North to Alaska - well Armidale

It was indeed a smaller than usual travelling Uringa group that headed north for State League Events 1 & 2.

The drive to Armidale is well best described as long but for our car the two hours it took on Friday night to get from home to the freeway was mindlessly frustrating. (We need a tunnel under Sydney running North South)

Anyway Day 1 was held at Banalasta –

 'Banalasta' ("land of the healthy waterholes"), located on the outskirts of the historic township of Bendemeer, between Tamworth and Armidale is on the New England Tablelands of NSW.

 The Banalasta property expanded in a myriad of rural pursuits, one of which was the planting of the world's largest certified organic eucalyptus radiata (Narrow Peppermint-leaf Gum) plantation and a lavender farm.
The eucalyptus oil returns commercially viable medicinal properties and brings the production of eucalyptus oil back into the Australian oil market (a lull since the 1950s). While the lavender (intermedia grosso) shrubs have also been included as another diversified oil yield for the health and skin products Banalasta produces.

We have run her a few times in recent years and one look at the map and yes you are right rock, rock rock, a few tracks and an open runnable forest. Unfortunately it was warm ( well hot) and the times were long. The course setter had shortened the courses from lengths that had been used previously but the combination of detailed terrain and hot weather blew out times.
Dave, Dick and Maureen found the day to their liking taking out the top place in their classes. Finn and Alice chimed in with 2^nd placing and Lisa and Gayle scored 3^rd placing.
Must mention father and son combination of Finn and Jim Mackay were experiencing granite terrain for perhaps the 1^st time and they both did rather well.
Placings:

Alice Westwood	W21A	2nd
Gayle Shepherd	W45AS	3rd
Lisa Lampe	W50A	3rd
Maureen Ogilvie	W80A	1st
Finn Mackay	M12A	2nd
Matt Westwood	M21A	6th
Jim Mackay	M45AS	4th
Dave Lotty	M55AS	1st
Dick Ogilvie	M70A	1st

For most it was off to the Armidale Bowling Club for dinner and the Annual General Meeting of ONSW.

Sunday dawned a little cooler with a strong breeze keeping the temperatures down. Mt Brown is one hill of granite about 35km west of Armidale. Again the map looks like a fly trod in ink and walked all over the paper. Conditions were more conducive to running however the complexity of the terrain certainly slowed things down.

Lisa, Gayle Dick and Maureen claimed the major prizes making a neat double header for Dick and Maureen Finn was again in 2^nd place not a bad effort at all. Also in 2^nd was Dave. Interesting comment from Dave- ‘Saturday I fell over my controls, today  I fiddled on them all”

Alice Westwood	W21A	4th
Gayle Shepherd	W45AS	1st
Lisa Lampe	W50A	1st
Maureen Ogilvie	W80A	1st
Finn Mackay	M12A	2nd
Matt Westwood	M21A	8th
Jim Mackay	M45AS	5th
Dave Lotty	M55AS	2nd
Dick Ogilvie	M70A	1st

 It is always a hugely beautiful drive from Armidale back to Sydney via Uralla, Walcha, Gloucester and Raymond Terrace affectionately known as Thunderbolts  Way. For those who took this route it was quite an adventure. From our point of view the sky darkened not long after we had left Walcha and as the sky changed from a blackish to greenish colour we knew it was going to become unpleasant. 

The wind arrived first and with it assorted flotsam and jetsam from the road side. Rain quickly followed but it did not last long. I guess we were lucky that we had left the event later than most and stopped in a great Uralla Café for lunch- great food, great service and great staff.
It was the wind that really did the damge and for the next 70 kms branches on the road were the norm. A few we rather large but gaps had been created by earlier motorists.

Even the cows were looking for cover

Descending one hill and travelling parallel to the river one finds a beautiful stand of Chinese Elm trees. Right out of place they are but it is a place of great tranquillity. The trees are very mature with  trunks that you could probably just cuddle. Well that grove “ain’t” no more. The trees had branches and trunks snapped like matchstick with barely one of the 200 or so trees remaining unscathed. It was sad to see this but you just have to marvel at the forces that nature can turn on.

The queue

After passing through Gloucester things were much quieter and the road clearish. However the traffic came to a sudden halt as about a kilometre down the road a rather large eucalypt had fallen and blocked the road. It was big. Fortunately, near the head of the queue was Newcastle Orienteer, Shane Trotter. Shane makes his living in and out of trees and he just happen to have the odd chainsaw or two in the back of his ute. He was in to it in a big way. The reinforcements arrived with a couple of front end loaders which were needed to move the trunk and branches off the road.
For those in the  queue it was an  opportunity to have a chat with fellow travellers whilst the sound of chainsaws brought confidence that we would get home tonight. As we drove off there was Shane brushing off the sawdust, packing up the gear. Thanks Mate!

Home a little later than usual but satisfied- a great weekend. Metro this weekend