TO P E V E N T S 2008
2009 March 21-24 Australian 3-Days Dubbo, NSW aus3days2008.orienteering.asn.au
June 27 WMOC 2008 -July 5 Marinha Grande, Portugal www.wmoc2008.fpo.pt
January 3-11 Oceania Championships 2009 South Island, New Zealand www.oceania2009.co.nz
April 10-13 Australian 3-Days The Royal Easter O, Launceston, Tasmania www.tasorienteering.asn.au June (long AUS MTBO Championships 2009 weekend) (Sprint; Middle; Long) Sth Australia
June 30- JWOC 2008 July 6 Gothenberg, Sweden www.gmok.nu/jwoc2008
July 13-18 Fin5 Saarijarvi, Finland www.fin5-2008.net
July 5-12 JWOC 2009 Trentino, Italy www.jwoc2009.it
July 13-20 WOC 2008 Olomouc, Czech Republic www.woc2008.cz
July Fin5 Hameenlinna, Finland
July 21-25 O-Ringen 2008 Dalarna, Sweden www.oringen.com/dalarna2008
July 19-24 O-Ringen 2009 Smaland, Sweden www.oringen.com/smaland2009
July 25-30 APOC 2008 South Korea www.apoc2008.kr
July 30- Aug 8
Nordvestgallopen 2008 Voss/Bergen, Norway
Aug 3-9
Creoso 6 Day South East Wales
Aug 3-9
French 6 Days Aveyron, France www.cdco12.org
Aug 24-31 MTB-WOC 2008 and MTB-JWOC 2008 Ostróda, Poland www.mtbo.pl/woc2008/
Sept 20-28 Australian Championships Carnival Maryborough, QLD www.oq.asn.au/2008austchamps Sept 30 Australian MTB-O Championships -Oct 1 Maryborough, QLD www.oq.asn.au/2008austchamps tba Xmas 5-Days
Aug 2-8 Scottish 6-Days Tayside, Scotland www.scottish6days.com/2009/ Aug 2-8
Swiss O Week Muotatal, Switzerland www.swiss-o-week.ch
Aug 9-16 MTB-WOC 2009 Ben Shemen (20km from Tel Aviv), Israel
Aug 18-23 WOC 2009 Miskolc, Hungary www.woc2009.hu
Sept 26 AUS Championships Carnival 2009 Oct 4 Victoria www.vicorienteering.asn.au/ Oct 10-17 WMOC 2009 Lithgow NSW www.wmoc2009.orienteering.asn.au tba Xmas 5-Days
Experiences of an older Orienteer – continued from page 30. • I n Denmark open yellow areas are to be avoided as they are usually waist high with nettles.
• Contacting Lyme’s Disease from a tick bite in Sweden.
•M arshes in Sweden can have trees growing in them. In one case costing me 25mins as I searched for a feature in an extensive marsh I thought was open forest.
• Face planting on an asphalt finishing chute in Finland.
•A black circle is where there once was charcoal burning, so they say, but it can now have a clump of trees growing out of it. There will be over 15,000 competitors at O-Ringen in Sweden and 4,000 at the World Masters – so be prepared to finish more than 20mins behind the winner in your age class. Expect to revisit the basic orienteering errors list, like: • 180 degree mistakes that go on for a kilometre. • l eaving out controls, especially drinks and road crossing ones. •e ven going to the wrong start control where there’s more than one provided, which makes finding the first control very interesting. Expect to get injured and/or sick, in new and familiar ways. My personal list includes:
• Spearing my leg on a sharp stick in Austria (pretty ordinary). • Leaving my knee behind between two rocks in Scotland. •G etting a hideous skin disease from bathing in the River Dee in Scotland. Apart from nearly freezing to death I didn’t realise I was just downstream from a sewer outfall. • And then there’s the usual batch of flu’s and colds. Finally, Some Tips for Having an Interesting Trip •T ry to avoid learning the local language. You will have more adventures!! •A lways travel alone. You will meet more locals, especially drunken ones on trains, boats, etc!! •A lways try to get the cheapest deals on travel and accommodation; there’s a reason they’re cheap!! •A ccept that the older you are the longer it will take to get over travelling, just like getting over racing, so factor in a holiday when you get back.
MARCH 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 29
