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| Relaxing after a long day of orienteering in the sun |
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| Scene from the camp site |
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| The Sprint Map |
The weekend started with a sprint race around Newcastle on the Friday evening with juniors having to negotiated parkland and urban control sites. This was tricky going and required careful attention to the control descriptions.
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| Start of the Sprint |
Saturday saw the main LongO race in Donard Forest in some testing conditions. The heat made it hard work and the terrain was tough with lots of climb and also plenty of thick undergrowth reducing visibility and fallen trees making it hard to run in places.
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| Part of the Donard Map – Tricky Forest |
Saturday afternoon saw a quick relocation to Tollymore and the juniors take part in a contour only training session. The aim of the game was to locate the control sites using a map with only the contours visible. This was a difficult challenge but a great exercise for reading the shape of the ground and paying attention to contour detail.
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| Contours only map |
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| Hands up if you thought the training was ace |
That evening saw lots of unofficial sports on the open field including football, cricket and hurling taking place. These only stopped, for a short time, to enjoy the BBQ dinner, complete with desserts.
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| Cricket in action |
Sunday was the relay races in Tollymore. We had a junior only team entered while other juniors took part in family teams. It was a tricky race with lots of fine detail on the 1:4000 map with a complex maze thrown in that was overlooked by all those waiting to race – no pressure then! To top it all off an ice cream van arrived at the end of the races. Perfect timing.
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| Peter heads out on the sprint rely |
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| The relay sprint start line |
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| Andrew sets his map for the start of the relay sprint |
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| Excellent handover between Rachel and Peter |
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| Sophie warms up – ever the professional |