Natural navigation

[jojo]

I was watching Countryfiles just now, and that guy came on. Tristan Gooley, talking about Natural Navigation. This is the link to his website He sounded very interesting and knowledgeable so I looked him up on the net..
There are some very interesting articles about using clues, some obvious and some less so, in the landscape to help find our way within it.
Just the sort of thing we may well be very interested in!

 

[stooboy]

thanks jojo I just watched the same prog and was interested also was about to google it, you saved me the time, thanks for sharing.

stoo.

 

[swyn]

Excellent! Thanks for the heads up jojo.

Swyn.

 

[Mang]

I enjoyed that but thought it give little instruction in the piece. I would also have thought it belonged on 'Country Tracks' more (and maybe the droving feature on 'Countryfile'?).

 

[Bravo4]

Super cool link! I think this guy is RIGHT ON! He's getting so much more out of navigation than just arriving at his destination. For routefinding and wilderness travel as it relates to bushcraft, I do believe natural navigation is where it's at. As for survival skills useful to various outdoorsy types, I would rank navigation as skill #1 and nearly all other skills usually being needed only after skill #1 is somehow neglected.

GPS can be a very useful tool but it tends to develope into a crutch leaving the user less able to get along without it. A compass is another great tool but it is not THE tool. Your brain, use it or lose it.

Another interesting guy and an outstanding natural navigator is the American sailor Marvin Creamer. He sailed around the world without instruments. And no timepiece. The link below is to a podcast interview where he talks about some of the techniques he used, based primarily on careful observation of his environment.
http://www.furledsails.com/article.php3?article=774

 

[Wayland]

Great link, looks like he is using a lot of the same info that Harold Gatty wrote in "Nature is your guide" which is a good book if you can get it.

 

[Kerne]

Interesting ideas - thanks for the link, Joel.

On a slightly different tack (excuse the pun), back when I used to go a'sailing on the sea, I got into the work of David Lewis on the natural navigation techniques used at sea by polynesian peoples.

This is the classic work:
http://www.starpath.com/catalog/books/1803.htm

Worth a read if you're into this sort of thing - and who knows, one day you might go on that south sea island cruise...

 

[jungle_re]

Interesting to see someone else doing a similar teaching, although i did think that it was slightly misleading the way pointers were shown.

IE The tree shown with the graphic was important due to its location; in an open field, not overshadow nor in a pronounced valley all of which would be reason to ignore or backup with other signs and this was not explained.

Nor is it a good idea to encourage navigation purely on cardinal points.

 

[Joonsy]

Great link, looks like he is using a lot of the same info that Harold Gatty wrote in "Nature is your guide" which is a good book if you can get it.

I have that book, and agreed it is very good, lots of information in it.

 

[jojo]

Great link, looks like he is using a lot of the same info that Harold Gatty wrote in "Nature is your guide" which is a good book if you can get it.

There is another book by Harold Gatty: Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass which is well worth adding to your bushcraft library. Just one example, if you want to know why lost people walk in circles giving various examples of what can cause this.

 

[Bravo4]

Mention of Vikings on the Britain BC kit thread reminded me of this site which deals with a niche of natural nav, polarized light. It's how the bees do it, navigate that is. Check out the "Your Eye" section for how to detect polarized light without polarized filters. Once you start to see Haidinger's brush it's hard not to see it on an LCD monitor for example.
http://www.polarization.com/

 

[Kerne]

I followed the link to Amazon for the Gatty book and - lo and behold! - the last review is a recommendation from one "T. Gooley"!

 

[jungle_re]

I followed the link to Amazon for the Gatty book and - lo and behold! - the last review is a recommendation from one "T. Gooley"!

PMSL wonder if he reads straight from the text

 

[jojo]

Oh, what little faith we have ! The guy is still a sailor and pilot who, I gather, has both sailed and flown across the Atlantic in small boats and plane. Even if he used electronic navigation, he still got navigation experience. Reviewing that book does not mean he is cheating!

 

[jungle_re]

Your not wrong jojo im happy to hold my hands up to that but i found it funny, come on smile. Aerial and maritime nav are very different entities from terrestrial navigation; he is not only well experienced in both but he has a list of approved quals under his belt so there is little doubt in my mind he knows what he is talking about in regard to those subjects. Now Mr Gooley only teaches natural navigation apart from astro/solar what would of been covered? Its very difficult to spot moss, puddle marks, branch growth, flowers etc from the air or from a boat. Mr Gooley has done some impressive expeditions but none are particularly directly related to the lions share of what he teaches. His courses if they cover whats in the Gatty books will be good information for nav aids but i personally don't think its a wise idea to promote land navigation solely by natural signs its my professional opinion that to do do so would be foolish. Its fairly obvious that there is overlap in what i teach and Gooley does so im hardly unbiased but i would consider myself to be fair. I suppose it boils down to whether it matters where the information he teaches comes from. my venture Im sure he will do well he obviously has got some good contacts with the part in country file etc; if my venture doesn't last maybe he'll give me a job lol

 

[jojo]

Your not wrong jojo im happy to hold my hands up to that but i found it funny, come on smile.

Oops, I forgot the big grin when I wrote that this morning! Was not meant as a dig at anyone!

 

[jungle_re]

Oops, I forgot the big grin when I wrote that this morning! Was not meant as a dig at anyone!

Wasnt taken as one one bud

 

[Kerne]

Oh, what little faith we have ! The guy is still a sailor and pilot who, I gather, has both sailed and flown across the Atlantic in small boats and plane. Even if he used electronic navigation, he still got navigation experience. Reviewing that book does not mean he is cheating!

I took his review as a real recommendation.

 

[jojo]

I took his review as a real recommendation.

That just shows how easy it is to misunderstand what people mean sometimes!!