Orientate

We have joined the intricate world of orienteering. I had no idea this sport existed but am very pleased that it does. Actually I wish I had known about it years ago so I didn't need to waste all these years doing other pursuits. It is exactly what it sounds like. You are given a map of an area that has numbered 'controls' marked on it. You have to use the map to punch into each control in order as quickly as you can. We started off going to street orienteering in the evenings as A nice thing to do after school outdoors. While most people come ready to run there as a walkers option so we could come equipped with strollers and scooters and snacks and hit as many controls as we could manage. In our case we generally end up with more stops for snacks than controls  but it is still good fun and teaches the girls about maps. Plus, it gets them to walk up to five kilometers enthusiastically. 

In reality though this is a a bush sport. Map and compass are needed to make your way through the course. So here we have a sport that involves maps, bush, running, and treasure (control) seeking. Impressive! I signed Aurora up for the kids team program where she goes off on bush courses with a friend. She has learned a ton, sometimes the hard way, and I am very proud of her for doing it. Last week her and her teammate embarked on a slightly to technical course that was two and a half kilometres long throughout ough bush rather than on trails. The girls had no compass and used all their brainpower to locate the controls and make it back. They were out on their own in bush for and hour and a half but managed to find all the controls and return to their slightly concerned parents. Not bad for two nine year olds! It made Aurora want a compass(we now have one specially balanced for the Southern Hemisphere) and it made me desperately get to try doing a route too. 

This week I managed to offload little children on Jakob and when Aurora went off with her friend I headed off to do my own course. It didn't disappoint except that it was over too quickly. I will be working on this skill and hopefully will eventually get to try rogaining a similar sport where the shortest courses are 8 hours.

Map mates