The natural Navigation: The Right Course, Naturally

I’m just back from some micronavigation in the Black Mountains in Wales.

I should get a chance to blog in more detail in time, but for now I just wanted to share a couple of nice clues I found in the light snow and ice I walked amongst.

The first photo shows the first snow I encountered on a climb out of the Vale of Ewyas. We are looking east in this picture, the only snow to have survived the thawing warmth of the day are the thin strips hiding in the shade on the south side of the path. This technique is analogous to the one using puddles on the south side of west-east tracks.

The sunlight can be seen lighting the hillside in the background and unsurprisingly there is little snow to be found there. It is only in the shadows that it survives on the lower…

Read More...

I have just returned from a wonderful couple of days in the Lake District. I was at the ‘Words by the Water‘ literary festival in Keswick in the Lake District. My thanks to Kay and Steve for hosting such a great event. When I was invited to give a talk it did not take long to make up my mind: a literary festival, in a theatre by a lake, surrounded by beautiful mountains? Where do I sign?

It would have been churlish not to sample some of the local bumps whilst up there and I enjoyed a fantastic walk up to High Street (named after the Roman Road that went over the peak). The conditions changed almost instantly, as they are wont to do at this time of year, from mild and sunny to bitter cold, freezing fog and ferocious winds near the summit. The map came out to…

Read More...

Day in, day out, paths experience a different life to that of their verges.

Very often there is undergrowth on each side of a path, sheltering one side of them from the sun’s drying rays, but their exposure to and shelter from wind also sets them apart. This can be seen most clearly when snow or frost is thawing. The path will either thaw first, or, as in this picture which I took about ten days ago, they hold onto their snow for longer.

As I mention in the book, this is something that can be of value when walking at night. If the path is big, bold and broad like this one (an old Roman road) then no help is needed in following a path at night, but if you are following one of those less clearly defined snakes in the grass then all help will be welcome.…

Read More...

Last night I divided my time between two very different arenas of the modern human experience. I watched dross on TV, including some Jonathan Dross himself, but then I found the antidote to such inanity. I nipped out regularly to put markers down in the snow, as I watched the moon’s shadows march west across the white.

I took some photos of the results of my moon shadow stick, together with a perfect north-south line, which I will be using on my Beginner’s Guide to Natural Navigation courses. Yes, that is a bit of a tease, but those who come on the courses part with £105 and I make sure that it includes plenty of exclusive material, not least dozens of images that cannot be seen anywhere else.

As compensation, I have posted these photos that I also took yesterday, of snow clinging in long thin strips to the…

Read More...

After the rather disgusting photograph a few days ago I thought it was time to right the balance with something more pleasing on the eye.

The snow has finally begun to thaw in this freezing microclimatic corner of West Sussex, but I did manage a fair amount of stomping around in the snow over the past week. This is a picture I took in my local beech woodland a couple of days ago.

Lichens are very sensitive to their environment – moisture levels and air quality in particular – but also the surface they grow on. This means that they can be used to understand direction, but a little local knowledge and familarity with the stones and barks of your area helps greatly.

There is a rust-coloured lichen that is clearly not keen on surfaces that dry regularly and can be found on the moist sides of many trees…

Read More...

After many woeful noises in the news about snow in the north, it finally hit us properly in the South Downs last night. More of a faint thud than a bang, as cakes of snow slid off the roof and hit the ground. Most of the snow in this picture fell last night.

We live off a road that becomes totally impassable very quickly: no ploughing, salt or grit has been seen in these parts! All journeys will be on foot for a couple of days I suspect.

Fortunately I managed to get out to my Contessa 32 yesterday and turn a heater on. I’m hoping to go sailing this weekend and if I can get to Chichester marina it may prove possible. Whilst at the marina yesterday I noticed that the northerly wind was corralling the flakes of snow that were settling on the surface down into the southern…

Read More...

The snow is melting away, but not at the same speed everywhere. The warmer wind which is blowing from the southeast today is leaving green swathes wherever it reaches. In this photo, which is taken looking east, the snow in the top right corner is being sheltered by woodland, but the snow to the left is also being left relatively untouched by the same wind because it is partly in the lee of the hill, but also because the woodland to the left of the picture is forcing the airflow up over it. In aviation terms the wind appears to be performing a ‘touch-and-go‘, coming into land before taking off again straight away.

Just back from minus 15 degrees in the Scottish Highlands and the unseasonable season continues! It’ s great – even if it has cost me a Land Rover Defender (AXA have just left a message to say that mine is a write-off following a failed negotiation with a stout beech tree).

Here I am taking a break from family duties and checking that the snow is doing what I have come to expect of it. The compass feels very light after hours of hauling a tobogganing sled, weighed down by two lumps, up the hill repeatedly.

…from the Scottish Highlands.

As my head hit the pillow last night I was worried about today. Worried about missing out. The forecasted snow might mean that I should be outdoors, but today was always shaping up to be a very busy day at the desk.
One of our sons solved this little dilemma by getting me up at 4.30am. One peek out the window was enough to bring a childish, almost wild, excitement. For me that is, my son fell straight back to sleep. I was out on the hills by 5.00am. The plan wasn’t perfect: in order to avoid waking my wife I had to make do with the kit I could find downstairs.
I ventured out into the cold woods, wearing jeans, wellington boots and a pair of gardening gloves. The Shackleton Centenary Expedition this was not.

The woods managed to be both white and dark simultaeously.

I have just returned…

Read More...