Armidale

Australian Champs and ASOC Carnvial were held in Armidale, northern NSW. With the first event starting in the morning rather than the usual afternoon slot, it was a bit of a rush and a long 8hr drive. The girls were members of the ACT Schools team which departed Canberra early on Friday morning. We found ourselves on the road about an hour and a half later after doing the various necessary jobs related to going away aka dropping off the dog :) 

With Al travelling for work, we also gave Rob a lift up and he was subjected to listening to a David Attenborough audio book. Both the boys did their fair share of sleeping - Andy was recovering from covid and Rob, well he was just being Rob who can sleep anywhere at anytime!

The drive up was mostly fine - hit the usual traffic and roadworks in Sydney and on the M1 and a traffic jam at Raymond Terrace which is the end of the freeway. Stops at The Shoppe in Cowan and Billy T Cafe in Stroud were both great. Greater concentrate was required through the beautiful forested hilly areas around Gloucester as the cloud descended and the misty rain began. We caught up to Cath as she was charging in Walcha. Eventually we rolled into NEGS, the boarding school in Armidale where the ASOC teams were staying to drop off the girls luggage (there was limited space on the team buses) but they hadn't arrived yet!  While waiting we registered and bumped into various other interstate orienteers.

Our base for the week was a spacious 3 bedroom cabin at the Armidale Tourist Park which we were sharing with Cath as Eoin was in Ireland, sadly for his Dad's funeral.

The Australian Middle Distance and Australian Relays were the first competitions. Sound runs from our family - Katy placed 8th in W16; Ella was 12th in W20E; Andy 7th in M50 and I was 11th in W50. 

For the relays - Ella's team in W20E came 5th (3rd Oz team); Katy unfortunately mispunched and Andy struggled around the M45 course with his team coming 2nd behind the Kiwis.