Lewisburn is a new area to NATO, one of the few areas in Kielder identified as having potential for orienteering. A decision was made by the club to run two events on the same area, but I had concerns that there was limited potential for junior courses within Lewisburn itself. Nearby Leaplish, a Northern Navigator's area, certainly offered more choice for juniors, but my request to the club to have seniors in Lewisburn and juniors in Leaplish was turned down. Alasdair and I had a couple of trips out to the area, and requested some significant additions to the map including a strip of land north of the river and inclusion of ditches on the open moorland (mainly derived from aerial photography). We went away to plan separately, Alasdair using the open forest complete with crags and boulder fields to the west while I decided to link Lewisburn and Leaplish by use of a) a long walk to the start and b) a map insert of Leaplish courtesy of NN. Day 2 Yellow was set entirely in Leaplish, and a late decision was made to actually take the Orange from Lewisburn too.

When Alasdair and I compared courses we found there was surprisingly little overlap, only the Brown course having a number of similar legs but running in different directions. I realised with a bit of tweaking courses for each day could be squashed onto A4, landscape for Day 1 and Portrait for Day 2 along with the mini/map attached at the bottom. The Forestry Commission then informed us one of the best bits of forest just above the car park was out of bounds, so Alasdair took the Brown across the river - some runners took this very literally, deciding to swim across the foaming waters. Day 2 saw the Brown reversing the route, but it was the first time Blue runners had the chance to cross the fine new Lewisburn bridge.

With Organising Day 3 of the JK just behind me it was all a bit last minute trying to plan and control, and John did struggle with our last minute changes. The situation was further complicated by a cunning plan to use the same control codes on both days, and I came up with a master plan whereby some controls remained the same, some moved nearby and some new numbers were inserted. Recipe for disaster but it actually all worked out pretty well with no code mix ups (well, not what you as competitors would have seen in terms of last minute relocations).

Alasdair's courses were well received, with most runners surprised how pleasant the area turned out to be - not what they expected in Kielder. The map is still at an early stage of evolution, and we both recognise that there is still considerable scope for refining the details and adding missing features. Unfortunately a ride on Day 2 was incorrectly mapped, and was not picked up by either of us as we checked the control site (clearing, 107) from the other direction and not the angle of approach of the runners. After discussion I requested that the leg to this control was removed from the splits (affecting Green, Blue and Brown). There will be some losers, especially those who gave up there course because they couldn't find the control but I think it's the right decision.

My courses took in slightly greener forest, then it was a long but hopefully pleasant enough run downhill back to Leaplish. More experienced competitors realised what was going on with the map insert, but apologies to those who were a bit confused. It was certainly amusing as a spectator watching runners cascade down the hill under the bridge then looking a bit bewildered as they came across the stream and wondering where to go next. Lewisburn's a great new find, and adds to NATO's collection of Kielder venues for the future. Thanks to NN for their cooperation in use of "their" area.