Orienteering started mid 19th century in the Scandinavian army environments, as they were using it for training purpose.
Orienteering is a sport where people use a specific map and a compass to find their way with the objective of reaching controls in a determined order, which forms the route. The map used shows the difficulties of moving onto the site.
As a hobby, orienteering is more of a nature surrounded activity, with family or friends, as a treasure hunt / walk looking for controls.
As a competition, it’s an individual timed circuit on a course adapted to everyone’s level. French use 6 coloured levels: Green (very easy), Blue (easy), Yellow (average), Orange (difficult), Purple (very difficult), Black (extreme), to suit everyone’s level including kids (limit of age following the DJS advice).