Entries tagged "royal geographical society"
2013-03-14
Whilst researching something for the book I’m working on, I came across a paragraph in the following work.
(As a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society I was in two minds whether to post this blog as it does not show the RGS in its finest hour. But I feel the insights contained within this excerpt are more important than the blushes of the Society.)
“Royal Geographical Society
Hints to Travellers
Eleventh Edition
Volume Two”
This edition was published in 1938. The following paragraph, reproduced verbatim, is one of the best insights that…
2011-11-02
Thank you to everyone who came to the course at the Royal Geographical Society on Friday. Also to those who came to the talk and walk on Saturday and to Rohan for organising and sponsoring the event.
I have just returned from a wonderful two days in the desert in Oman, where I have been teaching a group of Outward Bound Oman instructors some techniques for them to pass on to their students. In the picture above we are marking out the shadows from a stick in the sand.
We also looked at…
2011-07-09
A subject that I have blogged about in the past is one I return to today. I am increasingly delighted at the diversity of background interests of those who also take an interest in natural navigation.
I regularly give talks to specialist groups, only last Monday night I found myself at the Sandhurst Social Club, speaking to the knowledgeable and very likeable Yateley Offshore Sailing Club. Such specialized gatherings have a mutual interest that draws them together and so variety quite naturally gives way to experience in one area.
On the Beginner's Guide courses that I run,…
2010-10-16
Nearly all navigation is an attempt to join landmarks together. Even those on boats crossing oceans are probably hoping to find a landmark they recognise as the final part of their journey.
The word, 'landmark', simply means something that makes a location recognisable. It is deliberately vague as it can apply to anything, a landmark may be extraordinary - the statue of Christ the Redeemer towering over Rio de Janeiro's from Corcovado mountain. Or it may be mundane - a red postbox at the edge of a village.
The more confident you can be that you have…
2010-05-28
Another very enjoyable Beginner's Guide to Natural Navigation course at the Royal Geographical Society yesterday. The diversity of interests and experiences never fails to amaze me; from desert wanderers to cruise ship sailors and even a sailor from a tall ship in the Pacific. Wonderful!It was a beautiful full moon last night and I got to experiment with a new lens that I have bought. Still a long way to go until I take a photo of the moon that I am happy with, but always learning which is satisfying.The phase of the moon appears the same all over…
2010-02-21
I was at the Royal Geographical Society for the Travellers' Tales Festival yesterday, to give a talk about my book. Less than a fortnight until it hits the shops!I arrived early to listen to some of the other speakers, including the National Geographic photographer, Frans Lanting. The speakers' notes are very explicit about not running over your alotted time, but Frans was on a serious roll. That guy is not short of slides. It was enjoyable but as it shot past it's slot, and then on some, enjoyable though it was I had to nip out. I'd inspected…
2009-12-11
A thick cold damp mist is bogged in over the South Downs this morning. I haven't been out much this week as I seem to have been zooming up and down the A roads to the Royal Geographical Society and back. On Monday night it was the last president, Prof Sir Gordon Conway's farewell lecture followed by a black tie dinner with the new President, Michael Palin CBE. Good food for mind and body and, as always at the RGS, great company and stories round the tables.Yesterday I gave my Beginner's Guide to Natural Navigation course for another wonderfully…
2009-11-20
This morning I gave a talk to 30 pupils in Year 1 at my son's school. Much scarier than talking to 500 people at the Royal Geographical Society!I've just published a couple of articles I have written and which are exclusive to this site. The first is about whether we have a 'sixth sense' that helps us navigate. The second is about whether men and women have different navigation abilities.
2009-09-25
An engaging group for the Beginner's Guide to Natural Navigation course at the Royal Geographical Society yesterday. Diverse in age and interests as always. When we were discussing the difference in the sun's behaviour between the solstices and equinox it felt more poignant that we are so close to the autumnal equinox itself. We looked at a model of the Earth orbiting the sun, then shifted our attention to shadows. A couple of days ago I took advantage of the sunshine to practice what I preach.This chalk line in this picture shows the shadow tips joined over a period of…
2009-07-03
A fun and full day for the Beginner's Guide course at the RGS yesterday. I had been worried about the heat, but nobody seemed to mind - natural navigators are a hardy and positive-framed bunch as a whole!
2009-03-13
One of the things that I love about running my courses is that I'm guaranteed to learn something too, but because of the diverse backgrounds of those that attend I can never guess what area it will be in. Over the past few courses I have learnt something about drumlins, Foucault's pendulum, moles and sewage smells. This is a subject that is wonderfully difficult to pigeonhole, which reminds me...The Geographical magazine asked me today whether I considered myself a geographer.I gave the following, slightly long-winded answer:'Am I a geographer? Good question,…
2009-02-08
A combination of a low-show on Friday due to bad conditions and the fact that everyone is really getting into the idea of heading off somewhere hot at some point this year gave the Destinations Travel Show a real buzz yesterday.I gave my talk, 'The Forgotten Journey', on behalf of the Royal Geographical Society. The audience clearly had one or two enthusiasts amongst it as the questions were even more interesting and perceptive than usual.Some of my family live nearby and had threatened to turn up and heckle at the back. One small problem was…
