Cappadocia: Terrain presentation

Posted by Jan Kocbach, 10 Mar 2010@8:00

Cappadocia scenery. Photo: Aleš Hejna

The Cappadocia region in Turkey is very special, and orienteering among the special Cappadocia rock features will be extraordinary. All that is needed is an orienteering map – the work towards getting this remarkable terrain mapped has been started.

Sandstone

According to Czech mapper Aleš Hejna, who has recently been in Turkey evaluating the terrain and its suitability for orienteering, the terrain can best be described as a “stony forest”. The stone features are  sandstones, not unlike what you find in many interesting areas in Hejna’s home country. However, the sand stone features in Cappadocia are often even more eye-catching than the Czech variants, due to them being located in non-forested areas and the more yellow color.

Labyrinths

The relief consists of a high plateau over 1000 meter in altitude, that is pierced by volcanic peaks. In this area, there are a lot of interesting sandstone formations, which are actually volcanic deposits. Many of the sandstone formations create labyrinths, rock cities and passages – making the terrain very suitable and interesting for orienteering. The volcanic deposits are soft rocks that the people of the villages at the heart of the Cappadocia Region carved out to form houses, churches and monasteries. According to Hejna’s reports, this most detailed terrain around the villages can be mapped as a sprint map – giving some challenging orienteering.

- Turkish runners are also waiting with impatience to run this area the next years, Turkish elite runner Alen Gavar and one of the organizers of Turkey’s biggest orienteering competition Istanbul 5 Days explains, when asked about Cappadocia. - I hope a map will be ready at the end of this year. There are also a lot of other interesting terrains in Turkey still waiting to get mapped. In the meantime, you can find several other Turkish maps in Omaps.worldofo.com – one of the most famous ones being the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.

Cappadocia - still unmapped. Do you know about other areas around the world which would be perfect for orienteering - but which are not mapped (yet). Please add a comment in the discussion area below. Photo: Aleš Hejna

Why should you run on this map before you die?

It is a bit early to choose this map as a candidate for 101 Orienteering Maps you should run on before you die - as there is still no map there. But when there is a map, this will definitely be a candidate – and we will surely want to be among the first travelling there to try out the terrain. This area is interesting because the sandstone formations will give interesting orienteering in an area which gives a lot of spectacular views. The terrain looks like it is a mix of the Czech Sandstone terrain with the openness of a mountain plateau. The Cappadocia region is also on UNESCO’s World Heritage list.

Location:
Points of interest: Webpage of Aleš Hejna (Olle’s maps), Hejna’s report about Cappadocia terrain, UNESCO entry for Cappadocia, Orienteering maps from Turkey

Discussion

Map sample by Aleš Hejna

In addition to finding the best areas which are already mapped, the 101 Orienteering Maps project will also try to identify the great areas which have not been mapped yet – and the Cappadoica region seems to be one worth waiting for. Maybe a good reception from the orienteering community will help some map projects towards realization?

There are many areas around the world which would be perfect for orienteering – but which are not mapped (yet). Have you got some good examples? Please add a comment below and tell us about your dream terrain! We are also interested in more information about terrain containing sandstone areas. The areas in Czech Republic and in part of Germany are famous. Australia is another country which can offer interesting Sandstone orienteering. Do you know about others?

Thanks

Thanks to Aleš Hejna for providing pictures and information for this article!

Tags for this article: , , , , ,

Les Bouzigasses

Posted by Jan Kocbach, 02 Feb 2010@8:00

Part of map Les Bouzigasses. Map copyright CDCO12.

Aveyron sounds like magic in the ears of many orienteers – the reason being the very special terrain which is both very runnable and very technical. The Aveyron terrain gives you a lot of navigational pleasure – if you manage to adjust your speed to the orienteering skills – and the open terrain with the big rocks give a special atmosphere.

The question is not if there will be an Aveyron map on the list of the 101 Orienteering Maps you should run on before you die, but rather which Aveyron map to choose.  For now, our choice has landed on the map Les Bouzigasses, which was used for the Junior European Cup long distance in 2007 and for the 5th stage of French 6 Days in 2008.

The hardest technically

This was not an easy choice – we had to confer with the master of the Aveyron terrain and the King of Middle distance, Thierry Gueorgiou, to pick Les Bouzigasses: – There are many good maps in Aveyron – so it is difficult to choose only one of them, Gueorgiou responds when asked to pick a single one. When only one has to be chosen, Gueorgiou lands on  either Le Patus or Les Bouzigasses. – Les Bouzigasses has a very nice part with narrow passages.  Le Patus is special because the map contains several different types of terrain [Editors note: Le Patus was used for the 4th stage of the French 6 Days 2008]. In the end Les Bouzigasses was chosen for this article because of its very special north-western part. We invite you to discuss this choice in the comments below – we include links to several other Aveyron maps below in the Discussion section so that you can make up your own mind.  One of the competitors wrote the following on his training log after the race on Les Bouzigasses during French 6 Days 2008: – The hardest technically so far, and I ran too fast, making too many mistakes. I ended up running almost 4km further than needed. Interestingly, my HRavg was the lowest it’s been for a long time in an orienteering race.

The terrain in the Aveyron area is open with big rocks and bushes lowering the visibility.

Photo by Sergesal, CC-ASA License

Unique terrain

When Gueorgiou says that he has not met more difficult terrains, that tells a lot about the Aveyron terrain. – The terrain is quite unique as there are a LOT of details and even if the terrain is open and very runnable, the visibilty is in most of places not that good because of the big rocks and small bushes. I haven’t met more difficult terrains, because you can really run fast because the ground is nice, but you are limited by your orienteering skills.

…it is definitively a challenge to rise your head from the map and look ahead

Actually, Gueorgiou has just spent several days training in the Aveyron area along with Anders Nordberg and Kiril Nikolov (you find many of the maps from their trainings here)

How to navigate in Aveyron

In case you ever end up in Aveyron on an orienteering map (which you definitely should), here are Gueorgious tips for navigation in Aveyron. – My best advice for this terrain is to have a good plan for the whole leg, because you will loose lot of time if you get stuck in the bushes. So, it might be clever to run longer to avoid very detailed areas and dense vegetation. As always in very detailed terrain, Gueorgiou advices you to use his “Full speed – no mistake” technique – in which you use the visibility of details that stick out in the terrain to maintain full speed all the way. – It is also clever to look as far as possible to try to catch some nice and visible features like single trees or big rocks. But it is definitively a challenge to rise your head from the map and look ahead, because you are already struggling to know where you are NOW.  So it is even more difficult to know where you will be in 2-300 meters…

Part of map Les Bouzigasses. Map copyright CDCO12.

Why should you run on this map before you die?

So why did we choose this map as a candidate for 101 maps you should run on before you die? The navigational pleasure you get from orienteering in this terrain is certainly one important reason. Thierry Gueorgiou put it this way:  - This terrain has to be in the list, simply because if it is not in the list, no other terrain can enter in the “101 Orienteering maps you should run on before you die”… (Article continues below the map)

Map Les Bouzigasses. Map copyright CDCO12.

Map: Les Bouzigasses
Scale: 1: 5000
Equidistance: 5m
Year: 2008
Size of map: cca. 3.4km2
Mappers: ARCANIS ANGHEL Marius, COTIRTA Marian, ROSCA Dinisle
Terrain type: Calcareous plateau composed of many rocks. Semi-open vegetation (of the type found on limestone plateaus). Fairly high race speed, although some areas of great technicality oblige to slow down a lot (areas of micro-reliefs, high density of rocks). The terrain can be described as a Labyrinthique zone with reduced visibility.
Estimated top speed: 6 min/km
Interesting points: Thierry Gueorgiou says he hasn’t met more difficult terrains.
Links of interest: CDCO12 (the owning club)Les Bouzigasses full map JEC 2007Les Bouzigasses full map French 6 Days 2008
Events on map: JEC 2007, Aveyron 6 Days 2008
Country: France
Location:

Discussion

Please note that the map being presented in this article does not necessarily mean that it will also be included in the final selection of the 101 maps – and in the paper book. It only means it is currently on our candidate list.

Caylar

The big hill by Le Caylar. Photo: Thierry Gueorgiou

As noted above, while the choice of Aveyron was obvious, the choice of Les Bouzigasses was not an easy one.  Here are the maps which we have considered:

Did we choose the most fitting map from the Aveyron region? Are there other interesting maps from the Aveyron region that we missed? Have you ever run on these maps? Please let us know in the comments below. We would also like to know if you know about other areas in the world with comparable terrain to Aveyron. As far as we know, there are terrains in Portugal/Spain with some similar characteristics – and even this map from Kazakhstan seems to have something in common with Aveyron.

Tags for this article: , , , , , ,