Nordic Winter Festival set for Sunday

Ever had the desire to try biathlon?

Maybe cross-country skiing or snowshoeing is more your cup of tea.

Perhaps you’d like to learn how the experts wax their skis.

Then Otway Nordic Centre is the place to be this Sunday when the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club hosts its Nordic Winter Festival. On that day, everybody who wants to try the trails can do so for free. The club is offering free ski passes all day under the tent in the stadium area in front of the Rotary Lodge.

It all starts with an introductory classic ski lesson from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. or from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., at a cost of $5 per person. For the racing crowd the club is staging a chocolate race which starts at 11 a.m. in the area. The winners get chocolate bars as their reward. Cost to enter is $2, with registration upstairs in the old lodge (the building closest to the east parking lot) from 10:15 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.

A snowshoe tour on the singletrack trails through the Otway forest runs from 10:30 a.m. to noon at a cost of $2 each. That will be followed by a family snowshoe nature tour from 12:45 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. The charge is $5 per family.

Aspiring biathletes aged nine and older can try out shooting on the range from 1 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. and from 1:45 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Cost is $10 per person.

Ski waxing demonstrations are scheduled for 11:15 a.m. to noon and from 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.

If you get hungry, go to the gravel pit area about a kilometre west of the lodge for hot dogs and hot chocolate by the fire pit. Food is free or by donation.

Registration (cash only) for all activities except the chocolate race will take place in the rental shop from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.