Saturday 12th February will see the welcome return of Urban Orienteering to Bridgwater with 2 daytime events which will be open to the public to take part, watch or wander around at their leisure. The course created for the public will start at King’s Square at 1130 but there will be three different courses (Long, Medium, Short) for experienced Orienteers from 11.30am to 2.30pm. There will also be an after-dark street event from 5.00pm to 7.00pm which will start at the Bridgwater College Academy (BCA) Car Park but the main feature of the weekend will be a major event at the Great Wood at Ramscombe.
Organiser Roger Craddock of Quantock Orienteers says “Orienteering is a challenging outdoor adventure sport. The aim is to navigate between control points marked on a special orienteering map and decide the best route to complete the course in the quickest time. It does not matter how young, old or fit you are, as you can run, walk or jog the course and progress at your own pace. Orienteering can take place anywhere from forest and countryside to urban parks and school playgrounds. To start orienteering all you need is a sense of adventure and a pair of trainers. It’s a great sport for runners, joggers and walkers who want to improve their navigation skills or for anyone who loves the outdoors. the town centre trail might appeal to those visitors who may be interested in a historical and navigational challenge.”
All Pile In!
The trail can be followed using an app on smartphones which may appeal to the more ‘techie’ families and organisers will be in Kings Square to help with this, although the information at each ‘station’ will be available on the back of the map (£1 per map).
Kings Square event here.
The courses offered are:
Long. 8.1km
Medium. 5.4km
Short. 3.4km
Historical trail. 3.1km
Charges: Senior £8, Junior £4, Trail £1 if entering on-line or £1 extra entry on day
Juniors under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
On the Run!
The courses are given at the start on waterproof A3 maps (A4 for Short/trail). Timing for the Long/Medium/Short will be done with an electronic ‘dibber’ worn on a finger. These can be hired for £1 (£30 if lost) and will register a time at each control site.
The trail can be followed using the map and a guide on the reverse of the map, but for those competitive families who have smartphones, an App can be loaded and the course downloaded. Guidance available at the start!
This evening event will require a head torch as well as the MapRun App used in the afternoon. It will be a 50 min ‘find as many controls as you can’ starting from the Bridgwater College Academy (BCA) car park.
The Bridgwater East event details can be found here.
To sign up to the Bridgwater Historical Trail event click here.