By: Blonde Two
Being an Ordnance Survey Get Outside Champion is good fun, not only do you get to meet lovely people and visit lovely places, but you also get given lots of really fun orange kit to wear.
Whilst we were up on Dartmoor with our Ten Tors teams this weekend, Blonde One and I fancied doing a bit of Get Outside posing in our champion outfits. We both dutifully packed our orange t-shirts with plans to take a couple of, ‘Look everybody, here is our wild camp!’ photos; but there was a problem, it was so chilly that there was no way we were going to take any layers off. I ended up sleeping in every piece of clothing that I had with me.
But we had (via Blonde telepathy) had both packed another piece of Ordnance Survey kit, our orange beanies. These not only kept us warm(ish) in bed but served another very useful purpose. On Saturday, we let our 35 mile team have their first real taste of independence which meant that we sent them off on navigation legs on their own and arranged to meet them at known locations. We have mentioned before that orange is by far the best colour to spot out on Dartmoor, and the youngsters soon discovered this fact. Blonde One had told them to look out for my orange hat, and sure enough, they said that they could spot it a long way off. This led to a day of Blonde phrases such as, “Can you stand here and be orange.”, “Come and wave your orange at them.” and “You be orange, I will go and look for them.”
The picture below shows me demonstrating how to wear orange whilst waiting for a team in a very cold place (Little Hound Tor).
Looks snuggly. Remember sleeping in my shoes and all my clothes, including waterproofs, on Ten Tors. Pussers black leather number two shoes. They were the result of a moment of panic before the start that my boots were so heavy I might not manage the mileage in them, whereas my heavy shoes were well-marched in and much lighter! It blew a terrific gale but we slept – – –