David Jenkins Profiled
Saturday, 28 June 2014
Birthplace Darlinghurst NSW 
Occupation Retired fonctionnaire; current Man of Leisure
How long lived in ACT Not quite 57 years First orienteering event 1973, as part of the original, pioneering CHAOS (Canberra High Association of Orienteering
Students) group which included at least two future Australian open champions, me
being the last remaining (and least-credentialled) member still active in
Australia. It would have been on a black
and white gestetner-produced paper map, perhaps Stromlo Forest or Bruce (Gossan
Hill/Bruce Ridge) – I can’t believe it didn’t disintegrate in my sweaty hand (perhaps
I didn’t run very hard). I only did it
for a year before returning to school rugby.
When I gave club rugby away, I came back to orienteering in 1979 when I
was looking for another sport to take up, where my first event was on the old 1:20,0000
Kowen Scarp map on 9 September. Still
trying to get it right; I’m nothing if not stubborn! Most memorable The large-field, mass-start Long-O on the Mount Clear map in
1992 on the 12 km ‘B’ course which equated to at least 15 km because of the two
obligatory big detours around the dominating peak in the centre of the map, and
included a single 150 metre climb to get up to the granite plateau. I didn’t win my class but I got immense
satisfaction from my physical and technical performance, only making one minor
mistake in an area where I had previously ‘wandered lonely as a cloud’ for
extended periods at probably every previous event. 108.38 for an effective 15 km course in
technical terrain? If only I could have reproduced
that more often! Worst orienteering mistake An impossible choice.
There have been ‘90s’, ‘180s’, ‘360s’ (!) probably even ‘720s’, and everything
in between. Everything up to 60 minutes
errors. There were first control
disasters (one easy and one hard) in my first two Australian Championships,
(1983 & 1984). There was running off
the map at the Aus Champs at Badja as recently as 2011. There was even going to
the wrong start, because of the different way NSW courses used to be numbered,
at the 1995 NSW Championships at Ellerslie, an extra distance of about 1.5 km
each way, or picking up the wrong map on day 1 of the 2002 Easter 3-Day at nearby
Inverary. Maybe, the simple but inexplicable
decision to turn right on a track instead of left when I was having a very good
run at the Aus Champs at Sappa Bulga in 2008. Even choosing the wrong shoes has several
times had bitter consequences. Snatching
defeat… Best orienteering tip received I like Kevin Paine’s sage words that “you can’t gain time on
short legs, only lose it”. My oft-neglected
advice to myself is to stay ‘in the moment’ - concentrate, concentrate,
concentrate! And, at Championships,
“find the first control”!
Favourite O area in ACT By which I take to mean OACT areas, so Yankee Jack’s Hill
because it combines spur-gully, linear clearings, and open and forest granite
all on the one map, particularly in its original larger version. Also The Sandhills for similar reasons, and Badja,
Boboyan Divide and the old Mount Clear. I
also like areas which feature some complex erosion detail such as
Foxlow/Woolcara and the area sometimes known as Atkinson’s Trig. Least favourite (1979-2014): Orroral
Crossing!
Favourite O area outside ACT I rather like runnable rock but it’s hard to nominate one - Sappa
Bulga (Dubbo), Yuruga, Limekiln Creek, Old Woman’s Creek near Wyangala. Also Rowdy Flat for the sheer technical challenge.
Furthest I’ve travelled I’m a stay-at-home compared to many people so, depending
whether you measure by straight line or by distance physically travelled, it
would be Wilpena Creek SA in 1986 or Maryborough Qld in 2008 for respective Aus
Champ carnivals. With the latter, I stayed
with my sister near Maryborough but in so doing was badly bitten by sandflies
on my last morning there for my trouble.
Summed up my week, really.
Other sports or interests I played some first-class rugby in my early 20’s in a team
which boasted two Wallabies, then played Touch football until my early 50’s
which was why I rarely took part in Wednesday twilight events for many years as
games were always on a Wednesday evening (though I did try to do both on the
same night a few times, but invariably suffered for it with cramps in the Touch). I have an interest in all football codes.
My main interests are music appreciation, gardening
(particularly native plants), travel, photography and, as travelling companions
will testify, food and wine
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