Article from Tchimes

ROBBIE GOES TO SCOTLAND

In the summer holidays I was lucky enough to be chosen to go on a week's orienteering course in Scotland with the best people in my age group out of the whole of Britain.

When I got to Lagganlia in the Cairngorms, I handed the coaches two fish that I had caught earlier instead of the cake that we were supposed to bring because we couldn't find o cake before I had to go. I didn't really know anyone when I got there but in about 2 hours, we were getting on really well and I could tell I was going to make some really good friends.

The first day of orienteering was good but very tiring and I felt I was going to collapse. It was very good though because I had already learnt a lot from just one day. All the other days were just the same distance wise but it wasn't as difficult as the week went on because I got fitter. During the week, I felt that my bearings and pacing got a lot better than it had they been and I was hitting most controls quite well. Another thing I learnt was using the ground. I found this difficult at the start of the week but the coaches helped me and I soon got better. The things I learnt didn't just help me to find controls but also boosted my confidence and this helped me even more. During the week we did some competitions. In the short race I come 2nd and in the classic race I came 3rd.

The week wasn't all just orienteering though. We did a lot more activities and we had a bit of time to ourselves where we usually played more sport or watched a video. The activities we did included things like swimming in a freezing lake where we did flips off a windsurfing board. Another thing we did was we played the older group in a game of ultimate Frisbee (don't ask) and a BBQ.

I think the course was really good for me and I am a much better orienteer (2nd in JM4 at the Twin Peaks) and I have made a lot more friends. I would like to thank CLOK for the money they gave me to help fund the course.

Robbie Unsworth

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