Orienteering race 1:29:25 [4] 6.8 km (4.6 kph) +180m
Most mistakes I have made in a long time. Attack point calculates 20.27 minutes. The biggest mistake was from 4-5. A simple uphill leg and I deviated left and did not work out where I went wrong until I went round in a complete circle. 5-6 I headed left to avoid dropping contours but then promptly forgot that I was left of my straight line and assumed I was still on the straight line. I found my designated aiming off feature a big rock surface (ignoring that it was one ore two contours lower that what it was supposed to be) then "found" the gully that was supposed to take me to the next control - except nothing seemed to fit. Looking at the terrain below I soon recognised that I was too far left. (I was actually further left than I thought I was). Moving around the contours I finally found something that fitted that provided an aiming off feature. Off to 7 I lost some minor time because the first few hundred metres I was heading for 8. hitting a track at the wrong angle jolted me away from complacency aand I corrected well to hit the control bang on.
All fine to 9 then I am not sure what happened on the way to 10. I think I headed too far east and then found some rocks in the gully not on the map. Useing these as an aiming feature to the control it takes me too far east requiring a big loop to return to the control. Fast finish suggests I could have gone harder on some legs.
On the way to 11 I spot a woman on a track without a map or compass looking lost. Apparently she was with her husband and son who left her to get a control they had missed. I know we had a few people turn up today and map supply was tight, but nobody should be out there without a map. Fortunately they arrived safely back at the caravan.