This years OO cup (foot orienteering) was centered on the town of Logatec near to Ljubljana. As a 
family holiday we all jetted to Trieste in northern Italy hired a car and stayed in a pretty hotel 2km away from days 1-3 in the village of Crni Vrh.
We flew out on the Monday evening deliberately so we could do the model event, held on the Tuesday nearby. It was a complete eye opener to what was to come and I spent an hour thrashing around in the complex contour detail of the Limestone ‘Karst’ forest trying to understand how it was mapped.
The 5 day event was excellent with great weather, maps and planning and efficient, informal organisation. The 1000 or so competitors came from 27 countries and it was really noticeable how many Elites had made the trip in preparation for the world champs next month.
My performances got better during the week as I got used to the mapping style and bonkers terrain. I was mostly mid table on M35 but managed a 7th and ended up 12th overall which I was very happy with but I did have one of my biggest mistakes of recent years on day 4 – 17 mins…… The terrain was very tough underfoot with lots of rocks and tough undergrowth.
Day 3 also saw me competing in an MTBO – see seperate posting.
The planning for Holly (6 years old but the youngest category is W10) 
was very challenging with several legs completely off track and many legs having 5 or six decision points, but she managed OK and got her medal along with all the other W /M10s at the prize giving on the last day which was a nice touch to encourage the youngsters.
She also gave Cath a close call on the run in split time only being beaten by 1 second 🙂
The OOcup was a fantastic event and I would recommend it to experienced orienteers as a really challenging 5 day, plus the little country of Slovenia has lots to offer for apres Karst…..