Nationals at Ballarat

We headed south for our first week of the school holidays for some orienteering and fun in Ballarat, teaming up with Cath, Eoin and Aoife. Our rendezvous point was the Paddlesteamer Motor Inn at Albury. Leaving Canberra a little later than expected, we weren't able to make it there for dinner, so stopped at a pizza place in Holbrook only to bump into one of Katy's kindy classmates and her family!

It was a fairly snappy start to the next morning as we still had another 4 hours of driving to the event. Luckily there was a fairly decent coffee shop almost next-door to the motel to help us on our way.

Ballarat is famous for it's intricate gold mining terrain. The carnival program was two middle distance events on the first weekend then the sprint, long and relays on the second weekend with a variety of other events during the week. Ella was keen to officially enter the M/W10N a shadow class for those just starting out.

The Victorian Middle Champs were held at Creswik Diggings, on the outskirts of Creswick. As I was on the earlier start, Andy ran around with Ella before going on his course. She had fun and managed to make it around with a little assistance. Meanwhile Katy played with a gang of girls at the assembly area.

The next morning was the Australian Middle Champs held at Petticoat Gully adjacent to the previous days map. Katy and Jessica were excited with the prospect of a string course and charged around discovering the many animal controls! With the allocated start times, Andy shadowed Ella around the challenging blue course. I bumped into them while on my course with Ella sounding pretty happy.

Post events we always seemed to end up at a coffee shop which is not surprising really when travelling with Andy, Eoin and Cath who all love their coffee. While the adults chatted, under Aoife's guidance, Ella became very proficient with her cat's cradle.