| Leg |
Main Decision |
Other Factors |
| 1 |
Straight? Or left past the finish circle and along the edge? Or right along the track and thru the trees? |
The track is slightly faster than even the best (white) forest, so "right" wins out in theory. BUT you need a point to head off thru the trees. Where the track gets close to the trees is the best you've got but its not very accurate. In other words it comes with a risk. To cover this risk, a clever orienteer would turn off EARLY, hit the riverbed, and go along. |
| 2 |
AP is the patch of light green trees, use that to leave the track and go up the slope. |
But what's the best way to get back from #1 onto the track? Something a bit to the right of the red line, then you get out of the trees quicker. |
| 3 |
The choices are a bit like #1, see above. But there's no good point to head into the trees from. |
The super-cautious orienteer would go round the end of the white trees and come back along the edge. The best would be to aim a bit left of the red line, and when you hit the riverbed go along. This is called "aiming off". |
| 4 |
|
You just have to hug the vegetation by the river. |
| 5 |
This might be the first time you've seen white with yellow spots - its between passable forest and open land - scattered trees or young trees that don't feel closed in. In this case planted willow poles. |
Once you recognise them you can go along the north edge of them and find the tip of green (nasty forest) that the control is on. |
| 6 |
Across to the south side of the willow poles. |
This is an easy "turning control", orienteers don't like going in and out of a control the same way. |
| 7 |
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| 8 |
AP for when to leave the path - the big tree (green circle) or perhaps the path junction |
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| 9 |
You can hardly fail to find the river, this is about route choice. |
The track is fast, the white a bit slower, the riverbed MUCH slower. Wouldn't hurt to go along the track to the clump of trees near #2 before heading for the river. Or maybe turn into the trees early (aim off). Don't depend on the end of the bank as a definite point, Banks can just get lower and lower so the point where the mapper stops it is a matter of opinion. |
| 10 |
Well you can see these ponds from a long way off but how fast is the stony riverbed? |
You just have to make a judgement call on heading for the trees to get a bit of extra speed, vs the extra distance. Speed on the stones is highly variable. |
| F |
|
Orienteers should practice following compass bearings in white forest like this, just like cricketers practise at the nets. Over and over. Its not hard, bring down some eg used fizz bottles and set them out along both sides of the forest using whatever features are there. Then go zig-zag-zig-zag etc across the trees and see if you hit the bottle on the other side.
Thanks to an unknown parent for keeping an eye on the bikes at Foot B. |