Stag Night Orienteering - Link Park

That time of year again ...away with the big maps and time for micro navigation. Alan Anderson and myself went along for the first in the STAG series of night events.

Despite not being very good, I love orienteering - it never fails to amaze me how costly a mistake is.

The course was 3.5km loop with sixteen controls with a mix of natural and manmade features. It started well with the first 4 controls going exactly as planned. Heading along to the fifth I started to plan ahead and promptly ended up down a banking and nearly in the river Cart opps ! The ankle I left at the top of the bank was sore ...but not too bad as I clipped the control and headed up the hill. The next couple of controls went ok but after number 37 I went completely wrong ! So badly wrong that I had to retrace my route back to the control and start again. With the confidence dented (and the ankle getting a little bit sorer) I slowed down so as not to make any more errors. Three of the controls were on the golf course and I made yet another mistake (took the white areas on the map as being fairways when they were actually lines of trees !?!?!) but found the controls after a bit of faff. The ditch control (which a few folks missed) was located and all that was left to do was find the right track to the next control (which was easier said than done) thankfully I slowed again to get the remaining controls and finished complete.

The course proved to be challenging but fun and a great way to spend a Monday evening. Thanks to Terry and Gerry for organising !