Day 1 of Youth Squad Tour in Sweden

Day 1 in our trip to the beautiful country of Sweden. After about 22 hours in either an airplane or an airport the airplane finally touched down in Arlanda airport, Sweden. We passed through customs and then were greeted by the friendly face Nick Barrable. He helped us get our bus/train cards and we were on our way.

To get to the OK Ravinen Club House we ended up taking two train trips and two bus trips which took about 90 minutes. The club house was warm compared to the chilly outside air. It also has a very strict 'take your shoes off ' policy. There are even shelves to store dirty shoes on.

I took first cooking duty and made pasta with beef soup sauce. After the warm meal, we all head out for our first training session.

Hopelessly under dressed for the extreme cold, the brave orienteers ran to the first start to keep warm. We started with a course to get used to the terrain only we didn't have roads or vegetation (not that the vegetation was anything other than white. The terrain was all very new and it took a while to get used to the fact that to be on the map, a boulder has to be hip height. The one thing it didn't take a while to do was all freeze.

We quickly all returned and quickly James started work on our first dinner in the house.

With full stomachs and excitement for what the week has to bring us we have finished our first day and I am sure that this trip will give us the opportunity to bond, make fun memories and ORIENTEER.

Written by Heather Wimberley