2024 New Year's Day

Have you ever been to a puppet show where there is a backdrop of landscape made in a series of layers between which the puppets pop up at intervals?


Watching the New Year’s Day Orienteering Event held amongst the Mawbray Dunes is a similar sight. Running figures come in and out of view at random as they appear and disappear in front and behind and on top of the sandy hillocks.
Entering into the scene yourself is doubly fun as most of the paths are green and flat so you can fly along until the map shows a control point to the left or right and off you go up or down a dune and become a pop-up puppet yourself. The joyous mood was mirrored by bright sunshine, blue skies and a gentle breeze and as I opted for the short course there was no time pressure either. This meant there was plenty of opportunity to enjoy the Solway’s wide-open beauty; the view out over the sea to Dumfries, framed by tufts of marram grass, the convoluted hollows and mounds, some full of fine sand, others filled with gorse bushes or heather, and glassy pools, held here and there in a cup of the land. In summer they house thin strings of natterjack toad spawn but in winter they just serve as mirrors for the clouds.


Back at the car park, in a gazebo sheltered from the sea-breeze, helpers were dishing out piping carrot and coriander soup and hot drinks, heated on a couple of camping gas burners and the air full of chat and plans for the next meet. It is such an inclusive sport, that you can be as fleet as a fox or as slow as a hedgehog and there will be a course laid out that you can run, walk or creep around. Cradle to Grave movement.