The next leg of our Hungarian adventure took us to Orf?, a small tourist village, half an hour north of the city of Pécs (where we stopped briefly to stock up at Tescos!). Orf? sits beside a string of lakes on the edge of the Mecsek hills (the highest mountain in Hungary is only just over 1000m). We checked in to our shady apartment and then walked down to the village hall where registration for the Hungaria Cup was taking place. There was a bit of queue for the ‘foreign clubs’ and we didn’t help! We had underpaid and, to make the sums harder, I’d paid in Hungarian Forints but the transfer had arrived in Euros, and I wanted to pay the balance in Forints!
The next day, we walked to the assembly area for the orienteering and then promptly had to retrace half our steps to the start which was high on the hill above the apartment. Thankfully they had decided to let the open courses start whenever they liked so Emma and Duncan went to the start with Christine and set off together. They were on the taped course, a great idea which allowed them to either follow the tape the whole way (as they did on Day 1) or make the course significantly shorter by following the obvious shortcuts on the map (as they did on subsequent days). I struggled on the steep climbs in the heat but, at least travelling slowly, I didn’t waste much time on navigational areas. Afterwards, we cooled off in the aqua park by the lake which was free to competitors.
Day 2 had the same assembly area but we drove this time as, with starts after twelve, we didn’t want to walk there in the midday sun. Thankfully my course was 2km shorter but I still didn’t manage to break 10 min/k. Emma failed to punch one of the controls despite having been with Duncan but the organisers were sympathetic and reinstated her. After the day had cooled a little, we climbed up the lookout for views over the surrounding hills.
The assembly area moved for Day 3 and the courses got shorter again for a blast around an area filled with massive sink holes. The terrain obviously suited Christine as she won her course bringing her up into third place overall. We didn’t discover this until after the prizegiving though (which took place every night at the event campsite followed by a disco until midnight which we could hear across the valley from our apartment). We headed into Pécs to take in the Turkish architecture and an ice cream. With temperatures still in the high 30s we didn’t last long though.
The assembly moved again for the last two days to the neighbouring village of Abaliget. Christine was off early and took the children with her. She improved her position again, finishing second. The children made it back before her though and even had an interview with the commentator. I had a late start and, after some early blunders, was caught four minutes by the leader of my course. I was pleased to be able to hang on to him for the middle section. We made a return trip to the aqua park afterwards.
The final day of the orienteering was a chasing start, or at least it was for Christine. My cumulative time was more than 40 mins behind the leader which meant just starting off at minute intervals. We were back with the sink holes again and I had a pretty clean run, finishing second on the day which brought me up to seventh overall. Christine was also second which meant she retained her third place overall and secured a place on the podium. Thankfully she didn’t win the 12 (screw fit) light bulbs the men got but we did have a bottle of wine and 3 litres of apple juice to drink before leaving the country! We took the cave tour afterwards which was an interesting experience given it was all in Hungarian. If nothing else, it was nice and cool.
After one last night in the apartment, it was time to say goodbye to Orf? and head north for the final chapter of our holiday…
For those who are particularly interested, these are my routes from the five days (although my GPS failed to get a lock at the start of Day 1).
The Hampshire Cross-Country Champs were back at Fairthorne Manor again this year. With some heavy rain over the preceding few days, it was a return to the conditions of two years ago: mud and more mud. It could have been worse though as the route of the course steadily evolved over the day as the tapes were adjusted to avoid some of the stickiest spots.
As is customary, the ladies race went first and the children and I flitted from one part of the course to another to catch sight of Christine as many times as we could. I then left them to meet her at the finish whilst I stripped off more layers than felt advisable and had a quick warm up trying to find the toilets (they had been right behind me!). I started fairly steadily but, for a change, after the first two laps I was still overtaking people and wasn’t experiencing any heaviness in my legs or nausea. I finished in a fairly respectable 56th place, fourth V40 and, together with my Eastleigh teammates, we bagged third place in the veteran team competition.
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