Quick St Helens Trip

Monday, 8 July 2024

Jon and I are organising an orienteering event in St Helens in September, so we had to do a quick trip up before we went overseas to check out the suitability of the courses as well as check out the parking and start areas. The area is mostly pretty nice but does have a number of streams surrounded by very thick vegetation which are almost impossible to cross without a machete. To make the courses feasible (and enjoyable) we had to find routes through these areas so competitors wouldn’t be forever lost in the thickets.   We had grand plans to tape most of the control sites at the same time but in the end we only have enough free time to deal with the crossings. It was tough work standing in freezing knee deep water taping the dense forest. To warm up once we got home I had a bath, and so did the leach who had been enjoying my ankle.

  We’ve got another week booked almost as soon as we come back so we’ll hopefully get to the rest of the planning then.

While we were there it was a good opportunity to do some house chores and I had time for a nice run around humbug point. It’s nice to have our next visit to look forward to on the other side of our Europe trip.