It was good to see a large turnout at Bowhill today and especially encouraging to see so many new faces.
The terrain was difficult for beginners so well done to everyone who ran the Yellow Course. You are unlikely to find such steep Yellow courses at the Gordon and Tweedbank events later this year.
There was a shooting party in the area of Bowhill that Roxburgh Reivers usually uses for Come And Try It and Training events, so we were confined today to the hilly and brambly North West part of the Estate. The steepness of the terrain made it a bit tricky to plan the Yellow course. Originally the Yellow course was planned as a loop that continued on the road from the Start past the first control and half right onto a track at your Control 4 before going up grassy tracks to get to the Quarry and then along another of the West-East grassy tracks to get to what was your Control 8 today. However I thought that made the course a bit too long given the underfoot conditions and the steepness of the terrain.
The Orange and Training courses also had to cope with steep legs, particularly on the long legs that went due North on each course. I hope the Orange and Training course runners felt that they had plenty of route choice. Those two courses were planned to cut across the general direction of the paths, and, in places, use some fairly small features, so that competitors had to think a bit.
The courses today were the first I had planned so I was pleased to hear that people seemed to enjoy themselves even the ones who took slightly longer than they might have hoped. Orienteering is a great way to learn about maps and navigation.
All of us at Roxburgh Reivers look forward to seeing all the new faces and their friends at future events. Finally thanks to all the Reivers who helped bring in the controls at the end.
Duncan Shiell
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