orienteering (Ophir South) 1:02:38 [3] 3.9 km (16:04 / km)
shoes: Inov8 ORoc 280
Ophir Diggings was day 1 of Easter 1996, my first year in elites, and when I got out my 25-year-old map last week and looked at how steep it is, I promptly traded down from 6km to 4km for today's course. A good thing that I did so, since it was after 11 when I eventually went out, having been involved in helping the lady who'd broken her ankle on the way to the first control (not that she knew yet that it was fractured but even my worst sprain which I couldn't fully put weight on for two weeks hadn't resulted in an ankle looking that deformed or caused as much pain as she was in, so I was pretty sure it was broken although I didn't think it was my place to say so).
Anyway, I was very careful about my foot placement after that, especially as the first part of the course was steeply downhill towards the river, but I wasn't in any hurry and managed to get in & out of the junky diggings/erosions ok. Enjoyed the short leg 8-9 through the candle-lit tunnel and then promptly started contouring towards 12, having conveniently amnesed the fact that I first needed to go down the hill to 10 & 11, then back up to 12. Also enjoyed the last part of the course with 4 crossings of the sheoak-lined river (Lewis Ponds Creek which joins up with Summer Hill Creek at the site of the former gold-mining metropolis of Ophir), but was getting hungry towards the end.
In the afternoon we drove up Mt Canobolas and from the nearby campground, walked to Federal Falls which was 4km return, and later did a shorter walk to the 1350m summit of Mt Towac with glorious 360 degree views and not marred by any transmitter towers.