Orienteering @ Wycollar Country Park

Pendle Forest Orienteers hosted an event at Wycollar country park on the far side of Colne on Saturday so we all headed out so Josh and I could take part. Josh initially wanted to do a Yellow course and I sort of talked him into doing the harder Orange course which on reflection was a bad idea. Joanne and Oliver headed of to the café whilst Josh and I headed off in the pouring rain to the start.

With it being called a country park I guessed it would be similar to Haigh Hall  or Lever park but in actual fact it was really just a run over the farmers fields. I was supposed to be shadowing Josh but I quickly needed to give him advice as he just looks and heads off without double checking and then just keeps going. He doesn’t stop to check that he is passing expected points on the map. As a result he ran right passed the first point and when I called him to check where he was he adamantly wanted to carry on. After MAKING him check his map he realised that he had gone too far and he worked his way back, still managing to overshoot the point again. After the first point he seemed to get his bearings and we managed the next 3 points without a problem.

As we headed up the hillside the rain came down a little harder and Josh was starting to get cold. He’d forgot his gloves and his hands were getting cold plus he’d put long shorts on and the long grass was prickling his legs. As a result of this he was starting to loose concentration a little and I had to start doing some of the map reading, trying to get him to look at the map with me at each control.

As we headed back down the hillside the wind eased and he picked up a little, with the final few controls being found quite easily. I couldn’t help but think on this course he probably SHOULD have gone for the Yellow option but it can be hard to judge without knowing the area. At the finish Joanne had a cup of Tea and a Bacon butty ready for us. I’m sure they both tasted nice but only Josh can answer that one as I didn’t see any of it!

After the event we all headed over to Oswaldtwistle Mills for something to eat and let the boys get some sweets from the sweet factory. Unfortunately they weren’t making sweets on the day so they couldn’t watch sweets being made :-(

Next week is SELOC orienteering at Darcy Lever in Bolton in the morning and SROC at Yarrow valley, Chorley from lunchtime so we might try to fit both in, however this time I’ll let him build his confidence a little and do the Yellow, possibly even by himself (Well with me about 100m behind anyway).

Mark