Blean KOL

Location

Nearest town: Faversham

• Grid Ref:
• Postcode: ME13 9TX
• Latitude: 51.30133
• Longitude: 0.95880
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Directions / Parking

Parking is at Mount Ephraim Gardens, Staple Street, Faversham, ME13-9TX.
Access to the car park is via Church Hill.
Mount Ephraim is signposted from nearby major roads (including the A299 close to the junction with the M2) . The approach lanes are narrow, so please drive carefully and watch out for horses, walkers etc.

Public Transport options

Railway stations: Faversham 5km, Canterbury 9km

Registration & Start Times

Registration from 10:30 to 12:00

Start times from 11:00 to 12:30

Courses close 14:00

There is a 1km walk from Registration to the Start – Follow the tapes. Clothing dump available close to Start / Finish.
The walk to the start is mainly through orchards and grounds of Mount Ephraim. There is a short section of road to follow. The road is narrow and has no
footpath, though the traffic flow is low and visibility is good. The road will not be marshalled; parents are responsible for accompanying their children to and
from the start.
 

Course Information

Five courses available:

Yellow. Controls (checkpoints) are very easy to find, mostly on main paths, ideal for younger children and complete beginners. 

Orange. Moderate, controls are on or near paths with more route choice. Good for progressing juniors and beginner adults who are reasonably confident reading a map. 

Light Green: Harder. Controls away from paths giving more challenging navigation. For those with some experience. 

Short Blue. As technically hard as we can make it, for experienced orienteers. 

Score. No set distance, but a 60 minute time limit and a possible total of 20 controls. Find as many controls as possible in the hour. Good for adult beginners, those progressing from orange to light green, and those that want to be back in a set time.

 

Course	Length	Climb
Yellow	1.9 k	50 m
Orange	2.9 k	95 m
Light green	3.7 k	120 m
Short blue	5.1 k	190 m

Explanation of colour courses

• White are very easy with all controls on paths. They are mainly used by 6-10 year olds and family groups.
• Yellow use simple linear features like paths, walls and streams. They are mainly used by under 12’s and family groups.
• Orange progress to basic use of the compass and route choice. They are ideal for novice adults or experienced youngsters.
• Light Green are ideal for improvers as the navigational difficulty begins to increase and uses simple contours and point features.
• Green are used mostly by experienced under 18’s and adults wanting a short but challenging course with a very hard navigational difficulty.
• Blue are a longer, more physically demanding course in comparison to the green. The distances are more varied between controls and the course attracts experienced orienteers.
• Brown & Black are very physically demanding and have a very hard navigational difficulty. They are for experienced orienteers only.
• Score means visiting as many controls as possible in any order in a specific time, like 45mins.

Entry Details

Entry on the day.

Adults: £5 (members of an orienteering club) £7 (non members)

Juniors: £3 (members of an orienteering club) £5 (non members)

Groups: £10 (club members and non members), includes 1 dibber hire.

This price includes loan of electronic timing equipment (aka dibber) if required, and a waterproof map per competitor (yours to keep after the event). Dibbers are expensive and a £35 charge will be due if the dibber is lost.

Juniors can be registered separately, compete in a group containing at least one adult, or be ‘shadowed’. Shadowing is explained below.

Juniors and Shadowing:

Whilst many juniors will initially complete a course as part of a group, some juniors may want to progress to be able to run on their own. We understand that many parents/guardians will want to ensure their child’s safety by completing the course with them, or following a short distance behind. We call this ‘shadowing’ and there is more information here. Parents shadowing juniors will be given an extra map at no charge. The entry fee will be the junior entry fee. Alternatively, juniors are also welcome to compete in twos or threes, and will be entered individually.

Terrain Description

Blean Wood has a small stream valley surrounded by lovely runnable woodland with interesting depressions and platforms. On the hill there are some rhododendron clumps which can make route choice interesting.

Facilities

Toilets available at Mount Ephraim Gardens

Coffee, tea, biscuits available at registration with honesty box.

 

Prior to the race there will be a mini-training for Juniors starting at 10am sharp.This will take place adjacent to the parking area and is for juniors at Yellow or
Orange standard. Please email Jean Fitzgerald if you’d like to take part.

Contacts / Officials

Planner/organiser : Brendon Howe mailto:

Planner/organiser : Alison Howe