Well today we had, of course, the 80m ARDF event.
Again we had the amazing police escorted trip to a remote location. It rained, despite the fine weather forecast. Even so, the villagers lined the streets of the towns and villages as we drove through the misty rain. It seemed every village had a police car there to direct us through.
They decided to extend the time limit to 140 minutes due to the rain. I have a picture of the competitors camped at the waiting area. Digital pictures are not allowed in the actual start area due to the risk of someone transmitting an image of the map to a competitor somehow. This is all taken pretty seriously at a World Championship.
Adam headed off first, and despite following a very strange and lengthy route managed a very credible 114 minutes and 26th place. An excellent effort in difficult conditions. Again this was a harder course than we've ever done before (including the 2m event 2 days ago!). Going down steep and muddy hills, you use the bamboo to slow you down, but in the process you shake the wet bamboo resulting in a mini deluge !
I was next a couple of hours later (it's a long wait, but we chatted to the Yanks and the Dutch team we were sharing a shelter with. Here's a brief description of my course: Headed out the Woman/Senior corridor to the West. 5 was ahead, 1 to the right, 2 the left and 3 & 4 up the top of the map somewhere. I was planning on doing 5, but after coming down the other side of the big hill around the start decided I was close and I should do it first. It was near a village in the middle of the map. Went to 5 next in the SW. Lost myself a bit on the map, so I was uncertain to within 100m of where it actually was. Next was #2 for me in the SE. Turned out to be well to the SE, and here the tracks didn't do what I expected from the map, so I'm only vaguely aware of where this one was. Not good. Still, doing ok with approx 1 hour for the 1st 3. 3 and 4 were right up the Northern end of the map so a good long run. Did 4 pretty quickly considering (making up some time), and quickly followed by 3 in a blinding 10 minutes -:) . Now is where things fall apart, unfortunately. I have over 20 minutes to get to the Finish, and it is only an easy 10 minute run away. I pop out on a North-South track and head South. It is a very crappy track, but it is on the map and it should get me to the finish quicker than the road which is harder to get to. I should have learnt from the 2m map inaccuries, but soon the track became quite indistict. I could not find a left turn I needed to take and gradually it started to head the wrong way. In an attempt to correct the problem I thought I'd just head through the bush Southwards. Bad Idea ! It became inpenetrable. Fox Hunt inpenetrable ! It even took me quite a while to back out of the disaster. 10 minutes wasted. Only 7 minutes left. Damm ! I head the only way I can, on the non-track (sort of a vague passage through jungle) which insisted on taking me West. I ended up on the side of the map, almost furthur from the Finish than I was at TX3. Time has run out. I walk dispirited (ok, I was pissed off -:) back to the distant start. A whole hoard of school children had recently arrived at the Finish so I had to run down the finish to their cheers (too embarassing to walk). Anyway, that was me out.
Bryan found 3. He didn't have time to get either of the other Northern transmitters, but it was a good finish. The Australian team therefore didn't fare as well on the 80m hunt, mainly due to a dodgy map. Oh well ! I was encouraged to hear speaking to a Norwegian that he exactly thed same as me (4->3->Finish), but he had 30 minutes to throw away on the non- track, which he succeeded in doing in a very similar way to myself. He was also overtime.
Tonight was the award ceremony and banquet. Quite a different affair from Korea. Surprisingly it was very informal and quite brief. Most teams chatted around the periphery during the prise giving. We had adequate gifts this time and of course the little Koalas and Kangaroos are always very well received.
Team result was 15th out of 18, but we still beat Korea and Mongolia. Adam was 26th in the Senior with 114 mins, and the best time was 59 minutes from Czech Replublic.
Again, photos will appear at
http://www.qsl.net/vk3zpf/china/day3.htm http://www.qsl.net/vk3zpf/china/day4.htm http://www.qsl.net/vk3zpf/china/day5.htm
This may or may not be my last message from China. We will see. Meanwhile, Cheers from Nanjing, Bruce, VK3TJN
(PS: Sending this from another account since I can get this to work at the moment, but please reply to brucep@netspace.net.au)
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