2009 NSW Paddy Pallin Rogaine

On the 14th of June, I participated in the 2009 NSW Paddy Pallin Rogaine, held this year at Coolendel, a wildlife preserve west of Nowra. I didn't have a partner for this event, so I just put my name up on the partner finder page. Just before the deadline, I got an email from a girl name Olga from Queensland. We chatted a bit on the phone, and seemed to be a good match as far as ability, competitiveness, and tolerance of scrub. The day before the event, I picked her up in Nowra, where she was rock climbing all day. I've ended up meeting a few interesting people via the partner finder services of rogaines. Olga happens to have immigrated from Ukraine, so of course we talked a bit about some Russian experiences, as well as Australian experiences. Good conversation is a great addition to a good rogaine. This rogaine was on a really pretty course, right on the Shoalhaven River, and there were over 600 people participating in the event.

Camping the night before was quite nice. The park had proper toilets and showers, and a local Scout troop provided dinner. As it is early winter here, the temperature dropped off once the sun set. We pitched the tent and set everything up for an instant crash after dinner. The nice thing about camping next to the car is that a person can carry along whatever comforts desired without regard for weight. The next morning, I was up at 5:30 a.m., so I quietly set up the table and chairs (so as not to wake anyone else). Around 7 a.m., I began cooking breakfast. I woke up Olga, and in short order we went to get our maps. While I made the last part of breakfast, one of the male peacocks on the reserve decided to take a closer look at what I was cooking, but I gently brushed him away when it appeared as if he was going to start pecking at the contents of the fry pan.


We plotted our route, which included a couple of river crossings. It was a last-minute scramble to finish getting ready by start time, and we ended up starting about 10 minutes late. The first river crossing was early in the route, so it wasn't even worth removing shoes (although numerous competitors did). Our second target was on an island in the middle of the river. This part of the course was quite fun. We got the target, then finished crossing to the other side for the rest of our route.


Overall, we covered a decent distance, about 25 km, in the six hours. We did end up skipping 3 high point targets, simply because of time constraints. At the final river crossing, we had to scramble through a few hundred meters of dense scrub to reach the clearing where it was shallow enough to cross. (The winning team did a successful swim across and likely saved a great deal of time by doing so. But the river was quite cold.) We did one last sprint for the home stretch, and finished with about 8 minutes to spare. In the end, we got 800 points, which was still a very respectable score. We were both exhausted. Before grabbing lunch, we took down the tent and packed up the camping gear. Lunch consisted of a couple of homemade soups and hot dog sandwiches -- modest, but still very satisfying to exhausted people. While everyone finished their meal, the awards were handed out amidst random prizes and routine camaraderie. I'm looking forward to the next rogaine, and will likely partner with Olga again as opportunity permits.