I think I left the story at the sorry news of the Flip camera's demise and the sprint qualifier being the following day. First of all, with Alex's and Philip's help I fixed the little camera. I worked out how to take the battery out, put a couple of lithium batteries in for a few minutes, which managed to wake the little thing up, then took them out, put its own battery pack back and it worked. I fully charged it over 6-7 hours and now will keep an eye on it never to totally discharge, which probably was the problem in the first place, as I didn't use it for 8 months. This cheered me up no end, but back to the news of the races. By the way, I will scan and, publish and commentate on my maps in the next post, otherwise this one would end up incredibly long.
Well, qualifier one was in the central part of Pecs where I have never run on before. Because of the horrendous heat and humidity, you may recall I gave up on doing too much walking about on Thursday and thus missed one vital part of detail that would have helped me on race day. Philip did mutter about some hole through the town wall, but he was not specific enough and on Saturday I ended up looking for it in the wrong place. As a consequence, I missed the A final by 2 places, but at least ended up 6th in the B final. Latter being in Komlo, where I have run before, that was not too stressful, but the heat was getting pretty unbearable by then. On the way back from Komlo we went to the Long Model Event, which was a run of the mill Mecsek bit of wood.
On the first rest day we drove out to Mare Vara, which was a very pretty castle ruin with some recent history thrown in. We met another Brit there, totally by fluke as he was one of Philip's friends and the car park was in the middle of a dense forest. Even Roy managed to climb up the 45 degree mountainside and the views were gorgeous. The recent history involved a couple of 1956 martyrs who were shot dead there by the Russians. Sad story, but not unusual for those times.
Then started the two long qualifiers, first one near a uranium mine, now closed and its buildings and general surface signs obliterated, the terrain recultivated. The weather was getting well above 30 degrees Celsius and the forest was pretty rough. Apparently the locals have planned much shorter courses, but the Norwegian IOF Advisor made them lengthen them. If that's true, I think he was wrong. July in Southern Hungary is almost always horrendously hot and there was no need for this, as the courses were now too long and too physical in the high heat. I managed 13th and was reasonably pleased with my performance, considering my physical state. I did make a few stupid errors, but wrote those down to the heat as well.
Next day we gave up the car as assembly was 5 minutes down the road, but with my start time well after 1pm and the heatwave increasing the physical demands on everyone, I was flagging considerably. We had the first experience of the karst with biggish dolinas and as visibility was not at a premium I spent some time looking for quite a few of them. I still managed 16th on the day and 13th overall, so all was well.
As on the second rest day temperatures were approaching the high 30's Celsius we opted for going to the swimming pool, which was a fantastic decision. About 15 minutes from our lovely little log cabin, in the next village, there was a swimming pool complex based on thermal waters and in the process of being developed with EU money into a medicinal centre. While they are building it they were still open with all the existing facilities and we had a fantastic day. Even Roy, who usually gets thoroughly fed up with swimming pools in about 1 hour, happily soaked, lazed and snoozed for over 5 hours. The natural environment, the terraced park round it, the pleasant lukewarm water in the pool and in several others with ever increasing temperatures was positively soothing. On top of all its pleasures it was also very cheap, which is never an unimportant aspect with Roy. :-)
And so we came to the final day. No car again, as the buses started from just down the road and the event was right above us half way up the mountain. The temperatures were in the high 30's again, but the real hardship, as far as I was concerned, was the equally high humidity. My course was 4300 metres with 190 metres of climb, which proves that our friend the IOF Advisor was tending towards sadism. The first aid men were kept busy all the time with faints and other general ailments affecting even young people on days like that, never mind elderly orienteers. I made one mistake which cost me quite a few minutes, otherwise I plodded round extremely slowly and ended up 63rd in the A final. Without the mistake it would have been around 50, which was the maximum I expected based on my condition and the high heat/humidity. Thankfully, the forest was beautiful with no or very little undergrowth and large dolinas requiring nifty navigation. If only I could really enjoy it, which was not quite possible in the conditions. I will have to go to the Mecsek Kupa next year, which is always in April, so heatwaves are rare.
We came home on Friday night and then the hassle started. On entering the flat I could smell something foul. When we tried to turn on the light it didn't work. Then we discovered that something had triggered one of the circuit breakers which in turn tripped the main switch on the meter. From the mess we found in and around the fridge/freezer this must have happened soon after we left over a week ago. Instead of the planned relax before dinner and bed, we then proceeded to spend the next 3 hours scrubbing the fridge and the floor and the rest of the kitchen to some semblance of cleanliness and stinklessness. It is still slightly smelly in the fridge but Alex and several others advised to use bicarbonate of soda to remove the smell, which we will do later on today after our guests have left. I will also ring my insurance man to enquire if the contents of the fridge/freezer are covered in our house insurance, as there was at least £30 worth of fillet steak, a large bag of King prawns and other goodies in there.
Saturday was spent running in the Budasprint, which uses a 1:4000 map of the Castle District and that was fun. It was still horrendously hot, but it was a dry heat, which I was beginning to get used to. Ruth and Ian arrived very late, but the event was waiting for them, which was nice. Ian and I were second in our classes, Philip was 8th in his and Nick Barrable won his. Later in the evening Sarah-Jane arrived so we had a full house on Saturday night. Still at the event in early afternoon we said good-bye to Philip who went to the airport straight from there. I then booked a table in our local restaurant for 5 and had a good meal there with Ian, Ruth and Nick.
The following morning Nick and Sarah-Jane departed for the 6 days of Austria based around Wiener Neustadt and the rest of us had a marvellous, if somewhat hot, day travelling by the Pioneers' Railway in the Buda Hills, then down on the cogwheel railway and back to the car by tram. In the evening we went to the Paprika by the park where all of us, (including me) had a fantastic meal which turned out to be Ruth's treat, which was lovely. The Paprika has a weird, but fun decor, which you either love or hate, but the food is always good. This morning Ruth and Ian went to Margaret Island by public transport and have just this minute left with Roy to catch their plane.
The photographs from top to bottom:
The old mosque (now a converted catholic church) in the centre of Pecs
Philip in the same square
The two Philips on top of the castle ruin at Mare Vara
Roy climbing the mountain to the castle ruin
The big lake at Orfu in the Mecsek
Ruth in the carriage on the Pioneers' Railway
Ruth and Ian at the restaurantwhere we had lunch in the Buda hills
Happy diners (not us) in the Paprika
After this marathon length post I take my leave and will be back with the scanned maps next.
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