Luvapuzzle: Gum Country Rogaine at Almerta Station 25/5/18 to 28/5/18

We had a trip up north last weekend to attend the latest Rogaine run by SA Rogaine association.
It was based at Almerta Station (just north of Carrieton) in the lower Flinders Ranges area and we had a really great time.

We travelled up to the Rogaine site on Friday (about 4 hours) and passed the largest group of Emus we have ever seen just out of Peterborough. We estimated over 400 emus were out in just a few paddocks, grazing like sheep (possibly on freshly laid seed which the farmers intend to grow into a crop).

Almerta is an interesting spot. It is very dry there, and they keep solvent by running stock on the station, managing a shearing team who travel to lots of other stations to shear, and offering an experience for tourists.
They are doing some great things with tourism. They have an excellent block of accommodation available and also some lovely private camp spots along their beautiful gum lined rivers. If you are looking for a comfy bush loo with a view, bush camping with a shower nearby and to get away from the hustle and bustle for a few days this might be just what you are looking for. You can find more information about Almerta here.

We had some great friends rogaining with us. Trevor competed in the 15 hour roving rogaine (he could use up to 15 hours of time between 12 midday on Saturday and 12 midday on Sunday). He and Al used only about 9 and 1/2 hours up with their two loops to end up with 1350 points still smiling.

Erica, Zita and Magrit entered the 8 hour roving (between 2pm and 10am) and managed to be the best women's team in this, earning 800 points in almost 6 hours of activity. The event had us climbing hills, trekking along the lovely gum lined creeks and practising our compass skills on the 1:40000 map. If it wasn't for Margrit (control 87) and Zita (control 93) we could have taken much longer to find the controls we were looking for. If you are interested here are the results.

Zita with the elusive 93. She knew we hadnt gone far enough earlier.

Margrit knew we were further down the track than we had aimed for and pointed out the control directly ahead. Champion for 87.

Unfortunately the long awaited rain arrived an hour before the end of the rogaine, creating some issues for the die-hard 15 hour runners who were trying to jam in those last couple of controls, and dampening the camping gear for some (including us). Luckily Shane and Patrick (who own Almerta) were happy to have the mob descend on their shearing shed for presentations and for some to stay there to eat leftover food up, and sleep overnight and dry out in front of the lovely fire.

Sunday saw us collecting a few of the controls (including the one from the top of the Bluff) before we reluctantly headed for home.