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!
I once set off on a compass bearing from a Munro summit in mist with my friend Pete. Ten minutes later Pete said, “we’ve been here before”, and there was the cairn of the Munro we had left ten minutes earlier. Needless to say the compass remained in my hand after that.
Easy to believe in Scotland, it can all get a bit confusing up there!
In halcyon days long gone, when lost I turned to the dog. “Shanty, go find car” I would say. She would give me the sort of look only a dog can perfect. “Silly woman. You’ve done it again, haven’t you?” Then she would take me straight back to the car – well that’s where a dog keeps her supper, isn’t it? Reverting to map, compass and gps was quite a shock, but K9 will only take me to the nearest rabbit hole, or stare at me in complete bewilderment.
Starfire – did you call your dog Shanty because of its connection with the last line of Elliot’s Wasteland (spelling slightly different)?
Sorry Conrad – nothing so erudite, I’m afraid. As a child we always holidayed at the Sea Shanty Holiday Chalets, which I loved; I also love singing Sea Shanties; and Shanty was sold for a song. Then, too, her predecessor was called Tammy and I got the odd link of Tam O’ Shanter from that. Shanty’s full name was Shanty-feet because she had huge feet which she would wrap round door-knobs to try and open them. She knew what to do, but couldn’t quite manage it, though she could and did open any lever door handle, forwards or backwards, if she wanted to go through. She was undoubtedly the cleverest of my dogs.
I’m afraid I haven’t read Elliot’s Wasteland.
It’s easy enough to read it and just get some pleasure from the sound of the poetry and words – much harder to interpret which I hasten to add I have not done beyond reading a bit to get a general impression. I do favour the name Shanty but that is another story.
We do like stories Conrad …
I remember both Tammy and Shanty well. When I first met Tammy I believe he was taller than I was!