People from all over Australia will be heading to the central west for the Australian Rogaining Championships which takes place in NSW once every six or seven years.

Dubbo resident Adrian Anderson will be participating in a two-man team with his mate Justin Quigley, a farmer from Trangie.

READ ALSO: Here's everything happening at this year's DREAM Festival

Mr Anderson is studying medicine at the University of Sydney School of Rural Health. He has been rogaining for about 10 years and said he became interested in it after he left school.

"We had an outdoor program and did a bit of it through that. Then a few years out of school I looked it up and saw there was an association for it, and they organise events reasonably regularly," Mr Anderson told the Daily Liberal.

This year's championship will take place in the Goobang National Park, Tomingley. Teams will compete in groups of two to five people.

Rogaining is bush navigation, but unlike orienteering that follows a pre-set route, teams have a set item to collect from as many of the checkpoints as possible. Each checkpoint has a different value, depending on their distance from the start and finish location.

Rogaining reportedly began in Australia and has since spread around the world.

"It's good for families to come and have a go, and a good opportunity to see different parts of the country you wouldn't see otherwise," Mr Anderson said.

All abilities and ages are welcome at the Australian Championships, including novice, family and veteran teams. The emphasis is on participation and enjoying the outdoors.

Guidance and suggested routes are provided before the start for people new to the sport. There are eight-hour and 24-hour options to take, and some teams stay out on the course for the entire eight or 24 hours, while other teams in the longer event go out for a few hours before coming in for a hot meal and a sleep, and then heading out on the next morning to collect more checkpoints.

Mr Anderson and Mr Quigley aim to cover around 80 kilometres over the weekend, and they have been training in the Warrumbungles.

IN OTHER NEWS

One of the appealing aspects of the sport is that everyone finishes together, regardless of their ability and goals for the event, the organisers say.

The event runs from September 30 to October 1 and has eight and 24-hour options. All navigation must be done with the provided map and a compass - GPS devices, phones and smart watches are not allowed.

Find out more and register to participate at https://nswrogaining.org/2023-aus-champs/

Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app here. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens.