Sydney

The few days we had in Sydney produced cooler and damper weather than expected but we still managed to see a few major sights. After wandering the streets and parks a bit we visited the Opera House for a performance of The Mikado which I really enjoyed.


The day after that we did the "Bridge Climb" which gave a good view of the city from an interesting viewpoint. Unfortunately you are not allowed cameras on this trip and I was not prepared to spend $25 (nearly £15) for one (of the many photos) that they took. A good trip though a bit pricey, like most things in Australia - especially at current exchange rates.

The weekend gave us two days of sprint orienteering. The heats on Saturday were not that exciting. I had an OK run but only just made the A final, though did not make any big mistakes. The final at Sydney Olympic Park was much more challenging with many complex structures and tricky controls. I got into top half of the A finalists so quite happy with that; maybe I need to do a few more sprint events to improve.

(Talking to some fellow competitors, queues for registration got to five and a half hours before the issue of photo passes changed to blank passes. The only need for a pass seems to be free public transport in Sydney, which is of little benefit to orienteers after Sunday as we are 2 hours out of town).

We are now in Lithgow in the Blue Mountains ready for the Long Distance orienteering races which start with heats on Wednesday, so a day or two for tourism first.