Night and simple

Remember street O – the pre-cursor to urban orienteering?

Sometimes simple can provide a lot of fun. Read the account from SOLWAY’s Tim O’Donoghue about their recent festive event

Solway recently went back to basics with some night street orienteering training in Dumfries.  The start was in a park which was mapped some years ago so that provided the short course, while the street map came from a survey, some updating of Open Street Map and then use of Open Orienteering Map.  

Providing clue sheets to be filled in by runners eliminated the need for SI boxes plus gripples spread around Dumfries, so the only SI boxes in use were clear, start and finish – to record overall time for each individual.  Control sites were numbered lamp posts, various signs, an electrical substation number and house numbers.

Collecting in gear once everyone was back took all of 5 minutes!

We had a glorious evening: crisp conditions with a clear sky without having to contend with ice on the ground, and all participants had great fun with multiple routes taken and some discussions afterwards as to the merits of the various routes.