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El Pedroso


Before heading to Morocco, Eric had been keen to take in an orienteering event in Spain.  El Pedroso a small town in the hills just north of Seville was the venue for the Iberian Championships.  The town was very small, just a few thousand residents plus 1000 visiting orienteers mainly from Spain and Portugal with a small number from other parts of Europe.


For the event the town opened its sports hall and a camp for many competitors.  We got lucky managing to find accommodation in a lovely rustic farmhouse (with pool) about 5km out of town.  It was a great way to enjoy some of the Spanish countryside.


The venue for the first (middle on Saturday morning) and third (long on Sunday morning) races was alongside a large dam.  The forest was nice - fairly open but steep and with lots of rocks.  In fact the rocks and landform were quite similar to some parts of Australia, excepting the vegetation of course.  The weather was very hot which made for tough going.

The sprint was on Saturday evening around the narrow and twisting streets in the village.
Sam in the finish of the Sprint

Eric had a mixed weekend suffering both from a bad cold and bad navigation (in the middle race) but did manage to win the sprint.  Samuel found the events quite challenging - the course for his age group was more difficult than in Australia but he did persist to get round all three courses (unfortunately he did miss one control on one race).

Being the only orienteers from outside Europe made us minor celebrities at the event.  Eric was interviewed twice after his races.  It at least gave us a chance to thank the organisers for putting on such a good event.
Eric interviewed after the long race










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