Porcupine Ridge

We take the Calder Freeway north towards Bendigo, through heavy rain showers, as kangaroos graze in fields alongside. Several unscheduled diversions make us about an hour late, but no worries. We drive deep into the forest south of Castlemaine, seeing neither cars nor people for almost an hour. By now, the rain has been left behind and the sun is out. The tarmac ends and a dusty, rutted track takes us to the event assembly.

I pay up, change and walk to the nearby start. A kind lady comments on this blog. I'd better make it good. I start and head off on a direct route for my first control. The forest floor is littered with dead wood and pitted with the work of gold miners from 150 years ago. I run (and stumble) straight for the first couple of controls, but take a helpful path to the north to help me on the long leg between 2 and 3. The contour lines steepen and slow me to a walk. Direct routes work for me most of the time.

Over the second half of the course, I encounter deep gold mining gullies which have to be crossed. Difficult. I'm a little disappointed to find no gold nuggets littering the forest floor. Someone's had them all. I lose a minute here, a minute there, but nothing major goes wrong. I'm happy with my time but know that good runners will beat that easily.

We return to Melbourne and meet the rain halfway home. Rainbows greet us and we drive towards the foot of a particularly vivid one, but no gold for us today.