By: Blonde Two

Mr B2 initially resisted Blonde navigation training, but these days is quite good at map and compass work. He needs to be, he regularly goes off cycling in the wilds of Mid Wales and has probably walked into and out of as many bogs as I have.

One of the important navigation skills is being able to walk in a straight line when you are following a compass bearing. There are ways to help with this, fixing your eye on a point ahead (not a cow or pony, those move) can help, as can asking someone else to walk on the same bearing. If you want to check the straightness of your walk, you can use a digital GPS device to trace your route (don’t cheat and use the GPS for finding, that is what your map and compass are for).

As it turns out, Mr B2 is quite good at walking in a straight line. On Sunday we were up on Dartmoor looking for a particularly invisible pool (I didn’t tell him that in summer it was just a bog). Mr B2’s bearing line was so undeviating that he walked directly into the pool (bog), up to his shins in fact!

It’s all in the training you know!