Thank you for Kristian and Bruce for writing the blog during the ARDF competition while Ewen was doing his team leader duties and waiting for Jenelle to be rescued from parts unknown. All six of us are all bringing home extra baggage in the form of medals.
Facilities at Sanyo Hotel exceeded our expectations
Dining roomWhere do I start, Kristian was not the only one with this dilemna
In our rooms chaos reigned
The workshop – organised chaosWork benchTrying to be tidyCable spaghetti
Photos from the closing celebrations
3 AmigosKai (W60)New friends
Banquet _ one of the many plattersWith one of the more elegant W60sWith one of the more elegant W60s
Fine and sunny departure from Shibukawa
We left the competition area in fine weather and sunshine (compared to the cloudy wet conditions) to be dropped off at various locations. Jack left before the rest of us were up, Greg was settled in for the long ride back to Tokyo, Kristian joined us for the train trip to Takasaki and was last seen running upstairs with his bag to catch his connecting train in under 4 minutes. (a fair indication of his fitness level). Bruce, Ewen and I continued our adventure and finally arrived in Matsumoto.
We spent some time in the Time Piece museum
Time Piece MuseumThis brings back memoriesRolling Ball Clock
and then devised our own street-o to various sites including shrines, temples, gardens and the icecream shop.
Control 1Control 2Control 3Control 4This looks like a good place to send my boysGallery forecourtGallery forecourt 2
Choosing dinner is always an interesting experience, our choices so far have been most acceptable.
Japanese BBQ – very good
Yesterdays trek was along the Nakasendo Way (built during Edo period) commencing after a 20 minute bus ride from Nakatsugawa, and continued through Magome to Tsumago. At this point (after 3 hr 30 min of walking and lots of up and downhill) Ewen and I opted for the bus to Nagiso station. Bruce continued on foot and arrived at the same time as the bus.
Road leading to start of Walk _ note artifical waterfallEwen at start of walkNakasendo Way 1Mini headstones 2One more step along the road I goMamoth stone tabletGarden at stone tabletEntrance to MagomeLittle villageOne of many water wheels – accosted by two schoolgirls to complete surveyNearly at top of hill but still a long way to goRice paddies and cypressRice harvesting
Mini stone headstonesMore mini tabletsAnother pretty spotOld Edo town – TsumagoRocky creek bedWater wheels needed a lot of investigationRocky creek bedEntrance to TsumagoCleansing facilities in the little townsA D51351, whatever that is, for the train buffsNagiso-end-of-Bruces-walk
We have sorted out our transport across the Kurobe – Tateyama Alpine Route and will head off today for the start.
Today’s blog comes from Bruce, and covers the last 2 days of competition here in Gumna.
However, before that, here’s some pictures from the awards ceremony covering the first 2 days.
The Aussie teamGOLD for Australia. Kristian M21 championMe ! Bronze for Day 1 ARDF on 2mTeam Bronze for Jack Ewen Day 1Jenelle 3rd on Sprint EventEwen the silver sprinter
Yesterday was the 2nd classic ARDF event; 2m for Jenelle, Ewen & Jack, 80m for Kristian and myself.
Yep more wettish conditions, but far less rain, more just humidity and wet forest. After issues with water somehow making it into the 80m sniffers the day before, in the torrential rain on the Sprint day, we were all equipped with multiple layers of plastic bags today.
On the bus, Day 3 classic ARDFFlooded riverThe start, Day 3 (same start on Day 1,3 & 4 !
The Start location was the same, but we went the opposite direction.
For some reason they had North at an angle and downwards on the map; no orienteering conventions followed here ! At least there are blue North lines.
The terrain was hillier, with some pretty impressive cliffs.
Kristian wasn’t quite able to maintain his commanding form today, but still managed a commendable silver, as luckily others in Open found it tough too. We estimate the running ‘orienteering’ time would have been under 30mins, so the course length was short, but tricky dircetion finding.
Ooops. Typhoon damage.
Not the same story in my age group, with some times around 44 mins (well under the Open times, with the TX we didn’t have to find only a few mins extra.
I had an awful day making mistakes/confused on both my first and last TX, so with 2 major errors consigned down to 7th.
All Jenelle’s W60 girls DNF’d either with overtime or no TXs found, with Jenelle heartbreakingly the closest on only 2 mins overtime. The overtime rules in ARDF are sudden death ! Time limit was 2.5 hours. More some navigational confusion this time, apparently. No medals in W60 for this one.
Ewen and Jack have pulled off a team gold. Jack did a great course to get bronze, but Ewen had a pretty awful time on 2m at one of the TX’s, and made it back with only minutes to spare. Those who beat Jack, though, each only had 1 team-mate, and they both failled to find all TX’s, so that puts the team result up the top, despite the pretty average total time.
Greg, as a roving field referee, may have travelled more distance than any of us competitors, as he visited all controls, both 2m and 80m, and he had a fun time walking aroind with his Japanese counterpart. One 80m TX was misplaced, resulting in it being only about 350m from another 80m TX. Both Kristian and my GPS traces confirm this. The organisers are collecting all contributed competitors GPS tracks in order to do some sort of live replay.
So, another pretty good day for the Aussies.
In the FoxOr today, the courses were yet again from the same start area, this time with a map overlapping with the first classic a fair bit, but landscape rather than portrait.
Again Kristian beats all for gold on a physically tough M21 course (only drop 1 particular FoxOr). By a good 25min margin too.
Today he was joined by Jennelle who picked her way carefully through the W60 course to soundly beat the other 2 ladies. Another gold.
Ewen had nothing left in the tank afterwards but did a consistent course to get a well earned silver. The
orienteering expertise showing through.
That’s it for the medals today. Looked for a while like I might get one despite a poor order selection on my part (really I should know better!), but two Lee’s from Korea downloaded very late, both with shorter times, pushing me into the 4th place twilight zone, with Nikolai from USA in first.
Nikolai from USA (originally Moldova) who thrashed me in the M50 sprint.
Great event by Japan, in challenging conditions, especially the sprint day. This terrain was much more forest runnable than back in 2005.
The only comments I might make were:
– The training day transmitters were not properly representative of those used in the field.
– Downloading at the hotel afterwards is a bit frustrating, not knowing till much later in the day how you fared.
– Transmitter placement a bit off yesterday resulting in TXs too close (but it didn’t really impact on the competition).
– Start list generation needs lots of work. Many in same category starting together.
Pictures from tonight’s awarding ceremony may appear in a later blog.
Sunrise at Izukyu Shimoda (an omen for the weather to come)
Sea kayaking.
Getting ready to kayak
Initial on land instructions, safety briefing, kitted out and out into the sea to practice paddling, and use of the rudder. Only one unscheduled swim from yours truly, unreal sensation. Paddled for about 2 hours to nearby cove (couldn’t call it a beach). Snorkelled, lucky enough to see some pretty little fish, a couple of larger ones that I tried to pursue but they could swim faster than me. Lunch on the rocks and headed back to starting point, Bruce, Kris and Ewen seemed to be quite proficient. As far as I was concerned steering the kayak was not second nature and invariably became unstuck at a critical moment. Arrived back at our starting point just as the afternoon storm broke. Almost didn’t need a shower to wash off the salt.
Transported back to Shimoda station, with just enough time to book tickets for the train to Tokyo. We journeyed together for part of the way. The last we saw of Bruce and Kris, was them scurrying along the platform to catch their connection in 4 minutes.
Prepared with our skirtsSetting outKayak1Kayak 2Kayak 3Preparing lunchGuideBeached!!Quick escapePrelunch swim !Prelunch swim 2Preparing lunchPreparing lunch 2Worth the waitAfter lunch stroll 1After lunch stroll 2Something in the rocks 1Something in the rocks 2Beach
Our Friday in Tokyo, Ewen and Jenelle took a bike tour. Very exhilarating riding on the streets of Tokyo, not for the faint hearted.
Island built on refuse.Green building with Rice paddy insideTokyo Railway StationView of the entrance to the Imperial PalaceOeno ParkLotus flower at Oeno ParkI found a bear!!Bear and riding companionsOur shelter from the afternoon stormGood karmaShinto ShrineThe safe way to cross the streetRiding through Akihabara – not for the faint heartedOne beautiful temple along the way
Tokyo tower – the communication engineers templeKiyosumi Gardens – this was the highlight for meKiyosumi Gardens 2Kiyosumi Gardens 3
Kiyosumi Gardens 4
Saturday trip to Mt Fuji
It took about 40 minutes longer than expected to get to Mt Fuji, bus travel is not the way to go in Japan. Passed an amazing fun park on the way.
Fun park Fuji Q
Ewen, Mark and Jenelle joined Jack for a tour. We eventually got to Fuji 5th station (where the climb starts) about midday. The traffic was very heavy and crowds of people. Fuji was being coy, and only managed a fleeting glimpse as the fog rolled in.
First glimpse of FujiMark at entrance to the climb at 5th stationWeekend crowds at 5th stationSelfie
Visited the lava forest, Shiraito Falls and Lakes and garden.
Lava forestLava forest 2Enchanted forest from the Magic Faraway tree.Maybe some goblin is hiding underneathSome interesting vegetationDown to the caveSome of us were more cautiousA really cool place in more ways than one.Shiraito no Taki Falls 1Shiraito no Taki Falls 2Final glimpses of Fuji 1Final glimpses of Fuji 2Manicured GardensWalled Gardens
Look who was waiting for us a the railway station. It is a pity we had booked the bus. We could have done with a really useful engine.
PS
These activities seem quite tame after more recent events!!
We have all settled in at event HQ in Ikaho Japan.
The training day was wet, but the signals all seemed to be quite strong. (perhaps too strong?)
The sprint transmitters seemed to be stronger than the classic ARDF transmitters!
Dinner (Chairs not included)SI controls for classic ARDF
ARDF classic competition #1
On a very wet day the ARDF competitors gathered up a muddy creek ready for the start.
Jenelle, Bruce and Kristian were all on 2m whilst Jack and Ewen were on 80m.
The very first start group had Kristian and Ewen in it, with the other Australians starting up to 30 mins later.
The course provided interesting terrain with some very runnable forest, and some areas that you wouldn’t dream of entering into, and if you ask Jenelle possibly even a nice house with a warm heater in it?
After some mucking around on his first Tx Bruce gathered his thoughts, and finished strong with a fantastic sprint from on side of the map to the other. Bruce managed to grab Bronze in the M50 2m category.
Ewen had some initial technical issues, but then recovered and had a pretty good run, finishing just outside of the medals.
Jack had a couple of overshoots but also managed to get to the end without too much drama. Jack came in in 4th position in the M60 category.
Jack and Ewen secured bronze in the M60 classic 80m team competition.
Jenelle spent a fair amount of time searching for Tx4, but then with time almost up and having switched to her spare receiver she attempted to locate the finish beacon, but this seemed to be in the wrong direction. Eventually after flagging down a passing motorist, Jenelle was shown some true Japanese hospitality, before her hosts were eventually able to get in contact with the organisers, who when they were collecting her also appeared to be some what lost.
Kristian had a great start getting the first 4 Tx’s pretty quickly, but took the scenic route around a pig farm to get the last one, before being the first competitor back at the finish. This run was enough secure gold in the M21 category.
Along the way various people saw Greg wandering around looking very official. Greg found most of the 2m and 80m transmitters.
Bruce routeTX locationsGreg looking officialBus to the classic comp
80m ARDF Sprint
It was very, very, very wet thanks to Tropical storm Etau.
Bruce got everything he needed, but unfortunately one of his punches didn’t register correctly.
Ewen managed to find everything he needed, and ended up in the silver medal position in M60.
Jack did the first half, but then went to the finish thinking it was the spectator beacon.
Jenelle found all of hers except for 1 and headed into the finish a little bit early. Which gave her the bronze medal in W60.
Kristian found everything eventually, but finished outside of the placings.
There were a number of (probably water related) technical issues, which are currently trying to be resolved before we go back into the wet tomorrow.
Greg only managed to spot Jenelle out on course in the rain.
(sorry, no pics today, as it was too wet.)
Tonight is the awarding ceremony for the first classic event and the sprint, and apparently it can viewed live at http://www.jarl.com/reg3ardf2015/
The presentations are scheduled to start at 7pm local time (8pm AEST).
From Kagoshima – Coordinating public transport is not without its dramas. Missed the only bus to the Samurai Village and had to take a taxi. Immaculately trimmed and maintained gardens, not likely to be replicated in Melbourne.
An attempt to visit the Kamekazi museum at Chiran was thwarted by heavy rain (big Queensland sized rain drops) and lack of time. We found a warm place (coffee & tea rooms to shelter) as we waited for a bus back to the train.
The second attempt to visit the Kamekazi museum was successful, but needed some fine timing to coordinate train-bus connection. Chiran was the site of the training airbase for young pilots. Old film footage of the servicemen working on aircraft brought mixed feelings (my dad having done the same in New Guinea).The photos of the families waving goodbye and the translations of the messages the pilots wrote to their families were quite moving. Proud young men doing what they thought was the right thing to do for their country and families at home.
The hot sand bath and hot springs were definitely worth a visit. Didn’t know the soles of the feet and heels were so sensitive to heat. It was rather embarrassing having a male voice calling CQ just outside the entrance of the women’s onsen.
They looked so elegant !
We timed our return to Kagoshima perfectly and caught the Shinkansen to Hiroshima, speeds over 300 kph.
Warm welcome for the trainSpecialty of Kyushu- green tea iced shortbread
Day 1 in Hiroshima, began with a visit to the Peace Memorial Museum and Park.
Cenotaph in Peace ParkPeace Memorial Park HiroshimaA-bomb domeA-bomb dome 2
Impact of bomb on metal structuresHeat-fused glass bottlesVery sad story of one young girl’s fight for lifeMore of her paper cranesSense of achievement
Exhibits included diorama of the aftermath, remnants of clothing, building materials and household items.
The story of the paper cranes made by young girl in the hope that they would save her life.
Our attempts to fold paper cranes were pretty abysmal, and needed much help from the women to get the final result.
Entrance to Hiroshima castle (reconstructed)
Tori at Hiroshima castle
Mid afternoon – visit to the Naka Incineration Plant, not your usual tour attraction, necessitated another run to catch the bus. It is well set up for viewing with a wide corridor down the centre, all behind glass of course, and scaled model explaining the layout. Apparently it is quite spectacular at night when it is all lit up.
Day 2 Hiroshima Today’s excursion to Miyajima Island went ahead despite some pretty ordinary weather. Arrived at high tide and the entrance to the Shrine was under water and not possible to walk to the Tori (gate). Opted to take the ropeway and climb to the top of Mt Misen. Unfortunately we only had a good view of the fog. Ewen and I checked out the waterfall route on the way down. Lots of granite steps and very slippery in parts. By the time we got back down the weather had fined up.
Tori at Miyajima Island at high tideStart of walk to Ropeway on Miyajima IslandEwen & Bruce hidden in the fog at top of Mount MisenLittle shrine at the waterfallEwen is still waiting for me.Glimpses of Hiroshima from walkwayRetarding basin below the waterfall
Pretty spot at the end of walkway
A visit to the aquarium. Penguin feeding (Humboldt penguins, saw none of these in Antartica), a sea lion show, colourful fish and various amphibious animals.
Aquarium on Miyajima IslandMore interesting fishJapan tea frog, cousin of Bufus Marinus
Humboldt penguinsHappy to meet you too
Glad to put our feet up at the end of the day. Dinner at a local bar. Very animated waiters. Lots of shouting and cheering. As my mother would have said, less of that and more concentrating on the job at hand. They forgot Bruce’s order.
Fleeting visit to Himeji to see the castle. Wedding cake castle. Seat of power here from 1400s. Castle has undergone several restorations over the years. Huge timber supports. Not a lift up window seat, but a defence mechanism for dropping of stones, pouring boiling oil & water on the enemy. Good view from top. (Photos in my next blog)
Getting expert at changing trains mid journey, successful at one connection, next trip has 3 connections.Let’s see how we go. Very successfully. Arrived at station, shuttle bus appeared, hotel on the coast, brilliant view, superb dinner, onsen, what more could you ask for.
I’ve been a long time reader… I figured it was about time I posted something.
My story starts after leaving Jenelle and Ewen after a fantastic day of kayaking at Shimada. (Jenelle will fill you in soon!)
5 trains after departing Shimada Bruce and Myself arrived at Kawaguchiko at the base of Mt Fuji where we meet up with Jack at our accommodation.
After some much needed rest it was an early rise to catch the first bus to Mt Fuji Subaru line 5th station (the stations are huts along the track – 5th station is much more than a hut though, but it’s where you start walking from. 10 is the top)
The weather gods must have been happy with us, as we had a wonderful view of Mt Fuji in the morning and great weather all day.
Mt Fuji from KawaguchikoTrail of lights going up Mt Fuji.
Once we arrived at the 5th station we set straight off. Bruce and me climbed 1570m up to the summit (elevation 3776m) in just over 3 hours, then we had a rapid 1.5 hour decent after a journey around the top. Jack made it up to the 8th station (elevation 3100m) and made a couple of radio contacts before heading back down.
6th stationClimbing Mt FujiBruce at the top of Mt Fuji.Jack starting the Mt Fuji climb
Bruce and Kristian at the summit of Mt Fuji
Today we said farewell to Jack who was off on a bus trip with Jenelle, Ewen and Mark and we grabbed a couple of bikes to do a quick tour of the lakes before we returned to Tokyo before we head off to Gunma province where we finally join / rejoin the rest of the team.
Bruce and Kristian at Lake Shoji
And now just a couple more days until the serious stuff starts. 🙂
Well, you’ve followed the excitement of JWOC, then the WOC, and the adventures of those in Scotland at the WMOC, then the magnificent gold in the WMTBO at the sprint by Angus R, and possibly even the Icelandic bike trek by Greg A and Gavin’s mountainous ramblings on the way to the WRC, so surely that’s it ? All over for the year ?
Well NO!! because there’s just one more, and we’ve of course saved the best till last !
The Region 3 Radio Orienteering championships being held in Japan.
I’m getting waaaay ahead of myself though, because we aren’t actually at the champs yet, just on the way. Some of us have actually made it to Japan though, so this blog entry will just recap the last few days.
[Those following/on Facebook may have already seen some of the photos, but I make no apologies, because they are some of the best, and we can`t have the blog missing out on those !]
We’re on the Southern Island of Japan at present. Not as far south as Yakoshima Island (refer Glaspoles), but nearly.
I’m writing this blog entry on the train b ask from Ibusuki, but let’s go back to the beginning :
Kumomoto
First day, a bit out of it after all the flying etc, was a visit to Kumomoto castle.
Kumamoto Castle, main building
The huge beams under the Kumomoto castle.
Ewen & Jennelle walking to K.Castle.
Jennelle tucks into ‘dinner’. Yummy skewers.
The next day we hired a car. The excitement for the day was one of our number misplaced a handbag. I don’t have one and pretty sure Ewen doesn’t either! Luckily, being Japan, it was handed in to the police. However, since we only discovered the lack of said accoutrement on returning the hire car, two of our party stayed behind in Kumamoto to travel back to Aso police for the bag, whilst I headed on down to Kagoshima. I managed to convince the hotel in Kagoshima to not charge them a cancellation for the night though.
Had a slightly abbreviated walk at Takachiho Gorge, due to cyclone damage, and an even more abbreviated visit to Mt Aso volcano, where the cable car (ropeway) had been closed down temporarily, due to a level 2 volcano activity risk just declared by Japan BOM, up from level 1.
The stunning Takachiho GorgeEwen checks out the gorge.The angry Mt Aso
Kagoshima
A bit rainy the next morning, but it slowed a bit later in the morning so I sent fit a walk around.
Kagoshima bayBruce’s walk above Kumomoto.View of Kagoshima and the nearby island volcano. Apparently at increased risk of eruption at the moment!Lot’s of tourist harvesting
E & T arrive, so it’s off to the Samurai gardens <pictures may follow later>, and the next day the Peace museum south of Kagoshima.
Checking out the Kamakasi plane outside the peace museum.
Had to visit the Ibusuki hot baths, despite the humidity, on multiple recommendations.
Ibusuki sand bathsAt the hot sand baths, IbusukiDiesel-electric spur line train to the deep south, but a high class express on the return journey. Then onwards on the shinkenzen to Hiroshima.Chef prepares our fried noodle ‘pancake’ in Hiroshima.
Had a field of 6 competitors for the 80M Ardf at Yarra Bend on Sun 2 Aug 2015
The early weather reports were looking like rain, but it managed to hold off until everyone had gone home and all the controls were picked up.
My attempts to make control number 1 and 2 quick and easy, seemed to fall off the rails , with everyone reporting a strong signal from above the road SE (and out of bounds).
Followed by a correction to NE once people got to the road. (Many competitors did this control last)
Intermittent transmission of control 4 also caused a bit of confusion.
I had hoped 5 would be more difficult for the advanced runners, but most people seemed to take it in their stride, getting a good bearing from 3 and running down a geographically constrained area past the control.
1 Bruce Paterson 1:06:57 1-2-3-5-4
2 Ian Dodd 1:11:11 1-4-3-5-2
3 Greg Williams 1:37:58 1-5-3-4-2
4 Jenelle Templeton 1:27:37 1-2-3-5
5 Peter Maloney 1:00:13 3
6 Suzanne O’Callaghan 1:01:10 1
As for the Mystery, pin the tail on the donkey event, several people had difficulty hearing this control, and when collecting controls I had found that most of the extendable sections of squid pole, (used to hang the antenna wire) had telescoped, giving very poor radiation. It was fully extended at 7AM, with a little extra force applied to each section, but somewhere along the way, it collapsed.
Bruce was the first on this event, and reported that the antenna may have fallen down during his run, about 12:30, with an unexplained drop in power.
Bruce and Jenelle were equal first, with Ian coming 3rd.
The sun came out for our frolic with sniffers through Woodlands Historic Park on Sunday 5 July 2015.
It was a combo course with bush-o controls and foxors.
Some very good scores in a competitive group. I won’t name names – you can see for yourself below!
While others went out to enjoy themselves or just to do the foxors. We hope you had a good time.
And welcome to Andrew, who set off with a sniffer to learn how it works and came back with all 6 Radi-O controls.
Thanks to the people who helped organise the equipment, set up the ARDF tent and integrate the Radi-O event with the Melbush-O so smoothly! I couldn’t have done it without you.
Where is Greendale and what is the orienteering map?
A call to the Sheahans put me onto Lindsay Thomas of Tuckonie Orienteering Club. He searched his map archives and only found a scanned PDF, then E-mailed the Sunleys (now in Canberra) and Julie sent soft copies. In business! Off to the site to tape some control locations. It’s steep and thick in the gullies so I decide not to make it too serious. Charged and checked the transmitters, No. 4 did not work. Too late to obtain the spare, so the course was re-arranged to suit four transmitters.
At the Start
On the day it was cold, cloudy and there was drizzle early on. Put out No 5 with assistance from a visiting ham from NSW (sorry, forgot the name and call) who was seeing how we do things. Returned to the start and some had arrived early, so left them to register while I put out the remaining three transmitters on foot. On my return Bruce had obviously heard the four going and got things started. It was interesting to see which way many went from the start and this was an indication of what was to happen out on the course. Basically reflections ruled the day and all competitors traveled significant distances chasing the imaginary!
In short it was extremely challenging, more than intended… Well, they all seemed to have fun. Dianne and Henk had the best walk after losing concentration on the way back and going the wrong way down one of the many tracks!
Bruce just winning by a small time margin from Kristian. Apologies for not clarifying a time limit. After Tx pickup it was off to the Greendale pub!
On a cold wet miserable day a few hardy souls braved the weather and competed in the event. Five ARDF Tx’s and six 80m fox-ors were distributed around the park. Competitors could compete in one or more of the events on offer: ie bush orienteering (several courses), ARDF and fox-or.
Three people undertook the ARDF and results as follows:
Kristian R: 5 Tx’s 32m (also did an orienteering course)
Mark B: 5 Tx’s 91m
Jack B: 5 Tx’s 135m
No one did the fox-or course but 6 of the orienteers had a go at finding the close in control (30-40m away) the teenage girls thought it was cool, haven’t convinced Vic S but others might have a go in future. I don’t think they are as intimidated with 80m sniffers as the 2 m ones. Dianne and Kristian did each find two 80m fox-ors when picking up the equipment.
Thanks to Dianne for getting up at an unearthly hour to help put out the Tx’s.
Great weather and an interesting area. Ten people competed in the “Radio Combo” event. Well done to Bruce and Kris who got all the orienteering controls and all the FoxOrs. Unfortunately Kris started a couple of minutes late, otherwise the finish might have been neck and neck. As it was, Bruce finished first by a comfortable margin.
Further down the field, there were some very close scores. Judging from the feedback, I think that everyone had a good time.
It wasn’t officially on our event calender till recently, but without the healthy number of 10 RadiO competitors, the Night-O champs would have looked a bit lean, with only 25 Bush-O-only competitors (including two visiting Czech competitors who turned up very late).
The weather presented mild temperatures, but with periodic rain showers, and a particularly heavy shower just before the 12 midnight deadline. This caught a couple of competitors out, and Dennis, who could no longer read his map, made a call back to base for directions home !
The RadiO event consisted of 4 2m ARDF transmitters on 145.3MHz, and 6 2m FoxOrs on 145.7Mhz. The FoxOr circles were not marked on the map, except the competitors were alerted that at 6 of the normal Bush-O controls, a FoxOr could be heard. I just didn’t say which 6 !
There were 33 Bush-O controls, but I wasn’t cruel, and all but one of the FoxOrs were near Bush-O controls near the start, many inside the ARDF 750m exclusion circle.
The Bush-O controls scored between 20 and 80 points each in the 3 hour score event, the FoxOrs 100 points each, and each ARDF Tx 150 points.
The time was 3 hours, and started on-time at 9pm.
Originally I had intended there to be 5 of each ARDF and FoxOrs, but unfortunately the battery in TX#4 was terminally dead. I deduced this was due to a key-switch which had become loose, and therefore the TX possibly wasn’t turned off after an event sometime. All fixed now, but a lot of stuffing about on the night to determine it was not gonna be a goer. I also had issues with the internally soldered connections in the TX#2 turnstile antenna, but was able to make a temporary repair for the night. Also fixed now. Due to the lack of one of the ARDF’s I added in another FoxOr.
Thanks to all those who went out again after midnight to pick up a couple of RadiO controls each !
Thanks also to Henk & Di for the lunch on Sunday of pancakes with strawberries and maple syrup. Yum !
The RadiO results are under Junior Male for some weirdo Eventor reason (might even be changed to RadiO by the time you view them).
Congrats to Kristian, the winner of the chocolate bar, even beating Simon’s Bush-O score (but then, the RadiO scoring was a bit biassed!). Also specials mentions to Grant and Mark taking out the minor placings with commendable scores. It was interesting to note the different score gathering strategies, with different balances of the 3 options (ARDF, FoxOr and the higher-scoring Bush-O’s).
People seemed to enjoy the event format, despite the plethora of things to do and keep in mind. Discussions afterwards indicated it was really good practice for keeping map contact, or relocating again if you lost it, as you had to know where you were to find the Bush-O controls. This is a good idea for ARDF, allowing your bearings to have an accurate start point. In normal ARDF you can normally muddle through if you don’t keep map contact, but this event didn’t allow you to do that (too much….).
Oh, and the two Czech competitors who went out to try some Night-O (with borrowed head-light and southern hemisphere compasses) ? They knew all about Radio orienteering of course. “There are a whole group of them in the next town over from where we live; they often participate in normal orienteering events with us too”.
Note for next night event … get some more reflective tape to replace the missing strips.
It was an early morning departure for today’s adventure, the start of a 4 day trip around the National Parks to the east of Almaty almost to the border with China. The weather – some cloud and light and not too cold – just perfect for a long drive. Our vehicle, a six seater Land Cruiser, complete with roof rack and water proof bags on top. It was a neat fit inside, with limited luggage space and minimal leg room for those in the back seat.
Our driver Sergey soon had us leaving the peak hour traffic behind as we headed north from Almaty. The Kazak government is committed to infrastructure building and this is evident with all the road works, dams and power lines. It would seem they like to replace the roads in long stretches at a time. They still use train to transport freight and it is not unusual to see very long freight trains especially coming from China. We also came across ‘Las Vegas’ of Kazakhstan quite in the middle of nowhere. Apparently the local in Almaty has decreed there are to be no casinos in the Almaty city.
Las Vegas has come to Kazakhstan
Large Reservoir supplying Almaty
Ready for the road
Central area of Altyn Emel park, flat and sparse vegetation
Many miles of this
We turned off the main highway and headed to the Altyn Emel National Park, (approx 5200ha and 200 km long, running between a mountain range to the north and a reservoir to the south}. We also noticed several military installations along the way. (border security) We spotted a small group of wild horses and also some gazelles. The gazelles appeared in the distance on the southern side of the road and then proceeded to sprint right across the road in front of us. According to Greg the gravel roads are good, at this stage he was not sitting in the back seat and being bounced up and down and sideways. Another feature of note was the lines of small earth mounds that appeared. On closer observation they were they were the contents of a fairly deep channel about 1 metre wide and deep – the Kazak version of fences in National Park.
Park Fencing 1
Park Fencing 2
There were the official entrances to parts of the park, and if there were no response to the beeping of the horn it was simply a matter of driving around the small fenced area and out the other side.
Alternative entrance to the park is around the fence to the right of the sign
Schematic view of Altyn Emel Nat Park
Petroglyphs 2
Petroglyphs1
More recent find
Rocky outcrops Altyn Emel Park
We spent some time in one of the gorges viewing the petroglyphs (pictures etched in the rocks), mainly camels, deer and goats. There were also remains of buildings from the bronze age & some more recent finds. Then more bouncing up and down, we arrived at some burial mounds.
The other end of the reservoir
Besshatyr burial mounds
Buried treasure now missing
Burial mounds
These were from the iron age, and set out in a precise manner. National park authority has built an example of inside the burial mound, wooden log construction (no nails) and reed roof. Apparently the real burial mounds have been plundered for their treasures long ago, so that all that remains is a large hole in the top.
Picnic at nature (provided by tour leader) was indoors because of the wind. Excellent food.
Standard issue CFA equipment at one of our lunch time stops
At this point, seating arrangements changed & a much smoother ride to the Singing Dunes ensued. Alas no singing today as the earlier rain had left the sand too damp. This turned out to be a blessing, so instead of one step forward followed by a step back, we could actually manage 2 steps forward to one step back. It was of the order of 150 metre high, but took quite some time to climb. The wind was fairly howling, and particularly unnerving as it affected your balance the closer you got to the top. No need for a facial here, plenty of microdermabrasion from the fine sand. The view was spectacular and well worth the climb. Once at the top the only way down was to toboggan. Good fun and lots of laughter. The only downside was having to empty 1/2 kg sand from each shoe and shake out the socks.
Wind blown at the top of Singing Dunes
Singing Dunes – it is a long way to the top
Sand mist from the top of the Singing Dunes
We eventually arrived at our accommodation for the next 2 night at the Altyn Emel Hotel – the only accommodation in town for tourists. A very spacious room with a spectacular view of the sunset.
Altyn Emel Hotel
Sunset at Altyn Emel village
Note: After dinner at the restaurant next door to the hotel, we had planned to have an early night. We discovered there was a wedding to be held the next day. Three of the hotel guests (2 dressed in police uniform) were socialising in the open area between our room and the bathroom. We spent some time trying to converse with them and had to find Dina our interpreter only to discover that we had been invited to celebrate / toast this important event. Only two vodkas later did we escape. Bruce conveniently was downstairs and missed the action and Greg declined an additional drink graciously.
Saturday 20 September
A relaxed start to today. Left the village at about 10 am and headed east towards the Chinese border. The road was sealed for a small distance and then we were back to our “good” gravel road. It was flat nothingness either side of the road with a mountain range to our left. We turned off the main road and headed for the Katutau Mountains (which translates as severe mountains in Kazak).
Volcanic extrusions Katutau mountains gorge
A nice place for a rest
Katutau Mountains 1
Katutau Mountains 2
Katutau Mountains 3
A modern sculpture – possibly tour drivers amusing themselves while waiting for their passengers
Katutau (Severe) Mountains
Definite red tinge to the mountains and as we entered further in it vaguely reminiscent of the Flinders Ranges. (Sedimentary rock with some volcanic extrusions). We spent considerable time climbing to the highest points and trying to capture the scenery with our cameras with limited success. We spotted a herd of fast moving goats in the distance, too fast to get a picture.
From here we headed to the Aktau Mountains, so called as “ak” in Kazak means white topped. We followed a small canyon / water course into the mountains, and proceeded to explore. Mountain tops to climb, and slide down. In parts it looked like sand but really sandstone. There appeared mud dried in bubbles, crusty on top and soft as we broke through the crust. Very difficult to describe all the features, best to look at the photos.
Aktau Mountains (white capped)
Conical mountains
In search of the perfect crystal
Too many to choose from
Aktau Mountains 2 – coloured bands of rock
Aktau Mountains 1
Entering Aktau Mountains gorge
Aktau mountains
We staved off hunger pains with a banana at 3pm and eventually arrived at the lunch place at 4pm. Very idyllic setting with lake and large trees. Supposedly a 700 year old willow tree, the buttress approximately 1 metre in diameter. (I could be corrected on this). Obviously, it had succumbed to aging and needed some support. Supersized lunch of roast chicken pieces and rice, the usual tomato and cucumber, bread, biscuits and chai.
Willow tree in need of support
Picnic spot
Arrived back in Altyn Emel about 5.30pm. Dinner was held in a small room in the hotel as the large dining room was being used for the wedding. As fortune would have it, it was too cold for them outside so their music was contained and had little impact on sleep. They partied long into the night.
This is Bruce’s 4th blog, but the staggering 14th overall. Hope you’ve all managed to stay with us so far, despite the amount of stuff landing in your inbox/facebook ! Actually, it’d be nice to know who is still with us, so make an effort to “Like” the facebook post or leave a blog comment or email. Sometimes it feels a bit like we’re sending all this off into the void 🙂
I’ll let the pictures mostly tell the story. This takes us out of the Altyn-Emel national park and eventually back to Almaty via the south east corner of Kazakhstan.
Here is also some random bits of >>video<< of various treks, including the singing dune, and Sergey’s shortcut through the mountains.
Here’s the rocket >>video<< again as many seemed to have missed it.
This is likely my last blog from this trip. We have one more day in Almaty faffing around, then Greg heads back to Melbourne, and 3 of us head to Perth for the Australian Orienteering Championships (& Sprints, & MTBO). It’s been fun !
A dual-humped camel herd (or whatever a camels collective is) just outside the national park.
A steppe mouse. Very hard to catch a photo as they flit from bush to bush to burrow (hence this unflattering angle). They make squeaky bird-like calls to warn others of danger.
Sergey, our driver, actually runs his own 4WD and motorbike trekking business. This didn’t stop him copping a speeding fine in a roadworks area, but he was able to ‘negotiate’ the fine down to 1000 tenge from the official 1800.
A particular rare variety of Ash (Aspen) tree found only in this part of Kazakhstan, and at similar latitudes in Canada.
We pulled over at a roadside vendors to buy some local grapes. Like in Kyrgyzstan, there seem to be many small vendors selling exactly the same things in a row, which appears a bit inefficient.
Desert Lizzard
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In most of the smaller villages and towns the animals tend to roam freely without supervision. They seem to know where they have to be and who they belong to so it pretty much seems to work out.
The Charyn Canyon. There are a few pictures of this, despite me only picking a few, as it was so dramatic. Sorry about that.
Charyn Canyon
Charyn Canyon
Charyn Canyon
Walking inside Charyn Canyon. We had lunch there too.
Charyn Canyon
Quite a few rock pieces looked very precarious.
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The old broken bitumen road into Saty was a bit slow going.
Our Guesthouse in the village of Saty, 1500m
The wood heated bathhouse was the go for washing at the Saty guesthouse.
Junction box in steam laden bath house in Saty.
Interesting house wiring in Saty bathhouse. 220VAC !
This village cow wasn’t that interested in moving out of the way
View from our Saty guesthouse
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What creature with bright eyes was this that approaches ?
Autumn colours, leaving Saty
Leaving Saty. A typical sight.
At hotels & guest houses in Kazakhstan something strange happens. They come and carefully ‘unmake’ your bed every day. Anything above the bottom sheet needs to be carefully folded so it does not fall over the side at all. This means you have to then make your bed each night so that you can sleep in it !
In the small, very rural village of Saty, where having electricity at all seems to be a miracle, one doesn’t expect to come across a ceiling light fitting with flashing LED sequences and a USB flash stick socket to play music !
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Heading down to Lake Kol’sai #1. There are 3 lakes in a chain, with #3 being very close to the Kyrgyzstan border in the Toen Sien mountains.
Kol-sai Lake
Kol-sai Lake rower was a park ranger collecting litter.
Where we had lunch above Kol’sai #1, viewed from the other side of the lake.
View of the Tien Sien mountains. The highest peak in Kazakhstan is near the corner of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and China and is 5699m. Nearby in Kyrgyzstan the peaks reach 7200m.
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Lake Kaindy (Birch tree) was a beautifully clear lake that was formed by an earthquake in 1911. The dead pine trees in the lake still stand as it’s so cold there is little bacterial decay.
Lake Kaindy refelctions
Lake Kaindy pines
Scrambling along the bank of Lake Kaindy.
View above Lake Kaindy
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Sergey, our driver, was keen to take a short-cut through a rugged mountain pass. A loud ding at one point was the spare wheel underneath taking a direct hit. Also one of the running boards took a bit of a hit scraping past another rock.
A road on the return journey to Almaty, near a very large aqueduct leading to Almaty (the Big Almaty Canal). It was nearly empty as the dam that feeds it is very low due to the hot & very dry summer. We therefore didn;t visit this dam as originally planned, but Issyk lake instead.
Issyk lake near Almaty. This natural lake was destroyed by mud slides in 1963. 100’s died as they were there to see the Russian President, who was running late ! This news was suppressed at the time. In the late 90’s dams were built to replace the original (now destroyed) earthquake plugs and the dam was resurrected (but smaller than the original).
Issyk Lake
Replica of the Golden man found in a burial mound near Almaty. His ‘tomb’ was preserved intact from prehistoric grave robbers, as he was a young royal prince (about 17) placed in a different spot away from the central King’s tomb (which was empty and destroyed)
