While there’s no denying that GPS navigation systems have enabled us to travel more freely than ever before, our reliance on such devices arguably does little to enrich our journeys. The answer? A course at the School of Natural Navigation. Here, founder Tristan Gooley teaches the old-fashioned art of getting around using your senses and the clues nature provides.
Gooley is the only man alive to have flown and sailed solo across the Atlantic and there is no direction-finding technique he hasn’t mastered. Sign up for the three-hour Weekday Whirlwind taster session on the South Downs, and you’ll learn how to scrutinise your surroundings and the elements for intriguing route-revealing clues. The arc of the sun, the moss on bridleway signposts, the foliage on branches, the growth rings on a cross-section of a tree trunk, the wind, sea, even the depth of puddles — all provide navigational clues.
‘Anyone can do this,’ says Gooley. ‘We’ve had sailors, pilots, explorers... but all you need is the will to look at the world in a slightly different way.’ Contact +44 (0)7775 521 693, naturalnavigator.com.
