Orienteering in South Africa

A Control Description Sheet will be given to you before your start containing all the necessary information about the control sites you will need to visit on your chosen course. On beginners’ courses words are used, but internationally accepted symbols are used in the advanced courses.

Always stop and assist a fellow Orienteer clearly in distress. If the person is able to move (e.g. minor cut or sprain) – assist them to the finish area. In more serious cases (e.g. broken limb), call out for assistance from other competitors in the area.

Handrails’ are linear features, which can be identified on the map and in the terrain and used to assist in navigating from one control point to another. These include paths, tracks, fences, powerlines, streams and clear vegetation boundaries, but can also be features such as lines or cliffs, ridges, and valleys or re-entrants.

Orienteering is a fun sport with a number of rules that keep competition and participation above board. On the whole, there’s not too much to remember other than the golden rule “Control points shall be visited in the correct sequence – no random control visits are allowed without pain of disqualification”.

Before attending your first orienteering event, look through this checklist to make sure you understand how events work – from registration, to the start line and getting your results after the event.

Orienteering is not only meant for the very fit and fast runner. It is planned so as to be open to and to be enjoyed by as many people as possible, with varying degrees of physical ability and from many walks of life. To facilitate this, orienteering events normally offer several different courses, which range in physical and technical difficulty.

Simply come to an event. Details of forthcoming events are available on this website, or on those of the various clubs. Orienteering is an outdoor adventure activity, which involves finding your way through unfamiliar terrain using a specially prepared map and your own common sense.