Team Manager Ian has arrived.... fun's over now. Time to get serious.
***News Break***
We did another training session this morning. The good news is that this area was actually quite nice! Although there were still sections of heavy nettle and bramble growth, the forest was much more runnable. Contours were much more gentle as well. Good, clean, fun orienteering.
Here's a photo of Team Member Richard and Team Mascot Jenny in the area.
Here is the map of Obukhiv, a relay training area. Team Member Nic's course is in light pink. Most of us cut out one loop so that we did about 5km instead of the official 7.3km.
We got lost going to Obukhiv, but we blame the Aussie Japanese Coach.... (*grin*). Directions to the training areas were complicated, and by the time this set had been translated from Ukrainglish to Aussienese and finally to Safrican, there were a few too many mistakes. Correcting misktakes is near impossible due to the lack of any English amongst the general population and the use of Cyrillic for all signs in the Ukraine. After a two metro trains and a mini-bus taxi ride to some far corner of the Kiev, we eventually relented and hopped on board a private taxi. For approx R30pp he took us the rest of the 45km to the 'nearby' city of Obukhiv. They'd changed the start location though, resulting in a final 2km walk across the map.
The way back home was much smoother and quicker. Perfect navigation.
Pic: Team Member Richard, Team Cheerleader Jenny and Team Member Jeremy after their run.
Team China (in background) say
Dogs rule the streets and parks of Kiev. Well, sort of. There are definitely plenty about. Most of them are wild and most of the orienteers are pretty frightened by them. We've all already met a few in the forest, but Team Member Richard and Team Member Jeremy each had to deal today with one that came up to them barking. They stood their ground and avoided any nasty situations. A couple of months ago two British girls were bitten here whilst training for WOC.
On another topic: after yesterday's somber post, we thought you'd appreciate a balanced view of Kiev, so we took a photo out the other side of the hotel...we think this is the prettier side.
And finally. Don't ask me... All I asked was for them to pose for a photo...
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