After 4 days of training in France, we are slowly building
our confidence in the French terrain. The
forest is beautiful, very green and full of berries, but very technical with
lots of rock and contour detail. The villages for sprint training have complex
old towns and busy fresh produce markets to make spotting passageways (and
sprinting) difficult. For the training camp are based in the small town of
Arith, 800m above sea level, which is close the maps, mountains and is covered
in snow in winter. At the moment it is green rolling hills, wildflowers and
quaint old buildings.
As it is only one week out from WOC we have been taking it
easy, except for Wendy and Rob who have spent hours marking up maps for us.
Most of the team members have done two short training sessions a day, the
French terrain is very difficult and practice makes perfect.
We have been slow on posting this year but here is pop quiz
number 1 (let’s hope there is a number 2...).
1. How many WOC virgins are in the team this year?
a.
5
b.
3
c.
2
d.
10
e.
None
2.
French terrain is:
a.
Complex contour details
b.
Karst outcrops and sinkholes
c.
Alpine meadows (with cows and bells)
d.
Steep slopes
e.
All of the above
3. Bare rock, marked as light grey on the map
below, is:
a.
Flat, open and fast. Like granite in Australia.
b.
Mossy, hard to spot, and slippery. Like rocks in
Sweden.
c.
Jagged, ankle breaking with deep deep
holes. d.
Twisted shapes covered in rubble. For example near
the glaciers in Switzerland.
e.
None of the above.
4.
What is the name of our team mascot?a.
Jean Pierre. A local orienteer who has been giving
us tips.
b.
Matilda, the boxing kangaroo. A tried and true
mascot.
c.
Les Pinpins. Rabbits from a very popular French story
book.
d.
Remy. Our host’s 2 year old son. e.
None of the above. We are still open to
suggestions and welcome anyone who is willing to wear a giant fluffy boomerang
suit.
5.
For lunch
we eat:
a.
Baguettes avec fromage de la boulangerieb.
Pain au Chocolat de la patisseriec. Abricots et Framboise de la marchéd.
Saucisson avec Colae.
All of the above
6.
Which team members studied French in year 12 and
act as translator?a. Aislinn and Rachel
b.
Rachel and Jasmine
c.
Wendy and Aislinn
d.
Mace and Jasmine
e.
All of the above team members
7.
Which team member left their compass and phone
at training, 25 minutes drive away?a. Jasmine
b.
Vanessa
c.
Robbie
d.
Wendy
e.
All of the above
8. In 4 days of training which team member has
sustained all of these injuries, a wasp bite, stick in the eye and cut up their
arm and stomach by running into a barbwire fence:
a.
Robbie
b.
Jasmine
c.
Simon
d.
Grace
e.
All of the above
9.
Julian Dent is currently:
a.
Sipping cocktails in the Caribbean
b.
Training three times a day in the French forest
c.
Asleep in his bed
d.
Working in Sweden
e.
All of the above
10. At our training camp Gîte,
La Fruitiere d’Arith, we get this, see picture, for dessert every night:
a. False. We celebrated Rob’s 36th birthday with
the delicious berry tart.
b.
False. If we ate dessert like this every night
we would be too fat to train the next day.
c.
False. On other nights we have had crème brulee,
semolina pudding with brandy and raisins, and apple pie.
d.
True. Chef Gerald, our host, is a pastry chef
and he is practicing for entering his tart in a local competition.
e.
True. We make them ourselves from the fruits we
collect in the forest.
The first person* to respond to this blog with the 10 correct answers will win a fabulous prize. And since this quiz is quite dependent on knowing the personalities of a few team members we will have a 2nd category for non-Australian quiz masters.
Ok off to bed, and tomorrow we leave Arith for Aix les Bains.
