Tonight’s event is an evening of Orienteering. First ‘control’ point is the Cross Keys, and once we’re all gathered and had a swift pint we have a short car journey to Cannock Chase, where we meet up with our hosts from the Walton Chasers orienteering club. It’s many years since I did Orienteering as a student so I was keen to have this as an event this year. Not to be confused with pure navigation, Orienteering is a family of sports that require navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain (Wikipedia!).
We start with a simple trial exercise to get used to the map & compass, the meaning of the symbols and what the orange and white control points look like. Then we have a course to navigate with 6 controls, over around 2.5km (if done point-to-point). However gone are the old clicky devices at each control, here it’s all electronic, with a sensor to show you reached each control, and the time you took to get there. The guys have set us a good course with some varied terrain and I’ve worked up quite a sweat by the time I finish – in what turns out to be the winning time of the evening (at 14 minutes).
Once the guys are all in we pack up and head back to the village for a well deserved pint and joined by a few others a visit to Wing Fat's.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment