ORIENTEERING WA hosted 20 schoolchildren from around the state on a three-day junior camp late last month.

The camp was held at the Swan Valley Adventure Centre in Middle Swan and run by new camp coordinator Riley McFarlane under the watchful eye of mentor Rob West.

Orienteering WA promotions officer Helen Post said activities included a team-based, four-part sprint orienteering course, an exercise called ‘o-craft’ where participants used their orienteering skills to gather and ‘mine’ resources as in the Minecraft video game, and a quiz night.

“There was also a ‘night-o’ activity set by Jiri and Veronika where a 10x10 metre square grid of 16 controls was placed on the hillside adjacent to the pool,” Ms Post said.

“The blank white map included a line course and participants had to orientate their maps based on the direction of the grid, not true north.”

On day two, everyone headed to Yetar Springs near Mundaring where participants were shadowed on a harder course before completing their own courses.

There followed a review of the camp’s activities and courses to learn from any mistakes.

On the final day after breakfast a biathlon sprint orienteering relay was followed by morning tea and an official announcement by WA schools’ orienteering team manager Tom Brownlie.

Thanks go to Riley and Sharon McFarlane, Janet Fletcher, Rachel, and Rob and Lois West for doing the majority of the booking and helping with the paperwork,” Ms Post said.

“Big thanks also to coaches Jiri Vales, Veronika Kubinova, Mark Lommers, Nick Dale, John Toomey, Sten Claessens, Tom Brownlie, Ekaterina Klyukina and Anthea Feaver for coaching the kids as well as setting up and packing away training activities.”