I would agree that using a compass and map to keep track of progress - rather than just following the arrow on the GPS as it points to the next waypoint - adds much to the experience of travelling through a strange land. Maps are what we start with when planning a route and using a map to chart progress gives one a sense of relationship and contact to the land in a way that "passing through" using a GPS does not.

Using a sextant or theodolite to provide an astro-fix to check the dead reckoning requires a skill of a different order which, with the cheapness and reliability of GPS receivers, is now probably redundant. Once again though, I would argue that as the accuracy of the CN fix will only be of the order of a kilometre or so at best, so figuring out just exactly where you are on the map within that kilometre does make you look at the land around you in a much more objective and intense way and your memory of it will that much better. And, it does force you to at least look at the sky in an informed way - and the night sky in the Sahara desert is magnificent.

But there again, it was the advent of the GPS which really opened up the deep desert to tourist travel. Before 1990, a sextant/theodolite was a necessary piece of kit, along with the skill to use it. Now....? Well, suffice to say that the prospect not making it back to the black top road is much reduced on many levels.

I wondered if there was many others out there who enjoyed using the old methods to stay found.

Geoffrey