We decided to sneak in a trip to the first event of the orienteering club’s summer series before Emma had to head off to a party. Unfortunately Southampton Common wasn’t at its summeriest with a steady drizzle eventually turning in to a downpour. Emma, Duncan and I went round the yellow whilst Christine had her run. We made it round the 2km course in just under 35 minutes which must be some kind of a record for Emma. We may even have to start her on some navigation soon! Duncan, meanwhile, stayed resolutely in the pushchair. The rest of the family then departed in the direction of Longdown Farm (with my lunch) and it was my turn to tackle the light green. Theoretically no real navigational challenge but I still wasted a minute at number 9 having failed to realise which clearing I had run up and another 30 seconds or so at 17 when I got ahead of myself on the map. That would have brought me under 4 min/k which would have been nice but I’ll settle for a first place in the results. It’s a shame I then got completely soaked cycling back home!
Archive for the ‘Family’ Category
Summer (?) series returns
Saturday, April 14th, 2012Child minding
Saturday, April 14th, 2012Easter hunt
Saturday, April 14th, 2012Brecon break
Saturday, April 14th, 2012The next day, after much indecision we decided to take a crack at climbing a hill and if you’re going to climb a hill it might as well by the highest: Pen y Fan. We spurned the motorway footpath up from the Storey Arms, instead using the car parks on the north side near the cottage. This gave us a nice gentle climb up past Pen Milan, stopping near Llyn Cwm Llwch for lunch before the final steep climb up past the obelisk and to Corn Du. Emma was starting to flag a little bit on this final ascent but she and Duncan enjoyed playing with the stones on the flat summit. From there, it’s a short hop to the marginally higher Pen y Fan. We descended north from there and I abandoned Christine and the children and ran off to bring the car round. It may have only been about five miles in total but it was still a fun day out in the hills and we were pleased that Emma made it round without too much grumbling. Even Duncan walked more than we expected!
The weather began to turn at this point and we spent the next day at Dan-yr-Ogof caves. I was actually quite impressed by the caves but for the children I think the Dinosaur Park was the real winner. By the time we reached the Shire Horse Centre, the rain had set in and sadly the indoor play area didn’t appear to have much for young children (a tricycle race track which isn’t much fun on your own) so we set off back to the cottage. The Wednesday was pretty much a write off as we watched the thick snow cover first the hills and eventually the fields surrounding the cottage. We managed a twenty minute walk in the morning and then went to the swimming pool in Brecon after lunch.
The cottage was booked for the Easter weekend so we packed the car on Thursday and went for a short walk along the Brecon and Monmouthshire canal before heading off to stay at Christine’s parents’ for a couple of days to make a week of the holiday.
Sickness and Steam
Sunday, March 18th, 2012Hamptworth: dark and light
Monday, February 27th, 2012As RouteGadget shows, I made two major blunders. Everything started well enough but at the fifth control I was rather thrown by the presence of contours in the New Forest and turned up-hill just 10 metres short of the control. Actually, I think I was thrown because my attack point was supposed to be a ditch junction whereas, in the daylight, it was evident that the ditch on the map actually turns in to a veg boundary. I had more trouble with vegetation boundaries at 12 where it looks like I had the rhododendrum boundary out by 90 degrees.
Each of those mistakes cost me five minutes. On top of that, in the tussocks and brashings I was generally too cautious and when I finished I was third out of three and a good 25 minutes down on the leader. As it transpired, the remaining three runners in my class managed to take even longer so I can still claim a bronze medal!
On Sunday, the sun was shining again and we all went along for a fantastic day back at Hamptworth. I took the children round the string course whilst Christine ran. Duncan walked the whole way and both were pleased to see sweets at the finish rather than the usual SOC raisins! We then sat in the sun next to a large puddle adjacent to the finish waiting for Christine to return.
I found the area much more enjoyable in the daylight when it was possible to make use of more distant objects in the vague terrain. Two mistakes again on RouteGadget. The first at 8 where, in the presence of Tim Britton, I failed to realise that I had drifted to the north. Then another two minutes en-route to 12 where I failed to negotiate the rhodies successfully. I was six minutes down on Jack Benham so my running speed was definitely up on the previous night. I can’t quite work out where I’ll end up in the SCOA Champs as a result – probably second or third.
I got back to discover that Christine (with a little help from the sweets) had persuaded Emma to go round the string course twice more (on her own this time) and Duncan had even walked round again. All in all, a fun weekend of orienteering although given my aching legs today, not one to be repeated too frequently!
Half term holiday
Monday, February 20th, 2012We had an enjoyable time with my Uncle in Devon the following day, visiting the miniature zoo in Shaldon amongst other things, before completing our journey down to Cornwall. The next day we headed back west to re-visit the Eden Project. It must have been five years ago when we last went as we met my parents there and told them that Christine was pregnant with Emma. The children enjoyed themselves greatly, particularly the chocolate theme! The next day was spent in and around Falmouth with the relatives. We even managed some sunshine down on the beach. I’m afraid we can’t recommend the Gylly Beach cafe as the wait was prohibitive. The ice creams afterwards went down well though.
Sadly the nice weather was not to last and our journey home was spent under a rain cloud. We did, at least, have a day to gather our thoughts again before getting back to the school/work routine.
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