This Valentines weekend Wessex O.C. were sufficiently disorientated to move their Dorset Delight event for 2012 into the black waters of Dames Slough Inclosure located in the New Forest and in Hampshire. It gets confusing don’t it? Let me explain, if only to clarify in my own mind where I have been. The river Blackwater courses through Dames Slough Inclosure. You get to it by avoiding the temptations of the Burley Tea Rooms and the Witches Covern and even the Red Lion to arrive at Anderwood Car Park, scene of many a tryst.
The advice was to get there early or be forced to park some two kilometres away but closer to the aforementioned temptations in Burley. A minibus service would be provided for those not persuaded to give up the sensible habit of a leisurely Sunday morning with Andrew Marr or the newspapers. As it happened most were accommodated at Anderwood and I could have rejected Richard Brightman’s exhortations to get up before dawn in order to share his transport. It’s true however we would not have been so strategically placed by the toilets if we had arrived later. Well, it gets to be a consideration when you enter M70!
It was one of the colder Sunday mornings this year and remnants of snow from the previous week remained. As an aside a known colour blind orienteer made the comment that it was going to be difficult for him to locate the flags as he relied on the white section of the flag more than the orange. In the event he had a storming run and proved that navigating to the feature and not the flag is primary.
Start and finish were both close to the car park but most were sensible enough to be well wrapped especially those on the blue course who had a longish queue to arrive at the start line. I had chosen to run Short Blue which was my norm over the last few years but now in M70 I am permitted the luxury of Green. No doubt I will soon see the folly of this and join my green friends.
Whatever course you run Black Water has almost everything except “climb”. We don’t mind that and with the help of numerous line features: paths, streams, earthbanks, ditches, fences there is a lot to aid the navigation. Underfoot the forest is generally kind but the aforementioned Slough, pronounced “sluff” meaning bog or mire, had a surface of ice and so it was rather like attacking a huge Crème Caramel. You soon broke through and were rewarded with a shoe full of cold icy water. The cold lasted for about thirty seconds but it was not long before you encountered another “slough” and repeated the process.
The course was well planned with straight line routes, using compass bearings, and ticking off features generally being quicker than the safer routes following line features. There were one or two inconsistencies of detail on the map which caused some confusion but that said it was a great day out and a delight for so many of us from Wimborne to be the guests of Wessex OC.
Keith Henderson
See Results and Routegadget