Exhausted!

Another early start and we drove west of Sheffield to take part in an orienteering event.  The final details should have given me an inkling of what was to come, only technical courses on offer; a 10 minute uphill walk from the carpark to assembly followed by a 40 minute uphill walk to reach the start on the top of the moor; cagoules and whistles compulsory because of the weather forecast and the height of the moorland.

I set off on my course en route to number 1 and immediately went wrong, going round in a huge circle until I realised I hadn't gone far enough to reach the control.  Underfoot it was tussocky and boggy in places with the run off from the moor gouged out by peat groughs, some of which were difficult to get down in to, across and back out.  Hard work!  My navigation improved after the mess of number one but it was tough going and that weather front which had generated the compulsory cagoules notice, didn't materialise, apparently it had gone through early morning.  At the same time the sun came out so I could have done with carrying water rather than a cagoule!  By the time I had negotiated the five controls in the very rocky valley (not so good for ankles!) and started back up the moor towards the final half dozen, I was in need of a sit down and hydration.  I did sit down awhile but needed to push on with my knees protesting all the way.  The finish in sight and four difficult miles on my garmin, I was glad of my water bottle back at the carpark.  I think I will be avoiding this area in future.  I was out for 105 minutes and finished in 26th place out of 40 on my course.  On a positive note, the views, when I could lift my attention from map and compass, were tremendous!

There was no way I was going back up the hill to blip the view, so my blip was taken out of the car window on the scenic route back home.