Saturday afternoon Jeff and I took the kids to the last of the Summer Metro Series of Orienteering events here in Perth, at Kings Park. My parents took me orienteering as a young child (I may have done my first course around the age of four or so) and orienteering and latterly, rogaining are our "family sports". Unfortunately, orienteering is traditionally a Sunday morning event, so we obviously don't compete much any more! Actually, this was the first time any of us have been orienteering since we moved to Perth three summers ago.
The short course participants had to visit any seven controls. We chose to visit (in this order) 2, 4, 14, 15, 18, 16 and 1. We also had to punch a control at the finish which was just to ensure we kept in order of our return for comparative times (it was a mass start at 5pm).
Everyone had their first opportunity to punch a control recorded for posterity!
Samuel
Joshua
Anna
Abigail
(Actually this last was a posed shot - she had already punched the finish control and we had handed in our control card, but we asked if we could borrow the card back to take a photo.)
The kids took a little while to get into it, but definitely deserved full marks for their enthusiasm at the end of the event:
The award for most enthusiastic orienteer of the day must go to Anna. She kept her thumb on the map at all times, and actually paid attention to my instructions of where we were and how we were going to the next control. And when I asked the children which way we should turn at a track junction, she was almost always the first to respond, and was always right.
The last comment of the day belongs to Abigail. She was very tired at the end of the event, and as we ran together to the finish, determined to end well, she was heard to remark, "Oh! My boiler!"*
*For those who are not fans of Thomas the Tank Engine, the translation of this is something along the lines of, "I am completely exhausted."
Sunday 1 March 2009
Orienteering - A Family Sport
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6 comments:
I had never heard of orienteering until now. Feeling ignorant, I checked the Internet to see if I'm just clueless or if this is less common here in the U.S. I think it is safe to say that it is uncommon here.
That being said, I'm jealous! This is a sport that Lane and I would LOVE! We're both map-lovers.
Mr. E. reminds me of the "geo-caching" trend brought on by the handheld GPS. Do people do that there? (Hunt for hidden treasure based on GPS coordinates available online?)
Great pictures of your family. All of your personalities seem to shine through these shots! I love the hats.
Yes, I've heard of geo-chaching. Never done it though. I think Orienteering is most popular in the Scandinavian countries. My family was first introduced to it by neighbours up the street whose children went on to compete internationally.
The hats were very necessary. The event started at 5pm, which would normally be the cooler part of the afternoon. Yet someone told me at church this morning that the day was hottest at 4:45pm yesterday, leading up to the showers that came on when we drove home. We did have some very red faces! Our water was also important, even though we were only out for 49min.
~ Sharon
Hello Sharon!
This post confirmed my suspicions that you are a Perth girl - although now that I have read a bit more of your blog since making that discovery - only a Perth girl for a while? I am in Perth too with a husband in ministry who trained at Trinity! What a hoot.
I don't think I will be at the Children's Convention but maybe will see you at the women's convention later in the year.
And I was very excited to hear about your women's Bible study with built in creche! Fantastic. I shall pray for you as you launch it.
~ Meredith
Hi Meredith,
I wondered if you were in Perth as well. Will you be coming to the Trinity Women Enrichment Day? If you are, I will see you there. I'm looking forward to having Saturday as a Day of Rest in the truly biblical sense.
~ Sharon
Hi again.
Unfortunately I am not going to be able to make it to the Trinity day. Babysitting options drew a blank this year - so this is not be my year for that. So I shall have to hope to see you later in the year.
My sympathies, Meredith!
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