Five days of orienteering in Shetland, so what were we expecting? Cool, windy weather perhaps, tussocks and deep heather probably, midges definitely. Well some of that came true, but the abiding memory will be of running over grass and low heather, through hills and rocks in warm sunshine.
Seven BL members made the trip to the far north of the UK to enjoy the 5th incarnation of the Coast and Islands week, put on by Masterplan Adventure. As always the organisation was low-key but effective. On the first three days competitors had a choice of bike or bus to get to the assembly area (between 2 and 6 miles). Jeff and Isabel went for the former, but the rest of took the easy option (Is age an excuse?). The buses worked very well, and we never had to wait long after finishing to get back. The fourth day offered a different solution to the lack of parking – it was split into a morning event and an afternoon event doubling the number of cars that could be accommodated.
There were four courses available each day – Long, Medium, Short and Orange, with no age class allocations – just choose what you will enjoy most. Carol was on Short, Isabel on Medium and Jeff, John and Dan all ran Long. Julie and Karen did a variety of courses, depending on the injury situation. As we’ve come to expect from C&I the courses, maps and terrain were all first class. The areas were all open, unsurprisingly given that there are almost no trees on Shetland, with lots of rock and contour detail and absolutely no paths. Technically it wasn’t the hardest terrain (think Swindale rather than Bethecar), but because it was fast going there was plenty of scope for significant errors. Another excuse for mistakes was being distracted by the amazing coastal views; one particularly memorable control site was a crag part way down a steep slope dropping straight into the sea (there was a warning in the details to be careful).
The weather, unusually for Shetland, was warm and dry almost all week and the midges mostly stayed away. Mist would have made the navigation incredibly difficult with relocation dependent on finding one of many lochans, and then trying to work out which one it was.
The final day was an sprint in Lerwick. It’s an ideal town for urban orienteering – lots of steep narrow alleyways pedestrian streets – a bit like Kendal, with even more alleys (but no slippery cobbles).
As well as orienteering we had plenty of time for sightseeing and amazing coastal walks (geos, bird covered sea cliffs, caves, sea stacks and natural arches. Seeing puffins for the first time, and unexpectedly, was a real highlight.
So now it’s off to the Scottish 5 Day, and what a contrast it will be – trees, lots of people, busy assembly areas, commentators, traders…. But we’re looking forward to it.
Maps and results can be seen here (Livelox shows the maps)
Border Liners Orienteering Club 