World Rogaine Championships

It was supposed to take us less than 4 hours to drive to the Rogaine venue, but between stopping to do last minute shopping and a construction project that took 1 hour to travel 13 km, it took all day to get there.

We found a lovely spot to have our lunch, in the shade of a Lutheran Church on the banks of the Daugava River.

We were directed to park and erect our tent in a field, pushed up as close as possible to the next tent; they were expecting 1000 contestants, and that's a lot of tents.

Bryan's wife had picked up a Canadian flag at the dollar store and Leo and Brian wasted no time in erecting it.  Just as Bryan predicted, it was an instant friend maker.  A Ukrainian contestant came over and played "O Canada" on his cellphone.

Our new Ukrainian friend emailed us this picture of us chatting with our Polish neighbours

Our Polish neighbours came over and introduced themselves.  Later a Latvian immigrant to Vancouver came to introduce herself, home for a visit and to compete.

Canadian flag flies proudly over the busy site

The morning of the event the skies opened up with heavy thundershowers, but the sun came out and things dried out for the start.

All ready to go

And they are off:

Couple of things we've learned about Latvia:

Orienteering is Latvia's most popular sport!

Latvia calls itself the WiFi Capital of Europe, with free wifi Hotspots everywhere you go (except maybe in a farmer's backyard or at Riga City Camping!), including here at the Rogaine championships in the middle of a field in the very outer limits of the country. (The border with Russia is only km away, and the contestants have been told to carry their passports with them in case they get questioned by border guards.)

With the event begun, I have 24 hours to kill, which involves getting this blog up to dateand charging all the devices at the handy recharging station.