Captain’s capers!

Our Club Captain Sally Calland tells of her winter orienteering adventures

I have been lucky enough to venture to Madeira, Portugal and Spain over the cold UK winter months and managed to squeeze in some orienteering. Sal has already covered POM, so I won’t include it in my report. That said, I had the best POM ever and on some very technical sand dunes.

Madeira Orienteering Festival

My first trip was to Madeira to compete in the Madeira Orienteering Festival (MOF), which included the second Euro City race of the year. First up was a night event in Machico. It was a soggy night, but I was lucky to start in a brief dry spell! Those that know me know I dislike starting in the rain!

The course was fast and furious and I slipped on my way to 2 as it was wet and slippery so was extra careful for the rest of the downhill. My only blunder was 4–5. I went south, which cost me around 15 secs, but did avoid any more falls!

Day 2 was into the famous Fanal forest. The Star Wars series The Acolyte (2024) was filmed there and it did not disappoint. The fog was manageable, the technical O challenge not so much!! Controls 3–8 were particularly tricky and, like most, I found myself circling somewhat! You also needed to keep your head and compass bearing in the open and the climb kept me slow!

Day 3 was the Euro City Race event and what a race. It was a mass start, starting on a small park platform. Ordinarily, I don’t fair too well on mass starts, but just look at where control 1 was! What would you do?

It certainly opened up the pack and allowed me to focus with what felt like millions of others running around frantically!

Controls 2–10 were close and formed two butterfly loops. I almost missed 10, but just stopped myself before MPing.

The best was yet to come with controls 14–25 being incredibly tricky, hilly and required complete focus. It was an absolutely fantastic course, in my top 5 ever (my most favourite was the tunnels in Poland!).

I came in just 5 seconds behind the leader after a stupid mistake going to 27.

You will notice that some of the control numbers were out ‘on a limb’ or red line. They did this to avoid too much congestion on the map. I liked it, but others thought it was more tricky.

The final day was out on the NE peninsula of Madeira, an area called Prainha. Many of the Brits I had spoken to didn’t particularly like the area. I loved it! Very different and the scenery was sensational, when I had the chance to look up! The finish was below almost on the beach and so an obligatory run into the sea was completed!! I was lucky enough to win the event with a consistent 2nd place across all the urban races.

The MOF event takes place every year and is well worth a visit. Aside from the orienteering, the scenery around the island was truly amazing.

Malaga Orienteering Sprint Camp

Malaga Orienteering Sprint Camp (MOSC) – 7 sprints, 3 forest trainings, 1 mixed relay and a WRE event!

After POM I travelled directly to Malaga to join day 3 of MOSC (POM, MOSC, Maximus, Antalya O Festival and many other events overlap this time of year, something I think the European clubs could try to avoid a little better).

I had seen day 1 and 2 maps and was extremely jealous to have missed the first two days. One event saw competitors orienteering through an old, historical graveyard. The map was enlarged for the graveyard:

All events were urban sprint events, but forest training sessions were also available in the afternoons. With my plantar fasciitis still playing up, I had decided just to do the sprints.

The stand out event was Almogia Village. Below is the map and a photo of the village!

What would you do to 9 and then 14? I think I went the wrong way to both!

The final day was the WRE Event in the Old Town of Marbella.  A great race which saw me second by 2 seconds and only 1 second ahead of third.