Training Log Archive: jennycas

I'd roughed out an approximate M21 course which avoided the OOB paddocks & residential areas as much as possible, so thought I'd better test its viability, but this wasn't run at any sort of race pace because I kept stopping to check out stuff and also because my knees hurt. I'm going to have to rethink some route choices, because nobody's going to want to open gates or jump fences in the shearing yards etc. Parents enjoyed their walk around too, and afterwards I bought them ice cream in Gawler :)

Dedicated a significant portion of the afternoon to OA stuff and went for a short ride as it was getting dark, which made coming back through the West Tce cemetery kinda interesting.

My New Year's resolution (which I probably won't manage to keep) is to do less doomscrolling; it's not been good for either productivity or mental health this past year. (The bad habits actually started as far back as Oct 2019 when I realised that a *little* bushfire had started up in the midst of Wollemi NP...)

C • New Year resolutions 2

Legs & brain feeling a bit more lively (or at least more caffeinated) today so went for a moonrise trot around my favourite Christmas lights while they're still on display. Now I guess it's time for me to say Happy New Year to the few remaining friends I still have on AP?

As for a recap of the year, in the words of the Hilltop Hoods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu0hiX8MMnw
"2020's nothing but an unshaved ball-bag!"
I really didn't want to know anything about MC Suffa's personal grooming habits, but the song definitely resonates with me. (I think we've all spent so much of this year trying to think/act positively, and telling ourselves that other people are worse off so we shouldn't be whinging, but all this actually achieves is to wear you down and create a guilt trip for being self-centred...)

C • Amigos para siempre 1

C • I'm here jenny 8

Karka & back with Zara/Roo & Fern on tired legs after a perfectly normal day at work.

It was definitely not warm this morning, possibly only about 4 degrees when I got up? But an absolutely glorious clear morning for a run around the forest tracks (I decided against actual orienteering as this would have involved attempting not to trip over lots of tussocky stuff while the sun was low in the sky/right in my eyes) from the campground, avoiding kangaroos and wallabies which dashed across my path and startling a family of emus which ran ahead down the road for quite a way and I was slightly anxious that they might turn and come for me! Also there were black cockatoos flying overhead and I definitely saw at least one with a red tail :)

Back roads (too minor to have ever had border controls) back to SA took us through some lovely swampy forest, and I was disappointed when we got to Bool Lagoon to find that this was nothing like that, but instead a grassy open area which may have water and birds at some times of the year, although this was not one of them. Short walks to the top of granite outcrops at Christmas Rocks and Mt Monster were more fun than sitting in the car for 5 hours on the way home...

Event: 2020 Xmas 5 Days - CANCELLED
 

Quite a warm morning (the gusts of wind before dawn had died down - at least we weren't camping, but this could explain why the caravan park seemed to have emptied out) for another trot around the coastline, although not as far as I'd intended because knees were still painful. I took the O-map again but stuck to roads this time; looking at my course from the 1994 relays, I probably could have got through most places ok although one control had been on a rock outcrop along the beach, accessed by a sand-spit which no longer exists and so the rock is effectively an island now...I wonder how much the event's organisers had to consider potential high tides!

Started raining as we were leaving town, after finding the location of a house which G had delivered - of course. But then we went to some tiny out-of-the-way places such as Southend and Carpenter Rocks, where neither of us had ever been and where he hadn't delivered any houses. Rain continued on-and-off throughout the day, and we failed to find anywhere for lunch in Port MacDonnell as its two restaurants were completely full, so settled for fast food in deserted downtown Mt Gambier after earning it through ascent /circumnavigation of Mt Schanck volcanic crater during a convenient gap in between rain showers.

This evening's destination was Bailey's Rocks, across the Victorian border (we passed a dismantled border post in the pine forest) in Dergholm State Park and where no orienteering events have been held since the mid-90s. Arrived along with the final rain shower of the day and waited until it stopped to set up the tent, then walked amongst the pink granite boulders, cooked dinner, ate it huddled in the car because we hadn't brought enough warm clothes, and still at bedtime we hadn't seen any of the occupants of the 3 other vehicles camped there, and I was starting to worry that they'd gone hiking and got lost or met with foul play or something...me, catastrophise much???

We left home about 5pm last night (after introducing parents to the joys of Christmas ham - I had only meant for G to get a few slices, but he came home with a whole leg...) and got to the peaceful campground at Cantara with enough daylight left to set up tent/eat dinner, and with plenty of personal space, although by the time we were leaving this morning, people were already arriving to set up their camps for the weekend.

Anyway, I drew up a course on a copy of the 1994 map and went for a run this morning but it fairly soon turned into walk/fight, as anticipated. The big wattle bushes had died off in the drought, but now new vegetation has grown up amongst the old skeletons, and often I had to go around 3 sides of a bush, or even 5 sides, in order to find a way through. Even in the open basins I felt as though I had to cautiously step my way through the flourishing bunny's tail grass and bidgee widgees, so this hardly counted as exercise, especially since I cut the course quite short as it was a bit too physically challenging without providing enough sense of navigational achievement.

The rest of the day, meandering to Beachport via Kingston, Cape Jaffa (including lunch at the winery) & Robe, was interesting and enjoyable.

Good thing I'd booked accommodation in Beachport for tonight, because both the caravan parks look to be chockers. After we'd settled into our foreshore unit and gone for a walk along the jetty, I decided on a proper run and took with me the map from the 1994 Aust (Club?) relays. This was very scenic, and I even encountered a fellow painting the scenery. My destination was the so-called Pool of Siloam, and I thought I'd try out a few of the mapped singletracks to get through the coastal scrub, but although the trails may have existed 25 years ago, they surely don't now, and after rather too much bush-bashing, I am wondering: were they especially cut for the occasion, as was done with the Aust MTBO Champs a few years ago?

Supposedly this pool is 7 times saltier, and therefore much floatier, than the sea. I don't know about that, but it's definitely more algal than the ocean, and so out to the pontoon & back (while Geoff laughed at me from the safety of dry land) was quite enough. In the pub at dinner time, we saw the artist with his finished painting - impressive coastal scene.