Ups and Downs – 2025 Navshield

I was up early and went in search of coffee and food – readily available at the Salvos catering area! The weather forecast was for a high of 5 or 6*C and I was not disappointed! I hanged out by the fire of the Springwood Bushwalkers camp (we had packed away everything) waiting for the briefing.

At 09:00 there was a big surge and all teams scattered in the landscape. The first checkpoint is always easy to find as many teams are likely to go your way. Then afterwards the teams disperse. We did progress steadily and went though our planned route. We stopped to help a team who had an injured member and then continued. We decided to follow a steep fire trail to the next ridge… By that time we had climbed and gone down hills several times…
Then came the quest for checkpoint 91. We got in too soon and ended up on the wrong spur. We rectified the situation and joined an SES team that had appeared on the right spur! The description was “80 m south of the watercourse” which was correct on the map but did not help greatly on the ground! After some searching we found the flag and had a rest and a quick lunch! The noise attracted all the teams making their way down to waypoint 90… unfair! We had spent almost one hour trying to find the point! At that moment we changed our plan: we were supposed to cross the creek and climb on the other side which on the map was steeper than where we had come from! We started to climb back up the 240 m difference of elevation and my legs rebelled! I eventually made it to the top – that was not a pretty sight…

We went though a couple of checkpoints and were “ambushed” by bushrangers, Justine and Matt. At the compulsory radio control we had a chat with Ross by the fire… everything to delay the inevitable but we had to “go back to work”! We continued on our quest and ended up on a big fire trail: we were officially geographically misplaced! By that time I was tired, physically and mentally! While thinking about our predicament, one of the Blue Mountains SES teams materialised and we were back on track, literally! At the checkpoint, Kevin and I decided that we had enough of going up and down and called it a day! We arrived back at the base and were welcomed by snow flurries…

As always, it was a good but tiring day! At least this year we finished before 18:00 and did not lose half of our points!
I may be delusional but I think I am improving navigation-wise but I am out of the league compared to Kevin when it comes to reading the landscape!