The inaugural BUMC Night Hike event.
The night hike was a brand new event for us this year, which we made open to all students of the university. Over 50 people took part, nearly half of which were new to the club along with the work of 5 volunteers.
Teams were each given 30 minutes to plan their route (some very optimistically!) before being set off for 6hrs 30 of muddy fields and fog armed with just a map, torch and some Scooby snacks.
The challenge was to navigate to as many points as possible, where a fiendish question could be answered or a geocache found for points.
Halfway around the route every team visited the manned checkpoint, where tea, coffee and biscuits were in ample supply.
A few teams also managed to track down our roving checkpoint (Toby/Chris in a high vis vest), whilst others were too frightened of the mysterious figure in the woods to approach..
Teams started arriving back at 3:00AM with the last teams back by 5:40 AM for a few blissful hours of sleep.
Whilst they dreamed of geocaches and headless dogs, the volunteers started cooking breakfast. A hearty meal of too-cheap-to-be-true bacon & sausage sandwiches was provided, along with yet more tea, coffee and biscuits.
Next, the prizes/winners were announced.
Congratulations to:
Best walking team: "All the gear but little idea"
Walking team runners up: "Nick and Gus"
Best freshers team: "Crack Rangers"
Best fancy dress: "All the gear but little idea" for their Scooby Doo impersonation
Wooden spoon: "#keenmountaineers"
And finally a huge congratulations to the winning running team "North Star" of Jonny and Henry, who covered an insane amount of distance over muddy ground, whilst navigating. I feel the makings of a BUMC orienteering team coming on..!
Finally a massive thank you to Andy, who planned almost the entire event himself, I can't describe the amount of work he put in! Also thanks to Toby, Chris and Vicky for their brilliant help on the night.
We hope everyone who took part enjoyed the cold, mud and lack of sleep as much as we did and I look forwards to someone else organising the event next year!!
Conor
