Bush Orienteering on Melbourne's Doorstep

Sunday, 5 June 2016

Persistent drizzle greeted competitors at today's MelBushO event at Yarra Bend Park. Running through the grassy areas resulted in wet socks within seconds and the mud that had formed on some of the bush tracks made them extremely slippery.

The turnout was fair, most of the competitors on the harder courses (course 1 - 39 entrants, course 2 - 52 entrants) were regulars.  There were a lot more newcomers and occasional orienteers in the moderate (course 3 - 29 entrants) and the easy (course 4 - 32 entrants).

For the longer courses, special care had to be taken to find the next control, as the course setter had very cleverly sent competitors in all directions from the bridge that crosses the Eastern Freeway on Yarra Bend Road. I started to run to control 7 only to realise that I actually had to cross to the south side of the bridge and through the park depot to get to control number 4!

It was the same situation again on leg 7 to 8 in course 1 where a second bridge crossing was also required and then a change of direction.