Creatures of the Night

Going through a little phase of night-o at present with my 3rd event in a month coming up this weekend.

To non-orienteers, I normally get a "you're not quite right in the head" look when night orienteering is mentioned. Is it not dangerous to run round a dark wood or moorland? Won't somebody mug you or kill you?

Errrmmm... Nope. Anyone daft enough to hang around Watergrove (or Hurstwood next week) moor on a dark, windy Saturday night waiting to mug someone with a headtorch and no money would be really stupid as well as mad. Better to hang around a dark street in the middle of Manchester as there is a much better chance of finding a victim - I suspect that's what the nutters actually do.

Night-o is refreshing and gives a real sense of freedom. It's your problem to get round the course and not to worry about the dark night. It certainly gives me more satisfaction to complete a night event than a day event.

It also sorts the wheat from the chaff in navigation terms. In adventure races with night stages, there is always a wide margin between the top and bottom teams. The top people normally have someone who is pretty handy at night-o. You can't get by with a 'run and hope' strategy to finding control sites - discipline with bearings, use of line features and map reading is needed.

I like it, so as long as I don't get disqualified for running past controls... (which is a habit of late)

And the creatures of the night are happy to let you get on with it.