Stonebarrow Hill
Young navigators at large on Friday 1st & Saturday 2nd December
Stonebarrow Permanent Orienteering Course was established in 2015 as a joint project by Wimborne Orienteers and the National Trust. It has since been explored by people of all ages - National Trust groups, school and youth groups, scouts, club orienteers, families and individuals. Last Friday and Saturday were a busy couple of days.
On Friday Di Tilsley assisted by John led a coaching session for pupils from Sunninghill School, Dorchester. After the teaching input they were sent in small groups on the Wildflower Trail, a 1.8 km course taking them along the ridge, down through the meadows and back up to the ridge again. All completed the course and returned in good time!
The trail uses ten of the permanent course markers. It's Yellow technical standard but has 75m of climb, so plenty to get the corpuscles moving! The views from the ridge east towards Golden Cap and across Lyme Bay are magnificent, and the meadows are alive with wildflowers and insects in spring and summer.
The Wildflower Trail - click for pdf
Photographs below by Sunninghill School staff
On Saturday Scouts from Bridport, West Bay and Charmouth first had a teaching session and short map walk with Mike Kite. They then worked in pairs and threes to tackle as many as they wanted of 4 loops, all reversible so in effect 8 courses. They were Yellow/Orange technically ranging from 1.3 to 1.7 km, but different in climb and character. SI kit was used, supplementing POC markers to add variation while keeping people mainly on the ridge. Mary ran the IT side.
Everyone completed 3 courses, most did 4 (with a lunch break in the middle) and one group reversed an earlier course to do 5. Fastest times ranged from 11 min 13 sec on the shortest course to 22 min 23 sec on the longest. One of the slow times would have been much improved had the intrepid explorers not stopped to play leapfrog and swing on a tree! However, a marvellous time was had by all!
The Scout activities occupied over 2 hours and their enthusiasm was undiminished at the end (though their energy levels were wobbling a bit!). It illustrates how just 20 controls can provide enormous fun with surprisingly varied route decisions in quite a small area.
Mike Kite
Photographs below by Mike & Mary Kite and Daniel Cantrell (Scout Leader)
SI controls for 4 courses
Course 1 - 190, 178, 177, 175, 172, 189, 171, 174, 183. Reverse for course 5.
Course 2 - 190, 185, 178, 184, 173, 172, 171, 174, 183. Reverse for course 6.
Course 3 - 190, 185, 186, 176, 180, 182, 179, 178, 184, 183. Reverse for course 7.
Course 4 - 190, 186, 180, 181, 188, 187, 182, 179, 178, 183. Reverse for course 8.
Slideshow
Background: Looking east from Stonebarrow towards Langdon Hill and Golden Cap