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Mapping Le Bessat:
French gastronomical miracle
August 19th 2010 | Ivo Habán
Why we still do the maps in France? The answer is simple. The French are the real masters of the mapping gastronomy. They can only compete with the Spaniards. In these countries has consumerism a  good tradition and clubs are able to provide excellent catering, unlike of cool Germans, Austrians or Swiss. Due this perfect service it is possible fully concentrate to the mapping and the efficiency is significantly increased. The mapmakers powered by meat, wine and chips working like a agog.
Together with Radims we finished Cret de Peillouté from spring-a hill situated in The Natural Park Pilat in 1200m with beautiful old beech forest with a lot of stones, on the top and down in the valley also with undergrowth rumpus and wires. Méďa and Krtek made the map Pont Sauvignet near Le Bessat.

And once again, Slovenia: 1st stage of OO.cup on the map Podvin
July 27th 2010 | Jan Drbal
1st stage of popular 5-day event OrienteeringOnline cup was held on the new map Podvin on Saturday. I have mapped a part of the map with Zdeněk Sokolář for several days in April, and Daniel Lebar has completed it later. It was nice spring mapping for us, and relatively fast and certainly nice middle distance race for OO.cup participants (RouteGadget here). Last 3 stages of the demanding 5-day event is going just in these days on Velika Planina.

Krajna vas: another Slovenian karst "middle" map
July 27th 2010 | Jan Drbal
Krajna vas - very nice and technically demanding (for both a runner and a mapmaker) karst terrain of southwestern Slovenia, near the Italian border. I have mapped it together with Robo Miček and Zdeněk Sokolář in November 2009. The colleagues continued with the mapping in December and then a complete revision and unification was carried out by Daniel Lebar.
In combination with a cozy Youth Hostel in the nearby Pliskovica wine village, pleasant climate specific to region Primorska (Slovenian Littoral) and several similar maps in the neighborhood, it is an ideal place for training o-camps throughout the year, arranged by Ivan Nagy, experienced organizer (not only) of OO.cup. Among the first, Czech national team (in Czech) tested it in February.
Moreover, 3-day event for o-connoisseurs named Extremor was arranged on the map Krajna vas by Ivan and co. just two weeks ago.

Gum boots-What a feeling!
June 20th 2010 | Ivo Habán
Together with Ludek Krticka we start second week of mapping in Oslo. Huge forest behind the town by Songsvann lake is probably the most frequently used orienteering map in Norway. We make an update. It means better positioning, more exactly drawing of contours, which seems to be mostly only redraw from photogrammetry until this time, better readability and also generalization. I measure still in old school style, by step and with empathy, but I started parallely use a GPS logger. For open areas it is OK, otherwise for nothing. Beautiful terrain! We loose the concentration only through beautiful Norway girls who run around the lakes and through mosquitos, which are keeping us still in moving. There is a light till midnight-I feel free but totaly tired.

Slovenia again: Bob Rock Cup on the map Hrastovec
June 7th 2010 | Jan Drbal
2-days Bob Rock Cup was held on this weekend on the new map Hrastovec in the northeast of Slovenia. I have mapped it together with Zdeněk Sokolář and Osvald Kozák in winter 2008/9. An update (and a coursesetting) was done by Daniel Lebar. There is like a fairy tale castle named Hrastovec on the edge of the map. Currently there is a psychiatric hospital. Also the forrest itself is like from a fairy tale - as D.L. said: "On Hrastovec I sometimes felt like Alice in Wonderland."

Slovenian Championship on the map Debeli Vrh
May 25th 2010 | Jan Drbal
Slovenian Long and Relay Championship was held on this weekend in a carst and hilly terrain 10 km north of Lubljana. We (Zdeněk Sokolář and me) have revised the previous (quite a good quality) map Debeli Vrh (2005) in April. Z.S. alias Čenda also have been the course planner. As you can see in results of Long, Andraś Hribar in M21E (10,2km, climb. 550m, 25 c.) achieved the best performance of all runners as usually. His time 73:14 surprised even the experienced course planner. It was only the second man in the rank, who fulfilled supposed time 85 minutes. We are curious whether Andraś will challenge European top runners at EOC in Bulgaria.

In forest with IOF advisor
Map for World Cup 2011 in Liberec
May 20th, 2010 | Ivo Habán
Thanks to the unexpected departure from mapping in France, I managed to join the meeting Organization Committee of World Cup in Liberec with IOF advisor Kjell Blomseth from Norway. By tea at the pub and during next day in the forest we discussed everything. The negotiations were marked by a positive spirit. I was surprised by the openness of Norwegian delegate access to the application of map key, particularly in the questions of vegetation. The current form of map from 2005 need the generalization and modification of present Czech view to reflect the global standard of o-scene.

3 races Vårsleppet in Bjugn, Norway once again held on "Czech" maps
May 15th 2010 | Jan Drbal
After somewhat relaxed winter, the spring mapping season has run at full blast, so my updates of this web have had to wait. One of the earliest race weekends in Sør-Trøndelag region (NOR) was held on 24 and 25 April in Bjugn, traditionally on our maps. This time it was even 3 races over the weekend - first it was Sprint on my map Botngård, followed by Middle with chasing start on the map Blankheia (mapped mostly by Petr Matula and Tom Novák, I have made only a smaller part) on Saturday, and Long at the same place on Sunday. Øystein Kvaal Østerbø, the winner of the Sprint in H21, writes about the Saturday's races. Organisers of the forthcoming WOC 2010 in Trondheim were using the competition to test GPS tracking - in D21 during the sprint race and in H21 during the long distance race.

Mapping Cret de Peilloute
May 7th, 2010 | Ivo Habán
After several days of permanent watching the weather forecast during finishing of map Croix du Treve-Bois Ternay near St. Genest-Malifaux we decided don't be so soft, stay and start with the other project on Peilloute hill. We moved higher on Bessat, where we found perfect accommodation in Chalet des Alpes. Peilloute is very nice deciduous forest with many stones, in upper parts half opened with rocks in dwarf pines and bushes. Weather was against forecast good and we spent two days working in full speed. The disaster came in the form of 30 cm of snow during the night of 3rd to 4th May. Fog, snow, wind and very cold temperatures around 0 with no hope that snow could melt during next few days catapulted us in to the car on the way home.

St. Genest-Malifaux again
In every finished bottle rest 11 drops more
May 1st 2010 | Ivo Habán
Third time we went to St. Genest to finish big mapping project Croix du Treve-Bois Ternay near St. Etienne, France. Since spring last year already seven czech mapmakers has been working there because of different reasons. First time Krtek, Evśen and me, during last summer Radims, Méďa and Rysák and now again Evśen, me, Rysák and Jirka Daněk, who has a premiere here. First week we started very hard-11 hours of mapping each day. Map was finally finished today and we move tomorrow for the next project-Peillouté hill. We prepare basemaps late night, watchin' Tiomila on web. Thanks to Genvieve for perfect catering during our stay in Gîte des Haux Plateaux in La Blache.

Murcia Costa Calida WRE 6-7/3/2010
March 4th 2010 | Ivo Habán
This weekend will take a place XXII Trofeo Internacional Murcia Costa Calida 2010 on our map Coto de las Maravillas near Cehegin in Murcia region in Spain. Race is included in the category of WRE, on Saturday classic, Sunday middle. Map was prepared in the spirit HolidayMappers by Jan Drbal, Ivo Haban, Josef Marduk and Vlastislav Šebesta. It was as always very friendly mapping in Spain, this time in really beautiful, technical terrain, for Murcia region unusually wooded.

Plitvička jezera - the map you must stray on before you die
February 23rd 2010 | Jan Drbal
Just a few weeks ago, Jan Kocbach (NOR, World of O) and Ivan Nagy (SLO, OrienteeringOnline) have started a project, eloquently named "101 orienteering maps you should run on before you die". Rightly as the first ever candidate they chose Croatian map Plitvička jezera.
I took pleasure to map about a quarter of its area in 2006-7. Zdeněk Sokolář made the largest and probably the most difficult part and Roman Horký, Tomislav Kani‘ki, Josef Marduk and Ivan Nagy made the rest. Beautiful and challenging karst terrain with plenty of sinkholes - nothing special in Croatia or Slovenia (and I think that later we will find some similar maps among the candidates). But in addition, this one is located in close proximity to world-famous Plitvice Lakes.
We've captured a part of them (named Gornja jezera - Upper Lakes) on a very blue map in the scale 1:5000 in October 2007, which seems to be unusable for any next orienteering activities (surely an entry out of paths is not allowed) due to beeing in the centre of the National Park. By the way, the Park is another part of the List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

My last map issued in 2009: Čelechovice na Hané
Febuary 16th 2010 | Jan Drbal
My last map issued and used in the previous year has called Čelechovice na Hané. The entire map by ISSOM standards and in the scale of 1:5 000 was issued as a part of a successful project Výukové mapy (Tutorial Maps) with the typical orange and white design by Žaket (Jacket). A southeastern cutout of the map was printed in the scale of 1:4 000 for the promotional school race which was held on 7th October 2009 within another promotional project, called Dny orientace v přírodě (Days of Orientation in Nature).
The organization of the race and the issuing of the map has traditionally been driven by Du‘an Vystavěl, the tireless propagator and organizer of the orienteering in Prostějov region and in the world. I've met Du‘an since 1995, when we both were members of Czech national team for International Railway Sports Association (USIC) Championship. So I was pleased when mapped in Čelechovice, because railway tracks are the main line dominant on the map: 1,5km of the local railway Červenka - Prostějov, small railway station with three tracks and old tracks leading to the disused and scary looking sugar refinery.

Two more Italian maps for MOC 2008 added to archive
February 4th 2010 | Jan Drbal
The 2nd stage (the long distance) of the 4th Mediterranean Open Championship was held on 29th February 2008 on the map Pineta di Lenne, with the winners Thirerry Gueorgiou (FRA) and Marianne Riddervold (NOR). We have mapped there one month earlier. Altogether, 8 mappers from 4 countries done the map of an area of 2.5km² in several stages. Coastal dunes, equidistance 2.5m, fine lacing of contours, a few paths. Vegetation: someplace clean pine forest, someplace barely passable prickly "napalm". Unfortunately, nearly half of our limited 10-days period, I lied in a bed with a viral disease.
The small map Castel del Monte is another story. My task was to extend a former work of Rudi de Ferrari (who was my driver and "manager" for that day), during some 4 hours until the darkness. I was able to complete the overall area of 0.15 km². The sprint race called Mediterranean Grand Prix was held on the map 10 days later, on 8th March 2008. Ionut Zinca (ROM) won in main men's class at the time almost 15 minutes (with the map's exchange) and Elise Egseth (NOR) won in women's class.
The famous castle Castel del Monte of 13 century is (as well as Corfu for example), a part of the List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Mediterranean Sea, narrow streets & a sprint map - part three: Trani (ITA, 2008)
January 31st 2010 | Jan Drbal
It was one of my fastest mapping: the map Trani (1:4 000, ISSOM, the total area of 0,25km²), showing the most interesting part of a typical Italian coastal small town. We (Robo Miček, Zdeněk Sokolář and me) had the clear and unchangeable time limit for the mapping: about 4 hours between the arrival (of the 10-days mapping of Pineta di Lenne) and the departure of the train (via Bologna and then home). Moreover, after an unsuccessful search of left-luggage office we had to replace gradually over an hour during guarding of our luggage on a bench on waterfront. Nevertheless, we'd mapped all the area fairly (also thanks to precise basemap),so later Norwegian favorites from OK Wing - Øystein Kvaal Østerbø and Elise Egseth won the Mediterranean Cup 2008 in elite classes.

Mediterranean Sea, narrow streets & a sprint map - part two: Corfu (GRE, 2008)
January 17th 2010 | Jan Drbal
One year later, 260 kilometers south: Corfu (or Kerkyra in Greek), the capital of the Greek island Corfu. The old town has been a part of the List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 2007. On the map Corfu - historical city in the scale of 1:3 000 was held one of the races of MOC Tour. For orienteers, it's nice and challenging "terrain" especially due to difficult route choice and its precise realisation. Something like small Venice without the canals (and unfortunately with a lot of cars). One of the enthusiastic participants of the race Claes Nideborn (SWE) enlarged my map 2 months later during his golf holidays.

Mediterranean Sea, narrow streets & a sprint map - part one: Ulcinj (MNE, 2007)
January 17th 2010 | Jan Drbal
The first of my maps for a MOC Tour event was done in February 2007 in the young Balkan Republic of Montenegro, in one of the oldest cities of Montenegro - Ulcinj. Small old town on the top of a promontory 40 meters above the blue Adriatic Sea; its narrow streets without traffic (thanks to many steps); an old fortress with walls and passages testing mapper's (in)ability to express more passable levels by the ISSOM; the bay with the town's Little Beach (Mala plaśa), the promenade and palm trees; churches and mosques in a peaceful neighborhood. One of my most enjoyable mapping.

PF 2010
December 28th 2009 | Ivo Habán
Concludes the first year of the current look of the site, which I prepare together with Jan Drbal under the label Holiday Mappers. I do not see this project only as a collaboration between two people. Holiday Mappers work as before-on the basis of cooperation with other mapmakers, which connects with us friendship and mapping quality.
This year we managed to make a piece of the map on the World Cup 2010 in Annecy, the EYOC maps, Czech Champs maps-middle and small piece of classic, the map for Croatian Champs, Slovenian Champs, several maps for WRE and a lot more. But above all we worked in the beautiful terrains and made good maps.
I would like to thank everyone with whom we cooperated this year and to all those, who helped us with their positive reactions delivering the taste to create this dumpy-looking site. I wish to "Orienteering is a great experience-we bring you that feeling" will be true next year as much as possible.

10 dias yo soy Murciano
November 27th 2009 | Ivo Habán
Ten days walk through the valley of dry winding, measured directions between meanders and draw contours over a thousand capillaries side valleys, which are not in the basemap. The air is soaked with scent of pine and myrtle. Let's map like some Finn, repeat the effort and try to generalize stands. Fails me. Finally do a lot of details like a Czech. Under the film look the trees like clumps of bushes. I placed carefully white dot symbols exactly on the place of trees. At the end of the day I struggle with stand slope to the top of the hill. This time my efforts rewarded. Among the high grass find a stony hunting seed. I am shading my eyes with mapping desk and stretch the shape of the cluster. On the other side of the hill is no longer a shadow. Suddenly cooled, blackness. Animal paths lead me to the car. Fawn fence, starting express a third time. Noise of the car on camino rural interrupt the mapmaker's dialogue. There are orange lights of Cehegin in the distance on the horizon.

3 older maps added - Albania, Serbia, Sweden
November 11th 2009 | Jan Drbal
Serbian (rather Vojvodina) map of the town Sremski Karlovci 2 (2006) was my first one done for small, but agile club OK Straśilovo. We found "common language" soon (see the 3th picture in the gallery - taken some 3 hours after my arrive). I enjoyed the mapping in Sremski Karlovci very much, despite cold March weather. The map was used for the 27nd edition of traditional Straśilovo Cup.
My only Swedish map Degeberga (co-mapped together with Roman Horký and Petr Hranička in 2004-5), was used for Swedish Night-o Championship 2006 and for Elitserien event in 2007.
My only Albanian map Hills of Artificial Lake of Tirana was used for (probably) the first orienteering competition in Albania on Sunday 25th February 2008. It was arranged as a stage of Mediterranean Open Championship (MOC) Tour. Competitors were mostly from Scandinavia (Jörgen Mårtensson's and Jens Kopland's PWT Travel's excursionists), but also some premiere local adventurers succesfully completed the race.
While Sweden beats (yet) Albania at the number of o-maps, there is surely more Mercedes cars in Albania.

Mapping for Costa Calida 2010
November 3rd 2009 | Ivo Habán
After nearly four years, again returning to Murcia. With Vlastislav Sebesta - a real classic and nostalgia at the same time. Together with Josef Marduk and Honza Drbal we will prepare maps for XXII Trofeo Internacional Murcia Costa Calida 2010 (WRE) near Cehegin. The race will be held 6-7 March 2010. The stay is planned for 10 days in the second half of November.

Two latest Slovenian maps added
September 27th 2009 | Jan Drbal
I have added all two my Slovenian maps issued in this year - Kamni‘ka Bistrica (see the latest post) and Vranja Peč (see the post 'Further 7...', June 3rd). Both areas are located only 12km from each other and also there was only 12 days' gap between the two mapping-sessions. But during the gap we hopped off to Kopaonik in Serbia, 600km away.
You can find all Slovenian o-maps in a nice register of maps Evidenca kart on the web of Slovenian Orientering Federation. For now, the register ends with the year 2008 and it contains exactly 200 items. On many of them you can see names of Czech mapmakers. Mine is on the maps nr. 117, 152, 153, 156, 159, 172, 173, 177, 193, 195, 198 a 199, Ivo's on 166.

...and Slovenian Sprint Distance and Trail-O Championships
September 20th 2009 | Jan Drbal
Slovenian Sprint Distance and Trail-O Championships will be held on the next Sunday 27th on the map Kamni‘ka Bistrica (1:4 000) which I have mapped together with Zdeněk Sokolář in this May. It has been our 3rd mapping for club OK Trzin. And also it will be my 6th map published in this year on the scale 1:5 000 or larger.
Very nice place! Until I'll add the map's page, you can look at the beatiful scenery from the space.

Two national championships in September - Czech Long Distance Championship...
September 20th 2009 | Jan Drbal
Czech Long Distance Championship (and also World Ranking Event) has gone just at the weekend near Blansko, on the map Palava (1:15 000), and organized by clubs ZBM a SBK. Adam Chromý has been the head of 9-members team of mapmakers. I have mapped just 0,6km² from the total area of 15km² in the remotest northern part. It has been my only map published on 1:15 000 scale for the last 2 years!

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