The May hunt started near the bridge over the Yarra at Warrandyte. Attending were VT, JMD/VR/MZ (henceforth referred to as VR for brevity), YQN, TXO and YDF.

A good signal was heard and all teams crossed the bridge to North Warrandyte, then the fun started. Which side of the river was it? The hounds struggled with confusing bearings and some crossed the river again.

Meanwhile, John, Graham and two observers, Justin & Jesse, were camped on top of a concrete water tank on Overbank Road, Eltham, with folding chairs, beer, and a makeshift tower supporting a 5-element beam, aimed at Templestowe. Fortunately, the showers that had been prevalent that day held off, because the guys had quite a wait for the hounds.

VT was the first team in, but then, in a final act of cruelty, the fox team insisted that hounds get onto the tank before scoring. This was not trivial. YDF arrived just before time expired with VR and TXO just after. We all settled down to wait for YQN who had been dithering around in Templestowe. There were cheers and applause when they eventually arrived.

In the meantime, when John announced the meeting spot, David, Marta and the Hound (Fitz) decided that it was safe to emerge from the warmness of the car and wander up to the top of a steep hill under transmission lines, to set up for Hunt 2. At least one such hill was required throughout the night, after all, lest Bruce be eternally disappointed… They settled down to wait.

After about twenty minutes, with the dog shivering miserably, John was called to see what the delay was – this turned out to be YQN still exploring the northern suburbs. Not wanting to disrupt the potential tourist benefits of such nocturnal activities, the fox agreed to keep waiting, and eventually the hunt commenced.

First in was Josh from TXO, with Bryan from YDF a close second, using a 70cm sniffer. Another TXO member, Hamish, came in some time later, after battling his way through thick vegetation – don’t know where he could have possibly found that! Last in were VR, VT and a very puffed-looking Bruce from YQN. After plying them with sandwiches in apology for the evilness of Hunt 1, the hounds were sent on their way somewhat happier than when they arrived.

Hunt 3 was in Mays Road, Eltham. The Eastern end of Mays Road is really just a power line access track; it is steep and slippery with deep wheel ruts. The Melways directory shows it going only a short distance, when in fact it nearly joins Mays Road West, with just a creek and some impenetrable scrub separating the two.

The fox was set up west of the hill top, with the ‘tower’ close to power lines and with the beam aimed north/west. This had the desired effect - the power lines causing ambiguous bearings.

Soon the sky lit up from the headlights of 4WDs climbing the track from the east. There was apparently a sideways component to this activity. First in was YDF, followed by VT, YQN and\ TXO. VR arrived late (15 mins after first hound found it).

Hunt 4 was two-legged, on a walking track on the north side of the river. The car was parked at the end of Griffith Park Rd, giving Marta an easy walk eastwards. Not entirely sure where she was, due to the mist rising from the river, it was largely a matter of coincidence that she positioned the transmitter in bushes almost directly below an overgrown track, shown as a dashed brown line in the Melways. The wait began.

This hunt was fairly close to the preceding one, so she expected hound activity relatively quickly. Communication between David and Marta regarding the relative position of this transmitter to the previous one really should have indicated to the hounds that they were on the correct side of the river to begin with. However, about half an hour after the hunt began, a torch was spotted directly across the river from where the main fox was. It meandered up and down the path a bit, but eventually disappeared - apparently, the week’s rain had made the prospect of crossing the river a bit daunting...

Hound activity was non-existent again for another half hour or so until Darian from YDF finally arrived – slipping and sliding down the so-called track. He was closely followed by team member Bryan, and then members from VR, VT and TXO all arrived within the space of five minutes. There was some complaining about the danger of climbing down that track, however it would only have taken a minute for other members of that team to drive down to Griffith Park Drive where the fox car was parked – the walking track and entry from that location were also clearly shown on the Melways.

As soon as each person found the main fox, they were sent off down the track towards where the Fox-Or was hidden. David had positioned this right by the river and was waiting nearby with the Fitzel – some hounds took unfair advantage of Fitz’s presence by calling out to him, trying to get him to bark and give away the Fox’s location. New rules as of next hunt: The hounds may not use the Hound to aid in sniffing...

Points are position based: First team in gets 0, second team gets 1, etc. If a team didn't get in on a hunt, they received three more than the maximum score of teams which did get in. Therefore, winners for tonights hunt are: YDF, closely followed (only one point difference) by VT. Congratulations!

Bad luck to the YQN team who experienced rather severe equipment issues - rotator motors falling apart and such like. Better now then at Mt Gambier, though! Fox for next month is TXO.