The inaugural NavChallenge was held on 5th February '11 at the Oak Lane Cottages.  Described more as a Navigation event, rather than Orienteering (due to the scale of the maps used), the concpet is simple: you have 3 hours to get to as many checkpoints as possible, earning points at each one.

Depending on the difficulty and distance to get to the chekpoint they were allocated a different amount of points.  After the 3hour mark, your points are deducted at an increasing pace.  So it's no use trying to get the last 10 points, when you'll lose 20 in the 5minutes it will take to get back.

Teams of two chose to either run or ride the course, with slightly different point systems, but all aiming to reach 200.

The organiser, Jody Baumgarten, had aimed the event at first timers as well as navigational pro's, so the checkpoints weren't too hard to locate once you were within a few metres, but the distances were far enough that only 1 team managed to collect all points.

Mike and I took up the challenge on our bikes.  Having never competed together in an event of this sort, we were a bit nervous as to how we would work together.  The first 2 checkpoints we found happily.  But on the way to the 3rd, I started having a bit of an issue with our directional skills.  After the 4th point I told Mike he could navigate the rest of the way, while i just hung onto his back wheel, holding my tongue and hoping he knew where we were going.

Luckily we do both know the area pretty well, so we managed to get through it without totally biting at each other.  Though we did need a bit of cooling off period once we'd finished.  My suggestion that he and I one day ride Epic together was out of the question!

Any angst we may have felt was quickly subdued at prize giving, however, when we won the Riders Mixed team category, followed by a lucky draw prize each!

There were two big gains for the day:

1. Being sponsored by Glider Eyewear, all particpants received a free pair of sunnies in the goody bag we received at the finish.  Very cool 
2. The money raised from the event and team sponsorships went towards Fran Venter's mission of raising R100,000 to run the London Marathon.  She had a Charity entry for the marathon, for which she had to raise that money for a charity of her choice: MaAfrika Tikkun

It was a fabulous day out, well organised and a great bunch of people taking part.

A few of us stayed in Elgin that night an went riding the next day in Oak Valley.  Good times!