Big 5 O Week 2023: Training map

 Big 5 O, a five-day orienteering event that is held every second year, has come to town. This year it is in my almost-backyard with events in the Plett and Harkerville areas and George. Today was a training event, an opportunity to get a feel for the map, features and terrain of the area.

I had a very smooth session, my first proper orienteering outing in at least 6 years. I'm not going for gold this week, but rather to have clean and clear runs.

I had such fun on this training outing and was pleased not to be as rusty as I felt I would be.

Training area map. Only in drawing out my route did I realise that I skipped three controls. Hahaha

Nice to compare how I remembered my run vs how Strava recorded my run.

That's control 56 ahead in a forest clearing - a sunny clearing.

Locating the first control - my first in many years.

Finding some foreign orienteers out there.
Of the approximately 230 pre-entered participants (this number excludes on-the-day walk-ins), only 97 are from South Africa.
15 foreign countries are represented. Most numbers come from Sweden with 31 orienteers, and Switzerland and Great Britain
with 23 each and USA with 17 participants.