Going into the competition I had no idea what I was in for as it was my first orienteering competition. Although I had done map work and had taken bearings before during my years at scouts, I still didn’t know what we were going to need to do in this competition.
We arrived at the hall, waited outside till the rest of our scouts joined us, moved inside and got registration done, and then waited for the competition to start. We were split into junior and senior sections — I was in the senior section and we were one of the youngest or very possibly the youngest. We were given our map of the area and they explained what to do.
Our objective was to get to as many allocated points as possible, and at each point we had to answer a question about that place. The points further away from the scout hall were worth more points than the ones closer. I took this orienteering competition as a learning experience as I didn’t know how these competitions worked and neither did my partner but we both learnt what we were meant to do, the best plan for how to do it and what to do next time.
We never ended up winning but it was still a fun experience and one I hope to have again.
