Look at the state of my shoes!

This was me... or at least my shoes, earlier this evening on my return from orienteering. Lucie and I went to the Torstairastit (Thursday orienteering) with Liisa Kortelainen and her boyfriend Jukka. As usual we stuck to the easiest course which is only 2km long, but this evening it was quite hilly so it was still quite challenging.

Last week we got so badly lost that we took 24 minutes to find the first point and ended running at least four kilometres on a two kilometre course! (The quickest people had finished the entire course in less time than this).

 This week though, we were determined to do better and we took great care to make sure that we really studied the map properly to avoid getting lost. Everything was going well until the very last point when we were running to the end, and I managed to completely envelope my feet into a pile of cow dung that was at least 30 centimetres deep. Lovely.

Poor Liisa and her boyfriend had given us a lift to the event and so they had to put up with the smell of my shoes all the way home.  I doubt they will ever offer me a lift again.

Still, as usual it was good fun.  Orienteering is a completely new hobby for me, but it combines sport, nature, teamwork and having fun with friends all at the same time, so I have fallen in love with it and we now try and go every week. I am getting better at map-reading and my fitness is improving (slowly) but I am afraid my shoes are not too happy with my performance.

Next week on 9th June there will be another kind of orienteering round Somero which will not involve stepping in cow poo. It is open to people of any age and involves all sorts of activities...I'll let you know more about this in the next couple of days. Keep your eyes open for more details of the first ever Somero Seikkailu!