Kent Night Cup - Sheffield Forest
I was rather hesitant about going to my first night orienteering event for ages because of the awful weather late in the afternoon. An active cold front came through making things very wet, windy and, well, cold. I resigned myself to a miserable time and went anyway. I am glad I did.
About 40 of us gathered in a clearing a few km outside the village of Nutley and around a km into the forest. The front had passed, the air was crystalline and the night sky was awe-inspiring. As I climbed out of the car, the sky looked perfectly black and there were more stars than seemed possible. The milky way arched overhead and even the “dark lanes” through Cygnus were clearly visible. Once my eyes adapted, it was slightly less impressive, as the distant light pollution was obvious, even if you could see more stars. I could have stayed for hours, but orienteers with giant spotlights strapped to their heads kept blinding me (accidentally I am sure) as they moved around and anyway it was soon time to run.
The event was very low-key but friendly. it was a one-hour “score” format (where you try to spike as many controls as possible in the time, with penalties for being back late). It was odd in the dark. I kept coming across people I knew and chatting for a few moments but you could only ever see people very close to you so it became quite confusing. Maps were given out and studied then we had a mass start, punching through as fast we could and heading off in all directions.
I was with a group heading west where there was a tempting set of controls, all of which were in the forest off paths, but with good catching features (like open ground behind) or reasonable “handrails”. It took me a while to recapture the feel of night orienteering, so the big group left me behind, but I found the controls without too many complications, except that the bracken was still very high and slowed me down. The plan was then to get across one of the deep stream valleys and up the slope on the other side to access a few controls there before picking up some easier controls up the forest road to the finish. Having fought with the bracken and fearing loss of contact with the map, I decided to stick to clear paths and run down to a bridge and forest road across the valley. This worked, but I ended going up and down a track on the hillside several times, trying to find a way up to a ride from which I could access the controls. I never managed it. None of the paths or other features I was looking for became obvious and I was just getting more confused. I could backtrack to a very secure location (which I did more than once) but when I headed out from it the ground and map seemed disconnected very quickly. With the clock ticking, I had no choice but to move on to the third part of my plan and try to “hoover up” controls on the way back to the finish. Thankfully, this worked and apart from one or two minor hiccups things made sense and went smoothly. I was catching a control every few minutes for the first 12 minutes or so, and the last 20 but had a completely fallow period in the middle. I got about half the controls in just under an hour - about a dozen runners got them all - the winner in about 40 minutes.
I very much enjoyed the challenge and I like being out in the forest on my own at night - especially such a stunningly beautiful one. I found I could run well except where there was a lot of bracken and I felt much more secure than I have before about running in the dark.
I have a combined 3-LED and traditional head torch (by Petzl) which seemed good to me. The LEDs are perfect for map reading and the main torch lets you see well enough to run. It would definitely have been easier with some of the monster lights people were wearing - I probably could have pierced my way off the track on the slope if I could have seen beyond the immediate greenery along its edge, but as well as not being willing to spend 80 pounds or more on something I do occasionally for fun, I am not sure how I feel about this technology. Running around with a vest full of batteries and something that could pick out high flying aircraft does not seem respectful of the forest somehow. Night orienteering is much harder than in the daytime, even with the big lights, but someone who was trying one for the first time described it as “being like running in the daytime” which seems to miss the point really. There is also a real problem with being dazzled - especially in a score event where people converge on controls from all directions. People were very considerate and careful, but being “flashed” occasionally by very bright lights was inevitable. Just a personal feeling - maybe I just like groping around in the dark - it fits my normal style of navigation!
I had to get back so did not go to the “apres-O” in the local pub (which looks like it was fun) but the evening was nicely rounded off by cloud rolling back in and rain falling as I drove home.
A great event - with good challenge and enough success to feel good about.