Well not so much for me. Today’s course was a similar distance in similar forest, with a similar result, to yesterday. It was definitely harder navigating. The features that my controls were on were a lot vaguer – shallow gullies, broad spurs, tiny low cliffs. All of them required careful compass work and complete contact with the contours. Looking at splits times shows that mistakes were quick to make and very slow to correct – some people took over an hour on just one leg. My only difficulty came on no 2, where I decided I was looking for a gully when in fact I should have been looking for a spur. Once I sorted that little problem out, I found said spur, but it took a while to pinpoint the flag. Leg 3 looked trickier, so I took more care, making sure I always knew where I was in relation to the gullies and saddles that I needed to traverse. This leg caused problems for a number of people, but I took my time, kept checking my compass and the contours, and went straight to it, albeit slowly. I was pretty pleased to see that I was 4th on that split – if only I could do that on every leg …

Leg 5 was the first one with a significant route choice decision. You could follow the red line across more spurs and gullies and save some distance, or you could play it safe by following a dirt road west, then a narrow but distinct track north. By now I needed a physical and mental break from the forest, and I didn’t trust myself to follow the line without mishap. I went for the road/track option – and I’m very glad I did. This was the leg that cost others an hour – if you missed the control, there was very little to relocate from, and plan B was wandering in circles and hoping. OK, my route wasn’t fast, but I was confident and secure. I finished feeling satisfied with my day, and my weekend.

Ian, on the other hand, zipped around his course, navigating (almost) flawlessly. As a result, he shot from the bottom of the results, right to the top – the winner of Course 3. He barely put a foot wrong, other than a bit of a wander on the second last control – but by then he’d built a 4 minute lead on his nearest rival, so he had a bit of wriggle room. To top it off, he won a nice big block of chocolate in the random prize draw. Sometimes, it’s just your day.