Wet - Training Day 5

We had a late start in the hope that the overnight rain would stop for us. It didn’t really. As a result we were unusually late to the training and arrived to a packed car park, with all the national teams out in full force. The area was right in the middle of the WOC 2011 terrain so it seems no teams wanted to miss out on the training opportunity. We all did the shorter of the two courses. The first half proved to be very slow terrain to move over. Rocky (and wet) together with the French’s sporadic felling practices meant there were lots of (wet) branches everywhere.

Tania's course on the training map in the middle of the WOC 2011 embargoed area

To give you some idea Tania was quite pleased with direct, faultless route from 4 to 5 even though the going was slow. Nico also had a clean run there, but felt he was a bit slow. Never the less he was still 3 minutes faster than Tania. Some teams seemed to be able to move faster through the messy forest floor, something worth practicing if you could find similar terrain in SA. Visibility was low, but the now familiar complex contour details seem to be helping ones progress over the course. It is difficult to imagine where in SA we will be able to find such complex contours to practice on.

The second part of the course gave some hope, as by comparison it was possible to run through the forests. Pits continue to be these amazing man eating crevices and are useful navigation tools (if you don’t fall into them). Clearings were again useful (although some felling caused confusion) but the difference between green and white was not so obvious. Despite their name, depressions continue to be a win.

Tania at a control in a depression in the white forest

And that wraps up team SA’s participation in this training camp. Regrettably with just one week it feels like we are have only just scratched the surface of how to master this complex, tough and unforgiving terrain.

A word of thanks to Jean Dermine and his team for organizing the training camp. It was a welcome pleasure not to have to hang out our own training controls and the hot coffee at the end of today’s session was a lovely surprise to help warm up our icy fingers.