I was on a night navigation exercise the other night – not to be confused with a ‘stumbling around in the dark effing and blinding’ exercise. I downloaded the photos this morning and this one reminded me of the importance of sound and touch, especially at night. The paths and animal trails were slightly lower than the surrounding grass and had been sheltered from the thawing effects of the day’s warmer breezes. They had all retained their hard frost, unlike the grass which had softened.
It was possible to tell if I strayed off a path without any light at all, by the feel of the soft grass against the icy crunch of the path, ie. by using hearing and touch. A lot of wayfinding revolves around sight, but it adds greatly to the satisfaction when the other senses come into play.
