Croatia 5 Day

This year Aldo and I decided to head to Southern Europe for some challgening orienteering in karst terrain in Croatia - it was well worth the trip! The organisation was amazing (incl small warm up maps which showed you the way to the starts for every stage), even more so as they really only worked with a core group of 20 volunteers, courses were great - never too long - winning time in W45A was between 30 - 40 mins excluding the sprint of course, and the weather was outstanding, about 30 deg in the sun, but surprisingly 'cool' in the forests! Brilliant, as you only had to pack the shorts and singlet every morning for change of clothes, and of course the swim suit for the post-event dip in the local lake. Another huge plus where the short drives to the events, max 25 mins from the event centre in Delnice which is located in the Kvarner region, in Croatia's northwest, close to the Slovenian border.

I have to say that being part of my Swiss club's (OLC Kapreolo) club trip was great too, there was a great club atmosphere at the events with the Kapreolo flag being the most prominent one at about 6m height. The daily dinner buffets back at our hotel were also a great way to socialise and complete  post mortums on the day's event.

From a result point of view, I started off quite ok on Day 1 & 2, but all went downhill from Day 3 where my compass decided to give up the ghost before getting to the first control. I can't tell you how hard it is to orienteer in continental kart terrain and flat area with lots of depressions without a compass - I have no idea how the Finnish Elite orienteer Pasi Ikonen does it, seriously he must have a compass in his brain or something!! A quick stop at the Hungarian O shop at the event, and with renewed  motivation for a good result I started on Day 4, but it wasn't to be. I  messed up 1 control badly....the competition here in Europe is unbelievable and it dosn't allow for any mistakes at all and they are also quite fast. The last day was in extreme karst terrain, it was OMG terrain and one of the most spectacular terrains I have run on. Unfortunately (a first for me), I missed out a control and only realised it at the finish. There was so much black on the map that I never saw the red circle at control 4!! I was a bit disappointed with my performance but the terrain definitely made up for it and I still had heaps of fun.
Aldo was on the same course as me (Open Long was supposed to be an orange standard!!!) and he completed 3 days and enjoyed himself finding his way around the sinkholes, karst etc.

I can definitely recommend this event, and it's on again in 2014.



Day 1 - sinkhole terrain - the main aim was to find your way around all the sinkholes which are pretty steep and deep!

 

Day 2 - sprint in Krk. The finish was located at a very busy beach and all the tourists couldn't believe the invasion by orienteers.

Day 3 & 4 - continental karst terrain and flat areas with lots of depressions. Not recommended to orienteer without a compass!!  



Day 5 - Extreme Karst - OMG terrain with cliffs near the finish about 30m high. AMAZING stuff!!