Navigating with Trees in Cities
London plane trees are tall, broad-canopied trees with mottled bark that flakes away in patches of cream, grey, and olive. This gives their bark a…
Tag: city navigation
Start Walking North-West… Finish Facing?
In this video of a stroll through the town of St Ives in Cornwall we are walking north-west at the start. See if you keep…
Urban Fox Signs
My thanks to everyone who came to my talk at the Cruising Association last week. For news about upcoming talks, please subscribe to my free…
Edinburgh Clues & Signs
I was recently in Edinburgh to give a talk to celebrate the Royal Institute of Navigation‘s 75th Anniversary. I’ve just added my favourite clues, signs and…
Nature’s Clues & Signs 3 – Soho Walkabout
A couple of weeks ago I was staying in central London for a week, mainly to record the audiobook version of my latest book, The…
The Fine Art of Looking at Ugly Walls
Walls that start life looking the same do not stay that way for long. The sun hits exposed south-facing walls hard in the middle of…
Urban Picture Puzzle
This picture was taken near the middle of the day in London. What direction are we looking? Clue: look for the circle and the square.…
The Many Faces of Chichester Cross
Chichester Cross is a market cross – the building that symbolises the heart of the market square in my nearest town of Chichester, West Sussex.…
Going with the Flow – Navigating Paris with help from the Seine
I have just received a fascinating email from Alban Cambe, a natural navigation instructor and writer in France, I learned a new trick to navigate…
How to Find Direction Using Tree Bark
The wind, rain and sun do not affect all sides of trees equally. This creates patterns on the trees’ bark that we can use to…
Urban Natural Navigation
The following article was written by Tristan Gooley in October 2011 for the BBC News Online magazine. It caused quite a stir and comments were switched…
How to Cross a Park Like an Explorer
I wrote an article for the Independent newspaper this week on ‘How to Cross a City Park Like an Explorer’. It gives a taste of…
Finding Your Way with Cranes
If you like really esoteric natural navigation clues, then you’ll love this urban one. There are hundreds of clues that rely on our understanding of…