We started off at 6h45am yesterday morning. We were dropped off in a small village and followed a trail to Indian forest where we were going to swing through trees at various heights for 2hours. It was an awesome activity we all discovered thrills and some their various fears! The higher you go, the more physical the courses were, and of course, the scarier for those who don't really handle the stress of heights well.

From there it was a 3kms hike back into town for lunch, and a digestive hike back to the park to start our afternoon orienteering race.

I have zero sense of orientation, and it doesn't seem to be improving with age! We basically had a map, and at each check point there were clues, but instead of helping us they seemed to confuse us even more. We covered good ground though and after 1h35 made it back to the start with our card almost full.

Rugby first!


Our next and most awaited venture was to orienteer ourselves by night to the farm we were going to sleep in knowing we had a checkpoint at the halfway point. We started at 6h13pm in pouring rain and made the checkpoint with in 30 minutes. From there we attempted a few shortcuts, traversed some very damp fields and made one river crossing before finally making it to the farm. The local farmers had us taste their wine, which after the day we spent was quite good!

Bedtime!


Most of the boys really wanted to let loose and decompress before the serious work loads start, so a little drinking was done and our guitar playing mechanic got the action going until 3-4 am for some. At about 3am I had to get up and find a pee spot outside...it wasn't until I came back into the hay storage barn we were all sleeping in that I realized how much noise was going on! There was a full on concert with altos, sopranos, chainsaws, electric saws, all going at once and even at times in harmony! A few were talking in their sleep, there was even an occasional moo, and it wasn't coming from a cow! From 3h20 to 6h45 this morning I couldn't get back to sleep...the pleasure of listening to such a concert kept me awake!

This afternoon we're back on the bikes with new positions for some and a bit of excess to sweat out...though some was spewed out on the drive home this morning!

Cheers and thanks for reading,
Marion

Early morning prep: