Head-torch Testing

Thank you one and all for the warm-up to my Saturday evening's entertainment. A shame we had to cut short the route due to the slippy conditions but I'm sure we'll get a chance for another go. So for the record the morning route was Lower Barn - Horden Stoops - Belmont - Catherine's Edge - Great Hill - White Coppice - Lower Barn. Time-wise we were out for 3.5hrs and distance 13m.

I headed off to the Brinscall/White Coppice area again 5hrs later for a go at night orienteering, curious to see how my new head-torch would fare. Well if Anthony thought mine was good, he should have been there to see some of the 'monster' head-torches of the serious contenders. A bit like having a car headlight perched on your head but with a size of batery pack to match, strapped to their back. Mine seemed a bit puny by comparison, but at 15 quid from Argos you can't really complain too much.

My second go at using a proper orienteering map,so it took a little while to get my 'eye' in. A possible explanation for taking nearly 9 mins for finding the first control 100m from the start! Once I'd found it, I felt resonably confident to carry on. I'd picked the easier of the three courses to do as you were given a written description of the siting of the controls, such as 'SE corner of Ruin', instead of a list of squiggles.

I manged to find all the controls and arrived back at the finish in just over 70mins. An interesting tour of Wheelton Plantation, amazing that I can still find boggy bits in the dark. This time put me 5th out of 10th, so not bad for my first go. The winner on my course managed 42mins.

On one of the harder courses was 'Icelandic Kev' (Latham), I didn't see him, so if he turns up to track on tues, say 'Hello' for me.

TF