Rogaining Tasmania
November 2022 Newsletter
Midlands Muster Postponed
Event organisers arrived on site the week before the event to hang checkpoints only to discover the access road to the hash house was flooded and the paddock designated for the hash house and camping was soft and waterlogged. Landowners advised that the paddocks would not be dry enough by the event date. As a result, we had no choice but to postpone the Midlands Muster.
Event organisers and the RT committee considered delaying this event to early December or February. However, there is no guarantee that the course, and in particular the parking, camping and hash house areas will be dry by December, particularly as current weather patterns and forecasts promise more rain. Early February clashes with school holidays, and key personnel are absent throughout February. The deer-shooting season then starts, after this it is Easter, and after this the weather is cooler and the days are short.
Therefore, we have opted to run the event late next year. The rescheduled event dates are tentatively October 28th and 29th which will be ideal for those who like to rogaine by moonlight. The current La Niña (wet) weather pattern is forecast to have ended by then.
For those who paid an entry fee for the Midlands Muster, we have fully refunded your entry fee. Thanks to the many rogainers who have sent us messages supporting the decision to postpone. We look forward to seeing you all at the Midlands Muster in 2023.
Soho Shuffle, Metrogaine, 19 March 2023
While the Midlands Muster news is disappointing, RT’s next metrogaine, the Soho Shuffle, is something to look forward to. This is an on-foot event starting from the South Hobart Community Centre. The Soho Shuffle course will be held in familiar territory in Hobart suburbia and the bushland foothills of kunanyi. Entries will open in early February.
Setting Team needed – Bike/Foot Metrogaine
Rogaines don’t happen without course setters. There is a gap in our calendar of events between the SoHo Shuffle and the postponed Midlands Muster. We’d like to run a bike and on-foot Metrogaine in late August or early September 2023. Exploring and organising an event is loads of fun. RT can assist with area selection, mapping and mentoring. If you are interested in helping, please contact .
RT Social Event
In conjunction with the AGM, RT will be hosting a social event at the Legacy Park Savige Pavilion at the Queens Domain, on Friday 2nd December. Come for a chat and get excited about rogaines that have been and those yet to be.
Start arriving at 5:30pm for a 6pm AGM start. The AGM will be brief.
RT will provide nibbles, wood fired pizzas and salads, as well as juice, wine and beer. For catering purposes, please rsvp to by Tuesday 29th November. In accordance with rogaining tradition please bring your own plates, cups and cutlery.
Notice of Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting of Rogaining Tasmania will be held at the Legacy Park Savige Pavilion, Queens Domain on Friday 2nd December 2022 at 6.00 pm.
AGENDA
Attendance and apologies
Minutes of previous Annual General Meeting
President’s Report
Treasurer’s Report
Election of Office Bearers
President
Vice Presidents (2)
Secretary
Treasurer
Committee (up to six)
Other Business
Ross Kelly
Public Officer
7 November 2022
Australasian Rogaining Championships Report from the Winners of the Mixed Super Vets
By Thorlene Egerton and Jonathan Sutcliffe (newly Tasmanians)
Thorlene Egerton and Jonathan Sutcliffe at the prize ceremony. Photo credit: Victorian Rogaining Association
Oh boy, what an area. We went into it pretty confident in our ability to handle it given we just came back from Worlds in the mountains of the Czech Republic. But the Victorian Pyrenees were a whole new world of challenge. The climbs were steep and relentless and it simply wasn’t possible to plan a course that avoided them. Probably in hindsight, we should have gone to the northwest flatter area first and cleaned up there before facing the bigger climbs but we thought we’d save it to the end and see how much time we had left given the points/km was considerably lower. But we just exhausted ourselves in the first few hours in the centre and east side of the map. We realised we were going to need some major revisions of our plan and we got to work cutting big chunks of our planned route and then also cutting any checkpoint that involved a really big climb. As it went dark our strategy was to move slowly and stay on tracks as much as possible – taking long track routes to any checkpoint that had only a moderate amount and steepne
Australasian Rogaining Championships Report from a Non-champion
By Lucy Hawthorne
This month I travelled to Victoria to the Pyrenees Ponder Australasian Rogaining Championships where I competed with my dad, Neil Hawthorne. Unlike Neil, who has competed in the World Rogaining Championships multiple times, coming second in his category one year, I like to think of myself as an enthusiastic participant, rather than a champion. Happily, we achieved our modest goals: get over 1000 points, don’t get a concussion, don’t get irreversibly lost, and get back to the hash house on Saturday night to sleep at a reasonable hour.