Having enjoyed our first taste of rogaining near Canberra, we decided to enter the 17th Annual Lake Macquarie event in NSW. The 'Lake' reference is a bit of a misnomer since it was located in the middle of The Pines Forest Park with little or no water in sight. No Gill or Naz this time, instead we threw in an all-Cumbrian offensive consisting of the (fit) Mounsey brothers and myself.

After planning a meister route, we set off at a thunderous pace and located every checkpoint that we aimed for. One checkpoint finally eluded us worth 50 points and we were a bit peeved since we spent 20 minutes looking for it.

Much hilarity was taken from the 'Tea and Damper' station. This setup provides much happy relief for tired rogainers who make it that far. But what the heck is damper? Full story on Wikipedia, but in short it's bread/scones/cake in rogaining circles.

Unfortunately, it all went horribly wrong shortly after T+D. We picked up another 50 point checkpoint, but then met with some of the worst fallen tree action you've ever seen. Ripped to shreds we were. Then it started lashing down with rain, we couldn't reach the place we wanted and we'd lost 2 hours trudging through the wilderness. So we headed back to base and picked up a few cheeky points on the return leg (inc. the 'elusive' one).