Our mini orienteering fun day was another great success – despite the first time we’ve had rain in four years of holding the Highland Cross fundraiser. This year we were at Culduthel and Lochardil Woods in Inverness, where our orange kites sparked interest from early morning on Saturday, May 25, when Clara and I started to set out the courses.
We had a short course with 10 controls for families to find and a longer course with 15 controls for those who wanted to stretch their legs a bit more. The short course proved the more popular, with plenty of local families with young children turning up for a taster of orienteering.
In total we had 33 children taking part, plus their parents, and we raised a total of £216.85 for Highland Cross through entry fees, a home baking sale and additional donations.
This was the first year Meg and I had organised the event ourselves, and we’d like to say a heartfelt thanks to everyone who came along on the day to make it such a great occasion. The wet weather didn’t seem to discourage people and the children were all enthusiastic about punching their soggy maps at the controls, as well as getting cake at the end!
Special thanks go to Meg, who spent a whole week of evenings baking like crazy to make all that delicious food; Clara and Jennifer for helping me to set up and take down the course, especially after a long day in the woods; INVOC – Inverness Orienteering Club – which lent us the equipment for the course; Jane Chisholm for her help with the course map and Culduthel Woods Group.
If anybody is interested in finding out more about orienteering in the area, see the INVOC website on the link above – they are a very welcoming bunch and can help you get started. There’s a really good junior section and they encourage all youngsters to get involved in the sport.
- Any further donations can be made to my Highland Cross JustGiving site on this link.
