Route to the Start

We were orienteering on the moor above Castle Carr today. When Tony dug out the map from our last visit (about 20 years ago!) he remembered that he had put it on his list of 'never to return to areas'! But, it was the Northern Champs so you can't not go, can you?!

On the approach to the carpark we were buffeted by wind and rain, then when we arrived at the carpark, it was uphill on to a moor field and the cars were being pushed in - not a good sign. The guy next to us collected a flat tyre on the way up! We then had a 2k walk to the assembly which was in the grounds of the ruined Castle Carr and from there a 35 minute walk across the top of this dam to the start (loved the sign which said no vehicles beyond this point on the dam wall!) and up over the hill/moor in the background. We were both glad we had decided to keep our running cags on!

Pal Karen started two minutes after me and has better legs so I expected her to come zooming past at any point during the first few controls. It didn't help that I did a nosedive straight after the start and landed on my face. Thankfully nothing more than pride was damaged although my compass filled up with dirt! Karen did indeed catch me on the way to number 3, but then she made a navigational error and I reached it before her. After that we see-sawed back and forth around the course until her stamina won out towards the end. I was 8th when I finished but expect to drop lower as other runners come in.

The promised heavy rain did not replace the blustery showers so once we had dropped down off the moor it was a reasonably pleasant course. Not much to blip though so I am going with the reservoir rhodos.

Needless to say, Tony isn't planning a return for another 20 years!