By Thorlene Egerton.

Get ready for an unforgettable adventure at our upcoming rogaine event in northern Tasmania! Set against the backdrop of the imposing Ben Lomond, this event will take you through a range of stunning ecosystems including open native forests, mature coniferous and runnable eucalypt plantation forests, farmlands, and high altitude meadows.

The event will be located near Deddington and includes the hills on either side of the valley known as Glover country - made famous by the artist John Glover.  The area is teeming with birds and wildlife. Whether you're a seasoned navigator or new to the sport, this rogaine promises a wonderful experience, blending physical challenge, nature bathing and navigation practice. There will be a 12-hour and 6-hour options both starting at noon. You will be able to camp in the hash house field on both Friday and Saturday nights. Gather your team, embrace the great outdoors, and enjoy the camaraderie that makes rogaining so special.

Don't miss out on this chance to create lasting memories in one of Tasmania's most beautiful rogaining regions.  Entries are now open.

By Lucy Hawthorne.

I didn’t expect to set another metrogaine so soon after the 2021 Lenah Valley Hop. But every time I went for a walk, my now well-trained setter’s eyes would see a new boulder, a novelty letter box, or some graffiti that I desperately wanted to share with others. So when Gary said that he’d like another metrogaine on the 2024 calendar at last year’s AGM, I volunteered without a second thought. And so the Lenah Valley Hops Again (LVHA) was born.

I didn’t want a rerun of 2021, so I excluded all LVH1.0 checkpoints. Given the number of South Hobart hash houses we’ve had in recent years, I also tried to exclude those checkpoints too. Gone was Noah’s waterhole – one of my favourite checkpoints. Instead, I used the nearest possible humanmade object – an old rusty signpost – which caused less-experienced map readers some grief.

Given most LVH1.0 entrants headed south, looping around Knocklofty and Golden Gully, I decided to shift the LVHA map a little bit north, revealing more of Glenorchy and Tolosa Park, including Chapel Falls and the late Tony Woodward’s wonderful “Frida’s Carload” sculpture outside Moonah Arts Centre. Checkpoint counts revealed that this shift successfully lured people north, with a significant number of teams visiting the terrific view at 100 (the single bench in West Moonah). Checkpoint 90, outside the Lady Franklin Gallery, was the most popular checkpoint. Checkpoint 86 – a public artwork on the South Hobart rivulet - was the least visited (a mere 12 teams).

I was asked by one entrant after the event if the checkpoint numbering was random. Far from it. Every quarter was designed to be more or less equal (where possible), and every 16th similarly so. Challenging or notable checkpoints (such as a location with good views, or a kitsch koala letterbox) were given high scores as lures. But checkpoint placement was also used to influence routes and keep people from straying into private property, for instance.

Course setters always fret about checkpoints moving or disappearing before the event. One of the vetters discovered that the original 60 (a basketball hoop screwed to a public tree) had been removed, so I looked up my very long shortlist of “finds” to come up with hasty alternative (a sign saying “which way”).

What I hadn’t accounted for was a sneaky addition to a checkpoint. I’d spotted the topiary ducks (checkpoint 62) on a dog walk just a month before the event. I have a particular obsession with topiaries, and so I did a last-minute substitute from a rather banal Bunnings lizard sculpture in an adjacent street. A topiary is pretty slow growing – not much could change in a couple of weeks… or so I thought. On the day of the event, as the metrogaine competitors started to come in, sweaty and tired and happy, I got reports of the topiaries with “hats and scarves”. Curious, I later had a chat to the owner of the ducks and discovered someone had tipped him off about the ducks being included as a question on the morning of the event and he’d rushed out to give them scarves and hats in celebration (apparently they get Santa hats at Christmas too). Unfortunately, the extra clothing led to some interesting answers because the ducks’ forms were obscured, but hopefully this story makes up for the confusion.

Thanks go to all the volunteers who helped out before and during the event, particularly Gary Carroll, who created and maintains the master Hobart map, as well as the vetters: Neil Hawthorne, Bernard Walker, Sara Brain, and Gary. Metrogaines only happen if we have setters to create the courses, so if you’re in the habit of passing features and thinking “that’d make a good checkpoint”, I encourage you to get in touch about setting a future event.

By Gary Carroll
 
This year’s Australasian Rogaining Championships were held in my old stomping grounds, Western Australia. It had been 14 years since my last rogaine in WA, so I was excited not only for the event but also to reconnect with old friends.
 
I teamed up with Andre Morkel, current president of WARA and young supervet. The event had a quintessential Western Australian feel: a single 24-hour competition without shorter options, numerous volunteers working hard on equipment and catering, and over 360 participants (including 81 from interstate and New Zealand). The map scale was 1:50,000 with 5m contours, making the terrain appear hillier than it actually was. Unfortunately, WA doesn’t have access to vegetation data or LiDAR, as we do in much of Tasmania, so the map only included minimal vegetation details, showing just the plantations that made up about 20% of the map area. The majority of the native bush was easy to walk through, although there were some challenging watercourse crossings infested with blackberry. Much of the event area is now a national park, but historically was logged, leaving behind a maze of tracks and tramways of varying quality, not all of which were mapped. The mapping of tracks within the plantations was also challenging. These unmapped tracks ended up being the downfall of many teams.
 
Our strategy was simple: Go for the high-point controls. While this approach doesn’t always work, it suited this course well. We avoided major mistakes but were stymied by a vague gully without a strong attack point around 5 a.m. which we eventually found. We pushed hard in the daylight hours and skipped several 20- and 30-point controls that weren’t worth the time required. Our route formed a figure eight, passing through the hash house at midnight only for a quick resupply of snacks and fresh batteries (which I forgot to grab but luckily didn’t need). We covered 95 km with 2,200 m of elevation gain.
 
The clear overall winners were Paul Williams and David Symons from WA. The first-place women’s team was Jenni Blyleven and Anne Frankland from NZ, while our own Thorlene Egerton and Jon Sutcliffe were the top mixed team.
 
The following Tasmanians participated, enjoying the terrain and spotting local wildlife, including emus and big kangaroos, as well as a wide variety of wildflowers:
 
10th and 1st MSV, 2770 pts, Gary Carroll and Andre Morkel (WA)
11th and 1st M23, 2710 pts, Xavier Scott and Sam Woolford
13th and 1st Mixed, 1st XV and 1st XSV, 2610 pts, Thorlene Egerton and Jon Sutcliffe
23rd and 3rd Womens, 2nd WV and 2nd WSV, 2200 pts, Christine Brown and Karen Pedley
27th and 3rd XSV, 2070 pts, Simon Allen and Karen Wild-Allen
39th, 1790 pts, Liz Canning and Hugh Fitzgerald
43rd, 1600 pts, Neil Hawthorne and Lucy Hawthorne.

Australian Rogaining Association President Paul Guard, with Open Mixed winners Thor Egerton and Jon Sutcliffe
 
The Interstate and Trans-Tasman Challenge Trophy, which is determined using a point system for podium positions, was won by Tasmania (19.5 points) ahead of WA (16.5 points) and NZ (13 points). Well done Tasmania! Tassie previously claimed the trophy in 2021 in South Australia, though most Victorians were excluded from that event due to COVID travel restrictions.
 
Full results, team routes, and a range of statistics can be found on Greig Hamilton’s excellent Rogaining Results website.
 
The turnaround until the next Australasian Champs will be quick. ACTRA is hosting the 2025 Australasian Champs in the Snowy Mountains, scheduled for March 15th and 16th. The 2025 Intervarsity Champs, for which the NAMSF travel subsidy will be available, will be held in conjunction with the NSW Champs around September.

Deddington Dilemma

Saturday, 16 November 2024

Deddington, Tasmania

A 12- or 6-hour rogaine set against the backdrop of the imposing Ben Lomond. This event will take you through a range of stunning ecosystems including open native forests, mature coniferous and runnable eucalypt plantation forests, farmlands, and high altitude meadows.

Entries open now.

 

2025 Australasian Rogaining Championships "Murrumbidgee Wayfaring"

15-16 March 2025

Experience the open plains and high country bush of northern Kosciuszko National Park. Situated at the northern end of Long Plain, this area features long unburnt tall forest with grassy plains. Expect lots of variety in this course, where the setters are wanting to show you it all. Hosted by the ACT Rogaining Association and set by champion rogainers David Baldwin and Julie Quinn. 

Bus transport from Canberra will be available. More details to come.

 

For a full list of rogaines in other states, visit the Australian Rogaining Association calendar.