There are four courses ranging from 'quite easy' to 'very hard (experienced orienteers only)' so I decided to start with the quite easy and work up from there.
I had traveled to Tockholes with Duncan and Barry who were going mountain biking. They said they would be out for two hours and, given that the quite easy route was shown as 1.9k, I told them that I'd do that and then do the 2.2k 'moderately difficult' route afterwards.
You guessed it, the quite easy route took me so long that I didn't have time to do the moderately difficult route. In fact, the 1.9k quite easy route turned out to be 4.18k (2.6 miles) due to my ineptitude.
I found the first control, control F, relatively easily. I did at first find myself on the wrong path junction but soon realised this and got onto the correct one.
Then came the second control, E. I'm convinced I was in the right place but I just couldn't find the control post. I was there for ages looking all over the place. It's not like they are only tiny things, they're big posts with a white band on them and a letter but I just couldn't find it. Perhaps it had been knocked down? I'll just keep telling myself that.
Next was control P. Again, I just couldn't find the post, despite, as far as I'm concerned, being in the right spot. By now I was getting quite stressed because I felt really useless. I'm so sure I was in the right place though but again had to give up and move on to the next one.
It took me a while to find the next one (N) because the path it was down wasn't at all obvious and was really muddy and a little overgrown but I persevered because I was sure it was the right way and it turned out it was and I found the control.
Only control M to go now and I found this one really easily, which made me feel much better about controls E and P.
I'm going to have to go back and find E and P as I can't be defeated by them. Both of them also appear on the next level course 'moderately difficult' so I'll make sure I find them this time. Please do tell me if you are aware that the posts have been knocked down though so I'm not going round and round in circles again.
Afterwards we all had brunch in the cafe with me drooling over Duncan and Barry's bacon/sausage/egg butties whilst I opted for a healthy pea soup.
Total distance - 2.6 miles
https://www.strava.com/activities/255266436
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