Try orienteering at Chesham Bois Woods

Try a new outdoor adventure sport! Ideal for all ages and abilities, with courses for runners and also families and children. Loads of help is available and no experience is necessary.

Car parking and registration: at car park on Moor Road, Chesham – postcode HP5 1SE. There is a £1 per vehicle charge collected at assembly to cover costs due to the council for event parking, and this includes access to the toilets at the adjacent Chesham Open Air Lido (no muddy shoes please).

Registration: open from 10am to 11.30am.
Start a course any time from 10:15 up to 11:45. Courses close at 1pm. The Start is a short 5-10 min walk from the car park.

Entry fees on the day: £6 solo adults / £2 solo juniors / £6 group rate… (total). Your entry fee includes a detailed waterproof map of the woods, to keep, hire of an electronic timing chip and a print out of your results and split times between control points when you finish.

Four courses on offer (loads of help available too – we can help you choose a course on the day). The list below is in order of navigational difficulty (easiest first):

YELLOW: 1.5km. Fairly easy, mainly on paths. Good for families, older children. Navigational difficulty rating 2/5.

ORANGE: 2.4km. Medium navigational difficulty; route choices through woods. Good for runners, improvers or confident adult newcomers. Actual running distance around 3.5k). Navigational difficulty rating 3/5.

LIGHT GREEN: 3.2km. More route choice, for those with some experience or runners looking for a challenge. Navigational difficulty rating 4/5.

GREEN: 4.3km. Most challenging navigationally! Controls often on point features away from paths. Detailed navigation required through woods. For those with experience: a Middle Distance style course, with lots of controls! Navigational difficulty rating 5/5.

Note: Course distances are measured in straight lines between checkpoints, so you’ll run further, depending on your route choices!

New to orienteering? It’s a trail run (and often an off-trail run) with a difference – an orienteering race doesn’t follow a set route. Instead you have to visit a series of checkpoints and register each one with an electronic timing chip. The checkpoints are marked by flags on the ground and may be along paths, earth banks, streams or anywhere in the woods. The challenge is to race between each one, choosing your own route between the checkpoints, using a special orienteering map (which you get to keep too). Hills, streams, earth banks, fallen trees – over or round them? Your call… why not come and give it a go?