Orienteering is brilliant fun! Did my first event too many years ago to count. Besides map-reading skills and compass work, it's a big help to know how far it is from one place to another. I bet today's O-fans use a pedometer, but when I began, we measured a flat 100 metres and then counted how many double running paces we took, i.e. each time the same foot hits the ground you count 1 pace. For me it was 45, that translates to 1cm on a 1 to 10000 map,for a 1 in 20 scale it's 90 paces, and so on. Therefore, if I have a 1 in 20,000 scale map and it's 3cm from where I am to the next major feature, then I have to count to 180 and will be where I expect to be on the map. Oh and if the ground is tricky or very detailed and you need to walk, switch to triple-pace counting, gives the same good result in getting you where you want to be.
Not very scientific but it works, especially if you're covering very detailed ground - it's easy to lose yourself if you're vaguely guestimating distance!
If you're a traveller - there's also some really great multiple day O-races in places like Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Switzerland in the summer.
Have fun!
