Night Street Orienteering

During my first night-time head torch run up on Winter Hill, Albert had mentioned a night orienteering event held by SROC (South Ribble Orienteering Club). The event basically involves running around the streets looking for various items of street furniture, be it Lamppost numbers, telegraph pole numbers etc…

I was a little unsure what to expect from this type of event but I’d always enjoyed orienteering type things I done as a kid. The first event was held in Warton near Preston. Once registered you are given a sheet with a list of the street furniture you need to make note of but as yet you don’t know where these items are, the map is only given to you as you start the event.

With headtorches at the ready,everybody is set off individually. You have to choose to do a 40, 60 or 75 min trek but whichever you do you must ensure you’re back within your selected time allowance otherwise you are penalised 10 points for each 10 second interval you are late.

I really enjoyed this first event in Warton and managed to find a good line that got me back to the finish with just 2 mins to spare. When the points were totalled up I was shocked to see that I had beaten Albert and Neil from Lostock. I was sure this was more down to luck than anything else.

The 2nd event was held 1 week later in Whalley, this time I caught a lift up with Albert and Neil. The Start/Finish for this event was located in the centre of the map unlike the first which was located out in one corner of the map. On setting off i had a choice of 3 corners of the map to head towards, I picked one and off I headed. I made a couple of little route errors on this one where I could have collected an extra 50-80 points. this night though I managed to make it back to the finish with only 40 seconds to spare.

Again I somehow managed to beat Albert and Neil. Not sure if again this is luck although Albert did confess to following a road on the map that turned out to be a train line.

The next event is to be held in Morecambe on the 11th November and I am really looking forward to this next one.

Mark

 

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