Scottish Six Days 2019

 40 Years of the Scottish 6 Days

The Scottish 6 days – Half a lifetime of Orienteering!

It seems hardly credible that the Warren family have taken part in 20 Scottish 6 Days events, missing only Highland 77 which was before we really knew what the word ‘Orienteering ‘ meant! Encouraged by Mike and Cris Tween and the fact that we had got involved in organising JK79 in Devon, Barbara, Alison, Richard and I decided to spend our summer holiday in Scotland and include in it Trossachs 79 based on the aptly named ‘Drip Camp’ near Stirling.

It was a real baptism of fire for us all, particularly as the bracken was 7’ high and almost impenetrable. I achieved a remarkably long time of 170mins on M35S having to return to the Start to find a way to the Finish! Evidently we enjoyed it because we started to look for suitable accommodation for Galloway 81 as soon as we got home!

The ‘6 Days’ has moved round much of the Scottish mainland from Galloway in the south to Inverness and the Moray Firth in the north and from Royal Deeside in the east to the Oban area and the spectacular treeless mountainside overlooking Morar on the west coast with stunning views of islands of the Hebrides making it difficult to concentrate on navigation.

The regular pattern of 3 days of competition then a so called ‘rest day’ before the final 3 days has always been followed, but the idea of a ‘rest’ is not on most orienteers agenda when on holiday in Scotland. This year there was an urban race in Crieff, but usually you could find all the local mountains well patronised! Barbara and I climbed Lochnagar during one of the Deeside events meeting a stream of friends on the way and I had a similar experience on Ben Lawers.

As the event has attracted more and more competitors it puts pressure on the organisers and event facilities. This year we were fortunate to enjoy a complete week with no rain at the events and almost guaranteed sun every day so car parking wasn’t a problem. In Oban 2011 WIM were in charge of a somewhat ‘plastic’ car park on one of the days, but we managed to get everyone in and out with good humour, even though the access road was single track!

The biggest WIM and SWOA involvement was in 1999 when the World Champs and the 6 Days were integrated into one week. SWOA had been asked to man the World Champs Relays and Barbara and I got the job of being Race Day Organisers. I can’t recall how many WIMs were involved but it was well over 20 with WSX, SARUM, BOK, DEVON, KERNO and NGOC all involved. This brings in one of the main attractions of the multi-day events, the social side!

Over the years a tradition of a mid week tea party has developed, for many years it was run by Barbara and reaching its peak when it was held during the World Champs of 2015 when there were a roomful of WIMs glued to the television because for the first time BBC Scotland televised the event.

Revisit the Waffle account of  Highland 2015

WOC Relay at Nairn, 2015. Photo by Simon Branford - click for panoramic view.

At Grantown the tea party developed into a laundry session with hot showers being appreciated by some very damp campers. The tea party baton has now passed to Karen French who this year masterminded a great late afternoon event at their holiday chalet on the shores of Loch Earn into which several hardy WIMs ventured for a swim!

In the past there have also WIM midweek meals which were always well attended, one of the most notable being at Corpach near Fort William where a very youthful but efficient, Jo Pickering showed her developing management skills!

Assembly areas and race arenas can be a problem and this year days 1 and 2 had a 2.k walk from the car park which was no fun particularly if you were, like Alison and Andy, carrying the club tent and banner on day 1. In fairness, most of the other days were much closer.

What about the 2019 events? Well you can look at everyones courses and their progress on Route Gadget and also a European film crew covered many of the forest events. At this stage I could say,’Things weren’t like that in the old days with huge results teams trying to get up to date printed results on display boards in Assembly as fast a possible. Now they come up on iphones!

I find that after all these years my speed across the ground is much less and I hate walls and ladder crossing points! very testing despite the map being 1:7500. Once you were forced ‘off line’ stiles and stonewalls combined with marshes to make purposeful progress difficult. However the great thing about Orienteering is that it is technically challenging whatever your speed so to hit a control on target, as planned is just as satisfying as if I was running fast. This is why I like the idea of Penhale, Braunton and particularly the dunes on the Moray Firth where you can beat many people much faster than yourself by sheer cunning!!

Day 2 , beyond and above the west end of Loch Earn was characterised by a 2k walk each way to and from the start/finish uphill on the way out, and very definitely uphill on the approach to the ‘remote’ finish ( we had to download back in the car park). It also contained some ‘man-eating marshes! Karen and Andy's tea party was the highlight of the day before another 45 minute drive back to our accommodation in Aberfeldy.

Day 3 was ‘Middle Race’ on a 1;7500 map not far from St Fillans and even included a golf course in some of the EOD and junior races. A well contoured hill with crags and largely open, runnable woodland, BUT there were patches of severe windblown trees piled on top of each other. The ideal was to avoid them but the alternative was a large ‘man eating’ marsh!

Wednesday is ‘Rest Day’ but for most people its hardly a rest. There was a well attended urban race in a fairly hilly Crieff, but at most 6 Days you can find the local mountain tops populated by Orienteers. This year I really did take a day off driving west to Rannoch station in the heart of Rannoch Moor passing the sites of a least 3 previous 6 day event venues.

Back to competition on Thursday with a long drive to a venue SW of Perth. It looked as though we were going into a rolling farming area but true enough there was a ridge that was partly forested for our delight! Much of the map showed open land with about 30% wooded and as we rapidly discovered there were a lot of contours. Getting to the start was mostly across open grassland but if you had read the event details you knew that to get to the main start was a 120m climb up a grassy hillside. The lower start was mere 90m climb, but added the rest of the climb in a ferocious ascent through undergrowth immediately after the start triangle! Notable events during my course were an unpleasant ladder stile and being put off by some of the film crew lurking in the forest in a very technical area containing several controls!

Craig a Barns on Friday was in a way nostalgic, we having been there on several occasions, but it made no difference, because the event was located on the northern part of the area in one of the most spectacular arena/assembly/car park areas that you could wish for. On a shelf high above the valley of the Tay and the A9 road to Inverness, we occupied sloping fields with good access and huge views up the valley towards Pitlochry. The gentle slope gave a great downhill run in so club tents and banners formed a kaleidoscope of colour along the length of the arena. This year tents were mostly used to dump personal possessions, with everyone mostly being outside enjoying the superb weather. A lot of sun cream was used during the week and that’s an unusual thing for Scotland! My course had some ‘nice’ technical forest before we had to follow a taped route for 300m ending in a challenging vertical stile. After that it was pleasant rough open to the final control after which the downhill run in was a pleasure!

  

There are a lot of cars and minibuses associated with multi-day events and getting out of Day 5 via Dunkeld proved to be an epic traffic jam. It took exactly 60mins cover the 6 miles to the A9!

Day 6 was only 10mins from where we were staying so it was easy to get into the flat parking field. As you may have encountered it is sometimes quite a challenge to locate your vehicle amongst several hundred and this time I was on the end of a line of parked vehicles, right by a fence. No problem.

With the traders and download in the car park the arena was a short sharp climb onto a mostly grassy ledge above the valley, before you set off on the final 2k walk to the Starts which were adjacent to each other. A Middle distance race the terrain was positively relaxing, starting across modest semi open land with mild tussocks, then into an open, largely runnable wood gradually going downhill with easy gated crossings to approach the arena from above.

After the usual post competition de-brief (chat!!) many of us had to face up to a long drive home. I hear that Sue and David Hands made it back to Fordingbridge in a little over 8 hours. I on the other hand had only 200miles to go to Hawkshead in the Lake District.

Ignoring the results list, I have no hesitation to say that in my altered circumstances I really enjoyed Strathearn 2019 as much as any of the 20 previous 6 Days. Its a great experience both as a physical and mental achievement and in the range of friends and in my case family that you meet during the days. I even got an invitation to go Orienteering in western Norway next year. Now that’s a thought!!

John Warren

Read about other Scottish 6 Days at Deeside 2017, Highland 2015, Moray 2013, Oban 2011, Tay 2009 and Spey 2007.

Background photo of the Finish at Grandtully by Wendy Carlyle