Category Orienteering in Europe

SS6D 4. Blogging from bed.

It all looked so easy once you had picked up the map. Mostly open farm with patches of gorse and heather and only 120 metres of climb. Pity about the 220 metres of climb up to the start. It was “only ” an 1.8km walk but the last 600m was as near to vertical as […]

SPRINT AT MACROSTY PARK. CRIEFF

Another great day and the rain came later. A beautiful park only 1km from the town, I have never run on such lush grass. I didn’t make any mistakes but I did make one poor route choice. I should have gone from 17 to 18 back down the path and roundabout instead of clambering down […]

Maps Day 2 and 3.

It was a beautiful day, the drive in with the crags gleaming in the sun. A perfect arena, next to the car park and adjacent to the start, who would have thought such a thing possible? My run was better, one bad control, number 5, spent some time thrashing around the knolls under the top […]

DAY 1. SS6D. AUCHINGARRICH.

Todays threatened rain did not eventuate and it actually got quite warm, especially for those of us who took the tick hazard warning seriously and wore full body cover. Many of you will remember that Australian orienteer Hugh, came close to death after contracting a tick borne infection whilst orienteering in Europe. The map was […]

A JOURNEY’S END.

Our sojourn at the Far Moorside Farm near Hebden Bridge is over. Hebden Bridge is a very pretty little village in a deep valley in the Yorkshire Moors, with narrow roads lined with iconic Yorkshire stone walls and historic houses. It suffered major flood damage a few years ago, and roads are still in the […]

CRAGGE VALE, MYTHOLMROYD, HEBDEN BRIDGE.

No we are not speaking Welsh, theses are the three towns near our farm on the Yorkshire moors. Last night we descended partway into the Calder Dale, down the longest continuous descent on British roads and had dinner in the Cragge Vale pub after which we took a short stroll of two tenths of a […]

FROM KINGS & ABBOTTS TO PRIINCE’S OF WALES.

Thursday 18th July. It has been a strange couple of days, wrestling with disappointments, satnavs and nettles. Missing the Evensong service at Kings College last Tuesday was a great disappointment and we rose early the next day with only a few spare hours to get into the chapel. We therefore broke our fast succinctly (at […]

DOUBLE BUMBUKALNS.

Our Latvian Orienteering is over. Two days in the Bumukalns forest on the banks of the Lielupe inlet, close to the Baltic sea. The terrain was classic sand dues with establish pine forest with little other vegetation apart from a dense mat of moss, lichen and other grasses. The visibility was great but the track […]

IN RAIN HAIL & SHINE.

The sprint Orienteering is done and we have a rest day tomorrow. The day started out cool and damp and we were able to walk to the start beneath a national monument in a park on the edge of the CBD. Ilze was able to get away early and found the going damp underfoot and […]

IT WAS A LONG WAY FOR A TURKISH TAKE-AWAY

Sorry there was no blog yesterday. Our arrival from Istanbul did not go well, delayed by 90 minutes and found that our driver had given up and left and despite Ilse’s language skills we couldn’t work out if he was coming back to get us. We waited another half an hour and then gave up […]