WA Aus Champs - Part 2

Friday, 6 October 2023

Today is most likely Friday.  Only a few days since my last post but it seems like we've been lots of places and done lots of things!

Tuesday was the start of the Schools Champs and a more casual 3 days of competition for the non schools people like myself and Zali. It kicked off with a sprint race at a nice college in Perth with a super fun campus. Jett was 8th Australian in the senior boys competition with about that many NZers in front of him as well - they've sent 2 strong teams over here and they always raise the standard and the atmosphere.  Zali and I did the same course so I started 2 mins behind her with the intention of catching her before the finish but due to a succession of less than optimal route choices, she easily beat me home although not overall.  It was fun.  

After that, and because we didn't want to pay expensive CBD parking rates again when we could park for free if we returned to the city after 6pm, we went for a drive down to Rockingham - specifically Point Peron which looking interesting on the map. It turned out to be really interesting in real life too with some cool limestone rock features and pretty beaches:

Zali is actually looking at the Omeo Shipwreck here, just south of Perth. 

There was an old battery out on the point but the biggest military surprise for us was that the area is adjacent to a massive Navy base called HMAS Stirling on a nearby island connected by a huge bridge. The bridge was filled with constant stream of Navy traffic coming and going - it was quite a surprise that there was something that big - apparently over 3000 people work there.

After a nice walk around all the trails and up to the lookout we headed back to Perth and killed our last half an hour back in Kings Park before driving back into the CBD to park in the clearway-until-6pm right outside our hotel.  It's been fun staying in the city but the parking was a bit arduous.

On Wednesday we were up relatively early as we had a 1hr 45 minute drive out to the area for the Schools long distance champs. The parking was on an old airstrip and the terrain was sometimes nice and open, and other times thick and full of spiders in spider webs which freaked out the school kids a lot!

Jett was a bit disappointed in his run and his GPS tracking confirmed he made a few mistakes - he was 10th overall though which is testament to his strength in the forest and the hills. 

Zali and I went out close to each other again and we crossed paths a few times but then she came across a de-pouched joey which upset her as there was really nothing she could do to help.  While she was dealing with this I was on my hands and knees searching for my si-stick which was catapulted off my finger as I went through a bush. This is the 2nd time it has happened and because of the elastic it tends to have some velocity when it is caught like that. I eventually found it and continued on where I bumped into Zali who had skipped some controls to wait for me.  We met up on a beautiful flowery ridge which was lovely but not for Zali who was still very sad about the joey which was so young it didn't have fur so unfortunately would have been unviable for anyone to save.  We can only hope the mum came back once the forest had quietened down.  Zali decided not to continue the course so I went ahead.

After the event we headed to the little town of Pingelly - one of the few places I could get accommodation for just one night. The event the next day was in the same location so I didn't want to do 4 long drives in two days.  I'd been dubious about this accommodation for a while but it turned out to be okaaaay in a don't look too hard at the details way.  We were the only people staying and many of the other units were completely stripped for renovations which seemed to have been going on for while:

We ate dinner in the pub down the road which was pretty busy for a Wednesday night.