Relentless - Training Day 2

The rocks, the depressions, the cliffs. The terrain was relentless and unforgiving. Our line course to the start set the scene as Tania stepped on some soft ground and found her leg being gobbled up by a small hidden hole. Not so easy to extract it either. There were no nice obvious route choice races for the first control so we all set off on our own. It was slow going and accuracy was the key to success. A much better map than yesterday with good contours meant all the humps and bumps were shown. Pits and depressions proved useful navigation tools and bare rock was more familiar. Straight line orienteering was difficult if you were trying to dodge bushes, cliffs and sudden holes in the lime stone. We spend the morning doing their set course of 12 controls. There were several other international teams out on the map and it appeared that the consensus was that the terrain was difficult.

In the afternoon Nico and Tania went out to find 6 more controls (see map) whilst Cindy waited in what eventually turned into a rainy day. On average a more positive orienteering day for us. Our discussion with the organizers at the finish was cut short they rush off to welcome and get photographs of Thierry G as he arrived for his session.

WOC 2011 training camp - Training Day 1

29 September 2010- Perfect weather and beautiful French scenery guided us to the start of our first day of training. The map made in 1999 was apparently slightly updated. We parked at the ski resort and took a gentle jog to the north of the map were we planned to do a line course. Nico’s carefully planned line proved a challenge as the “white” forest was full of felled trees. The felling practice seems very sporadic with the odd tree here and there cut down and all the rubbish left in the forest. Bare rock was jagged rock scatterings, so not good to run over either. Pits were really big, at least 5 m and wide-no chance of falling in them, although if you did chances are you would never emerge again. After getting a feel for the map on the line course we ran back along 4 controls. Nico and Tania tried some route choice options for the first control. His path option proved best and allowed him some time to wait for me and to be entertained by a falling Scotsman. A real moaner- no blood in sight, but lots of tears and cursing after he stabbed his shin on something.

For our afternoon season we each planned to each take in between 6 and 14 controls on the official pre planned course. Another route choice race for Nico & Tania got us to the first control about the same time. Thereafter we split up to tackle the forest. The forest floor was very busy, lots of humps and bumps which understandable could not be marked. It did mean that you had to really hit the control spot on. A 5-10m deviation meant the control was hidden over another rise. There was a very technical area of 6 controls which proved challenging (see map).

We all encountered swarms of what initially seemed like bees, but apparently were only blue flies. Nico ventured to the controls on the south of the map-bad move. The “white” was not really forest, just not mapped. Or in his word (@#$%^&!!!!!).

We ended the day with a R35 Cappuccino in a coffee shop along the pretty channels in Annecy-Cindy & Nico in the picture here.