Reading the Event Reports, from all corners of the Globe, of the Travelling BLs, the chances of Whitworths managing to respond to Karen’s requests for comments on Orienteering Events no other BLs had attended seemed an Unlikely Occurrence. However statistics are funny things and Drumlanrig is a beautiful area, even when competition is restricted to the Open Area due to Storm Damage Safety Concerns. So Solway’s Summer Evening event on June 11th looked good to us from Carlisle.
The beautiful 700m ruler-straight Drive up to the magnificent Castle must tug at the heartstrings of every homecoming Duke of Buccleugh. For us, it was the western edge of the 1.7km and 3.4km Short and Medium courses, tucked neatly into about 0.75square km of gently-contoured grassland kept well-mown by sheep, with two or three dozen small, steep hillocks each a couple of contours high, mainly tree-covered, providing entertaining fine navigation at the end of each runnable leg.
Only the Long Course crossed the Drive. Neither Whitworth ventured thereto, but we marvelled at how neatly Derek Kennedy had twisted and turned the Medium course, with no repetition of route, to put all three leg-crossings perpendicular, make all controls turning points to a large extent and site only four of the 13 controls in the open in an area of perhaps 80% open land. Just a bit long for Dick, as we hadn’t been told the Course Lengths before signing up and he failed to take the opportunity to cut from 8 to 11. (Also his compass stopped working.)
Angela put her compass away at number one. The Short Course was a beginners’ dream, with only one leg requiring a bit of Luck (or perhaps a short taped route), which the only Beginner (adult) found fairly readily by “carrying on in the right sort of direction” until she met a Track for re-location.. But Angela was puzzled by a New Symbol, about a millimetre square on the map just off the path on the short leg between two controls 100m apart. Brownish, it looked. She spent a bit of time looking for it to satisfy her curiosity, but failed to find it. Was it a Disabled Fisherman’s Platform (2 contours above the lake??). No, said Derek, it was the Very Short Line between the two controls.
With the Start Finish and Car Park all within about 40m of each other, (mostly) beautiful weather and the offer of a Salmon Supper, which was threatening to turn into breakfast by the time we arrived, at Jane & Dave McQuillen’s in Dumfries, it was a great evening, finishing with a journey slipstreaming in behind an HGV doing a welcome, steady, protective 60mph all the way from Dumfries to Carlisle.
The Event deserved a better turnout than the 20 or so who came. And, yes, Dick and Angela were both last on their Courses. Value for Money, I say. Luckily, there was no Routegadget at such a local event, so we can’t show you where we went.
You can see an old version of the map here
Many thanks to Angela for this report. If this has inspired you to write an event report (or anything else) for the website, just send it to bldanandkaren@gmail.com
Border Liners Orienteering Club 