It’s the season for holidays. Last time I was here the event centre was at a holiday camp on a lake on the edge of Plzen. This year the organisers have taken over two small adjacent holiday camps near Plasy, a small town 30 min north of Plzen. Holiday camps seem to have small cabins, just big enough for their bed size (eg 2 bunk beds – four people). The main camp has this year added some small 2-mattress sized tents with fixed floor.
The orienteers have added some hiking tents, caravans and motor homes. The camp provides meals in the large dining room and has a rec hall. The main camp where we had the event centre had basketball courts and a beach volleyball court – the sand at the back of it was a popular play space for the small kids with their toy trucks. There used to be a swimming pool but that’s not in use this year. I guess there is hiking and biking in the nearby forest when we’re not racing! And there is a small cold stream too shallow for swimming. But what else do they do? There is another similar camp up the road.
We had lots of kids and family groups, but we also had a major activity each day to keep people occupied. And a large ‘beer tent’ with a party each night. One interesting feature of our event was how many small children took part. 32 entries in MW12 – they could do it independently or be shadowed. At each awards ceremony, the top 3 were acknowledged and then all the MW12s were called up for a small prize.
After their race many continued to hoon around on their geared bikes that looked much too big/sophisticated for the size of the child.
One mother rode all races with her smaller child in a trailer!
On Friday Carolyn C and I visited a couple of nearby old towns. In Stribro, in the large town square was a large group of children who eventually left their small backpacks around the central column and headed off at a run in different directions in groups of approx 12 – 3 or 4 older kids and a bunch of younger. Some carrying paper which turned out to be a map with ‘treasure’ locations shown. A type of orienteering activity.
travellingkathy 