The Cochrane family from Ormskirk, UK is by no means directly from Aleksis Kivi’s Seven Brothers but the family fits nevertheless well to Jukola. Team 311 consist of parents Matthew and Jill, their children Edward, Jonathan, Sally and Thomas, called Tom, and his wife Emma.

“We are all for the first time in Finland, apart from Tom who took part at Kytäjä, Hyvinkää two years ago”, Matthew explains. “My father died last year and left us with inheritance which we thought to spend on a trip to Finland.

All the family members have orienteered for over 20 years apart from Emma who has 5 years of orienteering under her belt.

“We started together as a family when our children were young. The number of people in Jukola and its unique atmosphere were quite amazing to us”, Matthew said. The Venla relay Cochranes described as breathtaking especially as people continued to flock to view the competition throughout the relay.

“We never have such huge orienteering competitions back home, up to 300 people at the most is usual.  In Scotland there can be competitions with some 5000-6000 people.” The family was also surprised about the every man’s right in Finland that allows anyone to access to forest nearly anywhere. Back in the UK this is not possible. To practice orienteering outside competitions necessitates one to know where to find woods that can be accessed.

Big orienteering events and nordic woods are not entirely unknown to the family, as they have taken part in several years to O-Ringen orienteering week held in Sweden. “We also familiarised with the Jukola training courses and got a feel of the terrain in advance”, said Jill Cochrane.

Edward was selected as the starter of the family Cochrane team who has experience of night orienteering as does also to some extent Matthew.  “The aim is to enjoy the Jukola night experience, not the result itself. We would be very pleased if only two of us will need to start in the joint start on Sunday”, Matthew added.