NIGHT-O IN HONG KONG

Night-O folly Another supposed goat track leads steeply down, across, then upward at 45 degrees in Hong Kong again. Steady on – this is Hong Kong, there’s no goats here. Just orienteers idiot enough to tackle this at night. #25 appears briefly through the thick scrub. Getting through to punch it is a major exercise. Now where? Down and down an exceedingly narrow and twisting watercourse which has a nasty habit of disappearing into clumps of scrub where no human can venture. The map shows it as runnable – dream on! I’m being followed by a Hong Kong orienteer who has even less idea of how to follow this Michael Hubbert “track” at night than I have. Together we blunder on. At last, a paved pathway Mass start 8pm – we line up along the gutter of a looms below. It’s a near-vertical drop to reach it, but any decentsteeply ascending street. The chinese starter screams looking pathway is heaven compared with the rubbish we’ve been trying to follow. #24 should be easy from here. Alas, it’s hidden at something into the megaphone – it must have been the end of a sandy patch behind some thick scrub. A little more “GO” because some people move off up the road. time lost. Others unroll their maps and stand aghast. The map And time is getting on. #14 and #16 are close by but appear to be is dark green! Where is the Start triangle? Where are up more steep and eroded watercourses masquerading as tracks. Do I dare try for them? Decide not. Got to think about how I get the control circles? This map is practically unreadable out of here and back to the Finish. If both my headlamps go out at night!! I’ll be history. The track marked in the direction of #21 is no track at all but a rocky creek bed. At least it’s wide enough to get along quite quickly. The trick will be to find the little goat track above WE are competing in the 2006 Hong Kong Night Orienteering Championships on Braemar Hill, above the frenetic bustle the bare rock. Whatever made this one was very short because the scrub is really closed in and I have to bend low to get through. and light show that is Hong Kong island. It’s a Score event and is Maybe there really are goats here. Or pygmy sheep. one of the lead-up events in the APOC 2006 carnival. The map is From #21 it’s simply a case of what’s the quickest way back. #29 is green and almost illegible (see opposite). Are those really tracks simple and then the track leads up over a rocky hilltop. Halfway through the green? Still haven’t found the Start triangle. It must up I hear cursing and swearing in distinctive Russian above me be somewhere. Ah – there’s the Finish circle. That’s at least a start. and to the left. They seem to have gotten off the track. A few Down a flight of concrete steps and up, up, up many more. Still moments later I find out why. There is no track amongst this rock. haven’t spotted that Start triangle. Stop to have a real look. Ah The track shown on the map is wishful thinking. On the way – there it is. Now, which way to head? Go for #33 along a path down to #31 I’m passed by some of the English contingent. “Oh which is partly paved and partly eroded gravel. The going here dear, Oh dear” they say. I couldn’t agree more. isn’t too bad at all. Roughly plan out a circuit. Not many options. Down to a paved path and a decent run (jog) at last, picking up Decide to go for #1, then #25. #9, #26 and #32 on the way to the finish. It’s a reasonable score The map shows a short, steep track up to #1. But I soon find but I’m far too late. Back at the assembly arena I learn that Dick it’s actually a steep and heavily eroded watercourse with thick and Maureen Ogilvie met on the way and decided there and then impenetrable scrub closing in on either side and overhead in to bail out “before they killed themselves”. A wise decision. I was places. It’s a great place to break an ankle, especially at night. It almost going to do the same. soon turns out that most of the small tracks shown on the map A quiet word in the ear of the Event Controller about the are merely places where water chose to cascade down the hill last dangerous nature of this particular terrain for Night-O seems to time it rained. have about the same effect as watering a duck. For me, they’ve The map is mostly green, and green means green!! Thick scrub put Night-O in Hong Kong back about 20 years with just this above head height – impenetrable in the day and even more so at one event. As it turned out, they have other maps which would night. For contrast, “rough open” means thick scrub below head be much more suitable for Night-O. Pity they didn’t use one of height – just as impenetrable at night. them. Up, up and up this alleged track we clamber. People can’t pass – the scrub on either side won’t let them. Finally the top. And there’s the flag, sitting in the only piece of open ground we’d seen since leaving the start.