a challenge and it  is so different every time. There were certainly a few lessons to be had in today.

There were also some joys.  Seeing Joanna George win her course (after Abigail won the day before) was fantastic. Also seeing Max Grivell come 3rd and Jack Marshall come 5th in the M 12 was terrific. Although all of these are now part of the junior arrows, and not the darts I still consider them special and also see their great potential for future orienteering achievements. Eliza Grivell,  Emily Marshall and Ben Marshall also did really well, and apparently so did Jemima Lloyd (although we hadn't even known she was coming to the champs, and didn't see her-just saw the result later. )

Max came third!

A number of SA adults also did well-Adrian and Robin Uppill, Andrew Slattery, Tyson, Fern, and Olivia come to mind.

Trevor and I did not have outstanding results and didn't expect to. (36th out of 43 and 22nd out of 35 respectively) on a day which favored good navigators. It only took one error wasting a few minutes to see many a good orienteer dropping down the results list and finishing the day wondering why on earth they did what they did. 

We stayed till the end and despite this neither Trev or I had the sense to go and reclaim  our maps (which were handed in as we finished as the last start had not yet been completed).  Thus we returned home empty handed. I was lucky that Al is a M 60 and did the same course as I did, so I have a photo of his map to work my way through,  but Trev will have to wait till we get them back to go through his course again.  We sat in the spa last night  sipping our gin squash and talking our way through our course as best we could, but it wasn't as good as being able to see the map.

Despite my good intentions I failed to plan good attack points to all of my controls and particularly failed in good execution at number 10.  Debrief to follow. 

We had plenty of time to check out the final control for the day before Trev set out for his start. We were unsure how it would be mapped. Maybe as a mound, a pit or an earth bank in a u shape?

 In the end the map looked like this:

My whole map looked like this: ( thanks Zita)

From 9-10 I decided to take the road rather than having to cross through green and across the river. If I had done it well it could have worked well but...

First,  I got a bit confused and started thinking I was heading for 11 instead of 10.  Luckily I figured it out before I actually wasted any time.

This is what I think I ended up doing. In the middle it was really slow as I was confused and trying to figure it out.

So I got almost to the track bend that I was planning to use as my attack point for 11  before I realised that  should be heading for 10, not 11. My mind was dehydrating and showing it and the recent hill climb had not helped the matter.

I headed on to the dam and decided to  vaguely follow the contour along and around to the right to get to the control. I'm not sure how well I executed that part of the plan,  as I came across an injured orienteer, had a quick chat,  and headed off again (help was already on the way) in what was probably the wrong direction. I may have passed very close to my control at the time, but if I did, I certainly didn't see it. I continued on, and became aware that I was now unsure where I was. I remember seeing a creek with a control in it (not mine) and passing by the gully with steep sides shown just to the left and down from the 0 in the number 10.
At that stage I decided to do something positive and not waste any more time, and headed what I hoped was north to the track.

 As I came up to the road I was surprised to see it was such a big road and realised that it was the solid black road and the pine plantation on the other side was the edge of the map.
Looking to my right I spotted the end of the track going to the right and was mightily relieved. I headed for that, knowing that I should be able to see the drinks control on the track and confirm my position. Sure enough, there it was up ahead. I headed in again to my control and located it without difficulty.

Now why did I not continue on the track to the drinks control and use that as my attack point in the first place? I could have saved about 10 minutes and maybe ended up around 17th instead of 22nd.

Well, that is enough of a lesson for today. I hope you enjoyed my exploits.

Once I was back and changed I enjoyed taking some photos of some of the other SA orienteers and also some cute little kids out on courses being shadowed by parents. They had to be late finishers for me to catch them though,  because I had stayed out so long myself.

I particularly enjoyed taking some series of photos of runners coming into the last control.  This is my favourite.

That is orienteering in a nutshell.

Well, today is a rest day. Tomorrow we will be out there again having fun .

London -day 2 Tuesday 8th September-Hyde Park, Harrods and JERSEY BOYS

Last night it was too late to write by the time we got home, but I thought I would quickly try to put down a bit of what was involved in our day.

After putting some clothes in to wash (sadly the domestic stuff is still required) we hit the road, walking to the bus stop and catching our beloved hop on, hop off bus again.
Happily it didn't cost much more to add a second day when we bought the ticket, so it's handy as we are now familiar with the route,  and how to use it.

We hopped off at Hyde Park, stopping to take a photo of the fancy entrance gates, before heading in to investigate the treats inside.

We enjoyed watching the many grey squirrels hopping across the lawns with their tails wafting gracefully behind them. Birds were also landing on people's hands-we saw what looked like a parrot, and a small bird like a honey eater which came to take the bread a bloke was trying to feed to a squirrel! Scared the crap out of him! He got what he hoped for as later we saw a squirrel actually walk up his leg to take some bread from him!

We walked part way through he park with its wonderfull flower beds and fountains and then  through the streets to Harrods, where we wondered at the store decorations, the wonderful smells, the variety of things available and the prices that people are prepared to pay, before succumbing to the urge and having a cup of tea (English breakfast no 14) there out of fine bone China.  It was very nice.

On the way out we went past the wine and expensive jewelry (Trev wouldn't let me look too much).

We headed back to Hyde Park a different way, and happened to come across a street name that required a picture.

Strolling through the park again we visited the Diana memorial fountain,  and decided that we would not like to be a part of the swimming club who swim in the very duck-pooey lake.  It is a beautiful spot though in the middle of this very busy city.

We found a temporary fountain that made us laugh as we went.

We hopped back on the bus,this time hopping off and walking in to Leicester square, where we did the touristy thing, and bought last minute discounted tickets to see Jersey Boys in the evening.

Then off to find some late lunch (with wine) before a visit to the national portrait gallery. Here we spent a happy couple of hours before they closed their doors at 6 pm,  giving us enough time to wander and find a good pub for a drink and dessert before the theatre.

The show started a bit slow , but warmed up nicely with some great performances of classics, but it was added to by the group of ladies next to Trev who were getting very emotionally involved, and the older couple next to me who were grooving and singing along to the music.  The man sitting next to me used to be in three bands and performed cover versions of many  of the songs performed.

We walked back home after the show through St James Park and the horse guards ground. We could have dropped in to 10 Downing street no worries, but we figured the prime minister was probably getting  his beauty sleep.

The weather was not too cold, and the fountain in the park was very pretty lit up at night, as were the lovely old buildings on the streets.

We slipped in our door and into our room as our housemates snuggled asleep in their beds-but they woke us anyway this morning. That's life when you opt to use air Bnb to stay less expensively in a central part of the city.

Bonus Dublin day.

Every now and then we all deserve a bonus day.  This was our surprise bonus day in Dublin.  As many of you know this holiday was thrown together bit by bit.
When I booked our small group Vagabond tour I knew it was a 7 day tour and assumed 7 nights. Wrong (rookie error). Part way through our trip Trevor identified the error and we managed to book an extra night at the same place, so we are having two nights in Dublin at the end of the Ireland leg, instead of one. That was very opportune as it has given us a chance to leave Ireland in the morning with bags full of clean washing. It also gave Trev a chance to have his beard trimmed neatly again, and for us to do more walking than we have in quite a while.

We started the day looking to find a laundromat to do our washing.  We had spoken to the receptionist last night, who told us where to go, but all of these were cleaners who would take our washing and do it for us (for a price) rather than do it yourself.
We walked and walked and walked . Without clear directions and without the ability to search on-line while we were out and about,  we finally arrived back at our lodgings with our full backpacks of dirty washing still in place, feeling hot, bothered and frustrated.

The fellow on reception has been here for three days and had no idea of what was around, and no idea how to find out and eventually offered to do it here, while we went out to do our touristy stuff! So we actually ended up coming home to find our washing all nicely completed for us.

While the staff here were doing our washing we went out to see some more of Dublin. Unbelievably the sun was beating down, and we decided to continue without even a jumper between us...and it turned out to be an excellent decision. Although the wind was slightly chilly at times in the shade, it was great to go with just a bum bag weighing me down.

First stop was St Stephen's Green- a large park with a lake which was a gift to the people of Dublin from a rich family. Lots of kids were having fun watching the ducks and a large contingent of fluoro vested adults were tending a large group of fluoro vested kids in the playground (day care group maybe?? )

Here we had our only glimpse of a red squirrel. He came out of the bushes very close by for just a few seconds and then scampered off again. (Sorry-too fast for a photo)

We deviated on to another park -Iveagh Gardens which holds the only permanently structured archery field (effectively a sunken lawn) and also has an elephant buried there (from the Zoo!), also a gate that I thought John Such and others interested in metal work may find as fascinating as I did.

From here we wound our way past the performers in the mall

And found ourselves a bite of lunch at a salad and burger place-where Trev delighted the waitresses by applying his skills to the kiddies entertainment activities pack.  His find-a-word skills are pretty good, but his mirroring skills need a bit of work I think. Note the newly neatened facial hair.

Then on to Trinity College main entrance to join a historical walking tour of Dublin.  Our leader has many historical qualifications not least being a PHD in medieval history of Dublin,  so was well qualified for the job.

From here we traversed the city once more, covering Trinity College itself,  the old parliament house (now the bank of Ireland),

Temple Bar, where she showed us the remains of the medieval tower and the level of the city at the time (many metres below the current level)  and the umbrella flowers that open when it rains in the meeting area,

And Dublin Castle.

After a couple of hours of that we headed home with a bit of a deviation up the canal to admire the sculpture of the horse and boy. The horses used to pull the barges on these canals and this sculpture was put here in memory of them.  We happened to catch the old lock being operated by hand to allow a dinner boat through.

Thom and Laura- We thought your place was covered in ivy take a look at this  place! They will be pulling it down next year due to the structural damage...... only kidding 😊

We have not figured out the pedestrian practices...people seem to push the button, but then walk while the light is still red if no traffic is coming too fast towards them. Then on some street corners there is crossing in all directions at once. We will still be guessing when we leave I am sure. We will try not to get cleaned up by traffic between here and the airport.

Now we are reclining on our beds, catching up on Facebook and email, packing our bags freshly again,wondering where it was that one of my good pairs of socks left my possession and planning how early we need to be out of the door in the morning to catch the plan to Gatwick.  This time tomorrow hopefully we will be eating dinner in London with our friends Tim and Joanne.