The Heritage Weekend saw the hosting of the annual South African Orienteering Championships in the Grabouw, Western Cape. It was a great weekend for orienteering in some nice runnable forest. Our thanks go to host club PenOC for hosting a national championship that was enjoyed by all. The weather was good for the individual events, but did greet the relay teams with an icy wind and drizzle. The social atmosphere at the event centre was really great, made more so by the fact that many of the local and up-country orienteers gathered there for the tasty food organised by the host club.
The challenge was presented by numerous point-feature control sites. Thus straight running and good distance judgment seemed to be the order of the day. The ability to do this effectively was hindered by the plentiful brashings underfoot. Whilst this made uphill running through the forest physically tiring, the brashings were sparse enough to enable fast downhill and contour running. Well done to all the weekend’s winners, some of whom posed for pictures (left – Thanks to Pat de Klerk).