Kingdom of Fife Orienteers

This was the first time I had been to this event for several years (Devil’s Burdens taking precedence previously). The map (and ground) of Arthur’s Seat is now a maze of paths, some large some small, and mapped at 1:7500. My 2003, and 2005 maps had hardly any paths, but by 2007 several had appeared. Was this the mapper’s whim or have more paths genuinely appeared? Whatever, these and the scale distracted me on the first control; that and the high wind, cold fingers and the distinct threat of losing the map may have contributed.

The EUOC students had decided to place the start near to the top of Arthur’s seat, or so it seemed: it was about 300m to the NNE of there, and 90m below. We joined the procession of tourists plodding to the top, and there were so many of them, it seemed as though they were queuing up near the top to summit, as though on a mini Everest. The way to the start was occasionally lost by several orienteers, including by me: a few more taped wind bushes would have helped.

The wind blew and blew, but eventually the sun appeared, so that in Meadowfield Park I was quite cosy in my cag; but then we had  to re-ascend and pass the start (so I was glad I kept it on) before descending to the north of Hunter’s Bog, only to have to go up again to Salisbury Crags for the last four controls.

Did you know if you double click on your name square in Routegadget that a table of your times appears, much as in Winsplits – just discovered that yesterday.

Dave

SOUL - Edinburgh City - 26-Jan-2019

Full results are here

SoSol Classic - Arthur's Seat aka Holyrood & Meadowfield Parks - 27-Jan-2019