Saxons Park \'O\'
“O�, For Heaven’s Sake
Gary Vallance - 'The Usual Suspects' / 05.09.2005
Determined to get at least one bike/run training session in before a QuestAR event, and with no particular plan in mind I got an email about a \"Park-O\" event being run by Saxons Orienteering Club at Knole Park in nearby Sevenoaks. Park-O, he explained, is basically turn-up-and-try orienteering, in a park. Genius!
I couldn’t believe how unique the “O� crowd were. Arriving at the venue I was soon treated to the sight of all sorts of \"oh, it\'s just a bit of fun, nothing serious\" pretenders turn up in team strips of long-sleeved airtex V necks tucked into moth-eaten Ronhills, all in faded shades of the most garish colours imaginable. The best prepared completed the look with padded gaiters (for thrashing through heavy vegetation apparently) and headbands, but these paled into insignificance compared to the bizarre array of contraptions employed to make the simple task of holding two pieces of paper and a compass look like heart surgery. Amazing!
The event was great. I settled on having a go at the scoring course, an intermediate \"Green\" graded 3.5km route. A leisurely start, in my own time, was recorded by the Event Organiser and I headed off toward the early Controls. With the first three down I’d made up some ground on fellow competitors. So far I’d just been reckoning map v’s landscape, but as the controls got further apart, and the undergrowth got thicker, I made the mistake of checking my rubbish compass, and immediately lost my sense of direction and scale!
Stumbling across CP4 by chance, and thrashing around in the dense overgrowth trying to find a trail again, I watched an economical little oriental lady I\'d just overtaken disappear into the distance ahead. Eventually stopping having realised I was utterly lost, I managed to work out where the heck I was and set about getting back on track.
Back on Track
Back-tracking to CP5 I caught occasional glimpses of Oriental Lady making good progress. I forged on, making up ground on the long run to CP6. The terrain between 6 and 7 was fortunately thick with knee deep scrub, and with my height advantage by CP7 I was within twenty seconds of her. Watching her vanish round the 150 yard bend to CP8 I checked the map and opted for the direct approach. Crashing out of the high bracken onto the track ahead, I punched 8 and vanished back into the ferns.
SleepMonsters
