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What is Orienteering?
Orienteering is competitive navigation (typically) on foot. With the aid of a map and compass, competitors find their way as accurately as they can between given points, using their skill to choose the best route.
Events are held in woods and forests, and on heath and moorland. These areas, with their many paths, streams, hills and valleys, provide the best navigational problems. The maps are specially drawn for orienteering and use a standard set of symbols.
Here’s a video from YouTube which was put together by Alex of Southdowns Orienteers. Alex describes what you need to start orienteering and follows his younger brother around an orienteering course.
Chigwell & Epping Forest Orienteering Club runs beginners courses led by our experienced and qualified coaches – see here for details of upcoming training!
This scheme aims to encourage young orienteers by rewarding them for locating controls. It is ideal for the younger or less competitive who might not be able to qualify for the colour coded awards. Every time the young person visits an orienteering event, permanent course or training exercise they record how many controls they locate in a logbook [Download here]. Depending on the number of controls visited they can claim the following awards:
- 10 controls – Acorn certificate
- 25 controls – Tree certificate and badge
- 50 controls – Copse certificate and badge
- 75 controls – Wood certificate and badge
- 100 controls – Forest certificate and badge
For more information on the explorer challenge please see this page on the BSOA website.
Urban orienteering is popular with some members – events include some around the streets of London and Cambridge. Here’s a video of the 2008 London City Race