On Saturday we were mini-bussed along the side of Haweswater and then walked up to the top of the old corpse road from Swindale over to Mardale (now Haweswater). When we got to the Start we did not have to wait for our allotted times but just started at 2 minute intervals. There was just one Start official, with a Start clock, a -4 and a -2 box and a line of pegs with course numbers on. If there was no-one in a box on your course then you could go into it. At 2 minute intervals people lined up at one of 2 Start controls to dunk their e-card and set off round the corner to wrest their map from under the sizeable boulder which was protecting it from predatory sheep.
We basically ran to and fro (in my case only to, and with the considerable wind behind me) on the bumpy, marshy, rocky ridge between Haweswater and Swindale and then came down a gentle slope to the Finish control, manned by one (fairly redundant) Finish official, which was at the end of a farm road up which the club had brought the drinks.
Ron and I met up there and strolled back a couple of K down Swindale, carrying our entire run details on our fingers. When we got back to the parking we handed in our e-cards at the results tent for downloading and within seconds had a print-out of our Finish time and splits, which we perused over chili, fruit cake and coffee from Wilf's. Imagine my enormous satisfaction at discovering that I had done the (very) long leg faster than him! In the Results the controller remarked that a small club like BorderLiners was stretched to put on a badge event - how much more stretched would they have been to supply full Finish and Results teams!
Day 2 was at Harrop Tarn above Thirlmere and we were told to allow an hour to get to the Start from the parking, which was at the S end of Thirlmere. Lake District clubs are not averse to taking advantage of competitors' O skills in getting to the Start. Finding the parking was OK this time, but no-one could say that the walk to the Start, along the road at the back of Thirlmere, then on a public footpath up to Harrop Tarn and then up some more, was well signed - fortunately O shoes produce a characteristic spore.
It took me 55 minutes to get to the Start and Ron was waiting for me there. Again we did not have to wait for our allotted time and again we started ourselves at 2 minute intervals, not quite as clearly set out as the day before, but perfectly satisfactory. The main problem was for those who had not remembered which number course they were running, but we were OK because we had our control descriptions.
Because NWOA had events on consecutive days, the Sunday club had arranged to get controls from the Scottish 6-Day Company, so, as the single Start official was telling everyone, each control had a punch as well as an e-control, so that they could punch the edge of their map if necessary. Again we started by dunking one of the two Start controls. Another lot of fantastic terrain, initially open and humpy, then down through mature coniferous wood to a high Finish. Back down the way we had walked in, download the e-card and pick up our splits (delighted to discover that I had gone from 1 to 2 faster than Ron), sit in the sun while feeding the inner wo/man at Wilf's, a brief chat with Ken and Barbara Broad at Ultrasport and off to Penrith to put Ron on the train, then spend the next 6 hours regretting my Penrith-Cambridge route choice. Isn't e-punching wonderful?
Ursula Oxburgh (WAOC)