Terry’s Little Terror Treasure!

The colour of my washing machine water was true testament to the fun endured during Terry’s 24hr Point to Point Rogaine! BLACK! Just like the darkness of Saturday night! In stark contrast were everyone’s head torches – remember the recue helicopter flying overhead at about 8pm Sat night? -I can confirm after chatting to the crewies, that they did not see any of us running around in circles as they flew to Atherton!

Twelve teams signed on for the 24hr and as Terry mentioned while driving the bus to the start area, all the top NQ navigators were sitting behind him on the bus (it was noted that Brett and I were technically sitting to his side!!!) – not to worry, I had my GPS in the form of Chris White and Brett had his compass (Rod Grey) so we weren’t fazed!

On a technical note, the course format and fact that you received maps as you went, kept us guessing as to whether all the checkpoints were attainable. We wondered if Terry would whack in 20 odd CP’s on the final map just to make it funny for him and torture for our sleep-deprived minds! Kinda like saying ‘well done making it this far in good time, now eat this!!!’ As we found out however, the course was achievable and a perfect mix of varying terrain with the amazing Hash House Hot Meals sooooo very much appreciated – thank you thank you thank you Kim, Sandra & Mike!

It’s hard to know other teams tactics. For our part, we pushed pretty hard. We overshot one checkpoint and in that time 3 teams past us. This was awesome close racing. Four teams arrived into the first hash house together. We took off a minute after Team ‘Faufpo’ (Brett, Rod, Tony) and on a slightly different bearing. Racing the impending darkness we dropped a litre or two of sweat on the way up the ridge out of Emerald Ck (in fact it was at this time I realised I had burnt a lot more energy than expected and it took a couple of hours of concerted effort with drinking and eating to get back on par). As we ascended the ridge we passed Team Faufpo (please guys – an explanation for the name?) below us on another spur – this confirmed that for now we were in front.

The mid section was our strongest leg with Chris landing us on the top of every CP. Another hot meal – thank you thank you thank you – had us in and out of the second hash house within 10 minutes. Night nav is not easy for those who grew up with a compass in their cot, add fatigue and getting lost is too easy – messes with your mind don’t it!!! – Massive kudos to those who stepped up and had a go.

Leg three had us steady up and really focus on where we were at all times. When on the top of the mountain at 656m near CP 57 we glimpsed head lights behind us – we cursed whatever team it was for being so damn persistent and keeping the pressure on us! “We’re not stopping again” was agreed upon and off we went. With so many nav options we were honestly never sure of our race position. We did know we gave it our best crack – and that we didn’t wake up the guys camping on Vievers Track at the creek crossing!

Big shout out to Terry, Mike, all the volunteers and the Cedar Park Crew. To all competitors – be thankful Terry set this route as there were plenty of Lantana outcrops he could have sent us through – good thing he sets a course he’d want to do, and another reason they are so good.

Another one please

Stru

Oh and to Shane, glad you found the tick and have ‘just cause’ for piking out on Davies Ck after what would’ve dropped most men hours earlier!

Results here