World Rogaine Champs in Estonia

Bogy bog bog swamp marsh swampy bog. That was what the terrain was like during the World Rogaine Champs held in Estonia in Karula National Park. Unfortunately this meant most of the time the fastest way was to take winding long tracks around the bogs, meaning the rogaine also featured alot of track running - not super fun.

However we all felt we got to experience some authentic Estonian terrain (based on our guide book the Estonians seem quite proud of their bogs!). Chris and Dennis just missed out on holding their title and placed a very close second to some speedy Russians. Julian and I executed a reasonable course with a bit of time lost in the forest during the night, but were well and truely thrashed by many zippy Estonian mixed teams.

Jana and Sylvia achieved their impressive goal of completing the full 24 hours and did really well for the first 18 before a long and very character building 6 hour walk back to the finish. 'The Oldies' or should I say "The Amazing Oldies" (Pete Squires, Anne Kennedy, Bill Kennedy) won the mixed super veteran category for the umpteenth time. Tim Farrant and Georgia Whitla "The Youngies" did extremly well and won the mixed junior grade.

There were heaps more Kiwis competing than I have just mentioned...it wasn't that uncommon in the night even despite the 700 strong field to stumble accross the odd "g'day" in the night in the middle of a particular swamp, bog or marsh.

Jana and Sylvia make it accross the finish line


Chris and Dennis just after finishing


That's just a small sample of photos - there should be some more coming from the Rogaine as well as some good Estonian bog photos from our travels around afterwards so stay tuned.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Journey Through the Baltic

Image
After the Rogaine we spent another fun night at the local farm stay with the other Kiwis, then headed away in the morning with Julian, Jana and Sylvia in a large silver hire van. Most of us were pretty hobbly (with the annoying exception of Chris and Julian) so we drove back to the nice wee town of Otepa and spent the day hanging out in a pizzeria and visiting the 'Canyon' the largest in Estonia apparently... This photo is actually from before the Rogaine in Tallinn when Viv had the brilliant idea of hiring the terrifying 'Octibike', it proofed a highly entertaining and attention seeking way of zooming round Tallinn. We camped in a deserted campground and it was truly freezing, so the following morning all feeling chilled to the bone we decided to find a nice cabin for that night. We drove to the town of Tartu and wandered through its pretty cobbled streets. We took a visit to the KGB museum and saw grim pictures of Ghettos in Siberia – after which we definitely n
Read more

Lofoten Return

Image
Reine - a classic Lofoten view I visited Lofoten last July with Mum and Dad - it is an amazing place in north Norway, and we decided that it was worth the expense for Al and Amber to see it too - I was certainly excited to go back there again. So Al, Amber and I took the plane up to Bodø from Trondheim on Sunday evening. The 10 hour drive takes a mere 60 minutes by plane. We were hoping for some exciting views from the plane but unfortunately it was pretty cloudy. Chris had had to stay behind in Trondheim because this was his last week of preparation for the World Orienteering Championships (WOC) which would start in Trondheim the following week. We arrived in Bodø at 8pm and trudged down to the same campground that Mum, Dad, Chris and I had stayed at last year. We had to muck around sorting out a hire car in the morning, but eventually got one sorted and drove up toward the ferry crossing from Tyssfjorden to Lødingen. It was cloudy, but we still enjoyed the craggy scenery and raw roc
Read more

Good Godzone Prep! The Takahe Traverse

Image
An exploratory adventure in Fiordland with its remoteness, steepness and dense bush holds a definite allure for those of us who enjoy that sort of thing. Since back in 2004, when we bush bashed down the Neale Burn, swimming at times up to our necks in the meandering river to avoid the near impenetrable bush on either side, packrafting seemed like the answer to Fiordland travel to me. So, with this thought in mind (and knowing that in a few months we would be racing Godzone in this exact territory), a group of trampers (myself, Chris, Nick, Dan, Georgia, Patrick) jumped aboard a watertaxi and hooned across North West Fiord in late December with a mission in mind. Our Route Earlier in the day, after frantic packing in Queenstown, we had received our certificate of 'didymo checked' from the DOC office in Te Anau. The water taxi man eyed the certificate suspiciously. He looked at us sternly, clearly unconvinced by our humongous packs, running shoes and light hearte
Read more