OMM Iceland - we survived!!

After deciding to enter OMM Iceland to raise money for The Lullaby Trust, Kat and I arrived at the start carrying all the borrowed kit we had been able to find, and with an injury preventing us from running. Not the ideal start to our first orienteering event! However, the sun was shining (unusual for Iceland) and so everything would be OK...

On arrival, the OMM team were incredibly welcoming, even letting us into their farmhouse and supplying tea. Camping on the first night was an experience, with icelandic weather showing us just what it can do: just waking up on Saturday with our tent still on the ground felt like an achievement!

Once we had packed our race bags and been taught how to use a camping stove, we were given our maps and 30 minutes to plan a route. The checkpoint locations were pretty novel: "volcano crater" and "side of hot spring" to name a few! As we knew our chances of doing well at the short score were pretty non existent, we decided we would make the most of being in Iceland and head straight for the volcano crater. On the other side of the map.

We soon discovered that lava fields and hills of ash are not the ingredients for speed, and also that locating checkpoints was not our strong point! It became clear once we had located the volcano that we would be really quite late for the short score first day finish. We messaged ahead to explain we were fine, but just having too much fun, and headed on our way. Again, the landscape changed dramatically into a river valley with blue-ish sandy slopes on either side.

Once through "the mud pits of doom" we made it back to the campsite a mere 45 minutes late - enough to take us into negative points for the day! However, the organisers took pity on us and moved us up to the medium score class where we sat firmly at the bottom of the rankings. Despite some plumbing problems leading to "a loo with a view", the campsite was nice: well sheltered with a lot of comraderie between the teams. A night of slightly less crazy weather was abruptly ended by the sound of "Jerusalem" blaring out of the OMM truck first thing in the morning! That was a particularly surreal experience...

For the second day, we were much more conservative with our route planning, and although disappointed to admit we weren't going to make it to the hot spring region, we headed out determined to at least do some orienteering. We found all the checkpoints we were aiming for that day (even if we did overshoot one!) and arrived back at the farmhouse way before we were expected. This came with the benefit of sheltering inside and welcoming the other teams across the line as they came in.

We were then all treated to some fantastic home-made chilli and flapjacks before the prizegiving. We were astounded at how many points some of the other teams had managed to get! To top of a great weekend, we all headed for the blue lagoon for some soaking in the natural hot waters. 

Doing the OMM Iceland was a fantastic experience, even for first timers, with the only downside being that we weren't fast enough to reach all the exciting checkpoints!
www.justgiving.com/RADCC2015