orienteering at steenbras dam

This month hasn't been too good for training. First I had a week off due to my back, and then I had 2 weeks off due to the flu. With that in mind, I knew I wouldn't be very strong today, so I was hopeing to just enjoy the race, and minimize the orienteering mistakes.

The terrain was very interesting, lots of small features all over the place, so the orienteering was pretty easy. The forest was also pretty runnable. I had a fairly clean run, but was very tired towards the end. I made one huge mistake at no 16, following the wrong stream upwards towards were I thought the control would be, and since the features in the area looked almost the same on the map, I spent too much time looking for the control. Once I discovered my mistake it was easy to find the control. I also skipped the last control, right at the end, and had too run back to it, before I could finish.

Steenbras dam is absolutely beautiful. It would make a wonderful place to hike, run and paddle. It's a pity it's not open to the public. I believe that all "nature reserves" or similar areas managed by government should be open to the public in one form or another. It's not fair to completely restrict all access to these areas.