orienteering at jonkershoek

I always enjoy racing at Jonkershoek because the terrain is so tricky at places. There are so many rocks and builders, and the terrain is so different from one part of the map to the next, it's always interesting, and very scenic. My course was very nice and enjoyable today. A nice mix of easy and hard, and not too much climb (290m). I also saw another huge gray owl at one of my controls again.

On to the race, I made a few mistakes today, too high at no 4, and then spent some time going up and down looking for it, eventually relocated to the water reservoir and found it from there. Then missed no 7 by about 20 meters. Was right at no 8 a few times, just couldn't pinpoint the exact builder, so was all over the place. Ran a little hard for no 9, hoping the rough open would catch me, but went right over it without noticing. Then no 12 was similar to no 8, I was at the right spot, just couldn't identify the boulder. Also had a nice face plant between no 17 and 18...

So not a perfect race, but it was nice making mistakes and learning again, after my last two races that went so well. I think I'm also getting a little fitter. The hills didn't feel like a total punishment (except no 12), and I felt fairly good for most of the race. I even managed to keep up with Richard on the last 2 controls.