Hi!
At the top edge of my pages it says: "for freaks mainly". That hasn't held true very much, so I think I have to correct the situation. This came up to my mind on Monday when I was checking my old maps from years 1985-1995. I check those up often to get some amusement. In fact, I found Tuesday's training map from Nahkakallio in one of the folders and was surprised that how in the hell I haven't used that pearl earlier. Since it's located only 30km from my homeplace, it's very close. The same distance from home in Jyväskylä region would be something like 5km. In Finnish Lapland that "mental distance" would be maybe 100km...
In that Tuesday's training I had a groovy feeling, because when I was running on road to the start I could follow the map pretty easily. But when I went to the forest I was instantly lost. Totally the training consisted of 18 controls, and I can say for sure that I visited 4-5 of them correctly ;-). Despite of good planning of the training I wasn't sure that I am in the right terrain...
Then some more stories from the old folders:
Hollanti: This may be a map from a regional event back in 1993 in Kannus. Unfortunately the course planning wasn't perfect since only the first control was on fine area and of course the whole 1st leg was spectacular. I can understand that even then (20yrs ago) children's start could not be far from the competition center, but I must say a 13-year-old was already a bit jealous that we didn't reach those beautiful areas in the western part of the map...
Pello: This was my first night-orienteering and since it was organized in Pello, we had to drive some 320km for this great competition. Temperature was couple of degrees minus and the forest wet. But it was worth it: look at the perfect course and how beautiful terrain, aaahhh!
Perukka: I wouldn't like to be too proud of my home county, but we know how to do things as well! Vihanti's Perukka situates only 10km from my home in Lampinsaari and still has remained totally unused during the last years. As was the case with the two earlier examples, this one was also organized most probably in 1993. In my opinion, the course planning on this course is pretty much perfect, since this incredibly detailed area in north-west would have been too difficult for the b-course...
Next time some real news. Maybe ;-).