Salutations my dearest reader. I know the moon has almost completed a full cycle since the last blog entry, so it is time to bring you up to speed. Let me begin by saying that the past month has gone by in a blur/whirlwind/at light speed (insert your favorite description if you don't like mine).
During the last few days of April and the first week of May, I actually did a bit of uni work and prepared for the coming of Mr. Alex Cantu (a high school buddy). Let me pick up the narrative on the 9th of May as myself and three others pile into a car at 8am on Saturday to drive to Lerderderg Park to begin an epic weekend experience. Why would four people wake up so early on a Saturday morning? The answer is simple, rogaining.
So the next question that pops into your head is what the heck is rogaining (I try my best to anticipate the needs of my audience)? Well, it is basically orienteering on steroids. Teams are given contour maps with labeled checkpoints (different values based on distance from start, accessibility, and visibility) and a time frame. The object of the game is to get the highest score possible(we had electronic bracelets that recorded our presence at each checkpoint). Rogaining (also know as "the all night sport") is the brainchild of former Mountaineering Club members from Melbourne University.
Our car rocked up at 10:30ish to Lerderderg Park, and we quickly set up our tent to have a quick lay down. I forgot my manners, I need to introduce you to my team. I spent the weekend with Rob Wu, a student from Berkley, and Sean Coyler, a jovial spirit from UVA.
At 11, we got our maps and began to plan our course for the next 24 hours. This particular rogaine had two time divisions, roving 15 and 24 hrs. The roving 15 means that teams get to choose 15 out of the 24 hrs to be on the course. The 24 hr division is pretty straight forward, you can be on the course for 24 hrs. Since our team was full of rogaining neophytes (Rob had complete one prior rogaine, while myself and Sean had not yet experienced the greatness that is rogaining) we opted for the conservative 15 hr time division.
We mapped out our proposed route for the next 24 hrs and built in time delays (because they will inevitably happen). We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed to HQ which consisted of two tents and a barn. After a 5-10 min speech, the gun went off at high noon and our adventure was underway.
We took off jogging for our first point. As luck would have it we missed our first completely and realized it a bit too late (woops). We decided to press on for the next point. Our contours told us that the next point was at the intersection of the three "waterflows" (there was very little actual water anywhere on the course). So I volunteered the great idea of walkign along the "waterflow" to make sure we hit the point. Well the good news was that we hit the point, the bad news is that it took forever to get through growth in the "waterflow". One big point, stick to the trail as much as possible because it is much much faster.
We spent a total of 10 hrs on the course the first day. We improved significantly and hit the rest of the points that we had mapped out. Our team decided to minimize the amount of night navigation we would do because it is a bit more difficult to navigate when you can't really see. We got back to HQ at 10, ate, then passed out.
We woke up at 6:30 and got on the course at 7am. We took these five hours hard and picked up a few extra points. Good effort to my teammates. Over the course of 24 hrs, we did 39 miles on trail/off trail (estimates thanks to Sean and his string, which can be accessed at seancoyler.com). We won the novice category for both divisions (had a higher score than winners of the 24 novice division), but in the big scheme the veterans smashed us. Overall, a great expereince and it felt good to shake the rust off of my navigation skills.
Alex came in the next day and we had an epic week and a half adventure in New Zealand and along the Great Ocean Road. I am not going to launch into a description of this adventure at this moment, instead I will take the following approach. I will let Alex write things from his perspective and then I will add my own thoughts, comments, ponderings, etc. and this will be posted in due time.
So this post will resume at the 20th of May. I just dropped off Alex who is now bound for the airport and the States. I then go to class (I know, sometimes I choose to actually go to my classes and not skip them...) I spent the next two days catching up on life in Melbourne and a few minor uni assignments. Then another adventure begins: my first ultimate frisbee tournament.
So lunch time on Friday (May 22) roles around and eight of us pile into a suburban for an epic journey. The frisbee tournament is in New South Wales and approximately a 9-10 hr journey by car. So a few funny things happened to me during this window between Friday and Sunday. I woke up early Friday morning with this incessant itch and could not sleep well. I did not think too much of it and went back to bed. This happened a few more times and I thought I had bed bugs in bed. Great, but I will deal with it once I get back from the tournament. As I sit in our suburban during the car ride up, the itching returns and gets worse. My whole stomach is itching and I lift up my shirt and a rash is covering my entire stomach. A few hours pass and the rash now completely covers my entire upper body. I was a bit worried because nothing comparable has ever happened before. When we hit a major town, we stop for food and I go to the chemist to get drugs. I get allergy medication and an anti-itch cream. The rash comes back on and off for the next 24 hrs and then ultimately goes away (praise the lord). The other funny thing is that an ATM ate my money, by that I mean it did not give me cash and deducted it from my balance, still sorting this out with my bank.
But on to the actual frisbeee. I had a good first ultimate tournament experience. We played seven games in two days and got 7th out of 10 teams (had a 4-3 record). We did pretty good considering half our team had never played together before and our competition was wicked good. Good antics and laughters all weekend.
So where do we go from here? Well I have to research and write to papers in the next two weeks (plenty of time). But right now I am off to the Queen Victoria Market to get food so I can cook/eat. Toodles...
PS: I do have a lot of pictures of some my adventures: time in Sydney with my sister Angelique, canyoning over eater break, NZ, and the Great Ocean Road. These will be put up eventually so stayed tuned.
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