If you’d like to learn more about orienteering or simply test your knowledge then here’s a few more resources that other clubs have produced…..

Scottish Orienteering have produced a longer jargon buster than ours. You can read this online at http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/soa/page/a-z-jargon-buster It can also be downloaded as a PDF here http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/documents/general/jargonbuster.pdf

British Orienteering, the sport’s governing body, has a similar A-Z jargon buster which can be viewed at http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/page/orienteering_jargon Also on their website is a useful Newcomer’s Guide which covers some things in more detail, along with pictures, hints and links to suppliers of dibbers, compasses etc http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/page/newcomers_guide.

Mole Valley Orienteers have produced an extensive jargon buster, on which many others are based. It is long and we think there’s probably only a select elite few who would know everything on here - as the last entry says: “Zzzz - Noise likely to be made by someone attempting to read this entire web page in one go!” It is a good resource for those with an eye for the finer details though. http://www.mvoc.org/Jargon_Buster.htm

If you’ve got a specific practical question, whilst waiting to ask another HALO member you might find the answer amongst Newcastle and Tyneside Orienteering’s list of FAQs http://www.newcastleorienteering.org.uk/ofaq.php?PHPSESSID=750335f2c4a05716b8c888d080e34481

If you want to know more about what an orienteering event is like, you might want to watch this short ‘Orienteering for Beginners’ video (5minutes 14 seconds) from Southdowns Orienteers which follows a junior called Alex around a course https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OZOI9kKuA4I

North Gloucestershire Orienteering Club’s website has a good article called ‘Getting Started in O’ which also has some FAQs on it http://www.ngocweb.com/wpngoc-dv/about-orienteering/getting-started/

North Gloucestershire Orienteering Club’s website also has pages listing both map symbols http://www.ngocweb.com/wpngoc-dv/wp-content/uploads/mapsymbols.jpg and control descriptions http://www.ngocweb.com/wpngoc-dv/wp-content/uploads/controldescriptions.jpg These are things we all need reminding of occasionally, and they can be saved and printed as reminders to carry with you if you wish.

The more orienteering you do the more confident you’ll become, and if you want to test yourself on map symbols and control descriptions there’s a great quiz at http://www.maprunner.co.uk/cd/ courtesy of maprunner. You can also download official charts of different map symbols and control descriptions on the same website http://www.maprunner.co.uk/

Above all, when you’ve ploughed through whichever of these takes your fancy, ENJOY…..