Looking at my rogaining route

This past Saturday was the annual rogaining event presented by Rand Orienteering Club. As I know the area, and had put out a couple of controls the day before, I opted again to run on my own as a non-competitive entrant.

The race rules this year were as follows:
The checkpoints (controls) were numbered and offered a selection of odd and even numbered locations. Participants had to start with either odds or evens.

You could swap from one to the other at any point within the limited event duration (3 hours or 6 hours) BUT one you swapped you could not swap again.

The idea would be to spend half - or more - of your time collecting say evens and then to swap halfway and begin collecting odds.

I added my own rules too.

1. I had to aim to go to places on the property where I'd never been before (which was many of the control locations)
2. Far controls that I would normally exclude, I had to get. If I looked at a control and thought, "I really don't feel like going there", I had to.

I had a really, really good day.

At prize giving, when I heard Nicholas Mulder and Kelvin Trautman's point score, I felt wholly inadequate. Nonetheless, I had a good day.

Let's take a look at my route:

To make it easier to see, I have highlighted the even-numbered controls in green and the odds in yellow. I started out on evens (green) in an anticlockwise direction from Thabela (bottom of map).

I made two mistakes - for the rest I was very, very happy with both my navigation, route choice and order of collecting the controls.

Mistake #1

Following my route from the start, I hit the first two controls beautifully. Going to #3, my mind wandered. Leaving #2, I had a visual fix on where I needed to go for #3. I came off the hill from #2 on target, crawling like a little animal through thorny trees (the theme for the day!). In a hop-skip-and-jump I was across the valley and onto the next hill, exactly as I'd planned.

Going up the side of the hill, diagonally, my mind was in its own world. I remember thinking things like:

"I miss not having my dog with me; but it is a good thing because she would hate this terrain and being out here so long."

"I love rogaining. This is so much fun."

"I really need to get around to adding proper orienteering colours to this map."

"Thank goodness for the recent Golden Gate Challenge. I'm climbing these hills like a champ."

I got to what I think was probably the right spot to head straight uphill to the control but instead I continued a bit longer, moving through gaps in the vegetation. I went a bit further still and thought, "It really feels like I've gone too far". I decided to just head upwards more as I couldn't see a thing through the vegetation. Again I thought, "I am sure I'm too far right" and "I'm sure I've gone too far". Well, yes, I had gone too far. I got to the top of the far-right rise and had to contour and then drop down into the saddle to get the control, which was exactly where I'd initially expected it to be and the saddle there was the size and shape I'd expected it to be. I estimate that I may have lost a good 20 minutes with this one. I didn't have a watch on so it really is a guestimate.

It was good to make a mistake then and there because it kept me more focused for the rest of the day. 

Terrain

The terrain our here is brutal. Rocky, steep, grassy, thorny, steep, rocky... I climbed and climbed and descended... I am thankful for the recent Golden Gate Challenge where I did the same. Only this time I didn't have my trusty trekking poles. As my thighs were acclimatised to the rigours of steep ascents and descents, I actually felt really good.

The terrain being what it was, I didn't run much, especially on this early part of the route. I even did a good number of stints ascending rocky slopes - sometimes going up bare rock - on all fours!  Running along the valley road was a treat.

Not a mistake

To the left, middle of the map you'll see my green track dipping in and out (near control 146), like I've backtracked. I went to get water at a water drop before continuing. I was down 1.5 litres and very thirsty. I filled up with another 1.5 litres and drank a good 800ml there, headed back out on the road and continued. 

Mistake #2

I swapped to odds (yellow route) once I was satisfied that I'd done ok with the evens and that getting any more evens was no longer advantageous.

From 137 to 151, I ran on the trail. I could have taken a short cut to 151 in distance but in time it would have taken me longer being off road and bashing through vegetation. 

I hit 151 spot-on. I took a great route from 151 to 153 - initially. I have a feeling that I dropped down very nearly spot-on, adjacent to the mine tunnel. Except, I hadn't yet looked at the control description so I didn't realise that the flag was at the mine tunnel, I thought it was in the re-entrant. I wasn't even looking for it at this point.

On the map I struggled to see the track for the path loop, that I knew was there. I thought that it went up higher than it did. I was also a little mixed up because earlier, going past 163 I'd seen the control in the re-entrant. With my map quite torn and folded, I didn't realise that what I'd seen before was not the one that I was now looking for. So, I took the path less travelled up the re-entrant. It was great exploring but after a few minutes I realised that something was wrong as the flag wasn't where I expected it to be. I unfolded my tattered map, read the control description and turned around. Of course I knew where the mine tunnels are and I knew that I'd overshot. I nailed the control a few minutes later.

I still had more than an hour at this point. I took a neat run to 147 and met up with two guys there. We went through to 159 together. Leaving 159 we took the same route down but I went for 141 while they went elsewhere.

Breaking my rule at the end

My initial plan was to get 141 and then return to the road, head past the green control to 143 and then to 145 on top of the hill before heading home (dotted purple track). It was a more gentle route to get to 145 via 143 and I still had 40 minutes...

Leaving 141 I took one look at the hill on which 145 was located and decided that I could live in peace for the rest of my days if I didn't get it - the descent would have been steep and thickly vegetated. So, I didn't. 

I bagged one last low-scoring control on the road home, chatted to people and made it to the finish with at least 22 minutes to spare. 

The cold pool at Thabela was very welcoming and soothing. Have I mentioned what an absolutely sweltering day it had been? Definitely in the mid-30s the whole time out there - absolutely roasting!

I finished with 610 points, which looks dismal compared to Nic and Kelvin's 990 points.  Nonetheless, it was a good enough score to place me fourth overall. Second and third scored 770 and 690 respectively. As I was a non-competitive participant running on my own (rogaining is always in pairs), it is just a score on paper. Still, I'm chuffed.

I was happy with my strategy, I felt at no time under pressure and I took the climbs like a champ - feeling good and strong all the way. I look forward to see Nicholas' route. He has a cunning mind for rogaining and sees options for sweeping through the course to collect maximum points that I just don't see.

All in all, a very good day and one of the most strategically cunning rogaining routes that we've had in many years. Congratulations to Ian on his superb planning and to Glen for being Ian's right-hand aide.

I do love rogaining

What a divine day I have had! First I was Run Director at our Parys parkrun this morning and a celebration of our 3rd birthday. Then six hours of rogaining in the Vredefort Dome area, starting from Thabela Thabeng. I had a very good day out - I'm happy with my route and nav. It was brutal out there today - tough terrain and incredibly hot. But I loved it! Most of the controls I went to were locations I have never been to on the property. Thank you to Ian Bratt and Glen Terry for a cunning course.

After Forest Run, I decided to leave my sign up for visitors to the area (I enjoy seeing altitude markers). I saw it pop up in some photos from the recent Kinetic Full Moon event held out here and now it was my turn for a photo with the trig and sign during the rogaining event today.

What a great view! This is what it looks like 'inside' a section of Vredefort Dome area. It really is magical. You don't get to see this unless you're on foot.

I'll post my route and comments in the next few days.

Putting out rogaining control flags

Rusty came with me on Friday morning to help Ian, Glen and Sheila by putting out a bunch of flags for Saturday's annual rogaining event presented by Rand Orienteering Club. The area is looking green and lovely although rains are so needed to get the small streams flowing.

I took some photos.

Checkpoint with a view - Vaal River in the distance.

Hot dog.

It felt great to be navigating. I went on sections of the area that I've never covered before.

About 2cm of crystal clear running water... with 10cm of fine muddy silt. Oh dear!

When a muddy dog shakes herself off...

Her tummy and legs are usually white...

Pretty little flowers on this tree

New rogaining terrain

On Saturday the annual rogaining event was hosted out here on my home turf, in the Vredefort Dome. After Forest Run in late May, the map I'd created did a whip around and my orienteering friends decided that the area would be great for the annual rogaine. They came out here in July to check out a property, for which I had permission, and the ball got rolling.

Rogaining is a long-distance, cross-country version of orienteering. Instead of having to follow a defined course from checkpoint 1 to checkpoint 2 and so on, participants can choose which of the many checkpoints to visit within a limited time period. For this event there were 6-hour and 3-hour courses us a 90-minute 'Come-and-Try-It' course to lure locals to give rogaining a bash.

I was in for the six-hour and as I know the general layout of the area, I chose to run unofficially, on my own (rogaining is always in pairs).

Oddly, even though I know the general area, there are many places off the trails where I have never been and I found that navigation on a square of folded map, very often I didn't know where I was. And then I'd cross on to a bit of track that I recognised and I'd be totally surprised.

The map for this worked really well. It was a combination of a section of my Forest Run map, which had excellent contour lines (thank you Steph), tracks and some features plus additional tracks and features added by event organiser Ian Bratt and then with excellent aerial imagery underneath. This gave more than enough detail and definition.

For this event we used a relatively small area. Over time we plan to extend the map, but for now - and with only a short time to plan the event - this area was sufficient. The terrain out here is far more difficult and slower going underfoot than the forests of Lakenvlei, Kaapschehoop and Lydenburg where the events have been held since the first South African rogaining event at Suikerbosrand in 2003.

We've got steep climbs, thousands of rocks and an abundance of grass and thorny trees. Sections are quite vegetated, while others are open and easy going.

In general, courses are usually planned such that it is impossible for participants to get all of the controls. Winning pairs may only have to exclude a few, but on the whole no-one will get them all. With this course, being in a small area, it was quite possible.

Knowing that I've never got them all, I made a decision on which checkpoints (also known as controls in orienteering terminology) I would be most likely to leave out and off I went.

I was very, very surprised to cover ground faster than I expected and within two hours I'd cleaned up the controls in southern section of the area that I'd wanted to get. I'd decided at the start to leave the steeper hills in the north for my 'second half'.

At CP33, I was low on water and wondering whether to get the furtherest controls. I had the time... I decided to leave them, but really, I should have gotten them.

On this second half I bumped into a couple of pairs.

I crossed into the hills and made good time, getting everything that I could and reaching the finish in around 4h20. Of course, I could have stayed out and covered more ground to collect some that I'd missed, but cooking hot and out of water, I cut my losses, returned to the finish and enjoyed catching up with friends.

Nicholas Mulder and Piers Pirow had an excellent run. They got all the checkpoints, covered 21 kilometres - with over 1000m of climb - and got to the finish in 3h40!

Piers and Nic - photo by Craig Ogilvy

Celliers did his first rogaine with the 90-minute 'Come and Try It' event. He located all but one of the checkpoints, winning the course, and proclaiming rogaining to be his favourite orienteering-type discipline.

An excellent outing, superb event and a great area with pleasant hours spent on foot. Just perfect.

Husky sitting weekend

When we got back from Chile, we discovered that a new neighbour had moved into the house across the road. And the way we knew this is because he has a husky that howls the moment he leaves for work. I went over the introduce myself to the husky and, through the gate, met a sweet and affectionate boy. We looked into each other's eyes... and the connection was there. The next evening I caught his owner and told him about the howling. Loud and long and so very sorrowful.

I asked if I could take the dog for a run - and a few evenings later I did. I just had him on a lead in my hand - that's hard work. When I took him out the next week, I had him clipped on my climbing harness for hands-free running. We both loved it.

My husky friend is named Kiska. He is named for an island in the Beiring Sea, part of the Aleutian Islands, which belong to Alaska. I thought he looked quite young, but he is 12 years old. Huskies have a life expectancy of 12 to 14 years. He is full of beans and is in great shape, despite having a very sedentary existence in a tiny front yard. He is a bit skinny.

On Friday evening I headed over to my neighbour across the road, to ask if I could fetch him early Saturday morning to take him to parkrun. His dad um-ed and ah-ed as he was heading to Jo'burg at 8am for his son's wedding - and he would be gone the whole weekend.

"And Kiska," I asked.

He replied that Kiska would be staying at home, alone.

I immediately got to work to convince him to let me look after Kiska for the weekend. I would fetch him at 07h40 and the dog would stay with me, sleeping over on Saturday night. Although he was uncertain, he relented.

The next morning I fetched Kiska and his goodies and we went off to parkrun.

Kiska's dad had been concerned about his interaction with other dogs at parkrun. My friend had her dog there and there was another little thing - like a doberman pincher. I kept Kiska separate at the start, knowing that once he was in running mode he would probably ignore everything else, which is what he'd done on our two previous runs.

He was a star! He ran beautifully. We did a few stops to sniff things and a few other stops to pee on trees and for the rest he didn't pay the other people nor the other dogs much attention.

Contrary to popular belief, one is not necessarily faster being hauled by a dog at parkrun. I clocked almost three-minutes slower than my normal time. But it was so much more fun with a doggy companion.

After breakfast (Kiska didn't eat any of his crunchies), Kiska and I hooked up with my mom. Mom and I will be walking a section of the Camino route in Spain in late October. Mom has been walking training for a few weeks and we'd decided to do a long walk together. Our plan was to walk to the Parys airfield (5km outside of town) and back. There's a dirt road that runs parallel to the main R59 road and the airfield has a restaurant for refreshments.

Off we went. It was a lovely there-and-back walk and Kiska got to see cows and planes.

At 12 years old, he isn't a puppy, so I am quite conscious of not working him too hard. Where I try to hold him back, he just wants to go-go-go!

On the way back I stopped to get him some bones and we headed home. He was still wired from the walk so it took him a while to settle down and to lie down next to me on the grass.

A neighbour lent me one of those plastic shells and I put Kiska's sleeping bag in it. He sleeps outside at his home so I made a nice sheltered bed for him outside the kitchen door with the shell and sleeping bag and he settled into it.

For Play Day #2, Kiska was in for an adventure. I was meeting up with two orienteering friends, Ian and Glen, to show them the area for the rogaining event in September. It's a property on the far end of the Forest Run route. Should I take Kiska? I decided to give it a shot. He isn't allowed off the lead so there wasn't any trouble he could get into.

I was a bit worried that this skinny boy hadn't eaten much of his dog food crunchies. I mixed in some gravy from Saturday night's dinner and he gobbled up everything I gave him for breakfast. I packed in another helping for lunch as well as a bowl and bottles of water for him.

Off we went.

He was such a star! From riding in Ian's car to standing around with us, riding on the back of a bakkie and running on the Forest Run route. What a day for him! He gobbled up his lunch and an 'afternoon tea' serving when we got back.

Just as we were getting back, his dad returned. I kept Kiska for a while longer and then returned him.

I think he thoroughly enjoyed his weekend. It was a great one for me too.

I got a message Sunday evening from a dear friend. She writes:

"I was wondering whether you might need another running friend this weekend? I don't mind driving in the back of a bakkie or eating rice and gravy!" 

hahahaha

Kiska has been howling his head off this morning and I'm probably going to ask his dad to drop him here in the mornings - doggie day care. I'm around a lot of the time and, if anything, our garden is bigger and more sunny.

Overall, I'm not a dog person. Cats have always been my thing. There have been a number of dogs over the years that I've taken a shine to - but not many. I am very fond of my husky friends in Jo'burg - Angel and Toscana - and I miss running with them. Kiska has totally stolen my heart. There is something quite cat-like about huskies as a breed; maybe that's what appeals to me about them?

Regardless, I am very fond of this husky boy.

Rogaining in some rain

On Saturday I ran in the annual foot rogaining event with my friend Sarah. We ran together a few years ago at the Kaapschehoop rogaining event and teamed up again for this one at one of my favourite places, Lakenvlei - the same place where I host Forest Run.

We drove through from Jo'burg on the morning of the event, especially as it was only starting at 10am and was set at six-hour duration. Other years the events have usually been eight hours (there is also a half-duration course on offer too).

We started in the rain and choosing what to wear before the start was difficult. It wasn't freezing cold and when you run you get hot - quickly. Wearing waterproof jackets keeps you dry (from the rain, but not from sweat) but you get hotter quicker. Wearing a shell, the wind is kept off and you stay warm; but you're likely to get wet because shells really are just wind and splash proof.

We went with our long-sleeve thermal tops and shells. And the balance was spot-on.

Fortunately the rain stopped at about 90-minutes in and although there were moments in this time when we were chilled in the wind, we had the benefit of protection from the trees when running inside the forest.

I didn't take much in the way of photos this year - the rain and damp being a factor as well as not having my happy-snappy race camera on hand (the battery charger is AWOL - and the battery is flat!).

Me and Sarah at control #70

The objective of rogaining is that you've got a limited time (six hours) to collect as many POINTS as possible. This doesn't meant that you need to visit as many checkpoints as possible but rather that you must assess the allocation of points to each checkpoint (20 to 50) and then choose an appropriate route that gets you the most points in the available time. Of course this also depends on how fast you can run and how well you can navigate.

When we got our maps and looked at the checkpoint locations, there was no doubt that we needed to hit the North of the property. The controls in the South were further spread and the points there were not anything magical to lure us that side.

We started out from Lakenvlei Forest Lodge and around the dam to our first control #85. If you look at the map you'll see two numbers at each control location. The first is the control number; the second is the points value for that control.

To guide you as to the direction/route we took... #85, #94, #51 etc and finishing with  #112, #113, #33, #63 and home.

In rogaining, we know that we're not going to get all of the controls. So, selecting a route is as much about which controls we're going to get as which ones we're going to leave out. We decided to leave out #43 and #79 as they were 'awkward' to get.

Michele and Cindy were our female pair competitors and they went in the opposite direction to us. Some of the order in which they got some of the controls differed - and they got the two that we left out.

Michele and Cindy's route. They clocked 35.2km

By the time we reached #112, we still had an hour left. So we ate some munchies and hit the last three controls - totally not in a rush. We didn't have too many other options available for the homeward sweep as more weighted controls were too far away. We finished with 15 mins to spare - and just as the drizle began again.

We were happy with our route and run but most certainly bow to Michele and Cindy's superior route.

We skipped the mountain bike rogaine the next day as we both had commitments - this is also excellent fun.

This rogaine event only comes up once a year and is always one of my most-looked-forward-to.

My thanks to Ian Bratt, Glen Terry and their team of people from Rand Orienteering Club who put out and collected the control flags. They put in a lot of work for a very [too] small crowd of enthusiastic participants.

And extra special thanks to Sarah for a really super day out there with her.

Foot rogaine - navigation options

Let's take a look at navigation options from Saturday's foot rogaine.

Here's the map.

I've added in the points allocation for each control.

There are 35 controls.

The eight controls in the North-east corner (circled in red) account for 480 points. That's 36% of the total 1330pts.

If you wanted to win, you had to go there.

I felt that these controls were too heavily weighted - they forced you to go there. Yes, there should be more points for controls that are further away from the start, but as you're already in the area you're going to get all eight anyway. Thus, some of the controls could have been assigned lower scores so that the total for this cluster was not more than 1/3 of the total.

It also closes down the competitive route options because you can't be competitive unless you go there, no matter how efficient your route planning. So many of the points are weighted in one cluster.

I saw this at the start and decided to avoid the area anyway. I did this for various reasons.

• There's a big cliff line (out of bounds) - marked in pink. Once you're on the North-east side, you're trapped up there and the only access up / down is coming from the ROC logo on the left or the yellow road on the right. 
• There are no controls on the yellow route side and pink circled area. You have to take the yellow road to / from Control 110.
• Of interest, Alex Pope and Stef Hurry took over an hour to get from Control 63 to Control 110. And they run faster than me. That's a long period to time with no controls. OK, so they did get the 480 points... (I didn't).

For me the joy of rogaining is in selecting a route that is efficient and flowing. I enjoy locating controls. I know upfront that I'm not going to get them all, so I delight in planning a route that sweeps to gather up as many as possible.

With this in mind I decided to sweep from the South-west in a clockwise direction. On paper it looked like the eastern side would be more friendly and offer more homeward-bound options - many ways to cut distance to get back faster if needed. It was a good choice because the forest here was pretty friendly too and I could cut straight through instead of keeping to roads. Not all of the 'open' (beige) land was traverse-friendly - but it was more so in the East. I did take some straight-line routes.

Although I'm not happy with my point score (810), I'm very happy with the route that I took. I collected everything that I planned to from the start, skipping only three low-score controls (101, 106 and 107 = 40pts) near the start. I came in about 10 minutes early but just didn't have enough time to check off more controls.

I liked the control distribution and placement of this year's course. There were some really nice options. Rogaining navigation is less technical that orienteering navigation and it is ideal training for adventure racing.

This was my first time at Mokobulaan - lovely area. It must be beautiful in summer when it is green. Very, very dry and burned and brown now.

MTB Rogaine
After seeing all the hills on Saturday, I downgraded from the 5hr mtb rogaine on Sunday to the 3hr course. I had a lovely ride, keeping to the western side of the area. The big hills climbs are unavoidable but they actually weren't too terrible - even considering that I haven't ridden my bike in months! I cleared the section that I planned to but didn't have enough time to head off East. So, I came in early having had a really nice outing.

It takes a lot of time and planning and mapping to put these events together. My thanks to Rand Orienteering Club, Ian Bratt and his team of helpers. I spotted Charles, Glen and Sheila, Steve and Denise (catering). Glynnis was there on Saturday to help too.

I had good fun hanging with my travelling and accommodation companions - Wiehan, Lizelle, Alec, Staci, Ian and Chrissie. And always good to see AR and O friends at the event.

Participation numbers were VERY low - and this is such a superb event. I hope to see more of you next year.

Rogaining photos

This weekend I took part - solo - in the foot and mtb rogaines. Rogaining is an orienteering-type navigation event for pairs (my teammie was out with chest infection). The difference to orienteering is that instead of running from control to control in consecutive number order, you get a limited time period to score as many points as you can. The controls are spread all over the event area and each control is assigned a point score.

In this case I had 8hrs on Saturday (on foot) and 3hrs on Sunday (mtb) to play around the Mokobulaan plantation - just outside of Lydenburg.

Here are a bunch of photos from Saturday's foot event. In my next post I'll give you more of a technical look at the navigation options.

Travel companions before the start of Saturday's foot event. Friends, lovely weekend. Thank you. Wiehan, Lizelle and Alec.

Heading for my second control. Lovely topographical feature - clear to see on map and ground. I saw another pair coming in from the left. They had a really steep and gnarly route. I just trotted along a road and then easy along the spur. Navigation. Route choice. Ja.

Control down by the dam. This was my 3rd control. Jumping over the very little stream to get to the control I landed up thigh-deep in mud and water! The side of the stream gave way completely as I landed. It was squelchy all around here.

Hitting another control. Early morning still. Dirty face already.

Foresty control.

A forest control. I got here around 4hrs (halfway) and ate some snacks before a BIG uphill.

Green x shows where the next photo, looking up, was taken. That was a very steep and rocky descent. I'm glad I went down it rather than up!

Rocks, rocks, rocks! I chose well to take this one downhill. Next picture is taken from the bottom looking up. Green circle drawn around the control flag.

I was up there! The control was a bit higher up than where my finger is pointing.

Trying something new. Fresh, crunchy and tasty trail snacks.

This was the view at the top of the big uphill (Control 111, 70pts). Phew! I'd climbed up from lower than the road you can see middle right. Orange arrow shows the start/finish. I still had about three hours left and many more controls to locate before heading for 'home'.

The climb up to Control 111 (70pts, significant tree) was damn steep but the view over the eastern part of the plantation was well worth it. I've marked in the approximate locations of my final nine controls that I fetched on the way home. Blue W indicates a waterpoint (25l container of water - much needed by then). Orange X are the controls. The orange arrows show the location of controls not 'visible' i.e. behind hills. Green H is 'home' - the start/finish. Pink line mostly shows my route. See my next image of the map of this section. The map is orientated in the same direction as this photo.

Map of the area corresponding to the panoramic photo. Red X is about where I was standing to take the photo. Blue W is waterpoint. Controls are marked by the pink circles and labelled with a number. Green H is 'home'. The blue highlighter line... drawn quickly around a braai on Saturday night. That was my route. Scale is 1:35,000. The blue North lines (here they go diagonally from top right to bottom left) are, on the ground, 500m apart - to give you an idea of distance.

How do I find out about...?

Last night I went to a lovely talk at ESSA (Explorers Club). They have guest presenters at their club evenings on the first Tuesday of every month. I don't go every month, but every time I do I thoroughly enjoy it and I always meet new and interesting people.

Two women came through for the first time and they were sitting behind me. We got chatting.

A common problem that they - and many others I meet - have, is that they don't know where / how to find out about events and activities. They want to try things, but don't know where to start.

My advice is always, "Just rock up". This, for me, is the biggest thing. To get people away from their normal - whether the couch or the same road race that they run every year... that's the challenge. A lot of people know about a lot of events - but they just don't rock up.

If you don't know the words 'adventure racing', 'orienteering', 'trail running', 'obstacle races' to search on Google, you're stumped. But it does help to just rock up at any event and from there you meet people and find out about more.

I've just been writing an emailer for my school orienteering bunch. We send them a free voucher for the next orienteering event and info on other events coming up. If we get two participants (of the +500 on our list) to an event, we're excited. And these are school children (and parents) who have participated in four weeks of Orienteering Schools League events in Feb/March. *sigh*

As I was writing the emailer, I thought I'd copy the relevant bits here. Then you know about some events too.

All you need to do is to rock up.

Run Wild at The Wilds (Houghton, JHB)
Sun, 8 June 2014
The event on Sunday morning will be held at 'The Wilds' in Houghton. Here's the event sheet The Wilds - Sun, 8 June 2014. It really helps us to know how many people are coming so that we can print enough maps. You can let us know by registering online. You can just rock up on the morning of the event too.

Gauteng Orienteering Champs
14-16 June 2014
Now this is good fun. Enter all three events or just one. This year there is a sprint event in the Woodlands Office Park (Woodmead; Saturday afternoon)); the middle (Sunday) and long (Monday) courses are at a venue in Midrand - all nice and close and convenient. Monday, 16 June is a public holiday. Although this event is called 'Championship' you don't have to be a champion orienteer. While the regular club orienteers are running for points and rankings in their age groups, there are non-championship courses every day for those who just want to have fun. The event sheet, with dates, times and details is here.

Metrogaine Jo'burg (Northcliff)
Wed, 18 June 2014
This event is my baby. And, where the Metrogaine in April celebrated 13 years of www.AR.co.za, this event - always held on or near the winter solstice - falls on my 'not-13' birthday.
This is a massively fun week-night event where you get to run around, in the dark, headlamps and torches blazing, as you look for answers to clues at each control. You've only got one hour or 90-minutes (two course options). Participate in pairs and walk, jog, run as you wish. Just remember, don't be late! Hot chocolate and a cupcake afterwards. PRE-ENTRY ONLY www.entrytickets.co.za

And then there are a bunch of other great orienteering events in July.
There's a weekend in the Sabie (Mpumalanga) area on 6 and 7 July (middle and long distance events) and then my favourite-of-favourite orienteering-variation events, the annual rogaining weekend.

Annual Foot and MTB Rogaine (Lydenburg, Mpumalanga)
26-27 July 2014
Oh golly goodness. I just hear the word 'rogaine' and I get super excited. This is a two day event. Day 1 is the foot rogaine. Pick 4hr or 8hr time limit. Day 2 is the MTB rogaine. Pick 3hr or 5hr option (running also permitted if you don't have a bike).
You participate in pairs (I'm doing this event with my friend Zig as a women's pair).
In short... you're given a map with lots of control points marked on it. Find as many as you can in the limited time. Ba-ba-ba-boom. Pre-entry. More info here...

And then, on the orienteering side of things, we pick up with our regular bush / cross-country (more rugged) orienteering events. In the first half of the year we've had shorter, 'tame', urban events. Now we're getting towards my favourites. The 2014 orienteering event calendar is here. Don't be deceived by the distances. 5km in orienteering is not the same as 5km on road (just as 10km in the canyon at Expedition Africa took teams 7hr to 14hrs - and more).

Bush orienteering events - course descriptions

• Yellow- This course is for younger children (suited to U12). Control flags are often visible from one control to the next and they're all on paths. 1.5km to 2.5km 
• Orange - OSL courses fall into this category for the most part. Basic navigational skills come into play and the distance is around 2.5km to 3.5km 
• Light Green - This is where the fun starts. I'd recommend giving this course a try if you're feeling fairly confident. You'll have more route choice and some controls that will make you think. Distance of 2.5km to 3.5km. 
• Green - Only once you've made it through a Light Green course should you move up to Green. This course is more technically difficult. It's a short and challenging course at 3.5km to 5km. 
• Blue - A great option once you're more competent and prepared to run further. It's more technically and physically demanding than Green and ranges from 5km to 7.5km. 
• Brown - This is for experienced orienteers only as it is both difficult and demanding at 7.5km to 10km. Adventure racers, don't think this is for you if you have no orienteering experience. I've gone looking for people who thought this 5hrs after they started out...

Look out for these events coming up:

• Sun, 3 August - Mohale's East (Magaliesberg / Hekpoort area)
• Sat, 23 August - Kloofendal Nature Reserve (Kloofendal / Little Falls area)
• Sun, 24 August - Laurentia South (Krugersdorp area)

I'm not much into mass participation trail events nor short trail runs nor neon runs nor the popular obstacle events. They're out there too.

Annual foot/bike navigation challenge (rogaining event), 26/27 July 2014

Oooohhhhh! Can't wait! I love, love, love rogaine events and I'm so glad that we've got our annual South African one back on the calendar (event was cancelled last year). I still haven't orienteered in the Mokubalaan forests (Lydenburg) so the rogaine will be my first outing there and a treat to run on a map new to me.

Find a friend and enter. This is totally not to be missed.

Big 5 O - NYD novelty event

It's New Year's Day - Happy New Year!

This morning we headed up to Kaapsehoop for a non-competitive, novelty event -  a metrogaine around the village of Kaapsehoop. Chatting with friends, we thought it should be a 'Villagegaine' as the town is so quaint and tiny. With so many interesting houses and guesthouses, it's a wonderful metrogaine clue environment. Organised by Stephanie Mulder, it was a wonderful and fun 'off-day' event.

My group paired up today and I ran with Ephraim. He handled the navigation while I kept an eye on the clues and writing down the answers. We had a one-hour time limit and we whizzed around the town to complete the route, collecting all of the controls, in around 38 minutes. We were in second or third place.

One of our other pairs also got all of the controls (Tebatso and Lesedi) - making it with minutes to spare. Diketso and Tseke seem to have fought over the map - returning a bit over time. I'm not quite sure of what went down here - Diketso started laughing when we asked.

Mary and Juliet did really well, working their way through the town. They were way over time when we found them quite happily still locating controls. Mary says she thought the one hour time limit meant minimum time. If I'd left them out there I have no doubt they would have quite merrily gone to all their remaining the controls. They're both so in the groove.

With Mary and Juliet back we did a short coaching session with a compass. We started with orientating the map using the compass and then working on direction of travel - how to determine in which direction where you want to go is from where you are. That seems to have gone down well. Mary has been asking me for two days to show her how to use a compass. She's getting the features really well so now was definitely a good time for this session.

It's a beautiful day here so most of my charges are in the swimming pool. Later this evening I look forward to doing a pacing session with them on the street outside our hostel and I think it may be time for my control description flash cards tonight.

We've got a middle-distance forest event tomorrow. Lesedi has been upgraded to Open Medium course (from short). He's champing at the bit after winning the short course yesterday. Tebatso is very confident of a good session too. Nice for Tebatso to have a rival tomorrow.

I made a deal with young Tseke (he's Mary's son) last night... I gave him R5 to play pool on condition that he punches all of his controls tomorrow. Yesterday he got all but two. We looked at his route and how close he must have been to them. We discussed how to problem solve and I am feeling optimistically confident that tomorrow will be his day.

Diketso is aiming for second place tomorrow (and, I think, to beat Mary).

In Kaapsehoop today - beautiful blue sky and lovely conditions. The rocks behind us... that's where we were running on Monday.

Ireland 8 - 24hr Rogaine Ireland

One word. OMG!

We made our way on Thursday and Friday from the lower West of Ireland and through to County Wicklow via the town of Wicklow and into the Laragh area. Mom and I were kindly hosted by Chris, who I met at Abu Dhabi in 2010. He and Brian opened their home to us and we were made to feel most welcome. My rogaine teammate, Sean, lives 500 metres down the road.

I met up with Sean on Friday afternoon - we'd been chatting on email from about a month back. We headed to his home to meet his kittens (mom and I are missing our kitten) and met Sean's dog too. I hear Sean speaking to his dog and asked, "Is her name also Lisa?". He hadn't quite joined the dots before that and with this realisation admitted that she'd been named after the cartoon character Lisa Simpson.

Sean, Lisa and Lisa

This bunch all live in the beautiful Laken area. We drove from Laragh on the Wicklow Gap road to get there. It would turn out that the start location for the race was just off this road, in a forest clearing.

Looking back down the Wicklow Gap road towards the Glendalough National Park and town of Laragh (not visible). Sean and I would drop through these forests in the wee hours of Sunday morning during the race.

So. The rogaine.


My experience in Bangor on the trail was a good one because I had a half idea of what I could expect. At the race my education was expanded as I learned about bog, peat, heather, grass tussocks and baby heads - the latter being a kind of extreme form of grass tussocks. 


I did expect wet, I did expect rain. I did expect muddy and slippery.  I did expect temperatures to be cool to cold.


I didn't expect driving wind, rain, 30-meter visibility and bone chilling temperatures on mountain tops. I didn't expect to be dwarfed by peat 'cut-outs' that scar the landscape all over the place. I didn't expect to land on my bottom as many times as I did ;)


The race started at 14h00 on Saturday in a light drizzle. Sean and I spent about 25 minutes plotting the checkpoint locations from coordinates and planning our route. Sean suggested hitting the mountain area in the South first as the terrain was harder going. There was also a good points distribution down there.

Overall there were very few controls which meant that route choice between controls was reasonably open but also meant that the distances between controls was big and we were probably hitting controls every 90-minutes to 2.5 hours. Also, as there wasn't a large scattering, if you headed in an area you generally had to get what was there to make the effort worth while. I would have liked there to be more controls - the kick is finding the controls as much as planning a route between them and deciding what to get and what to leave.

Within minutes our feet were wet - as expected - and within 30-minutes we were quite wet. We did start out in our rain jackets anyway. We saw another two teams on the way to the first control, one of them on the way to the third (or second?) and then pretty much no one else for the rest of the race.

Sean approaching our first control. All controls were well placed and clearly visible on approach from at least 50-100 metres away, if not more.

At our first control (an orange corner peeking our behind Sean's back). The rain and wind started just after I took this and didn't let up until we descended the mountains after midnight. This may have been around 15h30.

From here it was up, up, up and my introduction to peat and baby heads. Nasty terrain for sure. Baby heads are rounded grass tussocks that have your feet working in all directions. It's hard work and good to get out of there.

About halfway up the mountain Sean and I were freezing. We stopped in the shelter of a peat cut-out to put our wind shells on over our thermal base layers and under our wind shells. That was a good move. We also put on gloves. Sean's hands were almost non-functional but improved quickly with gloves, which, even when wet kept out the wind and chill to keep our fingers warm.

By evening (as in time, not darkness) we were up on top of the mountains and the rain was coming down, the wind was crazy stuff and there was cloud all around. We couldn't see anything but the few metres ahead and occasionally a few shapes that turned out to be sheep looking quite ok in the nasty weather.

The descent from the first bunch of mountains was steep but took us from cold to forest-sheltered warmth. We'd been hoping to dry out our tights a bit before putting on rain pants but with no hope of dryness in sight we put them on. What a good decision and we really should have done so earlier (well, wouldn't have been possible in the wind and rain up top anyway). Despite the wet we were far warmer.

Up to another mountain top and more wind and rain but not as bad as that first, most southerly section. And then down into Glendalough. I'm not sure what time but would have been about 2am because first light wasn't that far off. We stopped under a shelter in a parking lot to change our soaked base layers for dry baselayers and that made a huge difference. We also needed to plan the next section of our route as we'd only planned the first half before setting off.

Warm and snug we hit the Wicklow Way, a hiking trail around this region. Halfway up I was cooking and needed to stop to remove a layer. Further up with daylight just starting to come through I needed to remove my wind shell from under my rain jacket. It looked to be a warmer day.

Locating another control on Sunday morning.

We only ran a little bit of the route overall - we trekked the rest. Sean said pre-race that he was quick on the downhills but not much good on the uphills. Well, he's good on all inclinations and really good over the terrain. I'm glad he was walking in front of me so he didn't see the number of times I slipped, slid, fell and plunged into the bog - immersed thigh-deep at times! I took a lot of strain on the ups, especially on Sunday morning. My thighs really got hammered by the cold on Saturday night and at one stage I started to feel my inner thighs cramping. Really weird as I very, very rarely get cramped muscles of any sort. I just kept steady putting one foot in front of the other. Luckily I didn't cramp but this definitely affected my muscles. Fine on the flats and downs but lethargic on the ups.

Beautiful light on Sunday morning. The sun peeked through and brought with it a dash of blue sky. Good news was little drizzle and mostly just wind. The control was a bit further down the stream from here.

Yay! Another control. 

We finished the rogaine in 23 hours, finishing comfortably and without pressure with an hour to go.

Sean left me to the map but as he knows most of the area pretty well I did defer to his experience and didn't have to focus on each and every route. He kept tabs on me; I kept tabs on him. It was a good balance.


We made a few bloopses that could have been a bit better but as Sean put it at the finish, "Well, I couldn't have done any better" to which I responded, "I couldn't have done any better either". We walked hard, we found most controls with little difficulty and our routes were fairly solid.

Our points tally was around 2700. Winning tally was just over 4000. This was a difference perhaps of four or five controls. Goodness! I have no idea how they got those controls too. Even if we'd been able to get another one we wouldn't have been able to get another two or more. Well done winners!

The terrain out here is totally challenging. Every step on or off a path. Paths are wet and sloshy and can be ankle or calf deep mud too so they're not always easy going. Off the paths... I cannot even begin to describe bog, peat and the peat cut-outs. And the heather - stepping over it and working through it is really tiring. The baby's heads... wicked on the feet and ankles. Lots of stumbling if you lose focus for a second.

Saturday's weather really wasn't pleasant but this is the kind of place where the dash of sunlight on Sunday morning and when the mist/cloud shifted to reveal spectacular valleys and scenery makes up for 12 hours of cold and lashings. 


In the last few hours of the race the undersides of my feet were tired from the multi-directional movement they'd been subjected to and my quads were tired but for the rest I was doing ok. I asked Sean, who plays on this terrain, whether his feet got tired after 24hrs out there or whether his feet were adapted to the vigours. I was delighted to hear that his feet also took strain after this long period of time out there - not just me!

At the finish we were warmly welcomed and there were hot drinks and we could make our own rolls with a variety of toppings on offer. Super to chat to other rogainers as they came in and sat around. I've found them all to be so warm and welcoming. Mom met us at the finish, catching us just after we got in.


Sunday night my legs were stiff already and I expected today (Monday) to be really bad. Self massages in the afternoon and before bed definitely helped and it is only when I get up after sitting for a while that I look in bad shape. I'm descending stairs backwards. Going up is fine. I don't think my legs are quite as stiff as after the HURT 100 in Hawaii a few years ago, so that's a good thing ;) I'll rub my legs down again tonight before bed.


This rogaine was a really great experience and I thoroughly enjoyed being out there with Sean. He came highly recommended and he was indeed worth this recommendation. We made a good team.


Although I wonder why anyone would knowingly subject themselves to this terrain, I'd probably do it again. Sure it is tough. Sure it is nasty. But it is also fun and one helluva experience. Conditions were unseasonable and the worst we could have had but being out there on Saturday night was a first for me in those conditions so it was pretty exciting too. I wouldn't wish peat cut-outs and baby heads on my worst enemy but I'd probably voluntarily slip and slide through them again. The overall experience was a very good one.

I'll post bits of map and our routes when I get back home (arriving home on Friday).

We're now visiting with mom's cousins just North of Dublin and will head through to the city tomorrow to look around and for an AR meet-up on Tuesday night in the city, kindly arranged by Ronan. I'm looking forward to it.

Suikerbosrand in summer

Under overcast Jo'burg skies, we headed out to Suikerbosrand yesterday hoping for the best; and that's exactly what we got. Months ago I took my mom out to Suikerbosrand for the first time -  a pre-Camino walk. She was really keen to get out there again to see how she'd improved over the months. My dad and his partner, Therese, joined us - they regularly head out there as they're avid birders. My dad has always been really sharp at spotting and identifying birds and he's really good at bird calls too. I definitely didn't get this gene.

Mom, Dad, Therese, me

We started out just after 8am and there were already dashes of blue in the sky. A light drizzle - really light - cooled things down and for the rest of the morning it was just absolutely perfect - light breeze, cool conditions and a clear sky.

Saw a good number of birds, butterflies, dung beetles and many shongololos (for non South Africans, this is a millipede). Only saw animals in the valley before the end - lots of them but they were a good distance away. Probably zebra, wildebeest and some antelope. Vegetation all over is green and lush with lots of pretty flowers all over.

Looking North, towards Jo'burg

I do so love coming out here - and only 35 minutes drive from home! ;)

I tried making some panoramic images...