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Navigation - Maps, Compass, GPS How to find your way - traditional map, compass and road signs, or GPS and more
Photo by Daniel Rintz, Himba children, Namibia

The only impossible journey
is the one
you never begin

Photo by Daniel Rintz,
Himba children, Namibia




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  • 1 Post By PanEuropean
  • 1 Post By Tim Cullis

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  #1  
Old 24 Feb 2011
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Natural Navigation

Today I completed a natural navigation course. I had a fantatic time, and learned some really useful skills. I'll be putting some of this into practise next week on my way from the UK to Morocco. More info at Welcome to the Natural Navigator, The Natural Navigation School – The Natural Navigator
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Old 24 Feb 2011
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Grate idea I use road sighs for the most parts and a compass in more remote areas. Someday maybe a GPS I gust do not trust it.
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Old 26 Feb 2011
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In a past existence I was an instructor at the Royal Air force survival school and what we taught was use any means possible to navigate but remember, the sun always rises in the east and sets in the west, unless you have taken a really bad turn. Ride safe.
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Old 28 Feb 2011
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Blimey, some of that stuff takes me back. As a kid I spent years in the boy scouts learning what grew on which side of various trees etc and then having to navigate by sense of smell after being dumped in some wilderness. No idea if they teach that sort of stuff now but it's great to see someone doing it.
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Old 1 Mar 2011
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That's the way to do it. I've used a GPS before, but if you are observant you really don't need one.
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Old 2 Mar 2011
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Not when your in the arctic.

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Originally Posted by maja View Post
In a past existence I was an instructor at the Royal Air force survival school and what we taught was use any means possible to navigate but remember, the sun always rises in the east and sets in the west, unless you have taken a really bad turn. Ride safe.
Was working in Fairbanks, Alaska for a couple weeks this winter. Got lost driving around. I looked at the sun, and decided I was going South. My co-worker (native to the area) laughed at me and told me we were going west. He was right. The sun lied!

The sun set and was hidden for about 4 hours while I was there, and it was only about 60 degrees from where it rose.
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Old 2 Mar 2011
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Tristian has also got a very good book out which has loads of information in it for those interested in the subject.

I can strongly recommend it.
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Old 24 Jan 2018
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Tristan's book is available from my affiliate link Things we use: The Walker's Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs
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Old 10 Nov 2018
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I still use my becoming classic, M73 compass. It works in all compass zones (did you know that some compasses only work in certain areas of the world? Unless they are properly jewelled to work in all 5 zones?) Note this is NOT marked in degrees, but is a 6400 Mil graduations card. There are 17 mils to one degree (fag packet maths), navigating to an accuracy of 5 Mils is perfectly possible, so that equates to navigating to 1/3rd of a degree - try doing that with a 360 graduations card, you'll be doing very well to get within 1/2 degree.
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Old 16 Nov 2018
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...navigating to an accuracy of 5 Mils is perfectly possible, so that equates to navigating to 1/3rd of a degree - try doing that with a 360 graduations card, you'll be doing very well to get within 1/2 degree.
That sounds very impressive, but how and where do you find roads that are straight to 1/3 of a degree?
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Old 16 Nov 2018
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Good luck using those skills getting through a typical US city 10 lane interchange at 70mph in peak hour.
Get a gps, load it with OSM and enjoy the trip.
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Old 16 Nov 2018
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I have another of Tristan's books, Wild Signs and Star Paths.
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Old 16 Nov 2018
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That sounds very impressive, but how and where do you find roads that are straight to 1/3 of a degree?
I-80 past the Bonneville salt flats in Utah must get close. Out of straight by about the width of the carriageway over 40 miles. They even give you markers and instructions so you can check your speedo accuracy as you go to stop you getting bored and nodding off.
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Old 28 Dec 2018
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American freeway interchanges are easy if English is your first language—usually well-signed with lots of advance warning, acceleration and de-acceleration lanes, rarely any water buffalo to avoid....

I bought a GPS after getting hopelessly lost in dark, rainy Italian cities a decade or so ago. I’ve used it to locate specific addresses in my home town, but never did install it on any of my bikes, and I left it at home during a year in Latin America. Sometimes on that trip I took advantage of other, better-prepared riders, but as often they followed their screen instructions into ridiculous situations which I, with paper maps, a good sense of direction, and willingness to ask directions, avoided.

Then I got temporarily lost in the mountains (on foot) for the first time in my life. I bought another GPS designed for hiking and climbing, but never learned how to use it. Finally, I tried to find my way around Vietnam last year, and after a particularly humiliating time in Hanoi I decided it was time I learned to use navigation apps on my phone....which brings me to the present moment in Lao. I’m using Maps.me and Google maps with varying degrees of success. Today I visited a remote site which I probably wouldn’t have dared look for without the phone to help locate me every five or ten minutes.

And that’s the problem. I still have a good sense of direction, and if I’m paying attention I seldom guess wrong. When I do, I can still ask directions from locals, even without speaking the language. But because I’ve got this technological wonder available I’ve stopped asking locals, and instead I check my phone with alarming frequency—just to reassure myself that I’ve got it right, and won’t have to retrace my steps over this 5000 foot pass (think: single lane dirt, stone and mud; steep grades, thousand foot drop offs, oncoming trucks....) to get back on track. And because I’ve got the technology, I’ve already stopped paying attention, which means I really do need the phone because I hardly even know which direction I’m headed much of the time. I don’t even have to learn local pronunciation, because I don’t need to name my destination to anyone (except police, which is another story).

It’s depressing: I’ve turned off my skill and intuition, instead relying on this very fallible technological fix—just like everyone else. And I get positively offended when it lets me down—for example, but sending me down a shortcut without mentioning that there’s no bridge across the very large river.

I’ll agree with the poster above: once near the Arctic Circle (or the Antarctic Circle, I suppose), a lot of the usual rules don’t apply. For example, sometimes the sun doesn’t set; sometimes it never rises. And once you cross either of the tropics, the sun spends a lot of time where you don’t expect it—yes, it’ll still rise in the east, but maybe it inhabits the northern sky all or most of the day. I found this so contrary to what I expected that I struggled to adjust.

Oh, and for what it’s worth it’ll be a long time before I get good enough to operate a GPS while riding my bike. Here, the locals all text like crazy while riding around at unreasonable speeds. Your husband and his truck are probably a different story.
Mark
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