Turf insider April 2024

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Round winners – March 2024 (Round #165)

Congratulations to the winners of round March 2024: Király from Skåne was awarded another Gold, FeTaTo from Scotland turfed home a Silver in her hunt for unique zones, and semaj65 from Skåne turfed home his second Bronze. Well done mates!

Turf Awards 2023

The voting for Turf Awards 2023 is open all of April. The winner in each catogory will be revealed at the Bonanza banquet on September 14th. Vote HERE.

Upcoming events

If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into the news letter :)

Open Turf Event in Ängelholm, Saturday 5th of May

A Foot event in the woods close to Råbocka Camping. The event will start at 11 am and end at 1 pm. A prize cermony will take place at 1.30 pm close the zone Råbockastigen. There will be possiblitiy for parking close to the zone Råbockastigen and SandISibirien. Prize to all young participants (17 or younger). Don't forget an extra pair of shoes and socks, the woods can be very wet this time of the year! The orgnizers will turn on their grill after the event, so bring sausages of any kind to put on it :)

SCOnanza aka Scottish Turf Open – Saturday June 1st

The SCOnanza is coming! Turfers from all around the world are being invited to the second Scottish Turf Open Championships! Hosted again in Edinburgh, this time from Friday 31 May to Sunday 2 June, and offering you completely different parts of the city to enjoy from last year. Following positive feedback on the format last year, again we are having a welcome foot event (Friday evening), 90 minute bike and then foot open championships (Saturday), followed by Sconanza banquet (Saturday evening) and then a “Crazy Closing” fun event (Sunday morning). Plus enjoy the neutrals of Edinburgh at the start of the June round. Everyone is very welcome! More information HERE. This is the second installment of this already legendary event. Don't miss out!

24h Event 7th of June in Luleå June

Here's an invitation from the organizer Kygni:

“In Luleå it never gets dark for the entire month of June. With the exception of a very breif rainfall in the event of the summer of 2022 it has been good weather both summer events I have organized (which is always in the beginning of June). On the 7th of June, a 24 hour event will take place in Luleå, it will start at 11 am on the 7th and end 24 hour later, giving people time to sleep between the event and the dinner which takes place in the evening at 7 pm.

You can participate in the event either by bike or foot and be in a team or do the entire thing individually, the event will take place on Porsön and there will be a place to sleep at (but bring your own matress and sleeping bag) the gathering place during the event if you play in a team. If you want to play in a team but don´t have teammates, you can tell that in the registration formula and I will try to set up a team for you. Note that you have to register since the event is gonna be private when it occurs.

In Sweden, 6th of June is a public holiday making 7th of June a so called 'squeeze day' which makes it easier to take a 4-day holiday, but I sincerely hope that we also get some guests from outside Sweden as well. Since the event is Friday-Saturday it is easier for people to stay during the dinner and according to me, a nice turf meeting/dinner is half the fun of an event :)

Last year we had the dinner outside in the sun. Of course there will be a plan B to have the dinner inside just in case we would be unlucky with the weather. Last year, I had Asian cooks fixing an authentic asian dinner. One indonesian, one nepalese and one indian. This year I am going to do the same thing. It is possible for people to bring or order their own food from a restaurant if they do not want the authentic asian food."

Sign up and get more details HERE. You can book a room at Scandic between the 5th and the 10th of june using the code luleturf2424 and get 10% off. Here is a picture of the sun from Luleå in June of 2022 just 3 minutes before the solar midnight. Make sure to join the fun in 2024!

Bonanza 2024 on the 14th of September in Enköping

The planning has begun in earnest with turfers from both Västerås and Uppsala joining forces. One goal for the Bonanza 2024 is to gather more than 233 turfers in order to take the Crowdy 233-medal. There will be, as always, a Foot event and a Bike event followed by a Bonanza banquet in the evening. More news will follow when we get closer to the date! Don't forget to mark the date in your calendar!

Turf Skåne will be hosting several events this summer open for non-members:

• A 24 hour event in or around Malmö 29-30 June. Participants will be awarded the 24 event medal. We are still working on the details and have not yet opened up for applications, info this far can be found HERE (in Swedish).

• 24 August we will host Skåne Open again. Participation will give you the event medal. Details will come later this summer but you can sign up already now HERE.

• At some point during the summer we will arrange for a picnic with a short 30 min foot event, this will be announced with short notice as we want to make sure weather is perfect.

• Besides these events we have also worked with Laynus at Turfportalen to test a more compact format for region competition running over one week only. We are testing this out with Scotland and Västra Götaland last week of April, a summary will follow in the May edition of the Turf News email.

Report from LuleåIce24 by TurfDanne

Luleå Ice '24, the first-ever open Turf event on ice, took place on the frozen river around Luleå. It was a beautiful day with almost clear skies, a few degrees below freezing, but the sun was warm. A bit of a wind made one direction easy and the other harder. A total of 14 Turfers participated by taking at least one event zone. There were people using ice skates, skiis, kick sleigh, and walking/running. After half the event, Kygni had gained a small lead, but there were five other Turfers also competing for the medals. The silver and bronze positions changed a few times, and in the end, Kygni took the gold with grock in silver place and Tuxina receiving the bronze. Congratulations! After the event, there was a gathering on the island Gråsjälören (where the zone LuleIsle is located). There, the medal ceremony was held, and then we had hot dogs grilled over a fire. In the evening, a few of the Turfers gathered in a restaurant for a Turf dinner. Thanks to all who participated in the event, and I hope to see you all again, and many more, next year for Luleå Ice '25!

Uppsala visited Åbo

During Easter 6 turfers from Uppsala visited Åbo and a Turf lunch was organized by local Åbo turfer TortugaVeloz. A total of 12 turfers showed up. From TortugaVeloz:

"During Easter we had the great pleasure to have some Swedish Turfers visiting Åbo/Turku in Finland. We met up for a good lunch with our visitors and some local turfers and spent a good 2 hours chatting about nothing and everything. After which we took an assist zone together. This proves that Turfgame is not only a good game to motivate outdoor activity, it is also a social game. Welcome back anytime :-) Åbo/Turku is a good place to visit for some unique zones."

From the left: redmountrider, KingOfTheSlope, Lazytraveller, Chairman, TortugaVeloz, Munin, TriggerHappy, BikingBookworm, Pandora, Ojarnstr, BadLoser. Photo by: Kayaker.

Åbo is a very nice city to visit as a turfer, not too hilly, friendly locals and lots of nice zones :)

World Heritage Zones - Part 1

UNESCO World Heritages are described by UNESCO as ”World Heritage is the designation for places on Earth that are of outstanding universal value to humanity and as such, have been inscribed on the World Heritage List to be protected for future generations to appreciate and enjoy. Places as diverse and unique as the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, Galápagos Islands in Ecuador, the Taj Mahal in India, the Grand Canyon in the USA, or the Acropolis in Greece are examples of the 1007 natural and cultural places inscribed on the World Heritage List to date.”A long time ago we agreed in Crew that all World Heritages (WH) should have a zone with the World Heritage attribute. As we started working a few rules of thumb were developed and we still make WH zones accordingly:

• All WH sites should have one WH zone.
• All WH’s should have one zones only, no matter if the actual WH is spread over several areas.
• The zone should have a shape that reminds of the WH logo.
• We have made WH zones up until the ones approved by UNESCO 2021.

Turf Insider asked two travelling turfers to write a little bit about some WH zones they have visited. Enjoy their stories!

By allinug

”When you are going on a longer trip and have no specific goals, just pull out the "Turf map" and plan a route. There are many different options, e.g. World Heritages, which right now guide my path. Then you are guaranteed to get to interesting places. Two that I particularly appreciated on this trip are impressive buildings of different ages. One about 2000 years old, the other 131.

Bizkaiko Zubia (Basque), Puente Viscaya (Spanish), or as we say "Biscayabron", is the world's first "transport bridge", i.e. a suspension ferry connecting Portugalese and Getxo, located on either side of the Nervión River just west of Bilbao. The big advantage of this construction is that boat traffic is not disturbed. The bridge was designed by one of Gustave Eiffel's disciples and is considered one of the outstanding architectural iron constructions of the industrial revolution. It was completed in 1893 and is still in use around the clock. An estimated half a million vehicles and four million people use the bridge each year. And this year, one of them was me!

Another building material was used 2000 years ago, when the (now French) city of Nîmes needed to be supplied with water. The skilled Romans then built a 50 km long aqueduct from Uzès to Nîmes, which it supplied with water for 500 years. And that with a remarkable precision: the gradient is only 12 m on the long stretch! It is also difficult to understand how they were able to lift 6-ton blocks of stone more than 40 m and insert them precisely in place. The highest bridge (in the entire Roman Empire) Pont du Gard, where the zone is located, is 48 m high, 275 m long and consists of three arches. Water flowed on the top level, people walked on the middle and heavier transport went on the lowest level. Coming to this place also gives you a nice nature experience along the river Gard. I took a bus from Avignon to Remoulins and walked not only over the bridge but also in the area, a nice change from long city walks.

Now off to another World Heritage, this time a natural phenomenon...”. We will hear more from allinug in next Turf Insider!

By FeTaTo

”I visited New Lanark World Heritage site (and took the zone) with the Scotland resident parts of my family for my birthday treat in March. The site is situated in a beautiful steep sided valley on the River Clyde to the south of Glasgow. It was one of the largest cotton milling factories in the world and also had progressive social aspects for that period of time - late 18th century. Around 2000 people lived on site. Education was provided for the children and emphasis was put on providing a good natural environment around the factory. Working conditions were significantly improved compared to other factories. My young grandchildren particularly liked the roof garden with hidden metal animals to search out and seeing the waterfalls that helped provide the energy. I thoroughly enjoyed the visit though might have to go back without the grandchildren so that I have time to see it from an adult perspective rather than that of young children.”

Turf Picture of the Month

This months Turf Picture is of the zone Museumei taken by DXP2K. There were lots of really good entries this round. Turf Insider's photo editor felt we needed a laugh this time ;) Keep the pictures coming!

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com. Please include your Turf nick for recognition!

Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin