No, it is because in the spring of 2008 I was busy trying to work out whether there was any point in trying to make a living by teaching natural navigation, or not. Whether, perhaps, that was the stupidest idea I had ever had, a competition with some depth in the field. The problem was that there was no ‘sensible’ way of deciding whether to go ahead with it or not. There was no point bouncing the idea off family, bank managers, priests or ouija boards. The answers that would come back would just be different flavours of, ‘Mmmmmm….’.

The decision was made when I asked a professional pilot friend of mine a couple of questions.

‘Jim, bear with me here.’

‘OK, mate.’

‘Jim, where does the sun rise each day?’

‘In the east.’

‘Yes. Now, Jim, tell me everything you know about where the sun rises each day.’

There was a short pause.

‘I just did, mate.’

At that point the decision was made. Somebody needed to get evangelical about this subject, whether it was sensible to do so or not, and that somebody might as well be me. I registered the domain name, naturalnavigator.com, that evening.

To this day I get great pleasure whenever someone thanks me for helping them reconnect with the sun as it rises and sets each day. At the end of one course, a man in his late seventies, who had seen an awful lot of the world in his time, approached me. He said, out of earshot of the others,

‘I’m so glad I didn’t see out this fair innings of mine without working out where the sun rises each day!’

That moment alone made the whole endeavour worthwhile. I am very grateful that there have been quite a few others.

There is a website that can help in this quest to reconnect with the sun. It is rather beautiful in its simplicity. It allows you to work out the sunrise and sunset direction from anywhere on Earth at any time of the year. I love it. Here it is:

http://suncalc.net

Looking at a website is not the same as feeling the rays on your face. But it does allow you to travel the world over the course of the year, all before a cup of tea has run dry, which holds its own small magic.

On Wednesday 5th October at 8pm, All Roads Lead Home, will be on BBC2.

It is going to be a beautiful moment, except the bits I’m in, which will be a bit feral.

In the programme, Alison Steadman, Sue Perkins and Stephen Mangan learn the basics of natural navigation before being released into the wilds of Cornwall (Episode 1), Ireland and then Wales & Liverpool.

I will be posting more about the programme, including some info about the making of the series on this website over the coming weeks. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the programme.

You’ll love the telly, it’s like the newfangled internet but with good-quality large pictures that move and excellent quality sound and everything! The download speed is extraordinary.

However you found your way, now that you are here have a bit of an explore and get as lost in this website as you like.

If you’ve enjoyed watching some natural navigation on TV, then make sure you tune to the series, All Roads Lead Home, which will go out on BBC2 in October.

If you’d like to learn more about natural navigation in the meantime, then have a browse of the website or my book on the subject.

Being a coastal region, Brittany is a natural home for these orange Xanthoria lichens, which can be both a blessing and curse when it comes to using them to understand direction. This is because conditions need to be close to perfect for lichens to thrive, but if they are too good then a lichen will manage well on more than one side, and occasionally on all sides.

This nuance creates a challenge for those new to the subject of natural navigation, including those who took part in the upcoming BBC2 series, ‘All Roads Lead Home’. Sue Perkins, in particular, was understandably frustrated that the lichens would not always obey a perfect rule in terms of the aspect they preferred. In the very short time available, it was incredibly difficult to convey the rich way lichens can help us navigate.

The important point is that lichens do not care about our concepts of north, south, east or west, they care only about their environment. South-facing walls, rocks and bark will tend to be drier as they receive more direct sunlight than north-facing ones (in the northern hemisphere). These sunny, dry conditions are ideal for these orange lichens and so there is a strong correlation between orange lichens and south-facing, but, and it is a big but, the keys lie in patterns and assymetry.

It takes time and patience to appreciate that hard rules are pointless when it comes to lichens, as lichens are as mischievious as they are fascinating: rules will deprive us of both confidence in direction and a richer understanding of our environment.

It is only by spotting patterns, getting to know consistencies – and indeed inconsistencies – that we grow to understand the habits, ie. habitats, of the lichens in each area.

Close to the sea these orange Xanthoria lichens are often happy to cover all sides of the right types of rock, but further inland they can be fussier, showing a marked preference for the sunnier southern side. Further inland still, they become rarer altogether. But they will tell a story of environment in each place, one that is fun to read, providing you resist the temptation to jump to the final page of the story by assuming rules and tricks that are not part of the plot!

It has been an amazing experience and most excitingly it means that… natural navigation is coming to a televison near you soon!

The premise of the series is as follows: Alison Steadman, Sue Perkins and Stephen Mangan learn how to navigate naturally and then go on 3 journeys together, each one to a place that holds some important connection for them. (Sue Perkins loves and lives in Cornwall, when she is not inhabiting a tv or radio that is.)

There will be lots of walking in stunning locations, a little messing around in small boats and even some natural navigation in the air. I will be adding loads more detail here during the weeks in the lead up to the time the series goes out, in early September on BBC2.  All I have time to write here is that it promises to be an extraordinary bit of television for anyone with any interest in navigation, the outdoors or extreme-relaxing in front of the box.

In this picture we are looking east in Ballycroy National Park. Notice how the two sides of this drainage ditch look very different. The darker left side of the ditch, that is the south-facing northern side, is covered in a thick mat of heather, whereas there is little or none growing on the opposite bank. Heather dislikes shady spots and so can be a good indicator of south-facing inclines in northern latitudes.

Assymetry, my friends, that is the name of the natural navigation business!

A similar principle can be used on land to find towns or villages. The number of roads, paths, power lines and communication cables increases as you get nearer a town; of course light and noise pollution also increase. There are some more ‘lateral’ clues too.

On the weekend I was walking with friends in the South Downs. My friend had the map and so I did not know exactly how far we were from our lunch stop, the George and Dragon pub in the West Sussex village of Burpham. We had been walking for about 9 miles, in deep snow and along slushy paths. We were hungry, which can help sharpen the senses.

I knew that we were within half a mile of the village when the incidences of dog mess sky-rocketed along the sides of our path. Dog-walkers are habitual and have their rituals. The path we were following into the village was clearly a favourite short walk for the dog-owning villagers. There were at least one hundred poops in the space of four hundred metres. Disgusting, yes, but in a strange way a welcome navigational sight. Lunch could not be more than 15 minutes away!

I can’t think of a book that has hurtled more determinedly into the gap between the two faces of America. Is it a country of ‘drive 100 yards to the mall’ or ‘head west’, the pioneer spirit and Henry David Thoreau? Of course it is both; I have seen someone in Florida drive between two shops but stay in the same car-park, but I have also watched someone who thirsted so greatly for the outdoors that they died in front of me in Arizona.

British readers will know that this is not a book about physical exertion, but one about thoughts.

Here is a sneak preview of the US cover. What do you think?

The US edition can be pre-ordered on Amazon or more details can be found here.

If you are not a NYT reader, but would like to be then my natural navigation article can be found here.