The Gib

Our second weekend of national orienteering competition was held at the Gib, a rocky hill near Bungendore with the Middle Distance on the Saturday and Relays on the Sunday.

Our split starts meant Andy entertained the children first taking the gang around the string course. A perfectly created course meant Andy could supervise the gang from the centre watching them complete the string course numerous times and then several more backwards!





On my return it was evident that the gang was still full of energy despite their laps of the string course so we decided to take them out on the blue (easy course). Turns out the gang dwindled a little and we were left with 7 girls! Together with Cath and Carolyn we wandered up to the start hoping they would still be there and we were in luck.




Assessing the gang, we opted for several groups each sharing a map - Lily & Aoife; Luca & Ella; Mira, Zoe & Katy. As soon as we started the older group sprinted away and it was the last we saw of them! So I had the pleasure to trundle along with the younger ones.

The three girls very diplomatically took turns holding the map between the controls. They each had an SI stick and checked each control number. Planning the route sometime involved choosing which bare rock to sit on to look at the map! I encouraged them to find where we were, identify which was our next control and we planned how we would get there.

We had the usual occasional fall but nothing too serious, drink stop and toilet stop. We saw love heart shaped rocks, the occasional pretty flower and admired the view down to the assembly area even waving to the parents! Early on in the course, a kangaroo was hopping around panicked looking for an escape route. I was just about to point out to the girls that I though the kangaroo's pouch looked big when out plopped the joey! Still very stressed, the mother kangaroo was madly hopping around with the poor little joey desperately trying to keep up. Finally she found a hole under the fence and hopped off with the joey still trailing behind.

Some 45 minutes later, the girls ran down the finish chute all very chuffed with themselves and by all accounts had a great time out there.

With no string course or easy course available on the Sunday, the gang spent most of their time between watching Makhaya's magic tricks, swinging in the hammock (until a few people fell out and hurt themselves!) or playing in the pine trees! All very low key but they still enjoyed themselves.

One of the really great things about big competitions is that we get to catch up with our interstate friends. Sunday night we had a full house with Cath, Eoin & Aoife and Ceri, Graham, Kate, Lachlan & Rohan for dinner.