Day 3 South African Youth Squad

On the morning of the 23rd, we finally got to sleep in after some very late and tiring days.

We started with a relocation exercise in the forests near the clubhouse.  Normally when we do relocation practise, we purposefully get people lost, but in the technical forests of Sweden, we were told that all we had to do was stop part of the way to the control. Our expectations were that it was going to be hard, as even the controller,Paul lost map contact (which was his way of saying that he got lost). I thought that the course was not as hard as I expected it to be. I was paired with Luan and we only really got lost once. On the other hand, our two injured runners; Cameron and Tinus had lots of fun. They had Carl following them and they ended up somewhere where none of them knew where they were. After that Carl sent them back down a 'distinct' path, that actually turned out be a thick forest where they experienced many horror story like events.

Once everyone was finally back, we relaxed for 2 hours and had lunch. After we ate, Tania came and talked to us individually and advised us on what to focus on for the next training.

At 13:13 we took the 380 bus and travelled east and then we caught the 334 to svartbäcken where we were going to join the orienteering school's training. The cold weather started to roll in and us South Africans were not equipped for the 4 degree weather. We stood freezing, waiting for everyone else to get ready. After that we following Nick on a quick 1.5 km run to the start.

 There were four different lopes roughly 2.4 km each.I started with the shortest loop, 13-15, which was fun and was a good to get into the map. I then ventured off and did 17-22. I was on my way to control 19 when it became  quite terrifying, the trees were creaking in the wind and there was this loud banging noise in the background, and then it started raining.

My next mishap happened at control 22 where I ended up not knowing where I was and was even thinking about blowing my whistle, when I saw an obvious feature and finally made my way back to the start. I ended off with one more loop 7-11 where I tried my best to avoid the marshes, but ended up hitting all of them. I got back with soaking wet feet and cold hands. People slowing started coming back until we were just waiting for Cameron and Nick. To keep warm we used the penguin technique and huddled together waiting. There were ecstatic faces when we saw Cameron and Nick running over the hill.

The trip back from the start point was not as care-free as the way there. The ground was slippery and muddy and there was much slipping and falling. I tripped over a rock and fell face first down a hill, grazing my knee and embedded it with dark mud. Paul however won the injury prize, slipping on a tree trunk and splitting his shin open on a branch. It was a slow hobble back! When we got back we were finally able to put on warm clothes, while the adults talked about travelling plans. I went in  Nicks car with Paul and Tania while everyone went back on the bus. We stopped at the shop to stock up on supplies before heading back to the clubhouse. Paul then went with Nick to the hospital, whee he got 7 stictches. Back at the clubhouse we finally got to try the sauna. Warm and refreshed we settled down to play some Uno and then tucked into pork chops made by Ryno and Tinus.

Written by Sarah Wimberley