Carwell's Labyrinth - Easter Day 1

It was cold overnight with the temperature dropping down to 4°C resulting in Katy crawling into my sleeping bag wanting to cuddle to get warm. We only just fitted but there was no room to move! Exiting our tent, we were greeted to chilly, misty conditions and as the sun's rays intensified, the ice on the fly and car melted slowly away!

Today's assembly area was well chosen - on a spur overlooking the finish chute and with all the essential things (toilets, coffee van, start, string course) close by. Andy, Jase and BA headed off to their starts while I herded a group of children to the string course.

Today's string course theme was Teddies! Aoife (along with Cath) had done a superb job of photographing a selection of Aoife's Teddies (a great holiday project I hear!) and using these at the controls. Post run we learnt all the teddies names too!

The string course itself was tough - rocky and steep in places which added to the experience! Although saying that, most children did the course backwards so weren't at all concerned by the rugged conditions! I managed to avoid any major injuries and not to lose anyone so that was great.

As for the real orienteering, the terrain was spur gully with sandstone rocks/cliffs. I wasn't too inspired to begin with but then missing my start didn't help the cause either. Eventually I did get going but was in the wrong head space and made several large errors on the first few controls before losing complete interest!

Meanwhile back at the assembly area, Katy joined a large contingent led by Al and Belinda to complete the blue course. The group started well but from all accounts chaos ensued. As a result some children came back while others including Katy continued on.

Ella had expressed an interest in competing at Easter in the M/W10N … the easiest course with an adult 'shadowing' so we entered her.  For day 1 the plan was that once Andy had finished his race he would be Ella's shadow. The only problem was Ella was no where to be seen … eventually she was discovered on the edge of the assembly area down the bottom of an erosion gully happily playing in the water and on the walls. Ella decided that despite Andy's pleading, this was way more fun than doing an orienteering course!