Mid-Argylls scouts go orienteering at Tarbert Castle

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Eleven Mid Argyll scouts aged 10-12 joined Suse, John and Ross for a training event at Tarbert Castle on Saturday 10th July 2023. The location offered a nice open area for the initial skills sessions, as well as views of Tarbert Harbour in the sunshine.

Most were complete beginners but some had attended earlier sessions. As you'd expect, some grasped the ideas easily and some found them a bit mysterious, so we had allowed for some to whizz through the basics while others could spend more time getting the hang of it.

We began with 3 basic skills exercises:

Coloured cone exercise to learn to set the map and turn the map as we change direction

Coded coloured cones to be found in sequence, again keeping the map set as we change direction

Matching map symbols to control descriptions

After a water and sun cream break we progressed to single star exercises, short and long, followed by two point star exercises. It was encouraging to see how they all gained confidence and speed with practice.

Following another water and sun cream break, we divided into 3 teams for a flag relay. The first runner took their coloured flag to the first control, returned and passed the map to the second runner who went to the first control and took the flag to the second control, then returned to pass the map to the third runner, and so on.

Ross and John were able to shadow the less confident to ensure success and there was great excitement as the first two teams changed places several times on the last four legs.

Congratulations to the yellow team who took a little over 17 minutes to win by just a few seconds.

The remainder of the session was taken up by some adventurous solo runs and a some partnered runs round the whole course.

We congratulate every single one of them for their enthusiasm and willingness to learn. They were a pleasure to coach. Keep up the good work guys and we hope to see you again at some of our local events in the autumn.

My thanks to Ross and John for coaching support and to Ali and Sarah for management support.

S M Coon