Turon Gold Rush Rogaine

Saturday 28 to Sunday 29 April

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So, on the 28th and 29th of April, I set off on a 24 hour rogaine with Dunk and Grace, in Turon Nation Park, which is just west of Wollemi Nation Park.
Our aim was to be competitive - we wanted to walk throughout the whole night, and walk fairly fast. I had competed in one 24 hour rogine previously, but it was Dunk and Grace's first.

The day started off wet, and most teams began walking with rain jackets on. Fortuantely, the light rain soon subsided, and we were left with a dry but windy (well, up on the ridges) day. The terrain was fairly hilly, from a minimum elevation of around 760masl, to about 1060masl. About a quarter of the rogine was over grazing land, and the rest was wooded. The totally amazing thing about the wooded area was that it was completely free of scrub. None whatsoever. Yet just 50km to the east, in Wollemi NP, I have encountered some of the worst scrub I have ever been through.
We hit our checkpoints fairly consistently, although we did managed to descend the wrong ridge around sundown.

Our first big break was at a lovely abondoned homestead, and we took about 40 minutes to eat our dinner. Just after we resumed, we had to climb one of the steepest (and most open) ridge we have climbed. It was straight forward to climb, just very steep.
We continued to hit the checkpoints at night, and enjoyed our next big break at the All Night Cafe (a fire with free coffee and cakes). Some people were sleeping by the fire, but head off again after about half an hour.

The morning got progressively harder as fatigue set in. At one point I had to convince Grace that we really had to climb this ridge, and not head down the unmarked road. Her body wanted to go downhill, and her head almost believed the body.
We struggled up the last few hills, but finished with about 20 minutes to spare. Finally.
When the results came through, we found we had come 5th overall, and 3rd in the Mixed Division, with 2590 points, only 270 behind 3rd place. Fantastic! We were pretty stoked, and we completed our aims.

5th Overall; 3rd in Mixed
2590 points
23:40