leading from behind

Fell asleep around 5am. Wakeup at 7am.

Again morning routines without a rush. Without any rush. Taking our own time. At one point I disappeared and later got thanked for being away. Apparently people were having a sense of rush in the morning. And while I was away for some ten minutes, people relaxed a lot. Maybe feeling that we're not in that much of a hurry. Later in the evening I told them about the feedback and thanked them for taking their time. For me it seemed that all hurrying feelings were swiped away at that time.

During breakfast I asked people if they wanted to have learn to orienteer in Lapland (one of the group members had mentioned earlier that it would be nice). A bunch of them did. And so we did.

A day without back bags. Only I and Leena carried our backpacks. Spending two nights on one spot is a nice thing to do - having an easier day for us all. Even guide can cope with a 15kg bag. Which is close to nothing.

So we started our journey. Me leading from the back. Having a lot of breaks where we were locating nearby mountains (and those far-far away) and planning where to go next. I did not start the teaching by telling all I know. Rather one step at a time.

First locating distinct terrain points like mountains, rivers and streams.
Then locating ourselves using a compass and a map.
As the last part of the learning we took a bearing using the distinct terrains. And boy were the group doing an extremely good job! I could not have done any better myself.

Doing this for the first half of the day. Later in the day I did mention how I plan the route ahead (but that experiment was about to come later).

After visiting the reindeer fence we took a compass direction to a nearby lake. Is there any better way to learn how deviation affects our route than to experiment it. I had not mentioned about it but when we walked using only compass, we did walk roughly 10* north.

Later, the group took deviation into account when taking bearings.

Lunch at the lake west of Erttetvárri. Did not get any fish.

On our way home we did walk to the summit of Erttetvárri.

When going home, later in the evening I did sense a behavior that the group does not quite have energy enough to concentrate on orienteering anymore. Few twists and turns made me think that it's time for me to take the lead and lead the group safe to the camp site.

For the first time I was in the front. But this time not alone. Walking with others on a very open formation had freed us from the habit of walking on a queue.

I wasn't alone anymore.

The day ended up being perfect. In many many more ways I can imagine. And it even gave me a chance to learn - which I did on Wednesday.


PS. I had fever in the evening - and my eyes were looking awful. At least so I heard.