Easter Orienteering 2021

Thursday, 8 April 2021

After a late flight to Sydney, we stayed our first night out of the state since early 2020 in a dodgy yet perfectly located hotel in the Blue Mountains - it was just a 10 minute stroll down to the 3 Sisters lookout which we went to check out while the kids slept off our 12:45am arrival of the previous night.

Then it was onto Orange. Slowly! With the alternative route closed due to floods, all the traffic was driving the way we were, which made for some VERY slow going until the Lithgow turnoff. Nevertheless we made it to the first event of the Easter orieneering carnival - the family relay - with plenty of time to spare.

I'd been looking forward to this for a while - with Zali running elites, I regained my spot in the team and only had to run the short leg, while Jon and Jett managed the long and medium legs respectively.

None of us made mistakes which had us finishing in a very respectable 6th place overall (in a very strong field), and an even more respectable 3rd place on handicap which was super cool as we won an Orange themed tea-towel as part of our prize pack!  Our trip had paid off already!

The next 3 days are a blur as we competed in 3 tough days of travelling and orienteering in hot weather, interspersed with swims in the lake and hanging out with our friends.  It's been so long and it was so lovely just to have time to relax and be together!

Our drive each day took us past this section of old road which I found really interesting! 

Orange is a really pretty town - particularly as the tree-lined streets turned to gold. There were lots of lovely parks and places to swim - including Lake Canobolas (above).   

It went by so quick and I failed to take many photos, but in the end Jon was third, I was second, Jett and Zali were both 4th - a commendable effort from everyone given how physically and technically demanding the competition was.  We all enjoyed it (in hindsight!) .