It's hard to relocate when..

Monday, 14 August 2017

We are just back from a a wekend in Burnie and Launceston for orienteering.  The weather was much better than predicted and we had a great time. We had 2 sprint races around Burnie on Saturday where Zali and Jett picked up $6 each in splits-cash and I learnt never to eat a vanilla slice less than an hour before a sprint race.  The race on Sunday was the Northern Classic which was held on bushy farmland just outside of Evandale.  On the very first leg of my race I made the most costly mistake (time-wise) I've made in years.  After running right on the red-line for most of the leg, I suddenly decided to follow my nose rather than my compass and consequently I ended up at wrong distinctive tree. Then I faffed around so much I ended up under the normally-useful clue description, which in this case was not useful at all.  

I eventually decided just to relocate from the top of the hill and from there I was able to work it out and go straight back to the control - it took me over 20 minutes for this leg!  Whilst I was under the clue-descriptions I came across a few features  on the ground (root mounds, thickets..) which I couldn't find on the map, it was only after I relocated that I realised how far from the control I actually was, and thus why I couldn't find any of those features on my map! ha.