orienteering at jonkershoek

What can I say? I'm really unfit, and there were some steep climbs, my legs are tired and hurting a bit.

I've never really needed a proper compass while orienteering, because the terrain in Gauteng and Mpumalanga has pretty good visibility, you can usually recognise features from a distance. I've been using a Suunto Clipper just to make sure I'm pointing the map in the right direction, but I never run using a compass, I use the map and the features in stead.

The terrain at Jonkershoek is fantastic. It is really complicated, compared to what I'm used to. Visibility is not so good, which makes it challenging. I really enjoyed it. But, I'll have to get a proper compass, because I made huge navigational errors, and probably the worse route choices ever (except perhaps for a 12km detour in a adventure race once, a long time ago).

The map with my route is below, but some highlights include, no 6 to 7, brown is not bushveld, it's fynbos and thorns, avoid brown terrain. no 9 to 10 to 11 to 12, get a compass. no 15 to 16, climbing even bigger hills when you're tired is not going to help at all, at least I got a really nice view from up there. no 17 to 18, sometimes the detour around the green stuff is not worth it. no 19 to 20, I really thought I could go through the brown stuff (again), I even tried pushing through a few times, but the thorns won, and I had to go around...

Final note: after typing out this report, and studying the map some more, I realised that the map uses 10m contours, and not the usual 5m. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.