The Tar24 Roundup...Roundup Reports

Martin Little

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#21
Thanks Biggles, though I'm not so sure I planned well. As the Drovers watching my spot saw, I rode past a lot of bonuses. With better planning, I'd have ridden less km and scored more points. Which was what it was all about (scoring points that is). We live and learn.
Hi Simon,

Some of this is experience and knowing what to do when uploading all of the Bonus's into the GPS, not just the chosen route. I made this mistake on my first Buttlite, another hard learnt lesson.

Being able to route on the fly using just the GPS is invaluable and something I've worked on over the last 2 years. If you like I'm more than happy to share with you.
 

jeffrey gebler

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#23
I know it's a little late but it is the first time since the rally that I had time to sit down at the computer.
I would like to thank Annette and Shane for hosting this event and all the time time and effort that went into it under stressful times. Also like to thank all the drovers for there help and insight and especially Kiwi Martin for his patience and time helping me get a better understanding of Basecamp.

I have spent most of my time off of work since the rally going over what I learned and planning and re planning different route options that could have been done during the rally. I have to admit that it is somewhat addictive and am looking forward to participating in up coming rally events.

The rally itself was great fun to ride and I went into it with the intentions of just being a finisher and to enjoy the ride in unfamiliar territory's. I was enjoying the ride so much that I was not paying any attention to my GPS and went right past one of the bonus locations. I only noticed it after I arrived at my next bonus location and had to add another 150 km on to my ride to retrieve the missed bonus points which resulted in me cutting short my rest bonus.

The highlight of the ride had to be successfully trying to find the Yarrowitch School in the dark and riding down the Oxley highway to Long Flat with out my main LEDS which decided to short out on me.

I ended the rally a finisher with just under 23,000 points and I was one of the ones that lost out on the first 3000 bonus points for not reading and listening to the instructions. A lesson learnt for the next rally.

Thanks again for all the time and effort that went into organizing this event.
 
#24
TAR24 Rally – How to test your relationship!


Rally, did someone mention a rally? Iron Butt Australia are going to run one this year so we kept our eyes open for details on the forum. Over the last few years we have participated in a few of these and we thought why not give it another shot. Details emerged and we read all about the rally that was fine until we read “Base Camp”. Holy crapp if doing a rally together isn’t bad enough to test our relationship now they’ve thrown in this curve ball! We both sat down and attempted to use Base Camp prior to the rally, and yes there were some discussions and disagreements. So, you guessed it we registered for our annual relationship tester, who needs counselling when you can do a rally? It was then that I asked Fatman to please ensure that if he dropped me off that it be at a Bonus location that hopefully I could hitch a ride with a fellow rider.

We decided that we would head off from home on Thursday arvo after work and ride to Holbrook (435kms) for the night and then ride through to Taree (793kms) on Friday. We had planned to refuel at Holbrook as we arrived as there was a 24-hour servo near where we were staying only to arrive and find that it had closed 6 weeks prior, a new one on the southern side of town has opened but we didn’t want to ride back where we came from. Mmm, well plan B was made, we knew we had enough fuel to get to Gundagai so we decided that we’d refuel. We had a leisurely ride from Gundagai through to Pheasants Nest where the temperature had started to rise so we decided to start removing clothes. From here we rode through to the 24Hr Servo at Alison on the Pacific Motorway and decided we’d grab a bite to eat before continuing to Taree. OMG traffic, we finally found a carpark, had a bite to eat and discussed that this place was always busy so unless it was in the wee early hours this was no longer going to be a place for us to stop as it was just bedlam. Back on the road and on our way to Taree finally arriving around 3pm or there about. Naughty Bart was already booked in and by the time we had unpacked and got changed Philmor, Simon B and Derek had arrived. We all wandered down to the Chinese restaurant for a feed and yarn before heading back to our rooms for some shut eye.

Bzzzzz the alarm goes off, I awake with an aching tooth didn’t think much of it just drugged myself up, got ready, packed the bike and headed off to the start for some training on base camp and get our Rally books, so now the fun begins. How hard could it be all you need 20,000 points to be a finisher. I ask Milady, is it at all possible that if a pillion was found alone and was collected by another rider could they get 10000 points and to the one who left her there lose 10000 points? Well I do believe everyone said they’d pick me up if they saw me did they not? We had information coming in a little bit faster than our brains could keep up with. We were changing the values of the bonus when our 1st disagreement happened. I was attempting to assist Fatman by coding all the COMBO’s but he was on another page to me, he just wanted to change the values. Oh dear, then came the routing, oh my this was fun we sort on knew what we wanted to do and had some valuable insight to making a perimeter from the stat finish location as well as other buttons that you could adjust, ie speed, type of road etc etc. We finally got a route that we were happy with and was just over 1100km, and time was ticking away getting closer to the start time. Off we go to the bike and pack everything up and get ready for the Warchild wave off, well done Shane.

So, we are both feeling as though we had accomplished a good route and we’d be ok until…. Fatman decided that it was too hot to be riding around amongst the traffic in Newcastle looking for points so he deleted them! So, I asked “Ah ok so where are we going then?” Fatman responded with “I don’t really know, we’ll just trust the GPS!” And that we did, DOH. We headed off along with everyone else down to the 1st bonus, ABAC -a pic of the Abacus and get Enterprise to sign the Manning Valley sticker but only between 15.15 and 15.45, we just rearranged things on the bike whilst killing time, meanwhile others ran over got their pics and took off, oh dear they just lost 3000points.

LTP photo bombing to get her pic


From here we headed onward to Old Bar Tavern to get a pic with Alex, a coaster signed by Alex and the name of one of his sponsors. Upon arriving and walking in the door my aim was to collect all the coasters so that there were none left for the others but Alex yelled out to us, “I’m over here” buggar he had already signed the coasters. As usual Alex was more than happy to oblige with whatever Milady had requested him to do to be part of her scheming little rally.

Our pic with Alex


To Alex we thank you for your time and participation you are a great sport encouraging all us nutters out there or is that laughing at us all? It must be fun or we wouldn’t return to entertain you, isn’t that right? Following Jeff the Chef from Old Bar he turns north onto the freeway, we head south having full trust in the GPS to take us to our next bonus WITAT- take a pic of the Tatler Wines front Gate that it did but it seemed like we did a left then a right and a left and a right… I kept seeing signs to Maitland Fatman kept seeing signs to Cessnock…. Oh dear. At one stage as we turned left there were 2 Ass’s (donkey’s) that happened to look up at us in a weird way, it was then that I made the comment ‘yep so who’s the ass now? Us or them’ we continued on giggling between ourselves wondering where the hell the GPS was taking us. Finally, we got to our next bonus, only to pull up and dismount the bike when a couple drove up and asked if they could help us, when we told them what we were up to they said show us the pic and then they pointed it out to us.

the gate @ Tatler Wines


Ok so pic taken, back on the bike but the GPS is indicating for us to turn left go up 100m then do a u turn back passed where we were sitting, WTF? So, we ignored it and turned right again going on some nice back roads to our next bonus WIALG – Take a pic of the sculpture & write down that person’s name who carried out the dedication. Well we rode in and around and around then stopped and got off the bike and wandered around attempting to find such a thing, meanwhile this was in amongst 2 or 3 weddings that were in progress, I really don’t know why they looked at us so strange maybe we weren’t dressed to their liking, ha ha. Well we decided to give up on that and rode out to the entrance where we pulled over to attempt to work out where we were and with that the couple that had previously assisted us at Tatlers Winery drove passed and waved to us. It was while here that Fatman decided to scroll through the GPS instructions only to find that Sackville ferry was on the route, does it run at night? No Idea, I think we need to change the route entirely, we didn’t want to take the chance. Geez it’s starting to get dark and we’ve only got 3 bonuses and the GPS is telling us our next bonus point is 300 or so kms away! We thought it best to book into a motel earlier than we had planned, re-route the entire course, get our 6 hour sleep bonus and then leave early morning on the Sunday. Fatman put in Singleton into the GPS, and we rode there only upon arriving not being able to get any accommodation as it was all booked out we decided to find McDonalds and do a bit of re-routing, you guessed it the GPS was having issues trying to find McDonalds but we finally did and attempted to get the computer & GPS up and running so we could attempt to do a new route. Finally, after about 30 mins we got it all up and running and had a new route planned, now to find some accommodation. I phoned a motel in Muswellbrook only for the man to say yes, we have a vacancy just turn up, yep ok he didn’t take a name, number nothing oh so help me god if we get there and there isn’t room! This will be the end of the rally and the final argument! To our surprise there was plus he upgraded the room as well as moved his car so we could park the bike under cover out of sight. So now we did our next Bonus, the rest bonus worth 10000 points. Not bad we left Taree at 3pm and it was now 9.45pm and we had only collected 3 bonuses! Ooh don’t forget we can get a free 1000 points with a Banjo Patterson statue so it says in the rally book, I got Fatman to double check I had read this correctly, yep woo hoo that makes it 4 bonuses collected. Oh, and our call-in bonus that makes it 5 not bad hey. (only to then realize upon scoring that we were unable to collect this during our rest bonus)

TO BURN THE FLAG OR NOT ?


Off to bed we go to get some sleep, the alarm goes off and I ask what didn’t we just get into bed?

So, we’re back on the road at 4.30am heading off on our newly planned route, first stop was PSNUN – Nundle School,



then to PSWO - Woolami School,



soon after we came across a wide load, in deed it was 7m wide heading to Bendigo in Victoria, they gave us the nod to pass! We refueled at Moombi and had some breaky and decided that we should delete the 2 Armidale bonus locations as we would most likely arrive back at Taree after 2pm and that would attract large time deductions so we cut and ran down the Oxley to the next bonus being PSYAR - Yarrowitch – another school.



The Co-ordinates were incorrect but down the road a few Km was a sign “School” so we wandered on down only to see the Yarrowitch School sign had been removed from the poles and was upside down on the ground. I being a good sport placed the sign up against the pole so you could see it, not what Fatman said to do he told me to hide it! down the Oxley to WICAS - Wauchope School,



We then travelled along the Pacific Highway to grab another bonus that we thought would be easy, but no roadworks disallowed us to do a right hand turn so we had to do a U turn and come back to it. When we arrived, I was standing there oh so patiently when some of the owners wandered out to see what we were up to but before they got to ask we were on the bike and heading for our next bonus.



HK01 located in Kendall for pic of Henry Kendall and while stopped send in another call-in bonus as the timing window had opened. Whilst here a special text was send to Milady to enquire if there were any marriage counselors open in Taree that we could go and see, she responded with a laughing face!



From here back to Taree to get pics of HKO2 x 2 which was in the parkland along the river. Naughty Bart was already there collecting his points.




We finally pulled into the finish with our “Blues Brothers song RAWHIDE” blasting out the speakers, Rollin Rollin Rollin keep them doggies moving rawhide! Ox guided us to the finish line, Lord told us to shut down then they went through the check list. Do you want to stop the clock? Yes. Ox read out the ODO, then asked if we had beer? No Lord, then he handed us a post it note with our arrival time & I think odo on it and advised us to ensure that this was in our envelope for scoring. I think we should have gotten bonus points for the song but none were forthcoming, tough judges.

We then went and parked the bike up and proceeded to the mental room to write up our Ride Log and mingle with our fellow competitors, I made it quite clear to most of them that I was a tad peeved as we saw none (except for Naughty Bart at the last bonus location) of them at any bonus locations and they were a little confused. I do believe that at the beginning that most of you said you would collect me if you found me stranded at a bonus location, well thank god Fatman didn’t kick me off cause none of you guys showed!! I was so so careful in not making any errors as a ride log with no errors was worth 1000 bonus points, yep going well then buggar I stuffed up, how easy it was to lose points with the stroke of a pen. We sealed our envelope, once sealed you cannot open it again, I placed it on the scoring board and sat and waited to be called up for scoring. Within a few minutes, Enterprise called us to step up for scoring…..he proceeded to open the envelope and check that we had included the Rally Flag, Ride Log, Manning Valley sticker signed & time stamped by himself, drink coaster signed by Alex. Tick, tick, tick & tick going well, now onto reading the ride log and looking at pics, yep still going ok until the call-in bonus sent in whilst on our rest bonus. Ok guys you can either lose the call-in bonus = 500 points or lose your rest bonus = 10000 points which is it to be? What a hard decision to make, NOT. He continued down the ride log very happy with everything until my slip up with the pen and that meant no bonus points of 1000 for a clear ride log.

Total Bonus points = 21,130
Total Kms ridden = I think it was only 830km or so.

So, we seemed to have come through another rally, yes there were some testing times but hey we’re still married and we have had a few good laughs since then about how to do it next time, if there is a next time!

To everyone on the organizing committee and to our fellow competitors thank you for your time, patience and participation towards a fun/frustrating weekend had by all.

The following day Fatman gave me a challenge to go to the supermarket, which is a bit like basecamp trying to find things as they have renovated the shop and I can’t find anything! Ok so here’s my challenge:

purchase cereal = 1000 points

purchase apples = 1000 points

purchase bananas = 1000 points

BUT if you get all 3 = 4000 points BUT if you purchase cigarettes you lose ALL points and Fail!


Oh, we worked our why my teeth were aching. I am now one less tooth having to have it extracted due to an abscess under it and now I have an infected gum! And to think Fatman told me to suck it up and stop whinging about the pain! Seriously I knew this rally was going to be a challenge but geez I didn’t need this!
 
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Biggles

Premier Member
#25
Wow! Saga! Very pleased you got enough points after all that suffering.
There must have been a tooth devil at that restaurant, as I bit on a fork and chipped a tooth there. No tooth fairies, that's for sure.
Thanks for the laughs. I reckon I'll just keep on going solo and beating myself up. No point in having someone else beating on me at the same time. You guys are definitely masochists!
I had to look twice at your flag- mine is 54927.
 

Martin Little

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#26
Wow! That's an awesome rally report, love your work.

But I am jealous about your Photos of Yarrawitch & Wauchope Public Schools, I couldn't find Yarrawitch at midnight and then tried to claim the Wauchope BP at 1:00am despite it being a daylight only bonus.
 

Brookester

Premier Member
#27
So correct me if off by a little....but have not our Aussie IBR finishers always said the first skill you need in a Rally is "reading comprehension"...such as nightime or daytime....and I would gather by scoring table tales the last skill would be the ability to stop, breathe and compose your thoughts???
 

Fatman

Well-Known Member
#29
So correct me if off by a little....but have not our Aussie IBR finishers always said the first skill you need in a Rally is "reading comprehension"...such as nightime or daytime....and I would gather by scoring table tales the last skill would be the ability to stop, breathe and compose your thoughts???

True Brookester but then putting those readings into a ride plan is the challenge.
 

Fatman

Well-Known Member
#30
Wow! That's an awesome rally report, love your work.

But I am jealous about your Photos of Yarrawitch & Wauchope Public Schools, I couldn't find Yarrawitch at midnight and then tried to claim the Wauchope BP at 1:00am despite it being a daylight only bonus.

Martin on the couple of "daylight hours only" bonuses we got, I made sure I got the sky in the pic (as required in previous Rallies) not sure the judges took that into account at the scoring table this year, can't remember it being a requirement in the rules?
 

SimonB

Premier Member
#31
Hi Simon,

Some of this is experience and knowing what to do when uploading all of the Bonus's into the GPS, not just the chosen route. I made this mistake on my first Buttlite, another hard learnt lesson.

Being able to route on the fly using just the GPS is invaluable and something I've worked on over the last 2 years. If you like I'm more than happy to share with you.
Thank you for your kind offer Martin! As discussed yesterday when I ran into you outside work, I might join you on a run in early 2017 and learn a few tips.

I loaded all the bonus locations into the GPS (on Enterprise's advice), but it didn't occur to me until after the roundup that I should swap GPS screens and watch for bonuses close by as I followed my planned route. :confused: OK OK some of us learn a little slower than others...

Like I said, we live and learn.
 

SimonB

Premier Member
#32
Nice write up Lynne. Sounds like you and Fatman had fun. And best of all, you're still together! For the next one!
I couldn't find WITAT either. Mind you at that point I was feeling somewhat stressed as I realized I wasn't going to make it home in time...
 
#33
Nice write up Lynne. Sounds like you and Fatman had fun. And best of all, you're still together! For the next one!
I couldn't find WITAT either. Mind you at that point I was feeling somewhat stressed as I realized I wasn't going to make it home in time...
Simon we have done a few rallies, for fun over the years we call it "marriage counseling" we're obviously doing something right !:rolleyes:
 

Enterprise

Premier Member
#35
I made sure I got the sky in the pic (as required in previous Rallies) not sure the judges took that into account at the scoring table this year, can't remember it being a requirement in the rules?
Not a requirement in the rules to have the sky in the photo to prove the photo was taken in Daylight hours only, but a brilliant move on your part Fatman. I would have been hard pressed to take that one off you with such proof staring me in the face. Yes I did notice.
 

Crappy

Premier Member
#36
It finally had to be replaced my little Samsung notebook that I carried around in a bickie tin for six rallies. I don’t think I would have spent the money it only happened when Bron must have just got sick of me winging about how slow it was and brought a new notebook for my birthday. This caused me to finally accept mapsource was not going to be around and I needed to download Basecamp and figure it out.

When Lady Cuddles gave us the rally pack a week out it took me hours to recode using Ox’s posted guide then that long again to try and route something worthwhile. It was frustrating the hell out of me so I referred to the all knowledgeable you tube for some tips getting to a point I could use it but felt sure there was a lot I was missing in the new software.

The first route had me heading North to the timed bonus on the Gold Coast/Tweed via Dorrigo, Ebor and Lismore then across to Toowoomba and down the New England to the Oxley back to Taree grabbing whatever time would allow on the return. It was more attractive to ride this route in reverse but Lady Cuddles had ruled this out with the times on the Gold Coast bonuses.

Later in the week she re jigged the points making Combos more attractive so I changed the symbols I was using to reflect Combos instead of just points. A guy with glasses for UNIs , a wine glass or wineries , bell for schools you get the picture then the Combos started to stand out and it was a case of join the dots then cull until the distance made sense.

https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=12e1158433b6c6e934

In the end the route went South to Sydney then West past Orange looping around through Mudgee to the Hunter valley and back to Taree via Gloucester. It had three Henry Kendall’s, Four Banjo Patterson’s ( including the freebie that just had to be written on the log to claim ) , Four Henry Lawson’s and the 2345 Combo of 2 UNI’s, 3 wineries , 4 schools and five poets plus a few extras that I was riding past. Milady seemed quite excited that it totalled over 50,000 points I thought it looked OK but probably wasn’t rideable. It was timed to the minute after I found the timing thingo in Basecamp from my you tube friend. There was nothing for Sydney Traffic or trouble at the bonuses, exactly four hours rest and two 10 minute fuel/comfort stops.


We had talked about a couple of the Drovers riding the Rally just to see what was doable and take advantage of the fact it was a training rally. That really includes all of us learning off each other through the whole process from construction through to scoring.

It’s not rideable I said on arrival in Taree. We ran it through John super sheet on Saturday morning it said it was doable. I knew I was not that robotic to get all the bonuses in minutes allocated so dropped a couple of bonuses out during the training session.

Interestingly being able to wander around the room to offer help in planning Philmor looked to have come up with this route in a lot less time than me.

After a one finger wave out from Cuddles I headed North just over the bridge from the Visitor centre to grab my first Henry Kendall bonus HK02.







Then headed down town Taree for the timed Abacus bonus ABAC.

“What time do you have Sir ?” I asked a poker faced John. “I believe I have 15:15” the window had just opened but not everyone was there.” So you caught a few “ looking for any cracks in the poker face I thought there may have almost been a slight grin “ Maybe seven or so”

I grabbed the photo then headed to the Old Bar Tavern.



It was pretty hot and joining a world Endurance champion for a beer was seemed like a better idea for the afternoon but I just grabbed the shots and beer coaster required and left, Miladies little rejig of the first bonus had cost 40 minutes as I had guessed.



I headed South for my first University in Newcastle UNIN.



There was 1500 points around the corner at a shopping centre that was too attractive to leave despite not being a combo SMR.



Into Sydney travelling Ok on time for the first Henry Lawson bonus which required setting the camera on a nearby tree using the timer HL05.



The next Henry Kendall bonus HK04 in Sydney somewhere I never know where I am in a city had a surreal feel I was wandering through a Park on dusk full leathers and helmet .GPS in one hand rally book in another whilst in the background there was a music festival. To me it sounded like a cross between Doof Doof and Aboriginal tribal music. It was one of those Rally moments where you go how did I end up here in this situation . This shot took a couple of goes with the timer and small tripod which had broken and required the camera to be balanced on top. Running between the seat and the camera with a bit of dancing in between I was gaining some looks and was a lather of sweat.



Henry Lawson's next shot HL06 wasn't far from from the last bonus but far enough to get on and off the bike again.

[
 
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Crappy

Premier Member
#37
It took what seemed like an eternity to get across to the the next Henry Kendall bonus HK03 it was a cracker, a graveyard bonus in the dark. The waypoint was on the corner of acres of headstones not near the bonus a classic rally mistress stroke of evilness . Now I had inside information being part of the Drover team and they most likely would have buried me there looking for this bonus with out it. Trouble is I didn't listen properly when John was telling me. It had me running 100metres up a hill sweating and gasping for for air losing my most precious assest, time.





Across to my next University Bonus through back streets to UNINSW which was a tricky shot to get so I used two to prove I was there. I could not believe checking time at this point I was just in front by minutes.





It felt like I lost the ride in the next section but knew to just keep plugging away. I was heading West but missed the tunnel and found myself in the CBD watching those minutes disappear. Then when I finally got to the M7 I was riding into a storm. This wasn't much fun up the Bells Line Road to Lithgow for a School PSLHS



I stopped at Yelthome just before Bathurst to put a jumper on grab some fuel for the night before scoring a winery on Mountain Straight at Mount Panorama this came with the added bonus of a lap around the race track around midnight.



I needed rest, the next Banjo Paterson bonuses BAN01 and BAN02 were perfect for that stopping the clock for rest as I got into the swag I could still see the storm and there was a bit of drizzle so I battened down the hatches in case it came this way. Re timing the run it felt acheivable but still down to minutes . Four hours and two minutes later I then scored the two Banjos making this a very high scoring little park.



I had bit of a GPS moment trying to get to the next bonus this was a result of despite having the route for days I didn't zoom in and understand it properly. The next winery WIHOP was not there so I took three shots to claim the bonus not having time to make the call and discuss with MiLady.


 

Crappy

Premier Member
#38
BAN06 was next another Banjo Paterson monument time was coming back to me with to open back roads and daylight.



I was just selecting a way point one or two at a time working off a running sheet in the tank bag. I had a feeling I was supposed to go into Gulgong but dropped 1794 points because I missed writing it on the run sheet and went straight to Mudgee instead. I didn't even realise until John pointed it out days later. Two bonuses in Mudgee a school and a poet but had planned to miss the timed winery bonus.





A fuel stop at Merriwa and breakfast had me Ok on time I thought it was just the back roads with no traffic but obviously with hindsight it was missing Gulgong . Into the Hunter Valley for two wineries WIALG & WITAT running into Philmor .







It was great from here all the way back to the barn with two schools along the way PSGRES & PSDUN before grabbing some beer for another 200 points just before finishing.





I was happy with the run pulling up to Cuddles and OX to stop the clock.

I dropped 2500points at the table with my log error and missing an extra required shot at SMR ( reading comprehension)

Reflections on the ride show there was a bit more there and it may have been possible to get to 50,000 points . I must stress this was only because I had prior information and doubt I would have got anywhere near that score without prior knowledge.

In my books the training Rally was a huge success for everyone all learning from each other including the Round up Team .
 

Biggles

Premier Member
#39
Well, that's comforting- even the big dogs make mistakes and leave big points out on the road and on the table.
Twice as many points as me, but you worked twice as hard! And twice as efficiently.
During my rest break I thought about going out to the New England to route back that way as per your Plan A, then looked at how far I was from the barn and dismissed the loop as impossible- an outright DNF.
 

Biggles

Premier Member
#40
So, Milady, now most of us have laid our souls bare, will you be posting the results?
We all recognise it was a Training Exercise, and none of us were in a competitive mode... :p