In recent months I have felt a call to search for adventure. This calling however, does not appear to be just for me, but rather others. What I mean by this is that I believe I am supposed to find adventure and bring others along. Too often we get lost in the drudge of our daily lives and forget to seek out something new.
This week I met with a colleague of mine, Jeff Warren, who used to live in Australia. In explaining my new found desire for adventure and bringing other along he told me of a game in Australia called Rogaining. He immediately insured me that it had nothing to do with hair loss, but rather navigating to waypoints using a compass and a topographical map only.
Intrigued, I did a little research of my own. Please welcome Wikipedia.com:
Rogaining is the sport of long distance cross-country navigation. It is closely related to orienteering and many people enjoy both sports. For all participants, compared to an orienteering meet, a rogaine:
- is a much longer event, usually 6, 8, 12 or 24 hours
- is a team sport (important for safety, given the long duration)
- has checkpoints (controls) assigned point values reflecting the distance from other checkpoints and the technical difficulty (terrain, navigation) of visiting them
- requires each team to plan the order in which to visit checkpoints, so route choice is a very important element
For event organizers, a rogaine differs from an orienteering meet in that:
- it requires a far larger map area, but not necessarily a highly customized orienteering map
- a 24-hour rogaine benefits from being scheduled during a full moon, and needs an organized food service and space in which participants can sleep
So where does this new found adventure game leave me? I don't really know… yet. I do know that my goal is to find adventure, hidden in the darkness, and bring it out into the light. Perhaps your reading this is already helping me achieve my goal. Perhaps we will get a chance to play this game together sometime in the near future.