LETTERS The Australian Orienteer welcomes letters. Preference will be given to letters which are concise and which make positive points. The editor reserves the right to edit letters, particularly ones which are longer than 300 words.
Not Elite A lady called Sally from Townsville (Letters – AO-Dec’07, p30), who is a youngster of 65, would like some ideas about enjoying Orienteering. Firstly, it is not a speed event in spite of all the pictures of darting youngsters. It is a sport of dealing with the natural environment and that includes humans who make maps and set courses. If you want something to be competitive about, be competitive about your minutes-per-kilometre, but it is not important. Each Orienteering environment differs but they can be easily classed into different grades, and the Elites are given some of the hardest possible grades, sometimes too hard for any enjoyment, like being on a never-ending treadmill in a cyclone, level 4. Fortunately, ladies at W65 are given some of the less unpleasant grades of experience and their main problem is being over-ambitious, making mistakes and becoming ‘Grumpy Old Women’ and sitting on handy rocks. I have been orienteering now since Year Dot, plus a couple, in Victoria, as car rally navigating was becoming too elite oriented and like the treadmill in the level 4 cyclone, and though I was no runner I used to do well through what I call navigational skill. This is not running along bearings although that is easy enough in some places, nor aiming off which wastes energy if it is too much to one side. I am skilled in finding what is called, by kangaroos I suppose (although they cannot say much), the natural travel lines. These take the most easy way through the bush for moderate to high speed bounding, and on steep country with lots of rocks wallabies do the same job.
read the course setter’s mind and other control sites may give indications whether he likes hiding markers in slots or whether he thinks that route choice is the challenge. Although I am M80, and not on the ‘going-to-distant-events’ rigmarole, I orienteer most weeks on 4.6km hard courses. Sometimes they are made extra hard to find (with contours only), or a reduced scale, or both, which makes seeing things difficult. So, Young Sally, one does not have to wear coloured clothes and headbands and run like a gazelle to enjoy Orienteering. It is supposed to be a sport for all ages, once they can read. I have not been to a State Event since 1992. I had been headhunted by a Bendigo member as I lived nearby. Since then the competition in my age group comes to Bendigo local events, and I generally go to all of them, although I am not a Sprint addict. When Victorian runners in my age group see me they start to run faster. And during the World Masters in 2002 M75s chugged along near me, comparing route choice no doubt. In our events we are on the same legs in all age groups so I can see runners going elsewhere, which is common. They use their eyes to see markers, not the country. I did go in a State Relay (Mixed – 3.5km). All the other old fogies went in short legs – actually W45. We came 3rd (I was headhunted for that too). I have been ‘carbon friendly’ now for 16 years – it is less expensive too. Ian Johnson (Bendigo, VIC)
I read the contours very carefully, and many are not all that accurate in width, but modification by looking is straightforward. If it is a wider contour than mapped it is evident from vegetation in gullies and often differences on spurs and ridges. As a spare time activity, instead of running in half marathons, take a mathematics grid book with 5mm squares, a pencil and a sharpener with a rubber, take an ordinary common rectangular base compass and map some nearby wild country such as an empty house block or, better still, some unruined bushland. It needs only small trees and some teeny weeny plants. Map on bearings and take paces. An easy scale is one single pace = 1mm. Triangulate to locate objects, which is a frustrating process to the less than very careful. Check and double check. After a couple of hours you may have mapped 10 square metres and located all the special plants which you must decide whether to include. This alone will make you more aware of being finicky and is not very physically tiring. In time you will become better with bigger areas and take a double pace which is easy to make 1.25m which relates readily to the usual map scales. You will have become a great deal more observant and can see more things readily than just orange & white cubes. As you age the map will become harder to see clearly and although the circle may be in the right place one has to work out what the feature is like on the ground. This gives opportunities to 32 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2008
VICTORINOX AWARD The Victorinox Award goes to Ian Johnson of Bendigo Orienteers for his informative letter of advice to older orienteers. Ian will receive a Victorinox Voyager with 20 tools and features including a watch/alarm/timer; retail value $109.95.
