Stu’s report of the rogaine.

The rogaine was approx 25km of rolling to steeper terrain mostly on tracks with some shortcuts through eucalypt forest. It was a really nice stage, I headed out about an hour or so before the first teams arrived at the TA. It was fast travel on the fire trails catching the odd glimpse of brumbies and roos running or jumping beside the tracks. The off trail pieces were a good chance for good navigation to gain some time as taking the track option was usually 3 or 4 times longer. Most of the off trail was relatively good going picking up the odd brumbie trail but a few sections were full of fallen trees and slow going. As I gained altitude patches of snow appeared and by the time I reached the top of pilot mountain there was a good 15cm cover on the ground. Very cool. Can’t let an opportunity like that go to waste so snowman construction began . Halfway through construction 4TC came up the track. They were traveling well and were in good spirits and stopped for a chat before carrying on to their 2nd CP. They were traveling anti-clockwise like Girls on top while Nga Rakau, Securify (and myself) went clockwise. Teams had to collect 6 out of 7 controls although all so far have opted to skip control C which is significantly out of the way. Girls on top were next to the top of the hill just as construction was completed. They stopped for a few photos with frosty before carrying on. Nga Rakau and Securify would have been behind me but as I was near frozen by this stage I headed back to TA. A few teams were having some difficulty finding their first (my last) CP making lots of confusing tracks in the process but most seemed to work it out eventually. A quick run back to TA where I thought I would get 3 or 4 hours sleep before Nga Rakau came in but it was more like 2 – they are going great!
Will head off for the next TA (bike to kayak) soon but might have a quick bike up the hill first to see some of the snow in the daytime and see if Frosty survived the night.

Note: as I walk up the hill to sent this, 4TC just arrived at the TA (approx 10am). Dave having spent the night with a few stomach issues.

(Pic: Girls on Top with Frosty the Snowman)