Keen to get some practice at navigation, and interested to see what kind of format the Orienteering Club events followed, my friend Kate and I travelled through the clag and out the other side to Totley Moor area for a South Yorkshire Orienteering event on Sunday morning. Sorry no photos...we were a bit late and had to concentrate on the maps
We chose the Score format - 90 minutes to visit as many controls as you like.
The hardest part was the pre entry system, which seemed to require a degree in Orienteering Entry Systems to navigate. Registration was simple and no kit check.
We fought through a small brambly wood to the start area , where we saw a lot of keen competitors lining up for their maps. Not much additional info was given but on explaining we were novices, the volunteer explained the basics of the control descriptions and the map. The scale was a whopping 1 to 10,000 which neither us had ever used before. After the traditional false start and ditching trying to find our chosen first control, we got into our stride and had a fun hour or so finding flags around the course. Weather was clear and lots of it was on paths and some in woods.
We decided on our route back to the finish with around 30 mins remaining, and then made a small error which meant that the last control was a bit "ambitious" to reach, but I encouraged Kate to follow me up a gently rising moorland track to visit it. We only had 5 mins to return and that's where I realised the end was back through the brambly woods , not in the start field. Mega D'OH.
A haring descent back down the moor path (proper fellrunning, that!) and a painful dash through the woods.. we lost 50 points each. But there was tea and cakes and friendly chats.
We both learned a lot, there's no better way to improve your nav in my book. Oh and to the man who bluntly told us "it's bad etiquette to stop at controls" , I hope you tore your best coat on a bramble. Everyone else we met did the cheery hellos, and he could've been kinder as we were clearly less experienced.
"Novice leg" - shouldve worn longs..or those horrific calf guards 😜
