Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Easter Orienteering

The 3 Day Easter Carnival was in Canberra this year making life much easier - no long driving, packing and all the rigmarole that goes along with travelling around Easter time! It was also the first time both girls were officially entered.

We entered the girls into M/W10N which is the easiest course where parents shadow and assist if necessary. Logistically we should be able to take one child each after our own runs. Reality though is much different. Start lists come out, walks to the starts are published and then Andy volunteers to commentate with Jase!

Day One -  Issacs Ridge - a nature reserve within Canberra's south. For the easier courses both the start and finish were remote to the assembly area due to terrain restrictions. From the outset Andy was running then commentating and I had decided not to run (thanks to a new knee issue) and concentrate on helping the girls. So together we ambled the kilometre or so uphill to the start.

Ella is on the cusp of solo orienteering however with not a huge amount of experience under her belt she still gets into trouble occasionally. Katy on the other hand has only just begun to begin to navigate and learn the ropes. So it was decided that Ella would go first by herself, then Katy (and I) would begin several minutes later hoping that we wouldn't see Ella until we crossed the finish line!


The course on Issacs Ridge was great with some stunning views too! Ella only made one mistake running the wrong way to the finish losing a few minutes. Katy did well grasping the concepts of map reading and making plans. Post run they both helped out at the string course along with most of the canberra kids. A trend that continued for the three days!


Day Two - Murdering Shed - Classic gully spur terrain located towards Captains Flat nearly an hours drive from home. Both girls were happy with yesterdays performances. It was another long walk to the start with Ella's mood deteriorating with every step. However once at the start she seemed to click back out of it and was ready to run. Again Ella began first with Katy and I starting several minutes later. Unfortunately we came across Ella on the way to #3 which was a taped route. She was somewhat confused and unable to find #3. I could clearly see the control and asked her isn't that it. She replied no it was the wrong code. Turns out that she had read the control description incorrectly. They said -

Follow tapes 120 to the control.
3. 116 gully

Which she interpreted as follow tapes to control #120. Although she came across the correct control (116), it was wrong in her mind and so continued  on to number 4 and back again as she was looking for 120! Anyone off she went like a startle rabbit which is probably as we all know not a great thing to do. Katy meanwhile was getting the hang of it all....what are we going to follow, whats the control on, whats the number, is it a long or short way, what side is the control on... sort of stuff. We came through the finish happy to have another course under our belt only to discover that Ella wasn't there! Before I had time to begin back tracking, she came into the finish chute. Turns out she ran the wrong way down the fence line for one of the latter controls.


And it was back to helping at the string course again.


Day Three - Follow Flats - adjacent area to Day 2. Thankfully a shorter walk to the start. The course was much harder today with the map not offering much for the easier courses to follow. Despite this Katy and I didn't see Ella at all! She managed the course surprisingly well. Katy meanwhile was taking note of the little things as seen by her back of the map name writing...following in the footsteps of Andy!





It was a nice day to wrap up the carnival. Ella and Katy were both tired but happy to completed their first orienteering carnival!




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