Navigation Manual

Navigation Down Under
For
Northern-Hemisphere Tourists .
Walkers and Scouts
Boating and Outdoor Orientation
1001 Ways to Extend
Your Navigational Know-How
2010
CONTENTS
Section page
1 BIG-PICTURE TOP-DOWN——–————3
Global Perspective
Sun
Stars
Earth
Moon
Wind
Clockwise Navigation
Anticlockwise Systems
Revision, Overview, Explanations
2 THE INSIDE STORY—Mental Manoeuvres—34
Learn
Think Interpret
Look
Integrate
Orientation
Disorientation
Reorientation
Lost?
Miscellaneous: Angle; Night-time
3 REALLY INTERESTING STUFF

—Bush Navigation——————————56
Nature’s Norths
Memory & Naming Skills
Lie of the Land
Tracks and Bends
4 DISTANCE——————————————90
Progress
Pace
Range
MAP and/or COMPASS
Map Use
Magnetic Compass Use
Mapmaking
5 Navigational Mnemonic———————110
6 Appendices—————————————116
Tide and Moon Dial
Star Charts; Zodiac
Morse Code & Rhythm Mnemonics
Semaphore Code & Mnemonics
Symbols for Track-Notes & Mud-maps
A List of Star Coordinates
Great Circles; Calendars in the Sky
Tropical Countries
7 Contents/Index———————————128
2
Section 1: The Big Picture Approach
Big-Picture Rule One: Locate a Distant Reference Direction First

Until you Orient yourself to the bigger picture, by finding an unchanging direction to latch on to,
•Small-scale pictures and large-scale mental layouts cannot come together. •And the local features won't fit into the bigger perspective.
•Your mental photographs will float around in chaos, like so many loose jigsaw pieces, or letters in an alphabet soup.
In choosing a Reference Direction, your first choice should be...
•ASTRONOMICAL — Sun, Moon, stars, planets, satellites—e.g. Locate the direction of the North Pole Star. There is an astronomical overview p32f
Then •GLOBAL — Compass or Botanical or Geomorphological North e.g. find Canada’s North Magnetic Pole.
Next •CONTINENTAL — Weather Systems, radio transmitters, powerline networks, highways, sea-coast—e.g. notice the Sydney to Hobart flight path.
Then •DISTANT landforms — Lie, Lay, Lines, Hills; Lights, etc.—e.g. the direction of the main river valley draining to the sea.
Last of all comes: •What you can see in front of your nose! I.e. don’t let your mind latch on to some unreliable or meaningless reference like
how the car is parked, or where the wind is, or the initial direction of the track/the drive in/the main street, or uphill, or the way you got out of bed…
•If you can’t see a thing beyond a few metres, and have no compass, you will need to “keep a straight line” (see p. 87b) by lining up markers.
Now that you have a reference direction, you can implement the other “Rule One”s...
•Match what you see in front of your nose to the reference;
•Predict your overall trend before you start; •Notice your start-off direction as you start.
Visualisation is your Key Skill

This is most especially relevant to orienting your nose, in your mind’s eye, to the Bigger or Invisible Pictures, but is needed at all scales.
Imagine where the Southern Cross is during the day; or where the cars are, now; how you got here.
Visualise the Earth’s invisible spin-axis and the weather map you saw, yesterday
Mentally picture the Galactic spiral! — which clock-sense is it? or the turnoff you need — will it be uphill?
Remember the tropical countries under the Sun and the way back
Describe the path of a shadow-tip in mid-Winter or what makes this place recognisable
Picture sunrise in Antarctica tomorrow morning or old blazes, in your mind, so you don't miss any
Interpret numbers, labels and words into reality e.g. what the shape of the night-sky has to do with your global position
Express visually what each clue means e.g. what “high noon” means to you right now
Mentally photograph the map as you study it beforehand and how the climb opened out onto the plateau
Mentally match the invisible landscape trends to the reference direction and to what you see in front of your nose
At night, and in the rain, navigation gets to be 'all in the mind'.
By recreating the reality you can't see, you can navigate what is in front of your toes, by intelligent imagination.
Big-Picture Orientation is a Mental Layout Acquired Beforehand

Because the invisible picture is so large, you can do your global and continental orientation at home before you start.
Travelling all day to go walking somewhere else, will hardly alter it.
You use: a globe; an atlas; a roadmap of the continent — to learn the lay beforehand. These are layout maps... The relative positions shown are fixed.
But layout views — as seen from above — will hardly ever be seen in your reality, first-hand.
(In contrast, when you come to putting yourself in the middle of the big-picture, you see the landscape first-hand, and you will need
“Nose Navigation” — as seen from the ground — which is all about the apparent relative directions.)
The global constants won't change as you walk, e.g. the behaviour of the Sun and stars, because everything is so distant.
You need extra care to visualise the Big Picture, and its meaning, because it is (a) Round (global) (b) Layout (i.e. mental only) (c) Invisible (d) Big!
Do this before you attempt to nose your way through the local scenery.
Smaller-scale clues can then 'fit-in', sensibly, to the larger context.
Compass Navigation Robs You of a Global Perspective

Flat maps must distort the true picture. Only a globe is true. Mercator-projection maps (diagram 1) distort land areas and longitude lines,
in order to “preserve the straightness” (!) of a compass course, which never was straight!
If you glue your nose to a compass needle, to follow a compass-course, ^
the course which looks straight on a flat Mercator map will actually take you on a spiral, Width or
into either the South or North Pole (as when you keep any landmark at a diagonal). latitude
The sense of the spiral (turning to your right/left) changes as you cross the Equator... on the
Because you do need a big-picture approach, you need a global perspective. map’s side
(Here’s a good place to set out the basics... V
Remember: “Latitude equates to the distance from the Equator” — the short dimension. A 3D spiraling helix
“Longitude turns upon the time — how long has the globe turned since midnight") < long for longitude >
Here’s a test: Imagine the midsummer sunset from well Down Under, looking even further South. Do you think of a tropical country in that direction?
The following section — about Sun Moon Earth and Stars — aims to restore a true perspective to people who can hardly think except with a flat diagram,
and can hardly visualise anything without divorcing it from the real landscape in front of their nose. (There is always a tropical country under the Sun.)
Think of this ‘global orientation’ section as a global Re-Orientation and don't forget, that... Global means Round!
The Big Picture is Invisible — Your Job is to Visualise It!

As a matter of principle, we should work top-down
i.e. from a framework down to the detail, from general to specific, large to small, overall to local, unchanging to changeable.
As a matter of fact, we are lazy. The point of doing “useless” grand-scale orientation exercises is to:
make global orientation second nature — easier next time around;
to make you forget flat pictures of a round Earth and to imagine it properly;
to give your struggling memory some comprehensive and relable framework to work within;
to integrate what you can't see with what you can, e.g. to link different walks and areas;
to orient to, and to understand, the Sun's movement, and to orient to the Moon and stars and planets as a bonus;
to make extra clues and techniques available, e.g. to open up astro-navigation techniques;
to work “top-down” — to avoid jumbling up your mind.
The idea is to read the following double-pages horizontally, as one topic, i.e. Sun-Sun; Stars-Stars; Clockwise-Anticlockwise.
To follow one topic through, flip over the pages and look in the corresponding positions.
3
Section 1: Big Picture; Top Down
Global Re-orientation — Light-Half/Dark-Half

horizon Step 1. Always Position Yourself on Top of the World. ..whether in a diagram or mentally or in reality.
This makes your reorientation realistic, doesn’t it?
Look at your feet and imagine you are standing on a huge basketball in the sunlight.
To visualise the light-half/dark-half of the globe, carry a real ball with you, preferably a globe of the world.
Imagine that everything which you see, this side of the horizon, is the tiny top-fraction of a huge ball.
Step 2. Face the Sun, but imagine it low down, setting, with horizontal rays coming to you.
Notice the circle which divides day from night, passing to left and to right underneath your feet.
“He divided light from darkness by a circle drawn on the face of the sea.” Job 26:10
Step 3. ‘Raise’ the Sun, and its sunbeams, to their actual height.
And as you do, let the dark-half fall back behind you by the same amount
i.e. degree for degree around a round globe—one degree of fall-back for one degree of Sun-rising.
After this you can do your best to answer: (Help will follow soon) What countries are seeing the Sun as horizontal?
i.e. Which countries does the ‘circle’ pass through at the moment? Which ones are seeing the Sun rise?
Which ones see it setting? Which parts see a 24-hour sunset, with the Sun skimming the horizon? (Use a globe)
Your Best Reference Direction: Imagine the Sun at High Noon — Always
(This won’t work so well in the tropics)
Night or day, your mental reference direction is North or South by the Sun. So imagine the Sun North of you (Southern Hemisphere) rain or shine.
It is the natural interpretation… of looking at your watch, and
of looking at the Sun, when it is not North of you. (Warning: Don’t look directly at the Sun! It will blind you!)
of looking at the compass. (You don’t want to locate ‘Canada’s magnetic pole’, after all!)
of judging botanical North/South (p.74a);
of using a map in conjunction with the landscape,
and even when using the Moon
Imagine the high-noon Sun in a real landscape — this one here! Noon height (Southern Hemisphere)
— at all times of day or night. i.e. your best guide to “North”
— at the correct height, on its circular path,
set
— which is tilted at its rise-set angle.
Warning: horizon You ..North
You will get disoriented
when you cross the Equator! rise
The 4 Bright Outer Stars of Orion Point out Where the Pot is Going
Rigel *
=Find N/S E/W & Equator * Saiph
.
W Hold this chart over your head .
.
N . *
Movement West *
Anticlockwise around Polaris Equator *
The middle of Orion’s belt will follow through the Arrow point.
0630 hrs
The north-west star of the belt — ‘Mintaka’ — lies ‘on the Equator’ (i.e. over the real one)
The N-S position of a star is called its ‘declination’, equivalent to the latitude of a point on Earth closest to it. Betelgeuse *
This is a Southerner’s view in Summer. The stars will be moving to your left 6°N Bellatrix *
The Pot handle down through Meissa points to Polaris .:Meissa
Look for the Line Joining Sun, Moon, Planets & Zodiac Stars—the Ecliptic
2 planets are Zodiacal Stars Mars (Red)
always near the Sun * O Moon
Venus (very bright white) * THE The Earth is moving Jupiter (very bright white)
Mercury (reddish)* ECLIPTIC through space, East-around the Sun, * * Saturn (Bright; yellowish)
Asteroid away from this high point at sunset; (SH view is shown)
Sun glow towards it, at sunrise. (e.g. if this is a NH view looking S)
N
The solar system — Sun and planets — is flat, and the Zodiac marks that plane, by design. It’s the ‘edge-on’ view, which we see, from within.
The Moon orbits within 5° of that plane, and so is never far off line. The line is called the Ecliptic — a great circle.
(It looks as straight as the horizon, unlike the diagram. See ‘Optical illusion’ in the Moon box, p.8d)
During the day, you can orient, not by the Sun only or the Moon only, but by the line joining them. Sometimes Venus may be visible too.
You have to imagine the rotation of that line (more on this soon). It does not move in the same direction in which it points, but its path is
up to 23°½ tilted from that.
Mnemonic: “Clock-wise Northern Hemisphere SWiNES”

top view N Europeans make chronometers to follow their Sun. NH clockwise
They see, looking South (diagram top right)… rise in the East ; South at noon ; set in the West. East West
W E That’s ‘clockwise’ (seen from above; East to South to West) for them South
The swines! They force us, down under, to place our clocks on the southern wall and think behind us!
(We see, looking North: rise East, to North at noon, to West i.e. SH; anti-clockwise)……
W N E
S
S to the noon Sun
clockwise top view
Anyway, changing your direction “Clockwise”, as seen from above, is turning to your right, and, ignoring the i, the mnemonic is:
South, to West, to North, to East, to South or “clockwise: SWiNES”
4
A mnemonic for global orientation: “True Polarity”

“True” courses refer to the Earth’s Poles — i.e. the axis of rotation of the Earth — the single most directional thing on our spherical Earth.
“True” bearings measure the angle between the course and the longitude line — a North/South line which connects the poles,
and which passes through your location.
N.P. N Course
this way
The angle is measured clockwise from ‘North’
Longitude lines Up to 360° e.g. 065°T
“Oh Six Five degrees True (-polarity)”!
S.P. Remind yourself, whenever you use “True”, by saying “True Polarity”!
Mnemonic: “Noon Sun Passes North of My Nose Down Under”— It Rhymes in ‘ n ’ (dow-nun-der)
(Now, Keeping your nose to North, say…) (The second parts work for both hemispheres provided you face North, not noon)
“Sun Rises on My Right (to the right of North)” —It Rhymes in ‘ ri ’
“Sun Sets on My Left (in the West)” —It Rhymes in ‘ e ’
“That’s Anticlockwise around the North Pole Star, if you are facing North from the SH; [Clockwise around the South Pole Star”, if facing S from NH]
“The SH horizon shifts to the right”
“The NH horizon Never Heads right, it moves left”
Paper Diagrams aren’t Enough.
For Southerners, looking at the noon Sun i.e. from South of the tropics Imagination isn’t enough.
Go outside and take a look.

this horizon really moves to the right (You will need to shield your eyes from the Sun, e.g. with your hand)
West/Set/Left North/Nose/Noon/Down Under East/Rise/Right Let the reality sink in.
The Two Brightest Stars Point out the South Pole Star
Canopus and Sirius line up almost South/North. A
Use the star next to Sirius (‘Mirzam’) and the line-up is perfect. Sirius * . Mirzam
The ‘Dog Star’ Sirius is the brightest star in the sky. 17 degrees S. GOOD
The Big Dog seems to have a front leg and back leg and a tail... . .
* SOUTHERN
.
Aludra, in the tail η* . The Big Dog * * SUMMER
δ . 0620 RA
Wezen, where he wees from * * α (‘Right Ascension’ SIGN
or star-time)
Adhara, the hind leg ε * *β Mirzam
This
is the nearest
bright star to Sirius * Canopus 53 degrees S.
(Go another 37 degrees to South polestar)
Mnemonic: “Wind? Weather Map!”

For navigating by the wind, don’t just leave it at the level of “The wind is from over there”.
∗ Look at the skyline “from Bruce Valley”

∗ Look at the Sunshine “from 30° to the left of the Sun at the moment” (Don’t look at the Sun!)
∗ Look at the Sun -path “a ‘sunset’ breeze” i.e. from sunset (Simply imagine its rise-set path.)
∗ Imagine the continent beyond the skyline “from the West Coast”
∗ Meld that reality to the weather map you remembered.
Don’t stop interpreting the wind until you can fit it into a Big Invisible Picture connected to that skyline over there.
Mnemonic: Down Under, The Sun Moves ANTI-BigBENWiSE i.e. anti-clockwise

Look at the ‘ENWiSE’ in the mnemonic.
Anticlockwise is East to North to West to South to East.
Ignore the i. Look down from above onto the horizontal directions involved…
Anticlockwise is turning to your left. “ Anti-clockwise is ENWISE ” W N E
(If you put a clockface on the north wall and look at the Sun’s movement, (Don’t look at the Sun!),
N you will see that the Southern Hemisphere’s second-hands tick backwards! i.e. against the Sun’s movement.
So put it on the south wall facing North, and the clock hands will move ‘with’ the Sun.)
W E In the tropics, the Sun will pass somewhere near overhead. To make it seem “anti-clockwise” anyway, face North.
top view
.
S Don’t get mixed up and think of Big Ben wise as clockwise. Down here our Sun moves anti- , and that is ENWiSE.
5
Mnemonic: “Time Tells Turning”

What’s the use of looking at your watch and spouting numbers! At least, glance at the Sun, or rather at its shadows (don’t look directly at the Sun)
and then, imagine the Sun’s direction at high noon as a reference direction.
That’s what time tells you! — the Sun’s position relative to its noon direction, North/South, called the “meridian”.
A.m. says “ante meridiem” i.e. “before noon”, and p.m. says “post meri-diem” i.e. “after mid-day”
Midday = 12 noon (but only in an ideal world, because noon is only approximately at 12)
One pm = one hour past 12md, and so on.
24-hour time tells you how far around the Earth has turned, since the Sun was opposite you i.e. since midnight.
(And then don’t forget that the local significance of the time is: progress — distance made good — “watch” your pace)
Mnemonic:
“Watch” the Sun (without looking at it) whenever you watch your watch
(and “watch” your steps too, for progress)
Notice these, Yesterday — to Guess the Time Today

• Sunrise time (and direction) ..If you know the time, you can guess at the directions.
• Sunset time (and direction) ..These first 2 are symmetric around North.
• The horizontal angle of separation between sunrise and set
• Midday time (and direction, and height) ..This is halfway between. Memorise how short your shadow is.
• When did it get light enough? To see. To walk.
• When did it get too dark? To cook. To walk.
• How long is the usable daylight? ..The day-length, between dawn and dusk.
• How many hours of dark?
• When did the Sun reach due East and due West? (How high?) ..This won’t happen in winter. They are symmetric around midday.
• Times for the Sun at magnetic East, noon, West? ..These don’t depend on guessing or calculating the magnetic variation.
Update yourself every week.
The Spinning Earth Makes Circular Paths for the Sun, Moon, Etc.
Sun, Moon, stars, planets — they all move only slightly in relation to each other during 1 day/night
— but they all zoom around at about 15° per hour from East to West.
Although I can draw this on flat paper as a circular path, the Equatorial path actually looks as
straight as the horizon, in reality! (Southern Hemisphere view)
You can now guess at time or direction by your familiarity with the circular ‘orbits’ e.g...
The highest point of the path will be North-South of you, if you can guesstimate it
Latitude determines the rise/set angle of the Equatorial path.
Rising and setting places are symmetrical around North.
*
Although individual rising and setting is symmetrical about North,
whole constellations that rise vertically in mid-latitude may set horizontally!
and vice versa e.g. The Big Dog or Scorpio rise flat C A
but dive vertically into the western horizon. A C W
The Moon; Rule 4: Look for It

You have a 1 in 4 chance of finding it during the day. Provided you remember to look!
Rules 1 and 2 (like so many other navigational clues) are...
• PREDICT when and where it should be visible
• GUESS where to look And Rule 3 goes with the guess:
• LEARN from that mistake.
Keep looking for it. It’s easy to miss. E.g. through the tree canopy; or rising through the horizon haze. Polaroid glasses help; you need to twist them
You will then have clues to… North, East, and West
Time of night (i.e. later)
Ocean tides
Tomorrow’s Moon — Phase; rise, set, direction, height
Upper-level winds, if there are clouds about.
Hint: Measure the Sun-Moon separation with a piece of string (Don’t look directly or indirectly at the Sun!) so you know exactly where to look later.
“VEERING” with the Sun is “Clockwise” only in the Northern Hemisphere

“BACKING”, against the Sun’s movement, is “Anticlockwise”
— but only in the Northern Hemisphere.
(The terms refer to horizontal directions changing either with or against the Sun’s movement)
“Veering and Backing” are Eurocentric images, so they can be very confusing Down Under. Don’t use those words in the Southern Hemisphere!
Say “Clockwise” and “Anticlockwise” instead

..for both hemispheres, as a matter of habit. Although these meanings too are Eurocentric, they are not confusing!
(the terms refer to a bird’s-eye view looking down from above as if onto a clock-face)
Meteorologists and mariners still use the terms ‘veering’ and ‘backing’ and they do mean ‘clockwise’ and ‘anticlockwise’
But the Sun-based image is backwards, south of the tropics.
6
The sky turns 15° per hour — Use your thumb and forefinger
The Earth rotates once a day. Yes? That’s 360° in 24 hours, yes?
Well that works out at 15° per hour — the sky spins 15°/hour to the West.
That calls for recognising 15° E.g. (diagrams left, and right) “one hour of sunlight left” (SH)
For Accuracy:
Less (0) Measure each handspan along the Sun’s ‘circular’ path, not horizontally.
than (1) Use constant stretch — of arms and fingers — ‘just strained’ — for consistency.
15° (2) Use constant chest-arm geometry. It is best to use two hands squarely in front of you…
(3)Test for 15°, horizontally, against the full 360° horizon — “24 spans go around the rim”.
Span off, 24 times, from point-to-point right around the horizon.
Adjust your hand configuration until you find one that fits the “24 Hours” recipe.
(4) Try gripping one hand with the other, or touching one, at a specified point, with the other
, or, (5) Look along your shoulder, sideways, at one hand.
My recipe for accuracy fits my arms:“4 spread fingers, wrist bent back fully (at arm’s length in front=60cm or 1cm/degree”)
What do your arms require for 24 spans = 360°?
Mnemonic: The Southern Summer Sun Sets Somewhat South

Surprising perhaps. (If you equate North with ‘hot’ you get caught on this.) (for Northern Hemisphere substitute ‘North’ for ‘South’)
When the Sun comes South for summer its sunrise and sunset places also shift South with it.
Memory hexagon for Mid-Winter and Mid-Summer Down-Under at 37° S…
(top view) N. (the Sun moves anti-clockwise through North)
300° T. 60° T. … In Mid-Winter, Down-Under, at 37°S., sunrise is at 60°T. and sunset is at 300°T. … A 9½ hour day.
In Winter the Sun will never show East or West of you.
W At Equinoxes — Mid-Autumn, and Mid-Spring — rise and set are East and West… a 12 hour day.
240° T. 120° T. … In Mid-Summer, Down-Under, at 37°S., sunrise is at 120°T., and sunset is at 240°T. … A 14½ hour day.
The Sun will be East and West at mid-morning and mid-afternoon respectively, and mid-high — about 45°.
180° T. Your main aim is to get familiar with the Sun’s circular path.
Stars Leave Star-Trails ..if you photograph them with time-exposure...

Star-trails are bits of circles, because… ..stars circle around the North and South Pole-Stars...
i.e. the Earth rotates on an N-S axis, which points to the Pole-stars. The pole star stays fixed in position all night (if you do).
Southern Stars Circle Clockwise, once per night-and-day, around the South Pole Star.
Northern Stars Circle Anticlockwise, around the North pole star, Polaris. These clock senses are the same in both hemispheres.
But Note: low Southern stars will move anti-clockwise around you, (i.e. to your left around the horizon, anti-clockwise as seen
from above you). (Clockwise — to your right in the NH) (More on this later)
It helps you with global orientation to use ‘star compasses’ .

One of the clearest compasses is to blur the star circles into full circles then take vertical tangents to those circles.
In the following diagram, the left-hand direction is “30°” to the left of the Earth’s axis (or to 60° maximum latitude).
The right-hand one is “20°” to the right (or to 80° maximum latitude). They are global.
If you follow these star directions, they will take you right around the earth in a ‘straight’ line — a big circle.
You will pass through places equal in latitude to the star which is overhead (p.11c), so you can already see the
maximum latitude that such a ‘great circle course’ would take you to; then it takes you back towards the equator.
HINT: You won’t get far in star-navigation, without a detailed star list and star chart. See p. 123 for a list.
Mnemonic: “Wind in Your Face”

The Southern Hemisphere version of Buys Ballot’s Law… [Try to use unobstructed wind i.e. not in a valley nor in a mountain eddy]
♦ “Face the Wind [N.H. rule uses ‘Back to the wind, Sun-twist…]
♦ Sun-twist yourself 15°-30° [i.e. anti-clockwise in S. H.]
— to counteract landscape friction on the surface winds.
[When the winds are impeded, they slow down, and so stop circling around the pressure centres,
and start to cross the isobars, toward the low pressure (a ‘sink’ hole) at an angle of 15°-30°, S.H.
less at sea and over flat land; more over rough terrain.] L
♦ Rhyme: “Low on My Left &/or High on My Righ-t”
S.H. L
H
Top view of you, in the square, facing the top of the page.
Southerners Need Anticlockwise Systems

Our clocks seem to run backwards, compared to the Sun.
Our compass-bearings are measured ‘backwards’. (see p.10e)
‘Veering’ and ‘Backing’ seem to mean the wrong clock-sense.
When the Sun moves forwards, all the other systems seem to push backwards.
We lose the global perspective.
And this section is all about aiming to put that right.
Consequently, we need a Southerner’s viewpoint…
I hope you find that the anticlockwise systems which will follow soon are much more workable than Eurocentric systems.
Some of the other systems given on this right-hand side of the page, are universal — they can be used in either hemisphere.
7
Global Orientation: Latitude and Polar Distance

Step 1. Stand up on the globe again (in your mind and in reality). Backviews... S
Step 2. Put your left shoulder to the Equator i.e. Face East (sunrise). Facing E.
(If you are in the northern hemisphere: face west, sunset.)
Step 3. Mnemonic: EQUATOR on My Left equals My LATITUDE is on My LEFT, Equator Latitude P.D. on
RISEN POLE on My RIGHT equals My POLAR DISTANCE is on My RIGHT. on left your right
Since the South Pole is 90° latitude, it is further South from the Equator than you are, and will be on your Right, as you face East.
Step 4. Measure the degrees of distance around the Earth’s circumference as an angle at the centre of the Earth (by slicing the globe in two).
The two angles mentioned must add up to 90° i.e. they are “complementary” angles (spelt with an ‘e’).
If you are, say, 45° south of the Equator, then the closest pole must be 45° further south. The ‘distance’ to the Pole is 45°.
If you are 30° south, then the South Pole will be 60° away from you. Your ‘colatitude’—or 90° minus latitude—or “Polar Distance”—is 60°.
The goal is to imagine those two angles — Latitude and Polar Distance — at the Globe’s centre beneath your feet, and around the circumference.
Mnemonic: “Sun at High Noon — How High?”

When you navigate by the Sun, think: “Sun”: the mnemonic is: “Sun at high noon — how high?”.
You look: North, there, then up there, that high.— Southern Hemisphere (cf Noon will be South in NH) (Don’t look at the Sun, if it is already there!)
It might be morning : “It is going up there”
It might be noon : “See how high it gets!”
It might be afternoon: “It came from up there”
Visualising the height and path of the Sun also helps you to interpret plants for ‘bush noon’ (p.74a).
“Walking Stick North” depends on knowing the Sun’s maximum height. (See page 30b)
On Overcast Days, Average the Brightest Sky over 1/4 hour

If the clouds are moving fast enough, and not entirely uniform, sit still for long enough to see many clouds pass over. Keep pointing at the brightest
patch of sky using some reference like a tree, and watch to see whether you can confidently locate the average position of brightness.
RISE and SET Directions for a (Local) STAR COMPASS

The star directions don’t change night by night or
with longitude, but they do change with latitude.
The circles in the diagram will rise from the

horizon as you travel further south,
and so change their intersections with the horizon.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
This star You need to Stars which share Sun-set and Moon-set Just make sure to mark sunset to a landmark
rises here know your the same star path (examples only) on the skyline horizon
every night stars and indicate the same can be fitted in and carry it over into night-time.
for the seasons visualise direction at staggered to the scheme
when it is their circular times during the night to span the day
visible paths (SH view)
(Some stars stay up all night every night; these don’t move far either, and so are good orientation value too)
From the Moon, Locate the Sun-Moon Direct Line, Carefully.

The line is the Approximate Ecliptic, and being a great-circle is a straight line.
OPTICAL ILLUSION!
The Moon seems to be lit from above the ‘direct’ line to the Sun.
But that may only prove that the Sun is “up” and shining down.
Bust the illusion with a piece of string…

Caution: Don’t look directly at the Sun! horizon
horizon
Prove it in 3 dimensions, by using a torch and a ball.

When the ball, in line with the Moon, looks right, the torch direction mimics actual sunlight.
By locating the Sun, you can guess the time of night, and guesstimate North more reliably,
Below horizontal = at night because the path of the Sun is more predictable and familiar than that of the Moon.
Mnemonic: (when you say) “COMPASS” (say) “CANADA”

Compass needles point to Northern Canada. That’s where the North Magnetic Pole lives. Lat. 75° N.; long. 100° E. N
E.g. from Australia, Canada lies to the East of North…
Check it out on a globe. Locate the Queen Elizabeth Islands.

W E
To find the Southern Magnetic Pole, (but this doesn’t work so well)
locate the Antarctic coast south of Adelaide, at Lat. 65° S.; long. 140° E. S
8
The Angle of Rising and Setting — is Determined by Your Latitude

To post-dict sunrise or pre-dict sunset direction, you can use your latitude to visualise the tilt at which the Sun rises
(or the rise-angle of a near-Equatorial Star/Moon/planet) and the deviation from straight down, at which it sets.
Remember to use vertical, not horizontal as the expected norm. (To judge vertical correctly, see p19c. To practise, see 30b)
At Equator at 45° Lat. N. at 45° S. at 90° S. At 90° N. at 30° N. At 30° S. At 30° S. At 30° N.
This one is especially
useful in Tasmania.
The Sun’s path is very nearly a straight line, despite the illusion of being circular—see p.15a.
Hint: Whenever you see the shadow of your head, provided the Sun is not too high, you can make the “anti-Sun” rise or set positions obvious, by
following up from that shadow, to the horizon at the correct angle. In midwinter the anti-Sun will be in a midsummer position and vice-versa.
High Noon — How High?

Answer one: the same as last week. Take a look. It changes only slowly. S.P. and two
Answer two: within 23½ degrees of your co-latitude (or ‘polar distance’) high parallel rays
i.e. 90° – Lat., plus or minus 23½ degrees, depending on the season.
Mid-Summer… co-lat+23.5° (very high in the sky)
Mid-Winter… co-lat–23.5° (very low in the sky) Latitude
Equinoxes… co-lat (average height). angle…
Why? At 0° Latitude, i.e. at the Equator, the average Sun is 90° high at noon i.e. overhead. Yes?
At the Poles, 90° Lat., the Sun skims the horizon at equinoxes. Yes?
If you need further proof (that its height is 90° minus Lat.) draw it. Polar distance angle
= elevation
See how the height of the average Sun is ‘latitude degrees below vertical’. of the
That’s an angle of elevation of 90° minus lat, isn’t it? Now adjust for the Sun’s seasonal movement average Sun
which is 23½ degrees each side of that.
Global Star-Compasses e.g. ‘Perpendicular to’ rise and set

This is one step harder and three steps better. It allows ‘great-circle’ course keeping.
A global Star-compass yields ‘direct’, global, ‘straightest path’ courses — ones which take you around the globe and back to your starting point.
E.g. You take a rise or set compass-point and head at right angles to it, and the new horizontal direction is global—no longer tied to one latitude.
That’s easier to imagine by visualising the light half/dark half of the Earth: All who see the Sun on the horizon could point to it, but each would be
pointing in a different “direction”. But if they all pointed horizontally at right angles to the Sun, they would all be pointing in truly the same way
—around the Great Circle which divides day from night. The same goes for any horizontal star. Imagine the star as a pole star, and use its “equator”
There are many alternative star appearances, besides rise or set & you don’t have to ‘go at right angles to’ these to set your course...
E.g. aim at one star above another x x x
The midpoint of One star level with another x……………x
One star rising or falling vertically. x x (high in the sky) x
Toward a star which has a 2nd star off to one side at right angles i.e. lower. You would pass under the point you kept aiming for.
You don’t need a clear sea horizon — the stars are high, and a plumb-line will suffice.
These guides occur every night, in the same global direction, for several seasons, then disappear for a while due to daylight, but reappear.
They will occur at the same times next year. They are always worth learning more of, adding to your familiarity of favourite ‘Star directions’.
These global directions are labelled by saying how close to the poles they would take you, and you can see or guess that from the stars, see p. 7c.
‘Low’ Clouds Come Clockwise Down Under

In the Southern Hemisphere
• Low-pressure-system winds spiral clockwise around. I.e. into your face from your left as you face their winds...
• ‘Low clouds’ (i.e. below freezing level) follow the surface level isobars i.e. the weather-map lines. L H
The double-meaning for ‘ Low ’ in the mnemonic reminds you of this.
‘Lows’ cause more clouds than ‘Highs’, so you focus on ‘Lows’.
I.e. when you see the low clouds; you say ‘low clouds come clockwise’ and automatically imagine…………. ‘Low On My Left’ Plus ‘High On My Right’
The Alternative Southern Hemisphere version of Buys Ballot’s law. This new version goes like this :
Face the low clouds (unaffected by friction—winds at 600m high are considered unimpeded), Low surface
then rhyme: L— L ;igh—igh. (Don’t Suntwist yourself.) clouds winds (SH)
[Cf “Face the wind, (In the northern hemisphere you have to say “back to the wind”)
Sun-twist yourself up to about 30° to counteract friction (which makes the surface winds spiral inward to the low centre)]
Surface winds could also be expected to be half the speed of unimpeded winds, less impediment over sea, more over land—about one third.
A Compass-Needle Continent—Swinging the Continent

Mentally glue a miniature continent under the compass needle, to swing with it.
The idea is twofold: 1. To reprogram your mind — “The continent is not swinging, so... I must be!”
2. To orient yourself meaningfully — to the invisible picture
3. To remind yourself of compass variation
When using a compass you could: just stare at the compass-needle, like a lone night sailor in a fog.
Or: look at what the compass is pointing to — that bump!
Even better: also ‘see’ the needle lying across the whole continent
Keep going: pointing to Northern Canada
Don’t forget: the map you are using — the real one, not this imaginary one —
should also line up properly — twist it around until it does.
9
Global Orientation: Point to the South Pole…

..half its polar distance below horizontal
If you had to point “South” you need to point horizontally. SP
But when you have to point out “the South Pole”, you must point below horizontal.
(It is similar when Northerners use the North Pole)
Imagine the true scale… you are on the circumference, not above it...
The question is: “What is the exact angle below horizontal?”

The answer is : “The South Pole is HALF its polar distance below South.” NP
Example: at 45° S., you point 22½ degrees below the horizon. (90-45) /2 S
Example: latitude 30°; colatitude = 90–30 = 60°; half that equals 30° Down There!
Example: latitude 60°; polar distance 30°; 15° below horizontal. SP
Optical Illusion — Beware! — Use Your Shadow Not the Sun, For Direction
When the Sun is directly behind you, it seems to be behind on the left when you look over your left shoulder,
and behind on the right when you look over your right shoulder! And when the Sun is exactly to the side,
it nonetheless seems to be ahead of you. (Every sports coach knows that when you turn your head, your body follows it.)
Don’t rely on where the Sun seems to be… USE A SHADOW INSTEAD! It is also easier on your eyes.
And then don’t get fooled by the shadow of your finger, when you throw a shadow onto your map to find the Sun’s direction.
It may look straight but it doesn’t point to the Sun, until you line it up with your fingertip while looking from directly above.
The shadows will always be parallel, but the Sun’s rays will always join object to image, fingertip to fingertip-shadow…
The first diagram is illuminated from behind you……
To avoid looking at the Sun, try this:
Point your walking stick from somewhere beneath your eyes,
outwards, and rotate yourself until it is in line over its own
shadow.
Right Around the Horizon, Stars Move to Your Left, Down South
Looking South, all the lower stars move left. It is only the high Southern stars which move to your right.
Looking East all the stars rise to the left Looking West all the stars set to the left
(i.e. we see the bottom half of the circles SP
down at horizon level, looking South)
East West
Looking North, all the stars move left. The same goes for Sun, Moon, Planets.
(we see the top of the circles)
West N. East
Looking directly overhead, or behind your head, will not work! (it is all opposite in the northern hemisphere)
Mentally Rotate the Sun-Moon Line Around Polaris

A whole line through the sky gives a better ‘feel’ for direction than a single point — than either the Sun or the Moon alone —
So join the two and watch them rotate together during the rest of the day.
(Southern Hemisphere view)
When you can see both, and you know where North is, you watch them.
When you see only the one, you look for the other, and so find north more exactly than by using either one’s path by itself.
Add in any planets to continue the process at night, then from planet to planet or to Zodiac stars, after moonset.
“Bears Circle Clockwise”

Compass Bearings are Clockwise, A Full Circle, and Eurocentric, Cee?
In Europe the Sun moves clockwise… from North (Where the Sun is at midnight—0 hours) = 0° as far as the horizontal angle involved is concerned.
180 East is at about 06 hours (sunrise) or 90° True — Sun-wise or Clock-wise from North
South at about 12 hours or 180° T (noon)
hor. 90 270 West at about 18 hours or 270° T (sunset) — so you see, the bearings circle clockwise, from North, 360°.
0
Looking S. / from above
A Southerner, of course, would prefer to go 360° anti-clockwise, from South, but they didn’t get a vote.
Everyone in the world is expected to submit to the (NH) rule: compass bearings should be measured in degrees, up to 360°, from North, clockwise
around through East — like the ancient Babylonians; like the Northern temperate Sun.
Not many people consider using 400 grads (4 right-angles of 100 grads make up the circle), or consider going left-around, through West,
Or even think of starting at South. So don’t you dare (unless you don’t call it “a compass bearing”).
10
The North Pole is Perpendicular to the South Pole

Since the poles are 180° apart — opposite — you see them as 90° apart — half the arc distance.
The numbers can’t work out any differently.
Example: 10° S. Lat. = Equator is 10° North of you. South Pole is 80° away — the “Polar Distance”.
So S.P. = 40° below S.
North Pole is another 90° past the Equator.
So N.P. = (90 + 10)/2 = 50° below N. And the gap is 90°.
A simple way of looking at it is to say

“Diameters yield right-angles at the circumference”
Now go outside and point to the Poles.
The Dark-Blue Polarisation Band Perpendicular to the Sun

90° from the Sun there is a circle of darker sky. Bees navigate by this clue. The whole sky shows degrees of polarisation.
You can see it naked-eye, but since it is due to polarisation, it is much clearer through Polaroid sunglasses or a camera filter.
Point the top of your polaroid sunglasses toward the Sun for best effect.
The dark blue band is narrowest highest up (in the direction of your shadow, and perpendicular to that sunbeam) and varies with visibility and haze.
The sky is darkest away from the Sun and away from the horizon haze and 90° from the Sun.
You can always guess where the Sun is, from the gradations of blue. After sunset the band is caused by the brightest part of sky.
Example: You are in a forest at dusk. The sky is blue overhead, but the sunset direction is not visible. Find the Sun from the blue!
See the “Sunny Skies System” (p.19e) for how to use the ends of the dark blue band, and its trend.
The Centre of the Rainbow is Down-Sun

The shadow of your head coincides with the centre of the rainbow’s circle. (Pilots often see the full circle of a rainbow)
The radius of this circle is two wide hand-spans — spread out your 10 fingers fully, thumbs touching.
Whenever you see a rainbow, treat it as a clue to ‘shadow-South’ (p.14b) i.e. relate its position to the time of day and to South.
The shadow of your head is on the end of the shadow of you, of course, but when you can’t see it due to clouds, you might be able to see a rainbow.
Identify the Stars That Pass Directly Overhead

Each star has its own latitude, called “declination”, which is very nearly constant.
So the same series of stars of the same latitude will pass overhead that latitude, each night, each in turn, each at some fixed star-time.
This is true anywhere on the globe.
Use a plumb-line. The top of the plumb-line points ‘up’ to overhead (when looked at from any side, so) where the ‘up’ lines cross is ‘overhead’.
Look past it from 2 or 3 directions to find overhead, especially looking North/South for longitude-timing, and East/West for latitude-positioning.
Then use a star-chart to identify “exactly overhead”, latitude-wise, at least. If you can do this, even without a watch, this will fix your latitude.
Plus or minus a few kilometres is the expected maximum accuracy from using a plumb-line.
For longitude, you need to determine the star-time at which one of these stars is overhead, or at least passing from East of you to West of you.
Greenwich (absolute) star-time, not Local (relative) star-time, that is. To the nearest 20 seconds is okay. See p30c. A 4 min error is 1° error in long.
Alternatively, set your reference star-time to some other longitude, e.g. home, or start, or destination, or a round number.
This time & position data is life-long, give or take a few kilometres of predictable precessional drift per decade.
You can get back to that place later — Match the appearance and timing. It’s easy to tell which way to move in order to “match up” (p22a,c; 23c).
You need to know a star’s longitude, so you need an almanac or list. Look down the list for bright stars with your latitude, and go look for them.
You will quickly learn about having to wait for the right ‘star-time’!
Weather Fronts Distort The (Circular) Wind Circulation

Buys Ballot’s law is only approximate, because of the sudden wind-shift at a cold front.
Cols, Ridges and Troughs are likewise noncircular. E.g. ‘centres’ will sometimes split into two…
Col In the trough, crossing the ridge,

Ridge the winds are turning right.
Westerly (SH) This airstream is turning left (SH)
around the High centre.
` Trough
You can’t accurately say that these winds are ‘circulating’ around the Low or High! But you can say that
Low in right-turning winds the clouds are forming, under the influence of a Low or a trough (SH), and
(SH) left-turning winds are under the influence of a High or a ridge—the clouds are dissipating. Swap left and right in NH.
Mnemonic: (Interpret a Compass Needle as) “RED HOT — WHITE FROST”

Southerners are looking North to the “red, hot, tropics, dripping with sweat, in the Sun”…
When southerners look South, it is to the “white, icy, Antarctica, frosty cold, in the shadow”… Red Tip
So when you notice the red point of the compass needle you say to yourself “red-hot!”
and try to feel boiled on that side (as if by a bon-fire), and then visualise the invisible tropics North of you.
And when you notice the white point (e.g. during a back-bearing) you say to yourself “white-icy cold-frosty-Antarctica”
And then try to feel frozen on your ‘Shadow-South side’, and imagine the South Pole, e.g. point (down) to it. White end
You can also remember that the Canadian flag is red (but it is not hot in Canada).
11
Global Orientation: the South Pole Star, and Polaris

(In the Southern Hemisphere… )
Polaris is below the northern horizon, by exactly as much as your South latitude. N
E.g. at 45°S. lat. Polaris is below North by 45° Around it the northern stars circle anticlockwise……
45° { 45°S Lat.
The equivalent “South Pole Star” (a dim pinprick in the midst of dim pinpricks) is
above the southern horizon by exactly as much as your South latitude. E.g. 30° S. = 30° above South x
Around it the Southern stars circle clockwise, once per day-night.
Locating the South Pole Star, helps you in the following...
• You can use the bright stars — Cross, Pointers, Achernar — as hour-hands on a 24-hour clockface. x
• Star-paths Circle around the Pole Stars 30° { 30°S Lat.
• So do the horizon, the Sun, the Moon and the planets — You can predict all their positions.
Finding the Pole Stars is Fundamental to Visualising Rotation. S
• Your Shadow Rotates with the same clock-sense as the Sun — not surprisingly!
• Shadow-Rise and Shadow-Set is opposite direction to the Sun — not surprisingly! Together they can
• Mnemonic: (Face the opposite direction as for the Sun mnemonic p.5b) surprise you!
Face Shadowy South for Southern Hemisphere (Face Sunny South for Northerners)
“Shadow Rise is on the Right; Set is on the Left” (Same rhyme as for sunrise and sunset, but facing South, both hemispheres)
Your Shadow Passes South of Southerners At Southern Noon (compare: ‘The Sun is North of Your Nose at Noon’)
(North of Northerners at Noon)
Your Shadow Moves Anticlockwise — around to Your Left — Down Under
(Clockwise — Around to Your Right — in N. H.)
(The Southern Hemisphere Horizon still shifts to the right, in real terms. The Northern Hemisphere Horizon still Never Heads Right’)
In addition, notice: The shadow tip moves due East, at around noon, and in a much straighter line than you expect, all during the day,
as the shadow itself changes, from pointing to opposite sunrise, then to pointing to South of the object, then to lying opposite sunset.
15 Ways to Locate the South Pole Star Or the N./S. Meridian

1. Halfway between Achernar and Epsilon Centauri (located from the six bright stars near it) Hadar
2. Rigil Kentaurus to S., at right angles to Hadar…………
3. Beta Crucis to S., parallel to gamma-to-alpha Crucis, 5 Cross lengths … Use 2. and 3. together R. K. South
4. Beta Hydri to alpha Crucis, as far as the beta-to-gamma-Hydri length … most accurate
5. Mirzam through Canopus (“Crucis” says “of the Crux” i.e. of the Cross)
6. Suhail through the top half of the False Cross through Miaplacidus (gamma looks a bit like a thin alpha twisted 90°)
7. Make a triangle out of the two Magellanic clouds toward R. K. — very crude but useful
8. Gamma Hydri to beta Triangulum Australe — the “back” star of the Triangle
9. Alpha Hydri to Hadar
10. Arcturus to between the two ‘Pointers’ (R. K. & Hadar) } These are used in reverse
11. Spica to between the Cross and Pointers } — to locate Arcturus
12. Middle of Corvus through middle of Cross } Spica and Corvus
13. Atria to the star between Canopus and Achernar, alpha Dorado
14. Peacock to Avior
15. ‘Your Latitude’ degrees above horizontal, due South
“Cusp North” — Approximate Direction from the Moon

The Sun-Moon line marks the approximate Ecliptic.
The “centre” of that circle of Sun-planets-asteroids is located in “Draco”,
quite near “Polaris”, the North Pole Star. For a start, ignore the difference…
Approx.
• Join the Cusps, tip to tip N
• Drop the line diagonally
• Keep going down to (near) Polaris (latitude degrees below horizontal)
• Come vertically back up to “Moon North” (in the worst-case +/-60° “accuracy”!)
You have to do this only once or twice a day. Compare it with True North and automatically adjust it for the rest of the day. (NH is similar)
Mariner’s “Compass Points” work on Successive Halvings

NNW NNE
N. N. NW NE N by E Start with the nearest
WNW ENE major point; add ‘by’
W. E. NE by N
45° WSW ESE ‘by’ means
90° 22½° 11 1/4° ‘come 11 1/4° towards’
S. S. SW SE SSW SSE NE b’ E (or ‘one point’)
180° difference There are 32 points
altogether on the compass.
Make your own emergency protractor (e.g. as a compass, sextant or plotter)
by folding any piece of paper, and folding it again and again, matching line to line E b’ N One Point is approximately
so as to exactly halve it with every fold. One Palm wide
One more halving and you get 64 divisions, each of “100 mils” (so named and used (32 around the horizon—test it)
because 1mil is approximately 1 in 1000 e.g. 1 m in 1 km) i.e. 6400 mils around, clockwise, 17.7778 mils per degree.
12
Pole Star Locations — “(Latitude)° above and below, South and North”
Why? Think: at 0° Lat., they are 0° high. Yes? At 90° Lat., they are 90° above and below horizontal. Yes?
If you need further proof: Draw a Diagram of two parallel rays to South Pole Star...
South pole star
Polar Distance
(co-latitude)
The elevation of South Pole Star above the horizontal SP
SP = the latitude = the arc-distance of Equator to you...
(the angle, adding up to 90° with the PD, must occur twice in the 180°)
Equator
Same arc-distances Same angles
The Sun Passes Quickly Past North-South Nearer the Tropics

Don’t get caught misjudging the Sun’s horizontal direction near midday.
This pattern shows When it is high, it moves more than 15° per hour in horizontal direction.
the hourly change 1hr...
in Sun or shadow direction
at 30° latitude, Mid-Summer...
1hr.
The Sun is East/West
at (noon –/+ 2 hrs 44½ m.) 1hr.
at 52.9° high. At other latitudes the pattern will be different — more uniform
away from the Equator, and with a different day-length,
This shows the depending upon the season.
seven hours’ sunlight I.e. You need to calculate each particular pattern from the
(one side of North/South). Latitude and declination and season (as if calibrating a vertical stick sundial).
Wind-Direction-Change Rule for Buys Ballot’s Law

If “the Low is on Your Left Or the High is on Your Right”…and the wind is gradually changing: Add in this new information as follows...
Imagine how the Low and High are moving across the ocean/continent as you reenact the wind change...
Exaggerate the change as you twist yourself to follow the speeded-up movement of the wind change in your face.
Point to the two choices (left & right) while you twist, then ask yourself which of your hands is moving to the east.
Usually only one of the two options above — ‘Low’ or ‘High’ — will make sense of the general movement of the weather systems to the East.
Temperate systems usually do move to the East from the West. (Both Hemispheres)
..From 0 knots (stationary highs) to 15 (average) up to 25 knots (Lows in winter).
Tropical cyclonic hurricanes move Westerly initially at 25-40 knots, then recurve to the pole, but the “re-enact” rule still works to show up its move-
ment.
In this way you can decide: “These winds are from a Low” or “from a High”.
Don’t, of course, confuse local winds, e.g. a sea breeze, with the more general ‘synoptic’ circulation due to the large-scale pressure systems.
To further help you decide where the wind has travelled from —from your right or from your left— check out the temperature and absolute humidity
— i.e. the air-mass characteristics. Is the air hot and dry, or cool and moist, or warm and humid — which one is supported by the geography?
Four Reference Directions — Name Them: “Rise, Noon, Set, Midnight”

..not E N W S
The trouble with “North” is that it is sometimes behind you... then you have to think backwards.
Use all four and you always have one in front of you... N., S., E., W.
Give them meaningful names as in the title... and you can picture the meaning.
Base it on the Sun’s daily movement and the effect is vivid.
To flesh out the meaning even more, add in a second clue: “Rise/Start; Noon/Hottest; Set/End; Midnight/Coldest”.
What this does is to take the outside picture inside with you, when you enter a new building, a hospital complex, a shopping centre.
E.g. “I’m now looking toward the mid-morning Sun direction, i.e. ‘after rise’ or ‘before noon’, which is ‘warming up’ ”.
It is then up to you to 1) get to know the Sun’s daily movement.

2) locate the Sun’s path outside, once.
3) keep track of your twists and turns when the Sun is not visible e.g. at night.
Ignore the time of day or night—it is the directions which you are imagining. You use the real Sun only as a start-up hint.
13
Point to 2 Places on the Equator — Halfway between the Poles

You can find the 2 Poles, apparently 90° apart, so that means you can point 45° — halfway — between the Poles, to find the Equator,
then 90° to that for the opposite Equator (the “45°” is because the Equator is 90° from each Pole and we halve that arc).
It locates (1) the furthest point on the Equator from you e.g. Brazil then...
(2) the nearest point on the Equator from you e.g. New Guinea—ish.
From central Australia…
Closest Equator 0°
(PNG) S.P.
N.P. Farthest Equator. Notice that it lies to your South! (Brazil)
Shortest Shadow South — Opposite Highest Noon. Always Imagine “Shadow-Noon” on your “Shadow South” Side
i.e. Your shortest shadow is South of you at noon. Memorise how short it is (this week). S For the northern hemisphere use “North”
(“shadowy-North”)
(Shadow Noon is Opposite Direction to “Noon-North”) ..“Noon-South”
Imagine your shadow moving left around… ..right-around
In the morning: South must be “ahead” of my shadow ..North

At midday : Look — see how short it is! … Due South at noon ..North
After noon : My shadow has “passed” South ..North
To guess North from your own shadow, see “Walking stick North”. (p.30b)
Try to feel the icy South, freezing that side of you! ..North
(As on a cold night facing away from a campfire).
Mentally visualise: Antarctica below horizontal; an aurora above that horizon; Southern stars behind that blue sky. ..Arctic; Aurora Borealis
In the tropics, you’ll have to be more observant, to know your shadow’s expected movements more accurately. ..Northern stars
Find the Polar Axis by Star-Trail Bisection

You need to imagine the centre of the star-circle.
A Hypothetical Example: Lost in a stormy night! You want to find North-South. South Pole Star (latitude above horizontal)
You catch the occasional glimpses of unknown stars. *
Lie down and line up one such star with a tree branch. (This star is moving to your left
Maintain your exact position and wait for another glimpse. Anti clockwise around Polaris... ..Clockwise around South Pole Star)
It may only need a couple of minutes to see its direction of movement. *
You can also point something straight at the star and fix it in place, to see the star’s movement.
Bisect the result. It points to Polaris, or to the South Pole Star.
You now need to know your latitude, roughly, to locate Polaris or South Pole Star.
The higher the star the clearer the result — it will be moving West.
The only ambiguity is a low star moving horizontally (to your left). Polaris
The Southern stars will be moving slowly; northern ones, quickly (latitude below horizontal)
— so you may be able to guess which is which. (also polar distance or co-declination away from the star,
Northern Hemisphere is similar — but Polaris is visible. if you know its North latitude, called ‘declination’)
The Rabbit Looks up Ahead at Full Moon Using the Ecliptic

When the ‘cusps’ disappear at full Moon, the Rabbit ears and face appear, approximate movement
and let you know which way the Moon is moving.
These views are for the Southern Hemisphere — where the ‘Rabbit’ is upright.
In the first diagram, the cusps are difficult to distinguish, and so is the Rabbit.
In the second diagram, you don’t need the cusps, because the ears show.
The dashed arrows point down to near Polaris.
As an alternative to cusp-North, you can use the Ecliptic perpendicular to the cusps.
The other, solid arrow, falls roughly along the Ecliptic, with the light side of the Moon
pointing to the Sun and the dark side pointing to the anti-Sun.
Therefore you can judge approximate sunrise or anti-sunrise, sunset or anti-sunset,
just as soon as you see the Moon, either from its cusps, or from the Full Moon. Gibbous (‘humpbacked’) Moon Full Moon
Find the nearest horizon on the Ecliptic and picture which of those 4 directions it is.
A setting Moon in early daylight will show anti-sunrise, but after dusk will show up sunset.
An eastern Moon before dawn indicates sunrise, but in the p.m. will point to anti-sunset.
“E. W. N. South” Of What!? Rule: Say What

• Say ‘True’ and you mean ‘degrees East of True North’ 270° T = due W.
• Write “Gee” and you mean: relative to the map grid. 270°G ≠ 270°T Both are clockwise around, but they start off from different directions
• S20°E means ‘(Start at)South(;come)20°(toward the)East’ e.g.S20°E=20° to the right of the white end of the compass needle. (old system)
Clockwise/to the Right/East-around-from-North is standard if not otherwise specified.
▪ 270° M says ‘Magnetic’ — what a good compass should read.
▪ 270° C says ‘Compass’ — what this compass does read.
Note that these are standard: ‘G’ does not mean ‘Geographical’ or ‘Great Circle’ or ‘Grads’ but is recognised as ‘Grid’.
‘M’ does not mean ‘Map’, ‘Map grid’ etc.
xyz° can not mean anti-clockwise.
The remaining problem is how to shift between different methods… See section 4: “East Least West Best” rule. (p.107b)
14
Perspective Distortion — The Sun Moves in a Straight Line!

The ‘horizon’ (at sea) seems “straight”, yes? but joins to itself! This is because you see it from the centre of a circle. That’s no problem yet.
Two different great-circles circling around you do cut twice, but it certainly looks strange, since looking at the gap between them,
you see “parallel straight lines”; Yet to the left and right of that you will see them both join!
Great Circles Intersect Twice. Nowhere does either circle seem to ‘curve’, yet they manage to meet.
The Sun ‘comes up and goes down’ but is actually ‘moving’ in a nearly straight line—as straight as the horizon… *
PUT YOUR HEAD INTO A HOOP; GET OUTSIDE; CHECK IT OUT; GET IT INTO YOUR HEAD: GET USED TO IT!
Caution: Don’t look directly at the Sun. Watch your shadow and you will see that it moves in a nearly straight line from East to West.
The Sun’s average path — the ‘Equator’ up in the sky — where the ‘Saucepan’ (Orion; the Pot) moves — is a great circle.
It intersects the horizon due East and due West. At times of year other than at Equinox, the Sun’s path is still almost a great circle.
The Milky Way is another maximum sized circle; and the Zodiac (i.e. the Ecliptic) is another such ‘Great Circle’.
They hit the horizon twice, in opposite directions (not E/W).
2 other ‘great circles’ you need to visualise are: Satellite paths; and the Dark Blue Band. (Star-trails are usually ‘small’ circles, and do look curved.)
Locate Polaris (and Find North) by Imagining the Centre of Circling

This works for the Sun, Moon, planets or stars.
You find the centre of their circular paths by bisecting the chord.
(Northerners locate the South Pole Star, South)
Horizon The perpendicular bisector of an arc or chord

passes through the centre of a circle...
Horizontal Moonrise varies quickly from day to day

— make sure you check its exact position.
Don’t look directly at the Sun to do this!
Polaris is, in degrees, at ‘your south latitude below horizontal’ (not the horizon) — judge it carefully.
and/or, ‘polar distance (co-declination) away from the Sun’: 90°-N dec, e.g. dec=10°S 90-(-10)=100°
The Eagle Clips the Equator, South of Altair

Find the star 40% along the southwest side of the rhombus…
Finding the Equator helps you *

find the Ecliptic (not shown) * Equator
and find where the Milky Way crosses the Equator…
S * AQUILA (The Eagle, in the Milky Way)

Galactic Plane *
W E *Altair (is flanked by two recognisable stars)

*
N * as seen from the southern hemisphere
Steering Winds
Mid-to-high-level (upper) winds tend to push sea-level pressure-systems along
at half the speed of the upper winds, and in the same direction.
This rule is said to work best with small, weak, less well-developed systems; and with hurricanes.
E.g. If the low is on your left And if the upper winds are coming from your left
Then the storm centre might pass straight over you.
Since the upper level winds often oscillate in the ‘Rossby Wave’, and tend to generate high and low pressure areas beneath them
(because the ‘wave’ causes the upper winds to slow down or speed up) the High-pressure systems will on average be steered slightly toward the
Equator, and the Lows will go slightly toward the Poles, as the systems move to the East — a rule of thumb worth remembering.
But this extra steering-wind rule will alert you to non-average situations.
“Rise-Noon-Set-Midnight” carries its meaning across the Equator! N.S.E.W. doesn’t.

Name the directions according to the average outside picture…
This is a visual system and addresses the disorientation of turning around. After noon Noon After the rising
For back-bearings i.e. when you turn around: replace ‘rise’ with ‘set’,
‘noon’ with ‘midnight’ (start with end, & hottest with coldest) (SH)
e.g. if the old direction was “after setting” the new one will be “after rising”. Anticlockwise
When you turn right or left adjust by one of the four notches The Setting The Rising
e.g. ‘after midnight’ becomes ‘after rising’ if you turn ‘with’ the Sun.
Note: ‘after the setting’ (or ‘before midnight’) is a direction of the evening Sun
— S.W. — and can be bright sunlight, in midsummer !
And ‘after midnight’ (‘before East’) is the direction of the South-East Sun. After the setting Midnight After midnight
At Mid-Summer sunrise it can similarly be very much bright !
Example: You enter a hospital with “setting” (i.e. due West) on your right, so you start (The Northerner’s version needs to go clockwise!)
at “midnight” (SH). You then navigate through look-alike wings, look-alike wards, and
look-alike staircases, remaining oriented, and finally emerge, expecting “rise” on your right — having not looked out of a window for hours!
15
Global Orientation: Half the Arc-Distance below Horizontal

Point out any country or place on Earth, by first finding the (arc-)distance there, and then pointing below the horizon…
The method works from any place on Earth, in any direction, to any place on Earth.
Step 1. Measure the angle around the circumference to it. E.g. guess from a globe of the world (This is an angle at the centre of the globe)
Step 2. Halve it. That is how far below horizontal it is. Perth
E.g. South Pole from 30° S. Point 30° below since it is 60° away
E.g. Perth to Peking (which is directly North) is 32 S. to 40 N. Therefore the ‘arc’ to Peking/Beijing is 72°… Point 36° below N
Try this (outside): Go through the motions of pointing out a whole circle of real places on earth,
from the horizon ahead of you, to the horizon behind you, using your index finger. Beijing 72°
E.g. point North, then down a bit to below horizontal e.g. New Guinea, now onto the North Pole.
Continue down until pointing down underneath you e.g. mid North Atlantic.
At this stage you have pointed through 90°, but have pointed out 180° around the Earth.
Turn around to continue, (Brazil, Antarctica) bringing your finger higher and higher until it is back to horizontal
pointing at the hill on the Southern skyline.
Your index finger has pointed out a 360° circle (as measured from the centre of the Earth) by traversing only 180°!
Get Hold of a Globe. Go Outside. Point Out A Few Countries.
“ Noon ” is Not at 12 O’clock

‘ High Noon ’ is at ‘midday’ i.e. in the middle, between sunrise & sunset. And that is not ‘12 noon’ or ‘12 midday’ but at North — Noon North. (SH)
• In summer-time ‘high noon’ may be near 1 or 1:15 p.m. or so. If you are on Summer Time, true noon is one hour late.
• Even in winter-time it may be over half an hour away from 1200 hrs. This is because we use a one-hour time zone to cover 15° of longitude.
i.e. you may be near the next time-zone, longitude-wise, and therefore be up to one half an hour ‘out’.
You can check this up if you have a map with longitude on it. The middle of the time zone is at 7½°, 22½°, etc, in steps of 15°.
Then it will take 4 minutes to travel an extra degree westwards. Work out how early or late the Sun will be in your longitude.
• Plus; the Sun speeds up in its ‘orbit’ ‘around’ the Earth when it is close in the Southern Summer, getting up to 20 minutes ‘fast’, by the end of
summer; likewise it can be up to 20 minutes ‘slow’ at other times, in addition to the time zone effect. See the Equation of Time prediction opposite.
The best thing to do about this, to predict when, exactly, it will be at ‘midday’ today, is to look at the Sun yesterday.
(Don’t! Use a shadow instead. Notice when it is due South.) Or see 26a.
Equatorial Stars Rise and Set Due East and West

Always
Globally
• The Sun at Equinox — about March 21st, September 22nd
• The Pot in Orion — Mintaka, the north-west star of Orion’s belt — the one that sets first — is right on the Equator
• Various dull stars — like the one south of Altair
• A Half Moon at solstice — give or take 5° or so — It must be 90° from the Sun which is at the solstice position, so that the Moon is at the
ecliptic equinox (Equatorial) position.
Other phases can be worked out, e.g. Full Moon at Equinox, but see p. 29d on how to predict an equinoxial Moon every fortnight.
• Planets 90° from the Sun-at-solstice
• The equinoctial points, if you can identify them yet. One is between Spica and Regulus; the other is between Diphda and Markab.
The Moon Cusps Push and Pull the Hour Hand Backwards, Down South
Or...
E.g. 9 p.m. 7 p.m. 4 p.m. 2 p.m.
Watch the Moon rotate during the day, and night. Tell the time from it. Update yourself once per day.
The Moon rotates like this about 14½ degrees or 15° per hour. So it is like a 24-hour clock hour-hand running “backwards”. N
The correct vertical to use as a reference is not at the Moon, but at the Pole Star, if you want to be accurate.
upright
(NH — the Moon seems to turn clockwise) Read the relative time down here…
Back-Bearings Killed Sleepy Pilots

Back-bearings are opposite directions — “going back home”.
The Babylonian system of 360° in a circle has a lot to answer for, when you want to turn around!
What is required, is to add or subtract 180° (groan)!
But after an all-night mission, tired navigators can’t be relied upon to come up with the right answer.
In World War II, many air-crews perished from following the wrong back-bearing back.
Happy, relaxed, but lost.
It was a problem requiring a solution, and a simple solution was found. What is it? (page 18e)
16
Half the Arc-Distance below Horizontal — 2 Explanations Why

1a. 2. (Isosceles triangle angles… (180 – 2α)/2) 90–(90–α)=α
A horizontal tangent = 90 – a
36° angle below horizontal r
72° ‘arc’ around the circumference — twice the angle from the tangent — but why?
72° 1b. 2α r
The angle at the centre 1c.
(used for ‘arc-distance’) ..It doesn’t matter which point
is always double the angle on the circle you use,
at the circumference... as long as it is on the one side 1d.
—on the larger arc here— tangent point tangent
36° you get the same angle each time.
The tangent point is one such acceptable point — the last one.
The “Equation of Time” Diagram

The real Sun moves quicker through the sky near Christmas because it is closer to the Earth (i.e. we orbit it quicker, elliptically!).
I.e. The Sun ‘gets ahead of’ its predicted average position, according to our clocks, in the New Year,
And doesn’t come back to average until about the end of August.
After that, during September to December, it will be behind average. But then, in addition, the details are complicated
by how it also zips quickly past (gaining on) our longitude lines near solstice — summer or winter — when it is near +/–23½° latitude.
Here the longitude lines crowd together, if only slightly, giving the maximum effect in June & December, super-imposing upon the preceding scheme.
The overall result may be graphed… Oct.-Nov. +16 1/3m (both hemispheres)
See the mnemonic on p. 86b
Note that when the astronomers say ‘+’, the Sun is behind itself;
April 15 +3¾ m Christmas we look at the position of the Sun (not directly at it!); it comes up ‘late’
Mid-May and we have to add (about a ¼hr) to our guess at the apparent time,
x x x Sept 1 x to find the clock-time. We say our clocks are ‘fast’ at predicting
Jun 12 New Year the Sun’s position, but it is really the Sun which is lagging!
-14 1/3m Mid-Feb end of July -6½ m cf Australia is in a “+10 hr time-zone” = 10hrs ahead, or fast on Greenwich
Rigel-to-Capella is a good S./N. Pair

RIGEL
This pair points to You can also see that the Pot handle points down through the middle of Orion’s belt
Polaris (and hence to Meissa and on to Polaris. The Pot ‘handle’ is actually the scabbard of Orion’s sword—seen upside down (SH)
to North,
when they are If you cannot see Capella, then Bellatrix to Elnath, right alongside, is also a good guide to Polaris.
‘Upright’ ) Nath
(this view is for the
Southern Summer)
Auriga, The Charioteer
....The six o’clock stars are a useful N./S. pair — they are upright at 6 a.m. local star time.
CAPELLA Menkalinan
05:12 0600 ‘Right Ascension’, or star-time, in hours of longitude East of the first point of Aries
Atmospheric Pressure Changes

The air pressure falls before a front, and rises reasonably rapidly as the front passes. It falls in a trough; rises in a ridge; falls in a heatwave inland;
falls with altitude (about one millibar per 10m).
The atmospheric pressure normally fluctuates by a couple of millibars every day in a twice-daily cycle tied to the Sun (3mb in the tropics) and the
wind speed may vary with it. The daily pressure on average peaks around 10 a.m. and 10 p.m., being lowest at 4 a.m. and 4 p.m.; This on average,
is said to vary the wind speed by a couple of knots, lowest at 9 a.m., peaking at 3 p.m., but all of this is usually masked by other weather changes
in the temperate latitudes. Pressure fluctuation is much more significant in the tropics, with any fall (or flattening) more than a few millibars during
summer/autumn warning you of a possible hurricane (You then look for long wavelength ocean swells preceding the storm centre). Because we
can’t feel atmospheric pressure changes, it is very helpful to use a barometer, to detect the longer-term pressure change trend. Test your barome-
ter to see that it does not respond to temperature changes!
Watch the Clouds Cross the Moon

You can detect the upper wind direction most easily by watching clouds move past some fixed point in the sky.
Look during the night but don’t forget to look during the day also.
The stars, high buildings, high trees and mountain tops also work well.
The 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 Reference Directions 2

Put these numbers onto the Rise-Noon-Set-Midnight System, so as to follow the Sun.
0 = midnight, South (Southern Hemisphere)
1 = rising, East
2 = noon, North (use South for northern hemisphere) 3 1
3 = setting, West
4 = midnight, South — use cycle 4 i.e. call it “0”
This corresponds to measuring anticlockwise! from South! in decimal degrees, that is, in grads!
100 grads = 90° so “1” = 100 grads; “4” = 400 grads or zero grads — add or subtract “4” at any time. 0
“0.1” in this system = 10 grads; 1/10 of a right angle; one fist at arm’s length.
Example: In the thick bush, you see your destination but know you will soon lose sight of it. You can’t keep a straight line, so you decide to keep
track with the 0—1—2—3—4 system and your fist. With each change of direction you update e.g. “0.6, 1.6, 1.0, 0.9…”
For a back bearing — when you turn around — add or subtract 2.
Add 1.0 when you turn with the Sun (left), or subtract 1.0 when you turn against the Sun (right). (S.H.)
17
Example: Point to Tahiti Sun

It’s 9 a.m. summer-time, the Sun is, say, 20° high and over Tahiti (see time-zone chart).
Firstly, point horizontally toward the Sun (not directly at the Sun!) — that is the direct path to Tahiti. 20°
Secondly, point below the horizon, to locate the actual direction to Tahiti… horizontal
Step1. Make a perpendicular from a sunbeam. Perpendicular to the Sun is ‘horizontal’ in Tahiti…
Step2. Subtract its (present) height (20°) from 90° 70° arc the Sun is
The arc from you to Tahiti is 70° overhead Tahiti
Explanation:
(90° - the height of the Sun), the ‘co-height’, must be the arc-distance
from you to underneath the Sun. Think of it like this...
If the Sun is 0° away from you, it will be 90° high — you are underneath it.
If the Sun is 10° away from you, it will be 80° high, overhead a point 10° away from you, and so on.
Step3. halve the remainder (70°/2=35°) Now add back on the 20° above the horizon…
“Tahiti is 55° below the Sun” from your point of view. You didn’t need a globe or the arc-distance to find it.
The Sun Oscillates Seasonally between +/- 23½° Latitude

To approximate the Sun’s “Declination”—or North Latitude—you approximate its variation as sinusoidal. Max change 0.4° per day.
Using a 365 day cycle: You approximate 360° as 1° per day, so for ease and accuracy of calculation you can
and should approximate the day-number as 30 days per completed month + day of the month. N
E.g. March 21st is 2 lots of 30 days plus 21 = “81” days or degrees. Mar 21
Then to use a sinusoidal curve, you need to run from Equinox to Equinox — i.e. starting at March 21, Day 81 S
Declination = 23.45° x sin (day number of the year – 81)
E.g. 0° in September 21, six months or 180 days or degrees later; uses day no. 261.
From solstice to solstice you can use a minus cosine curve...
Declination = 23.45° x –cos (day number of the year + 9) Dec 21
..since the solstice is around 10 days earlier than the New Year.
Dec 21 solstice, is day no. 11x30 + 21 = 351 “–23°½ in December”
E.g. + 23½ degrees on June 21, day no. 171.
From this approximation you can predict noon-height (and, with the right formulae, sunrise & sunset time & direction and E./W. height, of the Sun).
Use the Southern Cross as an Hour Hand

You can visualise the rotation of the Southern Cross as a huge 24-hour clock hand.
It is correct on April Fool’s Day i.e. upright at midnight (at 183°T), then it gains two hours a month, or 30°. (Use the correct vertical! — South.)
As a learning aid, mark the ‘Southern Cross time’ on your calendar every month
e.g. “two hours fast” at the start of May; and “four hours fast” at the end.
Then, anytime you are out at night, you can ask: “What’s the time — by the Cross?”
Picture the Southern Cross during the Day

Yes it is there behind the blue sky… “If there were an eclipse now, it would show… there!”
When you are navigating by the ‘spin’ of the Earth, and by the Big Picture, the proper reference direction is the North-South rotation axis,
Which means: Polaris + South Pole Star.
In practice, what we Southerners see, is the Southern Cross.
So if you are imagining: sunrise — noon — set, or Moon position, or a star-compass course, or a shadow-south direction,
you ought to be thinking: “North — Polaris down there; South — South Pole Star up there”, then you can picture the Southern Cross as well.
The Moon is Lit By the Sun

When the Moon is opposite the Sun, we must see its fully lit face… See diagram of the first man looking at the Moon, below.
e.g. a full Moon rising at Sunset; Setting at Sunrise; Overhead at Midnight or at least highest in the sky. Sunlight
(A fortnight later…)
When the Moon is near the Sun, we see only its dark backside or at most a thin crescent… See the middle man below.
e.g. a crescent Moon is only ever seen near sunrise or sunset. Wait until the Sun is below the horizon — Don’t look at the Sun!
At other times the Sun has set, taking the Moon with it, or has risen, outshining the pale crescent nearby.
(A week later…) When the Moon is halfway between, we see half of each side… See the third figure...
e.g. half a disk overhead — only at sunrise or sunset; half a disk setting — only at midday or midnight.
A half full Moon is misleadingly called a Quarter Moon… since it takes four weeks to move between the four “quarters”.
Sunlight Sunlight
Sun Earth Moon
Moonphase, Moon position and time of day
are all tightly linked. “Full” “Crescent” “Quarter”
Back-Bearing: Plus or Minus 200° Then Minus or Plus 20°

(Or — for the very advanced sleepy student: adjust by 20° first (+/-20°) then -/+200°) a simpler solution
Examples: 10° is small, so make it big, 210°, adjust back to 190° with a protractor
290° is big, so make it small, 090°, then back up to 110°
Advanced: 190° is middling, so boost it first, by 20°, to 210°, then remove 200° and use 10° compass, is to...
210° is middling, so try +20°, then –200° = 030°
When you end up with numbers greater than 360°, remove 360°. When less than zero, add 360°.
Difficult: -10° is small; first convert it, using +360° (= 350°)
350° is big so –200° +20° = 170° Go this way.
185° + 200° -20° = 365°, so adjust it back to 005°
(see page 109b)
There is another solution to back-bearings — decimal degrees — but it hasn’t taken on yet.
18
Use Latitude for a Distance Scale (Not ‘Long’-itude, Despite the Name)
(Especially on marine charts, atlases and old maps—Newer maps are likely to have the mostly meaningless but well-scaled international map grid.)
Latitude means “distance” from the Equator. Remember the polar “distance” 90° complement to latitude? which measured arc-distance, in degrees!
1° of latitude = 60 nautical miles = 111 km The world is 360° around; or 360x60 = 21,600 nautical miles; or 40,000 km
The circumference of the Earth determines how long a kilometre or a nautical mile is — at least in the somewhat outdated original definitions.
(The N/S circumference of the Earth has proven to be closer to 40,007 km, and the E/W circumference is bloated by the Equatorial bulge.)
One ‘kilometre’, comes from the decimal system: whereby one circle equals 400 ‘grads’; one grad has 100 divisions… 40,000 km
Use the latitude scale on the left & right sides of a Mercator map to measure length or distance — but only at that latitude on the map.
But do not use the longitude scales running across the top and bottom of the map — since the spacing of longitude lines should vary with latitude.
Longitude lines must converge towards the Poles, to nothing. They span a variable distance = 1° x cos (latitude), but a Mercator map will (falsely)
show a constant separation for longitude lines (this is to make compass courses look straight). A Mercator projection will also show a variable
separation for latitude parallels, even though they ‘should’ be constant. This is to preserve the shape of land areas—The latitude stretching must
match the longitude stretching. Therefore any scaling shown on the E/W spacing is only valid for the latitude at which it is subdivided.
When a latitude scale says ½° or 30 n ml or 55 km, it means it, at that latitude, but when a longitude scale says ½°, the distance meaning is missing
Using the Declination of the Sun

• Noon Height = 90° – latitude + declination = (from horizontal) Convert “N.” to + ; “S.” to – e.g. 30° S. = –30
E.g. Lat 30° S.; Decl. 20° N : Height = 90+30+20=140° or 40° (the two (opposite) heights must add up to 180°)
i.e. The more the Sun ‘declines’ away from the Equator, and the more you decline on the other side of the Equator, the more the Sun drops
in the sky. Alternatively, the colatitude (90–L) is the maximum height of the sky Equator... Then adjust for the declination.
• Sunrise/Sunset — time and direction prediction
Cosine (angle from North/South) = sine (declination) / cosine (latitude) Try dec =23°.5; lat =37°.1; 55°.67; 62°.6, for a different hexagon
Cosine (time in degrees from noon) = –Tan (Lat.) x Tan (dec.) 1° of longitude = 4 minutes of time.
E.g. measure the time between sunrise & set; divide by 2; solve for Lat. (make sure to use horizontal, not horizon.)
• East/West Sun — Time and height prediction
Cosine (E-W time in degrees, from noon) = Tan (dec.) / Tan (Lat.) e.g. 4 hrs each side of noon @ Lat 41° (Northern Tasmanian Summer)
Sine (E-W height above horizontal) = sin (dec.) / sin (Lat.) e.g. 45° high E./W. from Lat 34 1/3°; +/– 3h21m; Mid-Summer
e.g. take the time when the Sun is E. & W. (opposites — you need to remember to carry 60, not 10, & to interpolate carefully) and then solve for Lat.
See p. 86b for a memorable laugh. Many more formulae and techniques are available, from books on astro-navigation.
Perspective Distortion — Use the Correct Vertical

Vertical is vertical, right? Wrong! To tell the time by the sky, take care.
The higher a pair of points (e.g. stars) gets in the sky, the more you have to choose which vertical is needed for a reference, to judge ‘vertical’ by.
Each different reference direction will give a different answer to “How vertical are those two points up there?” e.g. Moon cusps, Southern Cross
A side view makes this clearer....
..a straight line which looks horizontal when looking south,
looks diagonal in the East The top view also makes it very clear… a line XY high up in the sky cuts
x * 2 stars each different vertical at a different angle...
30°
E S
X….Y
Don’t gauge the angle of rising/setting (p9a) at anywhere other than at the rise/set horizon in the rise/set direction.
Don’t use the nearest horizon, as your reference for which way is up.
To visualise a constant ‘rotation’ of the stars, use Polaris or the South Pole Star as the ‘centre’ of rotation.
I.e. Use N-S longitude lines in the sky rotating in relation to vertical at North/South.
To Determine Upper Wind Direction from the Clouds

Walk in the reverse direction, while keeping a chosen cloud lined up
on a chosen high point. You must walk across level ground to be accurate.
Mark your starting point, then drag a line in the ground to mark your walking direction.
This method works well for very slowly moving clouds.
Other methods: Watch cloud shadows.

Use the Moon, Venus or the Sun (only when it is very well obscured).
Look in different directions at the moving clouds
until their motion seems neutralised—they are moving directly toward you.
Use binoculars, to magnify the movement (but never look towards the Sun).
The Sunny Skies Quadrant System

To orient yourself on a clear day...
Use the two ends of the dark blue band — where it hits the horizon — and the trend of the middle bit of the band, (2.0)
in conjunction with the Sun (but don’t look directly at the Sun!) and your shadow. Sun (Moon)
▪ No matter which way you are facing, you can detect one or two signs to orient yourself by, (cusp North)
Or at least imagine them if you can’t see the Sun just now.
You don’t have to look over your shoulder, which is misleading anyway.
The middle of the blue band is above your shadow, and at right angles to the sunbeams near you.
The whole system rotates, during the day.
If the Moon is up, add it into the system, Dark Blue
and Moon-North too, which is off to one side of North, and changes slowly during the day. Band End
Combine this system with the fixed systems, of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and m.n., rise, a.m., m.d., p.m., set. Shadow
E.g. In the diagram, the Sun is to the left of North, so “the Sun is ‘afternoon’, the Moon is ‘before noon’.”
19
The Horizon Rotates to Your Right in the Southern Hemisphere

1.Face the High Noon Sun. (Imagine it, if you have to, when it is not midday.) It moves horizontally from Right to Left (S. H.)
2.Reverse your perspective — let the Sun stand still and the horizon move, from Left to Right.
Imagine the horizon sliding horizontally beneath the Sun (and you shifting sideways with it).
3.Now imagine the Sun rising from the eastern horizon — it moves up to your left — then reverse perspective...
Imagine the eastern horizon moving diagonally down and away from the Sun, twisting down on the right as it goes.
Face North. Grip the whole horizon on the East and on the West, and imagine a tilted steering-wheel,
and rotate it around the Pole Stars. Imagine a “steer right” motion.
The invisible steering wheel faces you diagonally upwards, while the horizon, as if fixed (diagonally) to the steering
wheel, starts off horizontal and then rotates out of its horizontal.
4. Keep rotating the horizon, sliding the northern horizon horizontally underneath the high noon Sun,
and beyond, until the western horizon comes up diagonally to meet your now “setting” Sun.
You need to do this outside to appreciate it in three dimensions, to have any chance of visualising it easily.
So put your clock back on the Northern wall (see 5e) and say “See, we Southerners have it right, after all!
— the real movement — of the solid stuff — is clockwise”
Tell the Time by the Compass Protractor — Tilt It Toward the Equator
Take a tilted bearing of the Sun. The answer comes back as so many degrees to one side of noon-North (or noon-South in the N. H.).
You then use 15° per hour to convert that to hours before or after noon-time (‘noon’ will be nearer one o’clock during daylight savings time).
Step one: align the compass to True North 1. Top View 2. Side View
Step two: tilt it upward to the ‘Equator’ in the sky (the Sun’s average path)
Step three: rotate the compass arrow to point toward the Sun N The reason for tilting is because
Step four: make the edge of the compass cast no shadow a level sundial/upright gnomon
This avoids looking at the Sun will not give a 15°/hr linear reading
Step five: measure the degrees away from high-noon North, on a tilt (See “The sun passes quickly”)
It is more accurate than using a finger-span

to measure 15° per hour
i.e. Use the compass protractor to make a 24-hour clock face
To use the compass protractor as a 12-hr clockface, see the box opposite. Pole Star
The Southwest Corner of the Great Square is N. S. E. W.

The Great Square of Pegasus only has one really good right angle but it shows N. S. E. W. perfectly.
In the Southern Hemisphere, it is the first star of the Square to rise.
23 hours Right Ascension
Note: When you hold a star chart over your head —————————————————————————— Equator — Double the Square,
‘East and West’ reverse! to locate it
This is the view for the Southern Hemisphere…

Algenib
Markab α * S * +15° N.
Movement to the West W E

Alpheratz
Scheat β * N * +28° N. (Southern Hemisphere view)
The Moon Rises and Sets 50 Minutes Later Each Night

The Moon moves quickly to the West, but…
It progresses Eastward through the night skies, night by night, by 12½ degrees a day — it ‘lags’ the Sun or ‘moves backwards’ during the month.
So that after 29½ days it is back in the same place. It moves about 27 diameters’ worth East through the stars, per 24 hours
or about a diameter an hour to the east in relation to the Sun. One ‘diameter’ is half a degree, and the same as the Sun’s.
Sun, Moon, Planets and Stars rise in the Eastern half and set in the Western half, but some are quicker than others. The Moon is the slowest of all.
E.g. (twice-daily) tides get 25 minutes later each tide, on average — half a day + 25 mins apart.
E.g. the 12 month lunar year gains 11 days on the 12-calendar-month year, or “one day per month except for February, on average”.
(a calendar month equals 30.4 days; a lunar year equals 354 days. Months 1,3,5,7,8,10,12 have 31 days—1½ extra; ½ extra in 30 day months)
The explanation for the Moon’s “slowness” in rotating westwards with all the rest of the sky, i.e. from moonrise to moonset
(it rotates only 14½ degrees per hour, not 15° like the Sun) is that it slowly revolves around the Earth to the East,
in the same clock-sense as the Earth revolves around the Sun,
and so must complete 13 revolutions star-wise, to the East while we see only 12 Moon months. 1 month’s change — the Moon goes full
By the next full Moon, its backside is toward a more easterly star… circle + 1/12, while the Earth orbits 1/12.
For an anti-clockwise rotation system, viewed from the North... Sun
Turn 90°? “+/–100° –/+10°” !

Turning right is turning clockwise; turning left is turning anti clockwise. +90°
Clockwise increases the count of degrees East of North. So that requires +100° -10°. E.g. 257° changes into 347° Go this way
Anticlockwise, when turning left needs –100° +10°. E.g. 257° changes into 167°
Or use +/-10° first, then -/+100° if that is easier (near 0°). Adjust by 360° if necessary.
There is no convenient choice as there was with a back-bearing, so you must remember whether to use + or – 100°.
Remember to look at the Sun’s clock-sense to judge ‘anti-clockwise’
— anticlockwise in the southern hemisphere — to your left. ‘With’ the Sun implies – 90° – 90° goes this way
— clockwise — to your right — (‘With’ the northern hemisphere Sun) implies + 90°.
Hint: When sailing, you can always temporarily head either towards or away from, or side-on to, on the left or the right, a landmark from which you
want to take a bearing, without having to change tack. Therefore you can use +/–180° or +/–90° from the boat’s compass-heading. In heavy
weather this means that you do not need to leave the helm to use a hand-bearing compass, but merely sight along the lines of the boat, or cross-
wise along the lines of the cockpit, stern or cabin. Simply remember that the more clockwise heading is bigger than the left-hand direction
20
Global Perspective — Rotation of the Horizon

Each point on the horizon rotates…
• In a circle
• Around in an Eastwardly sense, like all the real matter in our anticlockwise spiral galaxy
• Around the North-South Earth rotation axis
• Along a fixed sky-latitude circle (i.e. declination circle)
• At a fixed angle of rising/setting (one or the other) in relation to the fixed stars
• Once per day
Example: The “Sugarloafs” were on the left of the Sun at sunrise, but six hours later they had moved to be underneath it, by rotating around Polaris
and now, at the end of the day, they have moved way over to its right, and will keep going around for the next 12 hours of night-time.
To further help you visualise the motion, remember that the ground under your feet is twisting you clockwise in relation to the sky, in the SH,
so that the stars, etc, near the horizon all move only to the left as they rise or fall. For the Northern Hemisphere use “anti-clockwise… right”.
Or Judge the Time By Sight — by Mirroring the Sun Around North

(To Make an Hour Hand on a 12 Hr Clockface)
Actual
‘Hour hand’ High Noon Sun = ‘Noon’ position on the Clockface (i.e. ignore real Noon-North after you align the compass properly) (SH)
(Here, the ‘hour hand’ is showing 2½ hours until ‘noon’, judging it by sight)
(For the Northern Hemisphere, you have to reverse things… hour hand — Sun — South see p.28b)
Of course this method is really just helping you to GUESS!
Alternative: Line up a pencil tip with Polaris, while making the pencil cast no shadow. With your shadow-side hand,
make your index finger (“The Hour Hand”) touch the pencil tip, and look identical on the other side of Polaris.
You can make it work on the Moon or a star or a planet if you know when they are North/South of you.
You can make it work for magnetic noon, to avoid using magnetic variation.
It works because the Sun moves at half the speed of an hour hand,
but the doubled-angle shown, doubles that rate of change, to match a clock’s hour-hand.
Don’t forget to tilt the compass, so that its axis lines up with the Earth axis.
The Southern Summer Rectangle is Worth Looking for — since it has four N. S. E. W. guides
Sirius
1. North: from Procyon, down through the Twins
2. North: from Bellatrix down through Nath
3. West to East: between Bellatrix and Betelgeuse to between Procyon and Gomeissa
4. West to East: Nath to between Pollux and Castor, closer to Pollux
…… ……………………………0° — Equator
(To remember the two Twins, say “Castor & Pollux, α & β, are North & South”)
Bellatrix 3 Procyon
Betel.
And a Triangle Pointing South

2 1
Betelgeuse, Procyon and Sirius.
Pollux +30°N
Nath 4
Clouds and Con-trails and Their Winds

• Fog, which is cloud clinging to the ground, usually oozes downhill. Now, working upwards...
• Topographic cloud banks — may indicate e.g. the plateau edge or a mountain range. I.e. They cling to the topography.
Also look for eagles soaring along otherwise invisible cliff edges.
• Low clouds — they follow the weather map isobars. Also look for sideslip of flying birds and aeroplanes.
As a rule of thumb (clenched fist!) low cloud puffs are at least three knuckles wide, alto puffs are two, and cirro puffs are one, from sea level
• Middle (‘alto’) cloud — the puffs look smaller, the shading, less dense, but no ‘iciness’ seems apparent. The clouds obscure the Sun’s outline
somewhat. Their wind-direction is usually different from both higher and lower clouds. This wind will ‘steer’ low level pressure systems.
(An 850 mb level chart helps) When a change is due, the middle clouds often betray what low wind direction to expect soon.
• High (‘Cirrus’) cloud — thinner; smaller puffs if puffy; icier i.e. fleecier, silky, filamentous; transparent, with halos & no shading.
The Sun’s outline remains crisp when seen through cirrus. Don’t focus on the Sun!
The cirrus-level cloud-direction in the subtropics is usually westerly +/–45°.
Be sure to test this in your latitude. (A 500 mb chart helps) Try to catch glimpses of upper clouds through gaps in the low clouds.
• Jet Con(-densation) Trails — are usually in the high band. Look for them according to a timetable, each day.
The “SWEETHEART” Method of Orientation

We are human, and ‘reference directions’ are not. So make them more human, more personal, more emotional.
“Home” is not bad. “Sweetheart” is better. University
Find something lovely about each cardinal direction. E.g. ‘our favourite holiday spot on the coast’
Something you love or hate, want, or fear, about each reference direction… Big Smoke Girlfriend
You will find it easier to maintain awareness of bends Holiday Spot Home
and to interpret meaning onto the skyline — what lies beyond and behind that horizon!
Where we got Shopping
During one walk, these highlights are unlikely to change direction much. Fined spree
Country
Cousins
21
How to Shift Your Horizon — Its Timing and Height in relation to the sky.
You can navigate by the “shape” of the sky, back to a spot where you have been before, by noticing the “position” of the moving horizon.
On a round earth you can shift your position and horizon 1°, or 360°, by travelling 1°, or 360°, around the circumference. (111 km, or 40,000 km)
The line where the horizon cuts across the sky, varies with the latitude & longitude & the time of day. Using the Sun as an example…
Note: The “1° for 1°” rule for your own movement, only applies after you neutralise the other motions, so as to be as if the sky is standing still.
E.g. You need to neutralise the Sun’s daily motions, by looking at the same time of day — sunrise, noon, 6 a.m., or 12:22 a.m., or whatever.
E.g. You also need to neutralise the Sun’s seasonal motion by looking at the same date every year — Christmas morning, June 25, or whatever.
(Leap years can only make a difference of up to 1° — you could improve accuracy by looking only every four years.)
Rule one: for West/East travel, remember that events like Moonrise seem to happen later to an observer further west, and…
Earlier in the East; four minutes of time (early) for every 1° of longitude (East). (these rules work in both hemispheres)
E.g. “Christmas Day Sunrise at camp 4 was at 6 a.m. last year, but now I see the Sun already up at 6 a.m., so to get to where we spent Christmas
last year, we would have to go further west to make the Sun lower (the horizon higher) at 6 a.m.” (Assume you are at the correct latitude)
Rule two: The horizon drops to reveal new sky as you travel onwards — 1° for every 1° of travel — this works in any direction.
E.g. “The Sun rose to 75° high, but here it reaches only 74½ degrees — so I would need to travel a half-degree toward the Equator
for it to be 75° again.” (This example has deliberately chosen a North South change.)
Then you can shift your horizon, its timing and its height, by moving around the earth, in order to match a previous timed snapshot of the sky.
Walking in Phase with the Sun, Wind and Moon

• In a hot climate, walking into the Sun is unpleasant, hot and glary, especially in the afternoon,
especially if you wear glasses, so... Simple West-East Hairpin Daywalk.
• The morning wind can be very uncomfortably cold, and it is best to plan to walk away from it, too.
• Beach walks are more pleasant when you don’t have to battle back into the afternoon sea breeze or prevailing wind;
so assess the forecast before you choose a start point.
• Night walks and late camps are best done in bright moonlight — simply predict the phase.
• Spotlighting is the easiest on a waning Moon — since the dark period is in the evening, not before dawn.
• Spectacular pink full-Moons only rise at sunset, so it is best to predict such a moonrise and plan an early camp with a view.
E.g. Up in the afternoon shade; down in the morning warmth…

Similar considerations apply to sailing—e.g. aim to make landfall in the pre-dawn. You can identify the harbour, or the coast,
by its light-houses, then soon after be able to enter the harbour in daylight.
E.g. Aim never to cross the sandbar on an outgoing tide—with steep breaking waves, in shallow water, getting shallower!
Coordinate Your Route, Pace, Campsites & Timetable To the Prevailing Conditions.
Navigating by the Shape of the Night Sky

Since the star-map — the background to our view of the sky — is unchanging, the ‘shape’ of the sky involves only the position of the horizon
across the background of fixed stars, and the rotation of that horizon with time.
The sky gives a false impression that the sky itself is spinning, but it is we who are turning upside down! It is our horizon which is changing.
Just as you can neutralise the Sun’s motion by looking at the same time every day (which will show up only its seasonal and longer term variations)
and just as you could neutralise the Moon’s motion, by looking at the same phase and Moontime every month (e.g. full moon rise), to show up its
unpredictable motion, so too with the stars. You must look at the same star-time every night. If, in addition, you look at the stars from the
same spot you will notice no change at all in the ‘shape of the night sky’ or the position of the horizon — star motion is all predictable, with no sig-
nificant variations.
This makes the stars excellent for navigation — you simply locate the horizon in terms of the heights of the stars, the tilts of star
groups, and the star-time of night. E.g. what star appears overhead and at what star time.
Thus, to find that spot again, even much later, you need to make your horizon look identical at the identical star time.
CAUTION: Don’t go star-navigating; rather only imagine doing so, until you become an expert. Understanding it is more useful than doing it!
All figures, formulae and theories should be checked before you trust your safety to them.
The Moon is “in Phase” with the Sun — Watch for It

The Moon progresses (12½ degrees per day) contrary to the general rotation, so…
A new Moon, first seen after sunset, must grow from a crescent, in the after sunset part of the sky, as it separates from the Sun, Eastwards, night
by night, more and more so after the new Moon. I.e. a ‘waxing’ (growing) Moon means Moonlit evenings. After full, the Moon continues Eastwards…
A full Moon must diminish, to a crescent, in the before sunrise time of night. I.e. a ‘waning’ Moon leaves the evenings dark, until Moonrise, predawn.
In other words, the predawns are moonlit for the second half of the Moon month, after Moonrise. In the first half, the predawns are dark, after Moonset.
The whole night is dark in the ‘no Moon’ changeover of months.
During the day, you ask “Is the Moon ahead of or behind the Sun?” I.e. Is the Moon predawn (waning) or post-sunset (waxing)?
Evening spotlighting — is best in the dark before the waning Moon rises — late in the Moon month. (SH view)
Night-walking—is best in Moonlight after Sunset i.e. on a full Moon, or a waxing, almost full Moon. (early-mid month)
(Think of the Moon as prouder of its nighttime role as it moves away, and ashamed as the Sun gets closer)
Highest and lowest (‘Spring’) tides occur on or soon after a new or full Moon. Waning Waxing
‘Neap’ tides occur (when the Sun and Moon pull at right-angles to each other) at “half full Moon”. (to the East)
(Shallow waters introduce a lag of a day or three, due to friction and resonance effects.) W E
Make it your aim to see these things all happen in phase with the Moon month.
The Clock-Face Method for Direction

Quicker than 360° — it only counts up to 12! — it communicates relative directions easily.
E.g. “3 o’clock high” = “on our right — up in the sky” “9:30 from Rigel” = to the left and just above (that star)
Or, for horizontal directions, “ 5 o’clock from the Sun ” = looking down-Sun, and slightly to the left “six o’clock true” = South
At 30° per “hour” it is easily compatible with 360° — both are Babylonian systems.
(But don’t confuse it with a 24-hour clock face, which is only 15° per hour. Unfortunately our clocks do not use a 24-hour system, which would
make them nicely travel around once per day — as fast as the Sun.)
For shifting between clock face directions and 360° directions…
— First convert to or from the hour: Multiply hours by 30, for degrees. Use 12hrs=0 : 0 30 60 90; 120 150 180; 210 240 270; 300 330 360
— “5° extra” = “add 10 minutes” e.g. 255° = 0830 hrs (240° = eight hours; 15° = +10+10+10)
— “1° extra” = “add 2 minutes” e.g. 258° = 0836 hrs
When using the clock-face for compass directions, for NE, SE, SW, NW use 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, 10:30.
Translate 1, 2 o’clock as “(roughly) NNE, ENE,” etc.
Don’t use the minute marks on the clock-face because every 6° is not very user-friendly
22
Latitude without Numbers

When all you want is the latitude, the shape of the sky can tell you, without numbers, without calculations, without a watch.
E.g. ‘Canopus overhead’, or ‘the Pot sets at 30° off vertical’.
If all you want is to recognise appearances locally, you don’t need to set your Star watch to Greenwich Time, or to know a star’s longitude relative to
Greenwich.
E.g. ‘I set my watch to the Dog Star passing North, from home last month’.
If you don’t want calculators and trigonometry, you don’t need to use them.
E.g. ‘The sky is behaving the same as last year, we must be within sight.’
I am about to give you the star time and star longitude information, only for those who wish to work with the easiest benefits from them.
E.g. ‘That must mean that our longitude is 150° E.’
Sunset Note that clockwise circuits and half-day walks

Advanced predawn start must alternate between up-Sun and down-Sun.
Down-Sun Summer
Circuit Winter finish after dusk or start at no ‘nasty cold wind’ How not to
Sunrise circuit starts the 3 o’clock in your face circumnavigate
at the 2 pm position away a lake —
position ‘nice cool breeze’ from the wind from the
This Assumes Southern Hemisphere in your face finish 9 p.m.
position
The Sun shines in your eyes all day!
How not to climb a hill — at the end of the day How to climb a hill
On a sunbaked hill face — with a morning-fresh climb How to climb a mountain
Afternoon Sun in your eyes in the shade. in the outback heat —
Dawdle on top Up the west face; long lunch on top
You walk always in the shade.
Into the Sun return in the twilight
Matching Sky to Sky — Move Only Your Horizon

‘low’ x
A. Move towards a star and it will climb B. Move sideways and your horizon tilts with you
‘high’ e.g. move toward the pole star e.g. a star pair x
to a higher latitude x Polaris may not be upright
and it is higher as expected — x
For stars other than the pole star The pole star is too low move sideways.
Assume a certain fixed star time Or perhaps
or a very high-speed—to stop the stars moving. a star pair
W sets before it becomes upright
C. Because the Earth spins to the East, it leaves the stars behind in the West. You need to tilt your horizon x
If you move west with the star it will slow down, so… down to the right
Move East and the stars will get there Earlier x N/S by moving to your right.. x
e.g. 2 stars become upright too late?
You need to move easterly. x
You may need a combination of A., B. and C.
Prevailing Winds on Creek Banks

One of the two Creek banks will often have a mud- or rock- cliff due to prevailing wave-action, with the other bank being a mud flat.
E.g. If prevailing winds are westerly, the west bank will show less erosion.
For more on finding the prevailing wind direction when the wind is not blowing, see section 3: “Nature’s Norths”.
Because prevailing wind is almost continental in scale, navigating by it is a sort of Big Picture technique.
Tips for calm weather

1. Listen for the wind! Sounds will carry better downwind e.g. surf or traffic. Remember this, at night when all else is still and quiet.
2. Watch the angle of mist droplets falling. (Stop still for this one) Or smoke rising.
3. Huff into the air to make a fog.
4. Watch the flimsiest vegetation.
5. Look at the leaves which dangle down from the topmost leaf clusters of a tree.
Mnemonic: “North; Coast” Go Overseas!

This is a one-off effort, so go to the trouble of getting a globe,
That’s what you should say, whenever you say ‘North’. to sort out what is truly “East” and “West” of you,
“North (Coast) is over there” — it reminds you to think, in a Great Circle straight line.
or rather to picture, the invisible picture. It will surprise you what East and West should mean to you.
You should make it your business to name the North-Coast town north of you, Tokyo
before you go, by consulting a roadmap
Then of course, there is the East Coast, and the South Coast and the West Coast. India Fiji
Next, of course, the same must go for “North-West”
— think of the North-West Coast township, and so on.
You are not functioning properly unless you mean something when you talk! England! Wellington N. Z.
South Africa! Macquarie Island Aus.

e.g. from Australia... South Georgia (UK)
23
Mnemonic “The Sun Travels the Tropics”

I.e. Imagine the tropical countries and oceans which are ‘underneath’ the Sun as it moves East to West during the day — The Equatorial band.
For Australia that means from Central America Across the Pacific Ocean Past New Guinea
On to the Indian Ocean And on toward Africa
When we in Australia see the Sun rise, it is past noon in the Americas. At our sunset, it is approaching noon in Africa.
See the Reference List of Tropical Places (for The Eastern Australian Time Zone) opposite. As a help to global orientation, make it your aim to
memorise these time zones in sequence. Check it out with an atlas. See the tear-out clockface diagram in the appendix.
The same sequence holds for any planet, or star near the Equator e.g. for the stars listed ‘opposite the Sun’ (below), but with different timing.
You can also imagine which country the Sun is overhead while it is night-time near you,
or which country the star opposite the Sun is overhead while it is daytime near you.
Now, with this in mind name the general North/South directions, according to the height of the Sun: To the Sun = “Hot”; To noon = “Hottest”;
and the Shadow direction = “Cold”; Shortest shadow = “Coldest”.
•Although the Moon, by comparison with the Sun, has a “cold” feel to it, make sure you apply the same list of hot tropical countries to it also.
When you see any Zodiacal body, you should think: “That is a Hot direction; It is over a Hot country.” and try to name the country.
Tell the Time of Night by the Star Opposite the Sun

Such a star will be up all night — whether the night is long in winter, or short in summer — look for it. Write them on your calendar.
This yields the solar time, i.e. with respect to local noontime, but not the daylight-savings or summer-time, so adjust by one hour in summer.
January Sirius Castor, Pollux, Procyon
February Suhail, Miaplacidus Alphard Regulus This list is arranged time-wise
March Pointers (Dubhe-Merak) Denebola Phecda Southern Cross the earlier stars are correct
April Southern Cross Alioth Spica Arcturus, Pointers (R.K./Hadar) at the beginning of the month,
May Zubenelgenubi, Kochab Alphecca Antares the last stars, near the end.
June Antares Atria Rasalhague Scorpion Sting Kaus Australis Vega Use each as a 24 hour-hand around the South Pole Star
July Vega Nunki Altair (Aquila) Peacock Deneb The Zodiacal stars
August Deneb Enif (ε Pegasus) Alnair (the ones on the Ecliptic)
September Fomalhaut Middle of Great Square are in italics.
October Diphda Mirach Achernar Hamal-Almach Only they are truly opposite the Sun.
November Mirfak This chart is true for
December Alderbaran Capella-Rigel Saucepan Six O’clock Stars; Canopus both Hemispheres, permanently.
Two Different Back-and-Forth-Star-Directions Give You a Position Fix

..Yes, it’s just like two bearings (which are not opposite each other) from two landmarks. But because these ‘landmarks’ are so distant,
the accuracy is only to within seeing distance. For better accuracy you would need a theodolite or sextant.
E.g. when two stars look upright, that locates a global star-direction; a second upright pair gives you the second direction, and a position fix.
To fix your latitude. you have to measure the time-lapse between the two star pairs. (Simultaneous is simplest.) So you need a plumb-line
and also a watch. And for accurate (Greenwich) longitude fixing, you need to work in (Greenwich) star-time — otherwise you have only latitude
which is fixed. So you need either an almanac, or calculator, or star-watch, or a work-it-out-at-home-later approach.
This is equivalent to fixing which star is exactly overhead and when. To see this, look up past the top of the plumb-line to ‘overhead’ from the two
different directions—one for each pair—to see that they must cross exactly overhead.
The ‘fix’ is repeated accurately over years, and every night at the same star-time, with some very small predictable drift in location and timing.
No one else on earth can see exactly what you see right now. That’s what gives you a unique position fix.
People at the same latitude see something very similar earlier or later than you do.
The best two directions to cross are Northwest/Southeast and Northeast/Southwest. Top-view...
This is because East/West star directions are time-wastingly difficult to determine.
This method is most helpful, of course, at sea, or in the desert, or as a hobby, or when lost.
Predict the Full Moon Path According to the Time of the Year
The full Moon is opposite the Sun, and is near the Ecliptic, i.e. in the Zodiac (the Sun’s path through the stars) so that…
When the Sun is in midsummer position—high, and up for a long time—the full Moon will be in a midwinter position—low, and setting again quickly
When the Sun is in the midwinter position—short days—the full Moon will be high and up for a long time — long nights.
The two complement each other, since when one comes up the other goes down, and when one goes down the other comes up.
Both Sun and Moon are on the Ecliptic—not usually on the Equator—but, at the Equinoxes, the Sun is on the Equator, so the full Moon is too.
Near Equinox, of course, the Sun and Full Moon will rise and set in almost the same positions — East and West — and follow similar paths —
about 12 hours each, along the Equator. The Equator and the Ecliptic intersect in two opposite points — the equinoctial points.
In other words, you can use the full Moon to visualise the Ecliptic, and to guess where the Sun is, i.e. to guess the time of night,
Or you can use the Sun to visualise the Ecliptic, and to guess where the full Moon will be, how high, and for how long.
Finding North from the Moon, by its height & phase

The Moon will follow a Midsummer Sun’s path, or a Midwinter Sun’s path, or an average height path, according to where on the Ecliptic it lies.
Because the phase of the Moon is determined by its relative position to the Sun, the combination of the time of day, the phase, and cusp-Ecliptic
gives you an unmistakable sense of where North should be, when you see the Moon. When you see the Moon surprisingly low in the sky, and the
cusps confirm that the Ecliptic lies fairly horizontal, you know that it is somewhere near North (SH), following a low and horizontal trajectory, rather
than a Moon ‘just now rising’ on a high trajectory, like a summer Sun in the East.
One Degree is about One in Sixty 1 in 60

And n° is about n in 60. e.g. 10° is 1 in 6 (p96a), and 6° is 1 in 10 (3 fingers wide, or 3½ knuckle-centres, at arm’s length, or ‘blink your eye’).
These are handy rules of thumb for navigators. If you use an isosceles triangle, the rule is remarkably accurate for most acute angles.
Example: “Oh I forgot magnetic variation! I’ve been 5° off!! Oh well, I will simply adjust sideways. Isosceles
I have come 12 km; 1/60 of that = 0.2; times five = 1 km off”
Actually 1° is 1 in 57.3 (1.75:100), predictably slightly more than 1 in 60, but as the angle increases so does the accuracy of the 1:60 rule.
The rule (n° = n across at 60 away) is based on: the third side of the isosceles triangle (is twice the sine of half the angle).
(If you don’t like numbers, try this other “handy” rule...) 6 (equilateral) lots of 60°
Rule of Finger: point your index finger at something — the fingernail is 1°.
Why is 1° slightly more than one in 60?... 60° r r r
Six equilateral triangles go all around the circle, but, as you know, 6 1/4 radii go around the circle.
This is because the circumference, longer than the hexagon, is 2pi times the radius, or 6.283r one radian=57.3° r 1c r
So one ‘radian’ of arc, which is one radius long, but curved, will be slightly less than 60° i.e. 57.3°.
So if the radius is 60, one sixtieth of a radian will be “one in 60”, and slightly less than 1°. 1/60 of 1c = 1 in 60 r 1c
377 of them go around the circle. For 360 degrees around the circumference, the radius needs to be 57.3.
The equivalent is ‘5/3 across at 100’ (5 at 300, 167 at 1000; above 10°) with the more exact figure for up to 10° = 7/4 in 100
24
Tropical Countries and Places Under the Sun — Arranged in Time Zones Relative to Eastern Australian Time — 10 hrs ahead of Greenwich
-12hrs. The mid North Atlantic (is opposite Australia) 0 Rockhampton, Tropic of Capricorn 23½° S. (Canberra 36° S.)
-11hrs. Brasilia 16° Sao Paulo/Río de Janeiro 23½° S. 1 Alice Springs, Tropic of Capricorn
-10 hrs. Trinidad and Tobago 10° N. 2 Sulawesi 0°; Manila 15° N.; Port Hedland 20° S.
-9 Cuba/Haiti 20° N.; Bogotá 5° N. 3 Christmas Island 10° S.; Jakarta 7° S.; Singapore 1°N.
— Panama 8½ hrs ahead of Australia — Cocos Islands
-8 Galápagos 0°; Guatemala 15° N. 4 Calcutta Tropic of Cancer 23½° N.
-7 Gomez 26° S.; Mexico 23½° N. 5 Maldives Equator
-6 Pitcairn Island — Easter Island 25 to 27° S. (L.A. 34°N). 6 Gulf of Oman Tropic of Cancer
— Tip of Californian Peninsula 23½°N; IDR Gigego 20°N — Seychelles
-5 Mangareva Tropic of Capricorn 7 Port of Aden 12° N.; Mogadishu 3°; Madagascar 23½° S.
-4 Tahiti 17°½ S. 8 The north of South Africa on the Tropic; Lake Victoria 0°;
—Cook Islands 11° S. Sudan/Egypt on the Tropic; Aswan High Dam
-3 Hawaii Island, Tropic of Cancer 9 Namibian Desert coast on the Tropic; Lake Chad 14° N.
-2 Fiji 15° S. 10 Timbuktu 17° N.; Accra 5° N.
-1 Noumea 21° S. See pp 132f 11 West Africa coastal bulge 15° N.
Tell North from The Time By Using a Protractor

Reverse the method for telling the time from the compass protractor and North. To make the zero point North...
Make the sundial (protractor) show the correct time (one side of ‘noon’ time). Simultaneously make sure the sundial face is tilted to be parallel to
the Equatorial Plane… I.e. For best results the tilt of the protractor according to the latitude, needs to be accurate.
Consequently, you may find it an interesting exercise to mockup a large (bigger = better) cardboard multi-protractor
— e.g. by marking the sides of a cardboard carton.
Use a plumb-bob to accurately tilt the protractor, according to your latitude. E.g. pin the plumb-line to the top, side corner,
and mark 90° on the flat face…
This instrument may be used to find North if you know the local time, or to find the local time if you know North.
One side of the carton is used for the latitude protractor in conjunction with the plumb-bob, a second side can be marked as a sun-
dial protractor.
E.g. use another (long, straight, perpendicular) pin at the top corner of the side facing you, to cast a shadow across a 90 degree scale
(— this is for accuracy, rather than make a full 180° or 360°).
Morning and afternoon then require separate scales; Winter-time requires that you face away from the Sun.
For Land-Navigation, Choose the Plumb-Line Star-Pair Method tree

• Use a smooth constant diameter line, preferably thick. Make the plumb-line tall and stand far back.
Make the cord either white or black to stand out against the sky, then maybe flash a torch onto it. *
• Pour sand around the plumb, to anchor it to the ground. Avoid wind, especially if you hang the line from a tree branch! *
• “ Blink ” the stars “on” and “off” behind the plumb-line, both on its left and on its right, by moving your head. ......
• Average the “start” & “finish” times. I.e. “It seems to line up now for the first time”… “definitely finished now”. One accurate set of meas-
urements is better than several rough ones. One star will gradually move over the top of the other star, and you have to pick exactly when.
• Choose well-separated stars (e.g. Rigel & Capella)
• If you want the timing to give you your longitude immediately, choose a North/South pair (e.g. Rigel & Capella) — (you need to know the
star’s longitude or its timing elsewhere, i.e. from a known longitude).
• An East/West pair will give you your latitude (without the need for a watch). The observation here is not the time but whether or not the
given pair will attain to uprightness, after the first glimpse or before the last glimpse. Beyond a certain latitude, a given star pair will always
remain tilted, less than vertical. This latter process can be time-consuming. Use a hand-held plumb-line occasionally, to check the progress.
Predict the Moon Phases by “ N minus M ”

“ N ” is a number (you calculate) for one particular year (e.g. For 2004 it was “24”, in Australia’s time zone, for the New Moon)
“ M ” is the month number (e.g. April is “4”)
“ N – M ” is the day of the month for a certain fixed phase (e.g. in April 2004: 24 – 4 = 20th April 2004 for the New Moon)
April 20 was dark all night. New Moon seems to show the most regularity. The ‘new Moon’ is more accurately ‘no Moon’.
Other phases happen one week later, two weeks later, three weeks later — ‘quarter’ by quarter — 29½ days for the whole cycle.
(The number, N, in 2004, would be 2; 9; 17; 24, 32 approximately, for 1st; 2nd; 3rd; final and 1st quarters respectively.) You can add 29½ to N.
Then in 2005, the number, N, for the new Moon was 13... (i.e. in April 2005, 13 minus four equals… the ninth of April — no Moon).
And in 2006 I used N = 32; 21 in 2007. The number N for the New Moon must be close to any New Moon date + M, e.g. December New Moon+12
Check your diary’s calendar each year for the Moon phases; test and tweak a number N which works to within plus or minus one or two days.
The prediction is fairly crude, but with trial and error you can come up with the best number and phase combination for that year. For 2010, it is 18.
—usually 11 days less than the year before (12 for leap year) because the lunar year of 354 days is 11 days shorter than the ordinary solar year
I.e. a good mnemonic is: the Moon gains one day a month for every month except February (which has only 28 days).
Hints: Subtract “ M ” twice for January and February, for more accuracy on non-leap years. Alternatively, to cope better with leap years...
Start the year in March (after the short month, February). Call January & February “months 13 & 14”, but subtract 1 more for their accuracy.
Note: The “Full Moon” is when the Moon is nearest to “opposite the Sun” and it may not be exactly on the horizon when the Sun is.
Walk across Australia!

(Substitute whatever continent is appropriate)
Mentally line up a wall-poster size map of the whole continent (or bigger) with the track.
When you approach a bend, place the map on the bend, then walk all over it!
It’s hard to miss the meaning of the bend if you bother to do this.
Your mind may not believe that it is not still going ‘straight ahead’ until you force it to catch up with the facts!
English!
“East-around” from North, is West-around from South, in a horizontal clock-sense. An “Easterly” course means East-wards — moving to the East.
An “Easterly” motion means East-wards. E.g. an “Easterly spin”-motion = “orbiting in an Easterly sense” = moving E around the N/S spin-axis But…
An “East(erly)” wind means flowing Westwards, from the East. An “Easterly” current might be flowing Westwards, from the East, but
an easterly tidal “set” is an offset to the East. (Set is how far the tide “sets” you off track. The speed is called the tidal “drift”.)
“ Due ” East means “exactly” East, as when a loan is “due” — “right now!” Always double-check what someone means!
25
North/South and Noontime by Bisection (of Rise and Set)

Rise and set are symmetrical around North/South, provided you use horizontal, and not the horizon.
In hilly country, instead of ‘rise and set’, you should use equal height of the Sun (e.g. in NE and NW). o knot to cast a shadow
“Equal height” translates as equal length shadows of an upright, straight stick or cord, onto flat ground…………
Or, better, use a bush sextant, p.27c, set to a fixed reading.
There are four ways to bisect two directions to find North/South — so don’t muck it up by 90° or 180°! Flat! …………sand settles the bob
The second diagram will work in both hemispheres — but double check the results for sense.
There are also two ways to bisect the time — so don’t mix up ‘just before midnight’ with ‘just after noon’.
It is also hard to ‘bisect the time’ to find noon, which of course, is not at 12 noon exactly, nor at 1300 hrs exactly in summer. Sunset
To work with hours, you need to carry 60 minutes, not 10 or 100! So be careful and crosscheck your figures. N shadow
Be accurate or your results will not be worth the effort. yesterday;
E.g. rise: 0529 hrs; set: 1820 hrs Add… = 2349 hrs Halve… = 1100+(60 +49)/2 = 1154½ hrs = noon. W E
Check: total elapsed time: 1820 –0529 = 1251 = 2x0625½; 0529 + 0625½ = 1154½ = correct Sunrise Today
1820 – 0625½ = 1154½ = correct
Longitude and Latitude from the Sun

Longitude...
Try timing the Sun for equal height each side of noon e.g. NE & NW (SH) to calculate the time of noon.
This can tell you your Greenwich longitude, provided you know the Sun’s longitude, that is, its G. H. A.— from an almanac or calculator.
The Sun shifts predictably at a rate of near 15°/hour westerly. Almanacs make it their business to predict its West longitude exactly.
Of course the Sun’s longitude at the time of your noon is your longitude too — since it is north of you.
Now try timing the Sun in two opposite directions at the same heights i.e. East and West.
You could try using the shadow of a plumb-bob on flat and level ground. Mark the shadow carefully.
This will be most accurate in the season when the Sun reaches high — in the summer sky. t1 t2
By a series of early observations you can guess at when to make a final observation.
Using a theodolite or bubble sextant allows you to graph the rise & fall of the Sun (or a star) and see when ‘same height again’ happens.
See the ‘Bush Theodolite’ for an alternative measuring method.
Latitude (There are easier ways!)...
You can now solve the E/W formulae for your latitude — e.g. try the formula that predicts the timing of East and West for the Sun.
Equal-Height Stars Can Be Useful When the Sea Horizon is Visible

(or with a bubble sextant)
For direction, use the mid-point, of two stars which appear to be of equal height. — a great circle direction
For longitude, the timing is the important bit. — these stars should be approximately north or south of you
For latitude, the test is whether or not the stars do attain to equal height. — these stars will be approximately East or West of you
For a position fix, try to get two pairs, one north-west, the other north-east of you, for instance.
A bush quadrant is easy to make with a string tied to a stick! — just pull the string to length to measure or compare star heights.
Rest your hand and chin on something solid if possible. Use your full arm’s length for best accuracy. To the star
You can fix your latitude by measuring the timing of two separate star-pair events
— the relative timing — e.g. ‘5¼ minutes apart’ (is unique to that latitude). To the sea horizon
Simultaneous events are simplest, but separated events are easier for one person to time.
You don’t ‘get on the map’ with this simple method unless you have been there before.
Unless you want a lot of trigonometry no calculations are required,
only the observation of re-recognisable appearances.
You can fix your longitude, too, by measuring any absolute timing — an exact star time — and so get on the map.
Anticlockwise, to the East, is Your Best Spin-Reference Direction

Because we use our North-South axis as our reference direction, we have to learn the spin-sense as something separate. See ‘Orientation’ p 35a.
The standard viewpoint for any spiral system (e.g. a weather system, a clock-face) is ‘from the top’, “as seen from above”. Horizontal directions
are measured “clockwise around” as you look down on them. For our spiral galaxy & solar system, the correct viewpoint is therefore ‘from the North’
Looked at ‘from the top’, i.e. from the North, our Galaxy spins anti-clockwise. Or more simply, ‘to the East’. ‘Up North’ is ‘on the left’ of East.
This means that the real motions are East-around the North/South spin axis—opposite to the familiar idea that everything sets in the West.
Because Northerners have their back to the North Pole when they see the Sun Down South of them, they see their horizon spin anti-clockwise
— that is, the hills and trees on the horizon move to the left of the Sun. They are looking “from the top” i.e. from the North further South.
Their Sun only appears to move clockwise (to their right, to the West), because it is their horizon moving—anti-clockwise (to their left, to the East).
To avoid confusion, always make the distinction between real mass movement and apparent virtual rotation. And think: We spin East.
Because we think of ‘clockwise’ and ‘right-hand’ motion as ‘standard’, and setting “in the West” as ‘normal’, it’s a bit of a shock, to rethink!
When you are Down Under, on the South side, looking North at the noon Sun, you see the bottom of our Galaxy, and Solar System, and Earth.
The three ‘North’ spin-axes are all very roughly aligned together, all lying in our “Northern” Hemisphere — not too much tilted from each other or
from our own spin-axis. You mentally lift yourself further out (not “up”) into space to look at (but not really ‘down’ on) the spiral motions
Remember that from a ‘standard’ (Northerner’s) point of view, the Southerner’s view is really “a bottom view looking upwards” — from the South
half, and you have moved out further South, for a better view — with the South Polestar behind you. You should see clockwise real movements.
Turn around and look Southwards at the Southern sky and you will see as if ‘from the top’—or at least ‘from within’, but looking South. Anticlockwise
Remember to rethink “Up” as “to the North Pole of the spin”.
• It should now be easy for you to visualise, in either hemisphere, your Southern horizon spinning anticlockwise.
• Look also at the Moon—visualise its orbit and its spin—‘anticlockwise’ from N.H., but clockwise-around if you are seeing it from e.g. Australia.
• Find the bright planets — can you ‘see’ them moving ‘anticlockwise around the Sun’ in orbit? The Ecliptic marks their path.
• And, go further, visualise the real Sun spinning much like the Earth does, on its own N-S axis. The Sun is North of you in the Southern hemisphere,
spinning on its own axis ‘clockwise from below’, or in the Northern hemisphere, South of you ‘anti-clockwise from above’. Use the Ecliptic’s N-S spin
axis as a good guide for the Sun’s, or simply use the Earth’s own axis as a rough guide — Don’t look at it, but imagine its sunspots moving.
• Keep going: The Earth hurtles through space in orbit around the Sun ‘to the left, while looking to the Sun, around a N-S axis of spin’ (Down Under,
looking North) ‘to the right, relative to the Sun’ (NH) ‘anticlockwise, looking South’ (NH)—‘with’ the apparent movement of the Sun, in both cases.
That makes the noon horizon move in opposition to the movement of the whole Earth through space. Like the slow ‘inside’ of a spinning ball circling.
• Imagine the whole Earth-orbit in the sky. It’s easy when you get the hang of it. New Zodiac stars seem to emerge (invisibly) on the Sun’s West
side, in seasonal procession, because “the Sun is edging Eastward along the Ecliptic in a yearly cycle” i.e. we move to the West side of the Sun and
see behind it to the background Zodiac stars. Don’t look at the Sun, but you should be able to ‘see’ this happening as if there were a star chart be-
hind the blue sky! Try just before dawn.
• Now, at night-time, find the centre (thickest part) of the Milky Way near Scorpio/Sagittarius and visualise the whole Solar System orbiting it per-
pendicular to that, the Sun/Earth/Moon all moving as a unit, to your left (SH) or right (NH) towards Suhail, away from Deneb.
The Milky Way marks the plane of the spiralling galaxy (from which you can determine its N-S axis, tilted differently from ours).
26
Finding Magnetic Variation by Bisecting Rise and Set

Accuracy is needed.
Measure the compass directions of the morning and evening Sun at equal heights e.g. rise & set on a flat Horizon
Bisect the result. E.g. Rise: 079° Compass Set: 271° Compass
Add: 350° Halve: 175° Use the Opposite: +200–20=355° (See p.18e)
So the Compass North must be 5° to the East of geographic North. Draw diagrams to avoid getting confused. 5°E
Check all numbers! E.g. 355°–271°=084° 355° to 360°=5° + 079° more=84° Correct. 10°E
350°C 0°C 10°C Or 271 – 79 = 192° spanning = 2x96° 0
79+96 = 175° 355
= opposite to (375 – 20)° 5°W 15°E
271° 079° Correct. 84 84
The compass readings are “Least”, by 5° (see p 107b)
E.g. 079°C is really 084°T. (see p 14e) 96 96 Approximate Magnetic Variations iso– lines
A Bush Theodolite for Overnight Equal Height Observations

This is for accuracy in calculating... True North, Noon time and Compass variation
And for any equal-height paired observations — Sun/stars/etc.
Find a large bent stick. (Or bend it with a bowstring)
Hold it up by a loop-knot e.g. hang it on a twig.
(If it is early or late i.e. a long shadow, the stick will not need to be bent much.)
Late afternoon, at camp,
Mark where the shadow of the knot (or the other end of the stick) falls on the stick;
take the time; line up the landmark it points to; and find its compass direction.
Early morning, next day,
Hold it up (in reverse); wait until the shadow again falls in its proper place;
get the time, direction and compass reading again.
For a Bush Bubble Sextant, arrange a water filled clear tube on a triangle of lashed walking sticks
so that there is a trapped bubble in a tube section with an ever so slight convex-upwards bend.
Make the bubble always stay at one marked place when you are using it.
Great-Circle Reference Star Directions

You need some familiar reference points. It’s a simple matter of going out at night, waiting around, and tracking down a few of these...
Look for stars which are closer to the pole than you are, and see where they rise and fall vertically. It happens once or twice a night, per star.
This gives you a series of great-circle star directions, already labeled, because the ‘maximum latitude’ is equal to that star’s ‘declination’.
E.g. Acrux is about 30° from the pole, or “60° latitude”. If you steered towards one of its vertical-motion directions you would end up underneath it.
So as it rises or falls vertically (once each per night, if visible at the time), as it circles the South Pole Star, it lures you to 60°S latitude.
E.g. A star overhead, as the extreme limiting case, is moving East to West, rising vertically from the East and falling vertically to the West,
meaning that you are already at the maximum latitude of that course, if you had been heading towards that star guide, now travelling E-W also.
You then have to head directly away from it (e.g. the next night) to further pursue that course.
Heading away from that star either East or West would take you eventually back towards the Equator, like the way you travelled down there.
The stars further from the pole, than you are from the Equator, make a complementary set of reference directions, by using the horizontal
direction ‘at right-angles to where stars rise and set’. The declination is a measure of how close to the pole you would pass.
The stars close to the pole are unavailable. The co-declination labels ‘the maximum latitude’.
E.g. Sirius is 17° South, so rising from the horizon, somewhere to the South of East, it would send you to within 17° to the left of the South Pole.
Turn around and it would guide you (part way) to cross the Equator and to within 17° of the left of the North Pole.
Make a Bush Psychrometer ..for absolute humidity and dew-point-temperature measurements

Carry a wettable piece of material — dip it in water — hang it up to dry (in the shade out of the breeze) — time how long it takes.
Measure the air temperature at the same time, and cross correlate the two, to find the absolute humidity. If you calibrate the method at home, by
graphing the results for a whole range of different temperature and humidity conditions, you will get to recognise a dry air mass from a moist one.
The piece of material needs to be non-porous, non-rotting and dark coloured — to show the drying process clearly, and to yield repeatable results.
Night-time minimum temperature more or less bottoms out as soon as an air mass starts to dew. The ground then wets down further instead of
cooling down further. The normal method of measuring absolute air humidity—the percentage of water vapour—is by evaporatively cooling a water
drop in it. It requires wetting a thermometer bulb, fanning it vigorously (trying hard not to break it) and measuring how far you can make the “wet
bulb temperature” “dip” below the “dry bulb (air-)temperature”. The water temperature won’t get all the way down to “dew point”—the temperature
at which dew or frost will form in that air mass—unless it already is dripping wet outside. It may get a bit more than half-way, and then only when
only dew is expected—DP above 3° C. If frost is possible, i.e. when the dew point temperature is 3° or less, it will dip at most half way down
to the dew point. Why 3°? Well, when the air is very dry, dewing will further reduce the water vapour content of still, cold air, from a dew-point
temperature of a few degrees above zero, down to 0°—resulting in ‘frozen dew’. Rule of thumb for calculating dew-point from dip:
When the DP is 40°C/30°/20°/10°/5°/0° then add to the ‘dip’ 0/1/2/3/4/5 quarters of the dip, to get down to the real dew point.
If the night is long enough and calm enough to cool down enough, & the sky is clear enough, a DP near zero will result in a frost.
E.g. 15° to 10° = 5° dip, 5°DP. 15° to 13° = 2°dip, 11°DP. 19° to 18° = 1°dip, 17°½DP. (Remember that you can’t go far wrong anyway.)
South is a Triply Better Reference Direction than North, in the South

1. The closest geographic Pole in the Southern hemisphere is just over the horizon in Antarctica. Globally seen, all directions pointing South are
convergent, whereas directions pointing North are initially divergent, and lengthy and less meaningful... Travelling North you first cross the Equator
before it gets colder — so the gut-feel meaning is less clear. The meaningful direction, when you are in South latitudes, is to go further South to get
much colder. (It is the same as in the Northern hemisphere, where going further North makes it much colder.)
You may find that in a place like Tasmania for instance, the maps seem to be upside down, because although North is at the top of the map, the
logical reference direction is toward the bottom of the map, where the cold place gets colder. You don’t think: “This is a warm place. In which direc-
tion does it get warmer?”.
As a result it is easy to get disoriented by 180°, if you insist on using North as your reference direction. In addition…
2. When you put South at the top, and look South, then the Sun will move to your right, as if seen from the N.H., across the map as time passes,
for both hemispheres—and that will make the clock-to-Sun link obvious (like putting a Southern clock on the S. wall to match the Sun’s motion).
Northerners especially, would find that a more natural way to view any map—as if from further North, looking South, to the Sun moving right.
3. Putting South at the top, with the Sun & Tropics behind you, looking down onto a map, is the mathematically standard viewpoint
— like looking from the top of the Galaxy — from North to further South — the land South of you moves Anti-clockwise, to your left, to the East.
You can still orient your map normally and correctly, but there is no law against habitually viewing it from its Northern edge, looking South. Try it.
27
Find East/West By Delayed Bisection of the Sun and the Full Moon At Rise or Set
To find due East (+/–10°): Bisect the sunrise and the full Moon rise — since they are of opposite declination.
For due West (+/-10°): Bisect the sunset and the full Moon set — since they set each side of due West.
Obviously, you need to wait about 12 hours for this method — it is really just for your background comfort level about where things are.
There is a slop of 5°, since the Moon’s plane of orbit is about 5° away from the Ecliptic.
There is also a slop of about 24 hours, since the full Moon occurs at some time other than Moonrise or Moonset,
plus it is hard to pick an exactly full Moon, and the Moon varies in declination, i.e. North/South position, from day to day.
East
Find North by your (non-digital) Watch-Hands

Point the noon on the watch (not the 12!) to the Sun.
Tilt the watch axis toward Polaris as best you can judge. N N S S
This tilt matters a lot, but is not usually mentioned!
S.H. N.H.
Southern hemisphere: North is in between the Sun and the hour hand.
Northern hemisphere: The Sun is in between the hour hand and South. a.m. p.m. a.m. p.m.
Why?: Clocks Go Clockwise; at 30° per hour — twice around per day.
For the Southern Hemisphere that means: — twice as fast as the Sun and opposite.
So ‘in between’ moves neither clockwise nor anticlockwise — it stays N/S. At real noon-time, the hour hand and the Sun cross over.
For the Northern Hemisphere, the hour hand overtakes the Sun at noontime, at South.
It’s easy to visualise in fast motion, once you catch the idea — it’s like the hare overtaking the tortoise.
Remember to tilt the watch-face up to be parallel to the Sun’s orbit, not horizontal, because a sundial shadow is not linear.
You could use the middle of sunrise/sunset times to find the local actual high-noon midday time, which is needed for “point noon at the Sun”.
The same method can be applied to the stars, the Moon or the planets — provided you know when the one you want to use is north of you.
Leo the Lion Looks like a Lion or Sphinx Squatting

It Has Four Lines which Show N./S. E./W.
Two in the ‘hindquarters’; one along the ‘back’; one as the stem of the ‘question mark’ (Leo’s mane).
(You have to turn the ‘?’ around.) For the Southern Hemisphere, turn it all upside down.
This is a good sign in Northern spring/Southern autumn.
(NH view — LEO is upright)

Direction of movement
To Predict the Moon’s Path, Visualise the Ecliptic Minimum declination

For more clues on how to visualise the Ecliptic, first see the overview at the end of this section. “–23°½ N” i.e. 23°½ S
The Moon stays within 5° of the Ecliptic. That helps you see where the Ecliptic should be, or alternatively, of the Ecliptic (Solstice)
where the Moon should be. The Full Moon is easy, and has been covered on p. 24d.
A half-Moon, for example, is 90° from the Sun; so if one is on the Equator the other is not and vice versa. Sun’s yearly path E
E.g. a half Moon in mid-winter will rise and set due E./W. +/- 5° or so.
Secondly, recall that the Earth’s spin-axis is tilted 23½ degrees from the solar system. North to the left horizontal
This is how it would look from Sydney (*), at midday, in Midsummer, i.e. at Southern Summer Solstice…
The two great circles intersect at 23°½. The whole double-circle rotates West over 24 hours. i.e. sunset is at X… * X
To visualise the Ecliptic (see also p. 30d & 33b), from the Sun... (Southern Spring Equinox) Sky
..Since the Sun moves eastwards seasonally through the stars you can know that 0° dec. Equator
the part of the Ecliptic which the Sun was recently on must ‘lead’ the Sun to the West.
E.g. after solstice in Southern Summer, the most Southerly part of the Ecliptic is ahead of the Sun
to the West, and so a waning crescent Moon (to the West of the Sun) will be higher in the sky, on average, than the Sun. (SH) The
E.g. A crescent Moon at sunset at spring equinox will look extraordinarily high over the sunset glow, because of the 23°½ tilt. Ecliptic
Bearings & Tracks: “If it is Right, it is Big, in my sight”

= Anything on my Right is Bigger than ‘ahead’. I.e. If I am heading 100°, something on the right has a bearing bigger than 100°, e.g. 200°.
And “Any track on my Left is too Little to look at” = Anything on my Left is Less than ahead, e.g. 20°.
These mnemonics compare fixed tracks or directions, and their ‘Big and Little’ measure in degrees, East-around-from-North i.e. clockwise bearings.
[The changeover from 360° to 0° can give you trouble. Where ‘ahead’ was say 355°, 15° bigger should be ‘big’ e.g. 370° but will look really small,
10°. Because it is nowhere near 355 in number, there should be no possible confusion, provided you think of 10° as 370°.
‘Little’ may look really big, if 360° gets in between. E.g. where ‘ahead’ was 005°, 15° smaller would be –10°, which is the same as 350°, which is
nowhere near 5 in number.]
Furthermore, if A sees B on his right, relative to a fixed direction, B sees A on his right,
provided that they use acute angles, or they look in opposite directions e.g. facing each other.
This could all get confusing if you don’t remember those two provisos. See p108c for how to put this mnemonic into practice.
28
Find North from the Combination of the Sun and the Moon
When you are familiar with the path of the Sun and of the Moon, and with their seasonal movements, and with the Equator and Ecliptic,
then whenever you see the Moon up during the day, imagine where the Sun’s path lies in relation to the Moon’s, and vice versa.
This gives you two concentric circles to visualise, which of course allows you to locate Polaris (at the centre of those paths), and from there, North.
North/South See box d/e below, to know where the Moon should be.
Find Any Other Direction Too — Using the Hour Hand

This method works, in theory (there are easier methods!), for any other body — star, Moon or planet — or for any other direction.
For instance, you may notice when the Sun is due East, and how high it is; or again, when it is in the direction in which you wish to head.
Or again, you may be following a star, and of course it will move and of course you will wish to compensate for its movement.
In these cases you substitute the time of that body being in the chosen direction for “noon”, and substitute the chosen direction for “North”.
Keep the watch axis pointed to Polaris as best you can judge it.
For example: you know the Sun is West at 4 p.m. At midday it will look like this… (SH version) West Sun e.g. at midday
..“Point the four to the Sun; West (or the chosen direction) is between the Sun (or star etc) and the hour hand”
The catch here is that you must imagine the height of the body accurately, before the direction can be found.
This is because the method only shows the rotational position of the body — longitude wise, Hour hand
not its height declination wise — and with the clockface being tilted, the horizontal direction
being pointed out is not obvious until you choose a height. Side-on
Of course, the accuracy of the method depends also upon aligning the clockface to the Equatorial plane.
String North
Carry a piece of string, about one metre long, to measure the angular height of the Moon, planet or star which you intend to use later.
You measure it once, as a matter of preparation, then use it many times. The Moon goes out of date the most quickly, but the stars are permanent
Put a loop knot at one end, to hold the bottom knot, level with the horizon or horizontal. You may have to wait, until the height is clear.
Hold the string at arms’ length in a vertical plane to the North-South, which is where the star will reach its highest point.
Put a second knot to show the maximum height. This is equivalent to the ‘noon’ height for the Sun.
For the Sun you could use the shadow, and hold the string down from the horizontal. It will be accurate for a week.
Better still, use the shadow methods soon to be described, to avoid the temptation of looking at the Sun.
Now at other times of the day/ night, first hold the string in a vertical plane to reconstruct the expected height, then hold the string horizontally
from that same high angle above you. Lastly, twist and turn, so that the horizontal string apparently points to the body used — Moon, star, planet.
You have to twist yourself until the string is horizontal, and at the right height, and points to the chosen body. Then you are facing N-S.
Actually the method approximates a slightly curved small-circle star-path with a great-circle straight course.
You can find approximate North with the string, then adjust it slightly by imagining the actual star-path as a small circle around the Pole Star.
The straight string will then appear to point to just above the star, but in your imagination, it curves down to match the guesstimated star-path.
This is the direct sighting equivalent to the ‘shortest-shadow South’ methods on the next page.
A 4 Week Position Cycle of Moonrise/set, to Find East/West

The Moon, like the Sun, lies close to the Ecliptic (in the Zodiac), and completes a cycle along it (within 5°) in 27¼ days (not quite 28 days). So...
The Moon changes position in a four-week cycle, like a speeded up year. It spends a week in each ‘seasonal’ position: High; mid; low; mid; hi...
The Moon crosses the Equator every fortnight, rising due East and setting due West that day. Find it! Use p9c to find E/W on those days/nights.
In alternate weeks it will rise & set in the Midsummer then Midwinter positions for the Sun. Get to know them, and expect each one every 4 weeks.
• Its change of rise/set position day to day is most sensitive near the equinox position, due E/W (be careful), and is least critical a week later.
In between times, the rise/set positions can be guessed by the day of the week, by interpolation, as a good direction guide on any day.
The cycle runs fast by only 1 day in 37 1/3 days. So it is a continuous guide to E/W, for a month at a time, as it moves through 13 Zodiac signs.
• The best way to set your Moon-watch is by observation. If Moon-rise/set is too late at night, then look for Moon-set/rise during the day.
Sunset Full Moon is a good starting point for estimating the nightly-cycle; Sunrise New Moon, for the daytime. Midsummer or Midwinter or Equinoc-
tial full Moon are very good starting points, because the Moon will be in the anti-Sun position. Visualise the Ecliptic (through the Sun and perpen-
dicular to the Moon cusps joined) and its shape in relation to the Equator, and use a compass. Say the full Moon is opposite the Sun on Saturday,
but by Monday the Moon sets due West. Every Monday for up to 5 weeks the Moonset will be in a recognisable position. E.g. W, N-W, W, S-W, W.
On a later Monday, you will need to step back one day and say “every Sunday, for five weeks” the Moon will repeat those four positions. Adjust
yourself by one day, as it shows itself necessary. You can simply say “It is a Thursday Moon at the moment”, expecting to have the change to “a
Wednesday Moon” in a fortnight or 2. Keep your finger on the Moon-pulse to keep up-to-date. E.g. Say: “It’s a Spring-type Moon next Tuesday”.
• To keep track of the weeks, here is a recipe: Call the new year e.g. ‘a Friday Winter Moon’ and adjust 1 day every 37 days, 10 days over 1
full year, or by 4/5 of the completed months. 7, 8, 9, 10 days for after 7-, 8-, 9-, 10-ber, using the Latin names; 0-7 days while in the rest, 1-8.
• Perhaps you lose track of a ‘Wednesday Moon’ for a couple of months, and try to start again. Track the Moon’s Motion along the Ecliptic.
The Moon overtakes the Sun at No Moon, gets one season ahead of the Sun within a week, at ‘the first quarter’, is opposite it in another week
(’full’), and is one season behind the Sun in the 3rd quarter. There are 12 and a third months in a year, so the Moon is moving 12 1/3 times more
quickly around than the Sun, in its seasonal cycle. What takes the Sun one month will take the Moon only 2½ days. (31=2.5x12.3).
Step 0: Visualise the cycle. — I.e. imagine where the lines of the Ecliptic and Equator must be in relation to the Sun and Moon.
Step 1: Place the Sun on the Ecliptic — I.e. estimate the time of year, and from that, the time before/after the next/last solstice/equinox.
Step 2: Try to visualise where on the Ecliptic the Moon must be, according to its phase.
Step 3: Interpolate for the exact phase, and label it a ‘Monday Moon’ or whatever. Check your guess with a compass if possible.
E.g. There was an eclipse of the Sun on Tues July 22 2009, 1 month after solstice. The ‘Winter Moon’ must have been ‘Sat night’; and for 2009 ‘Mon’
E.g. 23 November is one month before the SH Summer solstice (2½ days worth of Moon motion through the stars). You can work out, for any
phase, which phase and position to expect in 2½ days. For instance, Nov 23 is late Spring, almost Summer, Southern hemisphere (with the Sun
South of the Equator and moving further South). The Sun is high and getting higher. Opposite that, is a Full Moon position (North of the Equator
moving further N). It stays low in the N, getting lower. Or if it is a ‘First–Quarter half-moon’ at that time, it will be in the ‘late-Summer-almost-
Autumn’ position (approaching the Equator from the S, midhigh in the sky). Or if the Moon is a third quarter half-moon, it will be in an ‘almost
Spring’ position (approaching the Equator from the N). You would therefore know that, taking the last example, over the next 3 weeks, a Waning
Crescent/ New Crescent/ Waxing Gibbous/ Past-Full Moon, will rise E/SE/E/NE, and set W/SW/W/NW, in approximately 2½/9/16/23 days.
29
Sun Path Norths — Summary

▪ Noon-time: You look at your watch to see how far the Sun is away from apparent-noon-time, then look at how far your shadow must be
from shadow-South. Near noon, the (untimed) shortest-shadow methods below aren’t accurate, but this timed method can fill in the gap.
▪ Chord bisection: This works for any body e.g. the Moon.
▪ Sundial methods: You set the sundial to the right time. E.g. tilt the compass protractor to the equatorial plane.
▪ Shadow bisection: This can work for the Moon too. Just remember to use a vertical stick on level ground, e.g. a dry puddle.
▪ Equal-height: You can use an improvised sextant/quadrant/bubble sextant. Don’t forget to bisect both the time and the direction, carefully.
▪ Sun at East/West: You need to be familiar with the height &/or the time when the Sun is East or West.
▪ Equinoctial sunrise/sunset: You keep track of how far off East/West the sunrise/sunset is, at this time of year.
▪ Equinoctial rise/set angle: You can extend the Sun’s path to noon, rise or set, in a straight line, using the latitude angle.
▪ Equinoctial East: Where the shadow moves to, with slight adjustments at other times of year.
▪ The Noon-shadow path is always to due East. This is useful for anytime near noon, say +/- 2 hours.
▪ When the Sun is very high near noon, you need to see the direction of movement of any point shadow on flat ground — West to East.
Locating Anti-sunrise or Anti-sunset anti- sunrise

Imagine a line from your head-shadow, opposite the Sun’s path, cutting the horizon at the correct rise/set angle p.9a. (S.H.; a.m.)
(The Sun’s path is approximately a great-circle, so now imagine a plane, edge-on along that line, cutting the level ground. p.m. would be
Look for where the shadow would be closest to you. This approximates the Shortest Shadow South…) anti-sunset and up to the right
Shortest Shadow Souths ..from calculating, memorising or knowing the angle of high noon shadows.
• Walking-Stick North: You lean your walking-stick, so that at noon it would cast no shadow, and so that right now it casts a shadow
at right angles to itself, a direction which is nearly West-East. Adjust (all these methods) slightly for the season, afterwards. vertical
• Body-shadow South: You use your own shadow tip joined at right angles to your shortest-shadow tip (guess at its length and position).
This works best in the early morning and late afternoon, where a guess as to your shortest-shadow is sufficient.
• Cardboard Triangle East/West: You cut it to point to high-noon height, like the walking stick & body methods combined. correct
• Plumb-line North: You tie a string triangle instead, to the right shape, and maybe attach it to your walking stick. plumb angle
• Notebook North: You flip open one page from horizontal, so that it casts no shadow, and also points straight to high-noon height
simultaneously. I.e. the page should be held at the correct angle, mimicking the Sun’s maximum height. level
You can discover the correct angle by observation, yesterday, on a horizontal surface,
or you can calculate that angle as “latitude degrees minus declination degrees away from vertical” perpendicular is approximately East/West
“Star-Time” Gains Four Minutes a Day

3 minutes 56 seconds actually, by appearances; (3m 56.555s if you use the almanac, and ‘the first point of Aries’, because “Aries” as it is known for
short, is not a real star, and it drifts slowly through the Zodiac)
Stars complete one extra orbit — 360° — than the Sun in one year — 366¼ in 365¼ days — so that’s about 1° per day which is 4 minutes of time.
By “time” we mean Sun-time “15° per hour on average”, in ordinary usage — a slightly varying rate in practice.
By “star-time” we mean “15 and a bit degrees per hour spin rate — a constant rate”
The stars outrun the Sun, night by night, by 1° on average, so the Sun seems to migrate ‘backwards’—to the east—through the Zodiac belt of stars.
You could say: “The Sun drags its future after it!”, meaning that the Sun sets in the West, but its future star-position shows up just to the East.
You can zero your star-time, by timing when a bright star (preferably one near the Equatorial belt) passes overhead, or north or south of you on a
particular night from a known particular longitude. You then calculate star-time from “Sun-Time plus 3m56s per day since then” including part-days
in your detailed calculation, at a rate of 10 seconds’ time per extra hour — 1 second per six minutes.
Your reference longitude becomes like Greenwich to you — or, alternatively, you can adjust everything back to Greenwich longitude and Greenwich
star time. You can also buy quartz controlled star-watches or calculators.
Adjusted Moon-Cusp North: To the Left or Right, By Moving the Sun

“Cusp-North” can be improved, by mentally moving the Sun away from the Ecliptic onto the sky Equator. Do the adjustment once a day. Guess the
declination of the Sun, from the season; then shift it onto the nearest bit of the Equator and the Sun-to-Moon illumination angle may tilt a little.
Instead of pointing to the pole star for the Ecliptic, in Draco, the new cusp-North will point more to the pole star for the Equator — Polaris.
E.g. the midwinter Sun needs to climb 23½ degrees higher — which would tilt the cusps of the Moon (due to the shift in illumination). Diagram 1.
Caution: The illumination angle of the Moon does not change much when the Moon is shifted onto the Equator, and not at all for a half-Moon.
E.g. a half Moon (90° from the Sun) at Equinox could be adjusted by 23½° to bring it onto the Equator (It is like the Sun at Solstice), (diagram 2)
but cusp North does not change. Being 90° from the Sun the cusps outline one and the same great-circle.
Approx. Average Sun Half Moon For the Southern Hemisphere setting The Early Summer Sun
Equator looking into the sky… Equator (it also creeps east
Caution! — ‘backwards’ —
Ecliptic Equinoctial Sun along the Ecliptic)
Winter Sun Ecliptic Spring Equinox
Cusp North moves to the right. Cusp North does not move to the right. —The Winter Ecliptic ‘leads’ the Summer Sun.
Beware of perspective tricks Cusp North moves to the left.
“By the Nose” Navigation

Our Mental Map is a Nose-Eye View — not at all like the bird’s-eye-view given by a layout map. (See “Strip Map Navigation” p.95c)
Oh yes, our mind eventually fills out a (spatially-solid) layout map, but initially we collect a set of (spatially confused) mental photographs
from all different perspectives taken from ground level. Our mind doesn’t deal in map symbols or contour lines!
Rather it has search images, image enhancement, image recognition, three-dimensional images, and memorised relative angles.
Consequently, a more natural method of finding your way is what I call ‘Nose Navigation’ — almost opposite to mapwork.
Nose navigation uses ‘strip maps’ (Section 4), relative angles, and a couple of special mnemonics…
“Because (my shadow) seemed to shift right just now; Therefore I must have turned left”
Now substitute in the (…): Ayer’s Rock/Uluru; That distant cloud; The Sun; The Moon; Compass Needle; East Wind; The RDF Null; That bright star
In other words: “My Nose Turns EVERYTHING Away!” i.e. when I turn my nose, everything else seems to turn oppositely.
This simple rule attacks head-on your insistent illusion that you have been walking “straight” ahead!
And your illogical belief that “Ayer’s Rock has moved”! Neither has your shadow ‘turned right’ just now, simply because your nose ‘hasn’t moved’!
It is not as easy as you think to apply, e.g. when you are reenacting where you thought you had gone, in your (already confused) head.
The second nose mnemonic is on the opposite page.
30
Seasonal Adjustments For Equinoctial East

Shadows move due East at Equinox, all-day. At other times of year, when sunrise/sunset is not due East/West, the Shadow path curves slightly at an
angle away from sunrise/sunset, an angle which you should become familiar with each week. Start by assuming that the shadow is moving “East”…
Verify this Rule: Shadow Paths Bulge toward the Hot Pole, even in the tropics, in both hemispheres. (The Sun crosses at Sept 22 & March 21.)
Adjustment: The first guess at “Hot Pole” Needs to be Adjusted Slightly, less near noon, little or none nearer equinox, to “un-bulge” the path.
mid-Winter path Remember that “the Southern Sun Sets Somewhat South in Southern Summer”, so that
opposite-Sunrise & opposite-Sunset need to come back South to point out E & W correctly
equinoctial path E.g. You guess East (or West in the a.m.) from the shadow’s movement over 1 minute,
NH mid-Summer path (It will roughly be opposite sunset/sunrise direction if you are late/early in the day)
Equator then twist your guess a little back to the true hot pole, and to due East (or West).
SH Let’s say it is midwinter in the Southern Hemisphere, so your shadow is somewhere N
Summer S of you. The ‘hot pole’ is the North Pole, so twist ‘North’, as gauged from your
equinoctial path shadow tip, away from the shadow, back toward you (i.e. North, to the hot North pole)
Winter Visualise the bulge, then straighten it out at each end, back toward the hot pole. am tip
North-Finding from Two Paper Triangles or even from only one

Cut out a back-to-back triangle shape and fold it along the join. Line it up as shown and ‘N’ will point to Polaris… N
‘1’ is your South latitude (For the Northern Hemisphere use the North Latitude and swap N & S) 1
‘2’ is the polar distance of the Sun (from the ‘depressed’ pole, N) horizontal
i.e. its co-declination, or 90°-N dec. See p. 18b.
You can set it by observation or calculation; and can fold it to the correct angle, rather than cutting it.
(‘3’ is a right-angle, but ‘1’ and the horizontal is what really matters) (3)
This two-triangle method works best away from noon, but nearer noon simply find the way shadows move
The ‘N-S’ edge is parallel to the Earth’s axis and acts as a hinge around which the Sun revolves. (vertical)
Sun and shadows move at right angles to that axis. 2
You only need one of the two angles if you find the direction of shadow movement Point this edge to the Sun
and swivel ‘N-S’ to be perpendicular to that. (You don’t even need one angle, near noon) S (so it casts no shadow)
E.g. Poke a straight stick into the ground, pointing at the Sun, casting no shadow; (Or use any point-shadow rotating around its point)
By waiting a short while, find the direction of movement at a half-way point, in mid-air, i.e. maintaining an equal distance to the tip,
and manoevre your ‘N-S’ axis (index finger), to be perpendicular to how shadows move, then at the correct angle to the Sun and/or Horizontal.
Working the Star-Longitude Numbers

The reference star point, a non–star, is 0°N/S;0°E/W, and is called “The First Point of Aries” or “the Vernal Equinox” where the ‘northern spring’ Sun
crosses the ecliptic (on March 21). Other stars are measured from that (imaginary) star, like latitude and longitude are measured from 0,0 a name-
less spot of ocean — each star has an almost fixed longitude in relation to Aries.
N/S ‘latitude’ is called +/- ‘ Declination ’
E/W ‘longitude’ is called (a) Right Ascension — R.A. — or ‘Star Time’ — It is measured Easterly, in hours at 15° per ‘hour’, from “Aries”
Or (b) Hour-Angle — H.A. — It is measured Westerly, in degrees, like longitude, but 360° around, from “Aries”.
The first, RA, is designed to tell us the time — when the star will show — since all the stars move around westward with Aries.
The second, HA, is designed to track the West longitude of the star in reference to the Earth, as the star progresses West around.
We need them both, but they are entirely equivalent to each other.
(The only trouble is that a star ‘hour’ of 15° is slightly faster than a Sun hour of 15° of progress to the West.)
Next you need to know that the first point of Aries was at 100° W. Earth longitude at the beginning of the millennium,
and at every turn of leap-year thereafter, at January 1.0 (midnight). Then it gains at a rate of 1.002737909, or about 1° per day on the Sun, (3m
56s time), so that the stars turn full circle during four seasons. “1°” is adequate accuracy in the short term for us but not for yacht navigators.
E.g. January 31.5= 100+30°+0.5° W., then you add the H.A. (or subtract 15 x the R.A. hours) for a particular star — that’s the longitude where the
star will be overhead. For exact numbers consult an almanac, but I am concerned here with giving you an overview.
Topographic-Level Winds
This is what you feel in your face at ground level, or close to it.
Fog; Smoke; Valley Winds; Sea Breeze; Eddies; Catabatic Winds; Forest Winds; Scree-Slope Winds; Mountain Winds; Glacier Winds; Lake Winds.
The various thermal winds listed will of course be very variable. The thermal winds flow from cooler areas, before rising in the warmer region.
Nevertheless they may betray the slope of the land, for instance at night. For example, fog forms on calm cold nights then drifts slowly downslope.
Being dense, fog will drift down-valley, down-stream, and off-shore. You can see the location of creek outlets from the early morning beach fog.
The ground-winds due to pressure systems, are affected by overall friction and therefore average out slower and less Sun-twisted than upper-winds.
Ground-level winds form waves, foam ‘streets’, sand ripples & dunes, drag marks, snow ripples & drifts, which all may persist beyond the winds,
and they cause lopsided bushes and salt-spray-‘cut’ bushes. See Section 3 for more details.
Gusts are at different directions to lulls since upper winds penetrate to lower layers.
“Nose-Navigation Needs an ‘Anti’ Mnemonic”: “Nor-West, Not-Least”

N.O.R. West: “North on Right = Going West” or “Needle on Right = Going West” i.e. going into the westerly half (top diagram)
N.O.T. L.East: “North on the Left = Going East” or “Needle on the Left = Going East” = to the easterly half (bottom diagram)
This is always true when you are relying on “Needle North”. You don’t have to think any further. But, 0°
It is equivalent to ANTI-CLOCKWISE BEARINGS, which you can’t read from a clockwise-marked protractor! N Needle on the Right
The following numbers refer to an ordinary compass — marked clock-wise, and set to 0° as straight ahead use “NORWest”
(not North) so North swings left and right instead… The compass needle might point to “045° NE”
Example: in the rain or fog; the needle swings meaninglessly but your nose is pointing NW = North-West N045°W
Example: deep in a cave network
Example: on a yacht, with a fixed hand compass The compass protractor numbers say “North-West, 315°” N Needle on the Left
Example: with a fixed car-compass, not marked anticlockwise but your nose is pointing NE use “NOTLEast”
Example: making a strip map; or using one
Example: using a compass-holder, which fixes 0° as straight ahead Interpret “Anti-clockwise, West from 0” = North-East N315°W
31
Revision, Overview and Explanations
Top Down Orientation
The Big Bang Universe bloated over billions of years; and broke into bubbles of turbulence; all bits in each bubble orbiting each other; in millions of
galaxies, with 20 or so galaxies in our little local cluster;
Local galaxies, like the Magellanic Clouds or Andromeda, glow milky (just as ‘galact-ose’ says ‘milk-sugar’).
Our galaxy is a great spiral, swirling slowly, anti clockwise from above i.e. Eastwards around its North-South spin-axis
— flat like a fried egg — a ‘great circle’, glowing as the Milky Way. The thickest milkiness, in Sagittarius, marks the Galaxy Centre.
The Milky Way is like the ‘Equatorial plane’ for the whole spiral, seen from within, with its northern pole star in ‘Berenice’s Hair’ (28° N. 168° W.)
and its Southern pole star in ‘Sculptor’ (28° S. 348° W. 012° E.) and our milky galaxy is, in its own turn, full of spinning, gyrating gyroscopes.
You know how a spinning top will pirouette with a slow-motion gyration when it tilts slightly? Well, precession, as it is called, causes slow changes.
Stars are Suns, especially shiny in our own spiral arm of the galaxy (i.e. closest) and seemingly set solidly in space by their extremely slow motion.
So the constellation shapes are chartable for centuries. Their apparent positions are gridded out in relation to the first point of Aries, which in turn is
fixed each year by our Northern Spring Equinox—not a star in the sky, but a point which creeps along the Ecliptic, to the West.
Hint: When you are wondering whether a rule holds in both hemispheres or not, ask yourself whether you are down at the level of the spinning
Earth or up beyond that in a larger scale. Try to imagine looking at the whole globe from an outside perspective. E.g. the appearance of the Moon
— its phase, eclipses, tidal forces, etc — is mostly independent of where we look at it from Earth — and will be the same for both hemispheres.
But it’s apparent path — ‘noon’ direction; rise/set angle; etc — is seen down at Earth level — it changes with the hemispheres.
Closer to Home
The solar system is also spinning flat, anticlockwise, but slanted — tilted like a top, in relation to the Galaxy, and faster.
Its ‘top’ star is currently in Draco, in the North. Its bottom star, in the South, is the larger Magellanic cloud.
Its ‘Equator’ is called the ‘Ecliptic’ — marked by the stars in the Zodiac, and the planets. In our lifetime we won’t notice the Ecliptic stars change.
Our Sun circles the centre of the galaxy every 225 million years—heading toward Suhail.
To our sight, because we orbit it Eastwards, i.e. around its N/S axis, not ours, it swings seasonally, and also edges Easterly along the Ecliptic circle,
revealing new zodiac stars to the West of it, and placing itself diametrically opposite a series of anti-Solar stars,
so giving us a star calendar to look for.
It also spins easterly, on its own axis, showing its sunspots for some days at a time.
The planets lie planar, ‘wandering’ (as the Greek word plan-et says), in the Zodiac plane, circling easterly around the Sun, over a timescale of
decades, and only ever seen very close to the Ecliptic.
Mnemonic: Son, my very earnest mother ’as just served us 19 platefuls. Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Nep-
tune, Pluto.
The earth is an inner planet, circling the Sun, easterly, so that the stars seem to out-run the Sun in setting West — star-time spins more speedily
than solar time. Planets closer to the Sun than we are, are never seen far from the Sun, but outer planets can move right away from it.
The Moon
..moves mostly on the Ecliptic but might miss that mark by as much as 5°. This 5° slant causes a precessional change taking 19 years to cycle.
The Moon moves around the Earth monthly in an easterly ellipse,
and ever eyeing us, each full Moon, is the Rabbit, because the Moon also spins easterly, on its own axis, exactly once a month, so it stays facing us.
The Moon moves slowest to set Westwards, since it migrates eastwards in the sky each day. 12°½. Or 50 minutes later per day.
And as it pulls the tides with it, they too are later each day, almost an hour, on top of normal locally fixed delays due to friction.
A full Moon rises and sets fully opposite the Sun, give or take 5°.
The Moon is most responsible for tidal forces, but the Sun plays some part too, reinforcing or diminishing the Moon’s effect and changing the timing.
Tidal force attracts the nearest water the most, and the farthest water the least, resulting in two tidal bulges...
When the Moon is eccentric from our Equator, there is one big Northern bulge every 24 hours,
and a smaller high tide every 24 hours, as the Earth spins through the bulges.
There are equal bulges every 12 hours on the Equator. In between are the low tides, every 12 hours.
You should be able to tell which bulge is ‘nearest’ the Moon despite delays due to friction.
Southern latitudes will have one big bulge every 24 hours, and one ‘small high tide’ every 24 hours, offset by 12 hours from the NH.
Try to correlate the Moon’s phase, declination and height with the local tides—timing, inequality, range—e.g. “The Full Moon rises with the tide”
The Moving Horizon

Since it is the Earth which is spinning, not the Universe, it is the horizon which rises, in the West — where it eclipses the Sun,
so that the Sun only seems to set in the West.
The horizon slumps in the East, so that all the sky things — Sun, Moon, planets, stars — seem to ‘rise’ in the East.
Any spots on the Northern half of the horizon, circle to the east around Polaris — clockwise through the sky — i.e. ‘seen from below’. Or, seen from
above, that is from the North, looking South, spots on the Southern horizon circle anticlockwise around South Pole Star i.e. seen as if ‘from the top’
looking down on the Earth and its South Pole star. They hit the same stars each night, at the same angle, which is related to latitude,
so that the fixed stars none-the-less seem to trail ‘small circle’ tracks through our sky, and they always hit their favourite horizon spots when they
set, always at the same angle,
and those same stars will rise later in mirror image to that around North/South, giving rise to north-south-east-west finding by bisection.
And Equatorial stars will rise/set due East/West.
The southern-hemisphere horizons move to the right, the northern-hemisphere ones to the left. Looking South though, from either hemisphere, it
will be seen as the horizon circling anti-clockwise around the South-pole star. How come? Well, the southerners see the bottom of the star-circles,
around an elevated pole-star, the northerners see the top of the same circles, around a depressed pole-star.
The Spinning Earth

The earth is spinning like a top, on its own axis, easterly, half as fast as a ‘12 hour’ clock.
This gives us the single most dominant direction clue on the otherwise uniformly round Earth—the North-South spin axis of the Earth.
Spot its Equatorial Plane by the Pot. The ‘top’ is always pointed to Polaris. Spot the South Pole Star by the Seven Superstars surrounding it.
The spin generates a magnetic core more or less North/South — Find magnetic North in far northern Canada.
The magnetic field poles generate auroral displays, anywhere near the poles.
The earth is also tilted like a top, at 20 odd degrees.
The tilt gives rise to seasonal Sun height shifts, somewhat like a sinewave (just imagine the Earth’s tilted spinaxis not changing as we orbit the Sun)
and it turns on un-twinned top-of-the-tide bulges, twice in 24 hours. The Pole Stars are latitude° down/up @ 0°/180° T.
Any tilted top will precess the equinoxes — this generates a precessional gyration of 26,000 years,
but this time, retrogradely, i.e. to the West, along the Ecliptic (3° in 200 years) — i.e. the stars ‘move’ to the East through our star-map-grid.
Longitude has a lot to do with spin-time, seen from above the spin-axis. E.g. West longitude is how long after Greenwich, a place meets the Sun.
When we want to mark the apparent place of the Sun in the sky, or anything else, at any particular time,
we can just record the latitude and longitude of the point on Earth directly ‘under’ it i.e. closest to it.
But visualising that in reverse, we simply project the Equator and poles, latitude and longitude up onto the heavens to grid them out.
32
Revision, Overview and Explanations
Time is counted in cycles

The larger the distance scale of any motion — pulsation or precession, orbit or rotation — the larger the time scale of the cycle of change.
The Universe has been expanding its size and condensing its matter for many billions of years (and perhaps it will not ‘cycle’) It appears static to us.
Geological history spans billions of years, like the existence of our spiral arm. In our lives we see only a frozen frame of our spiralling Galaxy. It
cycles, but we can’t see it. The timescale of the rotation of the galaxy is in hundreds of millions of years.
In our lifespan we see only the slightest change in relative star positions, through telescopes, due to the ‘proper’ motions of the nearest stars.
It is in the nature of spiral turbulent motion that the larger rotation replicates itself in the smaller scale, but at a faster rate.
Each of the components of our solar system are also rotating and orbiting in the same rotation sense as the Galaxy. (Uranus is an exception)
For example, the Earth is rotating eastwards, orbiting the Sun eastwards, and has a Moon rotating eastwards and orbiting us eastwards.
“Anticlockwise, as seen from the North” is the single best spin you can put upon all that you see—including the N/S Earth spin-axis as
‘the single best direction clue on our spherical Earth’. The tilt of the Earth’s spin-axis gives us the year, and the Moon’s orbit gives us the month,
independent of our rotation. The Earth’s rotation gives us our day. Star time outstrips solar time slowly. The Southern Cross clocks it correctly at the
close of March, and the Centaur soon follows. The first point of Aries gains a touch over the stars, migrating 50 seconds of arc along the Ecliptic per
year. The vernal equinox arrives 59 seconds late for its 366th “orbit”, after 365 days, requiring 24 leap years in 100 years. 365.242 days per year.
Atomic time, used for astronomy, is independent of all these tilted rotations, orbits and precessions, which are all independent of each other too.
The Precession of the Equinoxes

The actual or ‘proper’ motions of the stars are only of cosmological interest, because they change relative positions only over centuries.
But history, actually our slowly gyrating Earth-spin axis, rewrites our star charts (improperly, as it were) with precessional revisionism, so that stars
‘move’ slowly easterly through our star-map-reference-grid—an Earth-centred way of seeing the sky — with 26,000 years needed to complete a full
circle precessionary Earth-wobble. This artificial motion is called “the precession of the equinoxes”— which means that our reference grid readjusts
just as quickly as our earth axis of spin precesses — by five arc minutes in six years. That’s why we need an almanac to predict the ‘fixed’ star posi-
tions!! A good analogy would be the slow drift of the north magnetic pole, if we set our latitude and longitude by it — that would yield a false or
‘improper’ ‘continental drift’ in addition to the proper continental drift. See the appendix at p. 123.
To visualise the Ecliptic, consider the Equator in the heavens to be geostationary, although invisible, but the Ecliptic to be like a sinewave moving
daily to the West along it, on the video display unit of the sky—as on a cathode ray oscilloscope—with a period of 24 hrs & an amplitude of 23°½.
The Sun appears fixed somewhere along the Ecliptic, creeping ‘backwards’ on it (against the setting sky)—to the East—during the whole year
To visualise the precession of ‘the Equinoxes’, imagine that the points where the Ecliptic sinewave crosses the Equator (the x-axis), move
‘forwards’ (‘with’ the setting sky) — to the West, very very slowly — during the millennium. At the moment these ‘equinoctial points’ are between
Regulus & Spica (the Autumnal Equinox), and between Diphda & Markab (the Vernal or Spring Equinox, or the 1st point of Aries, (0,0) for the stars).
You might say that the Sun and the Moon and the outer planets all move West through our sky but East through the starry heavens.
Global Weather Patterns

The spinning globe makes the climate zones, and weather belts, follow the latitude bands. When the wind tries to blow, from a High, into a Low,
in the Northern Hemisphere/Southern Hemisphere you see huge anticlockwise/clockwise spirals instead, by Coriolis force. E.g. the wind, tries to go
straight ahead from the hot spin-equator to the cold spin-pole while the spinning Earth slows down beneath it (it moves slower nearer the Poles).
In the North the wind therefore seems to “move to the right” as we see it, and in the Southern hemisphere “to the left”. Circulation is the result.
Note: Winds around a Low go against the Coriolis force. To visualise the pressure system winds at low level, imagine placing two flat-headed screws
pointing up, one on Japan and one on Sydney, an ordinary right-handed screw for Japan but a left-handed spiral screw for the Southern Hemi-
sphere. Run your fingers over the threads and a right-hand thread is like screwing a screw in or out, a left-hand thread is opposite.
High pressure system winds screw downwards and outwards; Low pressure system winds reverse that—up, converging. SP
Equator; Higher level wind circulation reverses itself from that
Spin because the convergence/divergence is reversed.
L (SH) H H (NH) L
against Coriolis with Coriolis with Coriolis against Coriolis NP

clockwise anticlockwise clockwise anticlockwise
Ground-level winds East
The Spherical Earth

The earth is curved round, like a globe, 360° round — 40,000 km around (by definition of a kilometre) 21,600 nautical miles, by definition.
◊ at 400 grads in a circle that’s 100 km/grad ◊ at 360° in a circle that’s 111.1 km/degree.
The Equator is a ‘great circle’. Longitude circles are ‘Great Circles’ — passing through opposite poles, and perpendicular to all latitude lines.
Longitude counts 360° around East or West, or 180° East and 180° West from Greenwich.
Its North/South dividing lines mark out 24 one hour time zones of 15° each, and those North-South lines must converge on the poles, so that longi-
tude degrees are of unequal arc-length at different latitudes.
Latitude has 90 equal degrees from the Equator to pole around the surface, which, by definition of the nautical mile, as one minute of arc, makes
60 nautical miles per degree of ‘arc-distance’. 21,600 nautical miles must be the same as 40,000 km, so that’s 10 km to 5.4 nautical miles. (2 to 1)
Latitude circles are ‘small circles’.
We use them to divide the polar regions from the temperate regions (with the Arctic Circle, for instance, marking the limits of 24-hour nights);
and to divide the temperate regions from the tropics (for instance with the Tropic of Capricorn, which marks the limit of ‘high noon’ fully overhead).
‘Polar Distance’ complements the ‘Latitude’ and reminds us that arc-distance is real distance.
Moving the Horizon

At the spin-equator, on a globe, the polestars must lie horizontally, and the Equatorial spin-plane must pass East/West overhead.
But move north/south to another latitude, and the earth being round, the horizon — which follows you, like ‘up’ changing with you — must fall and
rise latitude-degrees, so that one pole star falls latitude-degrees out of sight behind you and the other one, ahead, elevates latitude-degrees above
the horizon. The Equatorial plane must also fall latitude-degrees, behind you as you move, from being overhead. Other star-latitude (declination)
circles in the sky (e.g. star-trail circles) must also rise or fall the same amount — latitude degrees.
Now this same thing happens if you move in any direction, say ex degrees away, but for this let’s just temporarily freeze the spinning of the globe.
‘Horizontal’ and ‘up’ must follow with you exactly ex degrees, and so the horizon now blocks out ex degrees of sky behind you, and reveals ex de-
grees of new sky ahead of you.
Looking side on, you will see the horizon tilt by ex degrees in relation to the old skyscape, lifting behind and falling ahead, of your direction of travel
Looking at the same star-time any night, will “temporarily freeze the nightly spinning of the Earth” for you, for star navigation.
Spherical geometry also means that if a place is 2° or 20° away from you, then it must also be 1° or 10° below your horizon — half the arc distance
E.g. the North Pole on Earth is ½ x (90° minus latitude°) below horizontal, and at 0° True.
33 END OF SECTION ONE

Section 2: The Inside Story—Mental Manoeuvres
Navigation is More Than Navigating

Properly done, navigation is your chance to fit yourself in to the experience of walking through the land.
Why are you there walking?... Navigation zeroes in on the land. Do you want to see the landscape?... Navigation opens your eyes.
Don’t you want to appreciate ecology and geography?... Navigate by them! Navigation stops you “drifting off” into mindless incompetence.
Do you want to remember the views and special places?... Navigation forces you to improve such memories.
So, achieve confidence when you are alone; tackle more difficult trips; lead others; call yourself “experienced”— navigation is the key.
Common Sense
Navigation skills invite you into the wilderness. The wilderness is a wild place! — a world of dangers. Don’t go. But if you do...
..at least make sure your navigation skills are up to the task.
Likewise: Don’t venture to sea with approximate star navigation techniques until you know exactly what you’re doing.
Learn much more about standard astronavigation, before you experiment with new techniques.
Your Subconscious is Superior to Science!

Your natural abilities will do a better job at keeping you oriented. Your brain is a supercomputer.
That makes it subject to the “rubbish in; rubbish out” truism. Your job is to feed relevant data to your subconscious, not to feed, say, a calculator.
As far as important detail goes, your mind will ‘go for the jugular’. Exact science will go for unimportant decimal places.
E.g. I can immediately guess “about 8 km away” far more quickly than any triangulation.
E.g. Will any numbers ever tell you how to recognise where you are? Or how to imagine what that peak might look like from behind?
So feed clues into your brain. It is portable, waterproof and teachable.
Don’t leave your mental map behind.
Visual Assessment is Your Main Clue — Rely on It More

Since noone navigates well when they “can’t see where they are going”, we must be relying on visual assessment most of the time.
The idea is to run with that fact of life, and make sure you have a good look when you can
(e.g. from the lookout; while driving up; at the crest of a ridge; at the waterfall; on the bridge; in the riverbed)
Further, bring to conscious focus what is normally subconscious, in what you see.
And aim to remember what you saw. (Draw it; take notes; talk it out; use visual memory skills)
A What-to-Look-for Checklist: How far is it to the skyline? Where are the Sun, sunrise, Moon, wind and North in relation to the skyline?
How does the weather interact with the land — wind, cloud base, Sun shadow, wind shadow, cloud shadows, haze?
Talk the skyline through — name its features. What do you recognise already? What does it remind you of?
What landmarks are visible? What distances to landmarks? What sizes of hills? What is the strike or trend of the ridges, ranges & valleys?
What angles between landmarks? What alignments? What valleys will your current path take you through?
What lies in between? What slopes & shapes are showing, especially for your route? Can you see the path ahead? Is it curved?
What difficulties lie ahead? What easier paths are there? What clear lines of sight are there? What alignments will become visible?
Can anyone see where you have come from? Could you recognise ‘here’ again? Can you see your destination or departure point?
How many different vegetation types? How high is it to the skyline in each direction? How does what you see mesh with the map?
Integrate: Jetstream, Earth Rotation & Heaven Rotation

Imagine your global motion. Tilt yourself and try (futilely) to oppose the supersonic speed of the Earth’s rotation, as if walking upon a treadmill.
Aim for a Big Picture ‘feel’ for each local direction.
The idea is to go outside and walk through each of these motions until you know what it feels like.
(Both hemispheres)
When you are………...standing still or moving Westwards or Eastwards or Northwards or Southwards
(read down these lists, each in turn)
The Earth rotates Eastwards rotates against you rotates with you to your right to your left
The Heavens move Westwards slowly forward quickly upwards to your left clockwise
The high clouds jet Eastwards zoom toward you creep ahead of you move to your right to your left
oppose the heavens
outrun the Earth
You are being tilted to the East backwards forwards to your right to your left
Lean oppositely to the West forwards backwards to your left to your right
Measuring angles at 1 cm per degree
Hold the loop-knot below your eyeball
Make the total distance 57cm to 60cm Use a ruler marked in centimeters
57.3 works best for small angles

60 works best beyond 10°
34
Orientation
Orientation = Direction Sense

Oriental means “the rising” i.e. in the East (i.e. East from Europe!). Occidental means “the setting” i.e. in the West.
Because most ancient temples faced the midyear sunrise and there were no North-pointing magnetic compasses, and since all the world
can agree on where equinoctial sunrise is, most of the rest of the world has used East, for most of Time, as their method of “orientation”
— as their cardinal direction. Imagine putting East at the top of maps, so the Sun “falls down” the page.
Before magnets, East was the sensible choice for a standard direction.
This is no coincidence: “To the East” is also the watchword for the spin-sense of all our solar system parts. “North” and/or “South” is inferior
The direction of the axis of rotation doesn’t tell you the sense of rotation; But the direction of rotation, gives you the axis of rotation as well.
East was the more sensible choice. You didn’t lose orientation when you crossed the Equator; the Sun still rose in the East.
I recommend that you concentrate on this when changing hemispheres, and even now, to maintain your global ‘orientation’.
Orientation means direction sense, direction finding, direction recognition, placing yourself in relation to over-the-horizon landmarks,
Or twisting anything (e.g. your map) to the right orientation.
Then again, it means starting off by getting your bearings straight.
Orienteering means athletes running through the bush.
Disorientation means... possible death.
The Navigator’s Top 10 Problems; and Band-aid Solutions

1. Not staying alert to navigation; not doing all you need to do……Talk navigation; love navigation; practise navigation; interpret all clues
2. Few Clues — E.g. Rain/Fog/Blizzard/Nighttime/Tall grass or Sit still, until you can see; go prepared
dense vegetation/Look-alike landscapes e.g. with a contour map; a compass; learn how to keep consistent courses
3. Getting Lost Remember the start direction
4. Getting Disoriented Be able to reorient; imagine the Sun in all situations; work top-down
5. Forgetting the Way, the bends, etc. Take a notebook and pencil; talk it out loud
6. Losing track of direction Predict the trend; use a compass; a notebook; integrate all direction clues
7. Losing track of distance Predict the timing; use a watch; use the map scale; and notebook
8. Inadequate Map-Work Learn how to use a map; study it first
9. Not learning how to navigate Take this booklet. Practise.
Not knowing what to look for e.g. bush north Practise being observant, at the expense of other preoccupations.
Not understanding e.g. the lie, contours, heavens Teach what you do know
10. Choosing a wrong or difficult route Get directions
E.g. a long “shortcut” across a dense gully Don’t ‘shortcut’.
Reorientation
Reorientation is not an automatic body sense — it is an ongoing action.
“Orientation” in navigation is a misnomer, since it suggests some sort of initialisation, not to be repeated, rather than a continuous reprocessing.
“Re-orientation” is a more accurate description of what the navigator is involved in. Continuous reorientation.
Whether it is subconscious or conscious, it is something which must be done and redone, or else you are simply not oriented, now.
It is not good enough simply to be “good at navigation (theory)” — you must be putting it into practice, continuously, or else each bend will disori-
ent you.
The essence of reorientation is conscious interpretation of the meaning of what you are doing.
This is, at the best of times, a bit difficult — like mental arithmetic — but it must be done, or else your brain will remain confused.
You may hope that direction sense would “become automatic with practice”, but the last step of conscious interpretation must remain conscious.
And that is the process which should become second-nature. You must be aware, or you are fooling yourself into a false sense of security.
Delegating to your subconscious, is abdicating your responsibility. So bring yourself up-to-date, continuously, and...
Do not be overconfident. You are not oriented when you think you know where you are and where other things are—but only when you are right!
There are so many ways to make silly mistakes: confusing alternative systems; mistakes in numbers; forgetting your lessons; optical illusions;
instrument errors; flawed theories; trusting approximations; misidentifying a star; making a logical blunder; and, of course... being overconfident.
Lost? Rule One: Stop! ..getting More Lost

STOP — so that you don’t get deeper into trouble. (“When you get yourself into a hole, stop digging”)
DON’T PANIC — Look for reasons not to panic “I can always walk all night, or sleep under that ledge,
or wait out the weather, or go hungry, or enjoy it…”
PRAY — He really does want to help the helpless.
SIGNAL — Shout ‘Help!’, ‘Cooee’, Whistle, Smoky fire, Heliograph, 3 of anything, SOS, CQ, Fire at night, Flashlight
LISTEN — for a reply.
THINK p. 37d
RETHINK — your journey 360° SOS
SIT It Out — = The Simplest Way to Beat the Fog. Gather fuel for a fire. Don’t try to move — you may not win. Three quick turns
CAMP — choose a place that will be a good ‘base’ for further exploration. three slow turns
SLEEP ON IT three quick turns
STAY — in the area, where you can be found, e.g. on the track, at a hut or intersection. (with the stick vertical)
PLAN — Implement a pre-thought-out plan e.g. Stop, Think, Navigate, Camp, Retrace, EPIRB, Stay.
For a Start: Slow down — almost to a stop. Be slow, cautious and thoughtful, not impulsive.
Point and Blink = 10% Shift

In the field you simply point and blink—If you focus in the distance, the shift is about 6 degrees, which is 10% sideways.
6° or 1 in 10 is a very useful angle to guesstimate. Point with one eye and finger, then swap eyes, to see what a 6° shift looks like in the distance.
For repeatability you should touch your two index fingertips as you point.
For accuracy, use a pencil tip, and know the exact figure. The instructions below will show you how to hold the pencil to get an exact result.
To put the Point and Blink method on an accurate footing, measure your Inter-Pupillary Distance at Arm’s Length.
Stand behind a window, pointing through it at some distant mark on the horizon, with both your finger-tips just touching the windowpane.
Use one eye and the same-side finger; Press your fingerprint onto the window; Swap eyes and fingers, back and forth, moving only your eyelids;
Check your alignment—both your fingertips should appear to exactly overlap when focussed on the distant object. Press your second fingerprint
onto the glass; Measure the separation carefully.
Because the pupil is not pinpoint, it matters that you measure the practical separation at the working distance. Measure that working distance
carefully— from the corner of your eye to the window when your pointing fingers just touch it.
Compare the two distances; i.e. divide the interpupillary distance by the armslength; expect about 1:10 or 6°; Find the arcsine of that ratio for
better accuracy. Try it out on the length of the Southern Cross. Compare it with 3 fingers, and 4 knuckles, and your binoculars’ field of view.
Measure again on a middle-ground object, as when measuring the sideslip of a yacht by pointing at the wake. Measure out the distances as a check
35
The “Good” Navigator. You.

If you like exploring, you can use that to advantage. Or maybe you are a good photographer, well then you will understand ‘mental photos’.
Use your creative writing streak, in creating memorable names, or else, appreciate the action ‘direct’, carefree and spontaneously.
Perhaps you are the obsessive type — well then, it’s map and compass detail which will suit you.
So whether you are the artistic type, using your visual dominance, or the cool calculating logical sort,
or maybe a ‘thinker’ doing a good job at planning, or a ‘doer’ doing, you already have many useful skills for navigation.
Don’t talk yourself down.
Those handful of useful traits which are already within you, you can develop into an orientation sense.
Think out Loud

Your subconscious will be telling you “That’s odd”.
Your conscience will be whining “Something is wrong”.
Your mind will notice, before you do, “That’s new”.
When you notice something talking inside you, you need to talk back. Out loud. Don’t leave it ‘inside’.
Internal Problem Antidote

“Shouldn’t we be there by now?” Ask the others.
“Have we missed the junction?” Discuss it.
“Why is the Sun over there now!” Name the lurking enemy!
You Need Excuses to Stop and Have a Good Look

• If it is a local peak, say “Let’s look for a minute while we have the opportunity”
• Declare a chocolate stop!
• Take off your pack, adjust the padding. Adjust your socks, air your feet, put on a Band-Aid.
• Get out the maps; Identify the landmarks. Draw the relative angles to other lookouts, for future reference.
• Get out the camera and tripod. Unpack your pack on any pretext — noone can move until you repack!
• Make a sketch, compose a poem. Start an interesting conversation.
• Go for a swim or wash some clothes.
• Cook your main meal at midday & keep the biscuits for the late meal.
• Camp there.
You Can’t Easily Revisit Places Left Behind — unless you first spend memorable times there.
Visualise Familiar but Invisible Landscape in Relation to the Sun

You need to ‘fill in the void’ between the very distant reference, and what you can see, with what you know, but can’t see.
I.e. When you get a clear view, mentally plot and remember the sky-to-land layout for later use. “If the hill disappeared, the hut would be there.”
Mentally reconstruct any view which is helpful. E.g. as seen from camp, or from the start, or the peak…
Concentrate on knowing and revisualising landscape direction trends. “If I were at home, I’d see the coast… across there”
Do this at various times of day, paying particular attention to direction trends in relation to the Sun’s path.
After all, that’s what our direction sense consists of—a confidence in the real directions just out of sight, based on what we can see.
Then, when you are ‘bushed in’ and you see the Sun through the canopy you can say…
“Ah! the road is running sideways to the Sun, the valley lies entirely off to the right, I must have swung around left, parallel to the ridge…”
Section 1 dealt with the Sun/noon/North in the global abstract—unrelated to the local detail.
Section 3 deals with the local detail in relation to the Sun.
“Land to Sky” (soon, p 38d) is specially for one time of day, and concerned mainly with particular landmarks, not whole trends.
But now catch up with the overall game—the Sun’s path, the local skyline, and the local layout are one piece for a substantial local area,
and you need to mentally integrate them, and carry them with you, to avoid disorientation.
Guesstimating Angles at 1 degree per cm

First find how to make your arm’s-length 57 cm, e.g. by touching your fists together in front of you.
Next, start measuring in centimetres.
Find a 1cm wide fingernail—1°. Check that your fingers are 2° wide, for 2°, 4°, 6°. Are your knuckles 2 cm apart? 2½° for the big ones.
A small fist, with the thumb tucked in is 9°; 10° with the thumb showing; a palm is one ‘point’.
15° and 16° may require experimentation. 20° can be spanned with the fingers.
1° 2° 2° 2° 2½° 4° 6° 9° 10° 11° 15° 16° 20°
The ‘Blink of eye’ method also yields 6° — point to something with your finger at arm’s length or with something narrower, with one eye, and blink.
Larger horizontal angles can be visualised from between your feet of from overhead.
36
Orientation
Initial Orientation is the Single Fundamental — The Get-Back Path

“Which way do I go?” is more important than “Where am I?/How far?/Where is North?”
“How do I get back to a familiar path home?” is the real need. That means you need to orient yourself before getting lost.
The single most important direction is Start to Finish i.e. Which way did you leave the car park? From what recognised point?
“Which way have I been going?” (if I had to backtrack)
Which direction did you head off in — toward what identifiable point?
E.g. “Downhill”. The direction need not be horizontal. We function on ‘paths’ more than on straight lines.
E.g. “to the lake”. The direction need not be relative to North; It does need to be something you can reverse.
E.g. “with the Moon ahead on the left” “the long way around” “to the opposite side” “away from the mid-morning Sun”
Taking a map and compass is good; A watch is nice; But the only really necessary bit of navigation you must take with you on a walk, to get you
back when lost or disoriented, is... what direction you have travelled out.
Initial Orientation is the Single King Principle — and the rest may not be much help without it. See the mnemonic p. 111c for some help.
Which way you went is also the single biggest help for searchers—tell someone where you are going!
How I Manage to Get Lost or Disoriented

… starting off without paying attention … blindly following the track or the leader … taking a minor junction
… choosing a hard route — thick vegetation … going without a compass, or map … trapped by a peak or clearing (p.45b)
… falling asleep during a journey — a gap in my reckoning … waking up in a new place … not noticing the “end of track” marker
… inside a hospital complex, or a shopping centre; coming out … in look-alike landscape e.g. suburbs; losing the car on city streets.
… getting out of bed the wrong way or entering a town by a last-minute bend … talking; inattention; not noticing bends & junctions; losing track
… misinterpreting “directions”; forgetting them; being given wrong directions … hurrying; “short-cuts”; leaving the track
… on river-flats near river junctions and bends … preoccupied — with map-making! or any other task
… inadequate memory e.g. in caves, the way back, the many bends … stubborn psychological disorientation syndrome
… miscommunication between parties e.g. about how & when to meet … confusion; blunders (see list p. 39b)
… not enough knowledge of what to look for & how to interpret what you do see … visiting the Northern Hemisphere
… minimal input technique of navigation e.g. ‘just follow the signs’; overconfidence … misinterpreting the map—especially the scale
… new tracks, not on a map … false identification of landmark features … losing confidence just short of my goal
… unsure of distance covered … navigating by creek junctions or minor dirt roads … blinkered by fog, darkness or thick forest
… wrong turnings; walking in an unintentional circle; overlooking junctions; not looking back … waking up on a dark night, 180˚ disoriented.
… too much new territory too quickly … negotiating thick bush without keeping orientation
Voice Your Thoughts — Don’t Suppress Important Clues

When your silent auto-pilot notices something and tries to tell you… Say it out loud. That’s the trick to it.
Tell someone. If you are alone, yes, talk to yourself. Bring it to light.
You can’t remember the jigsaw bits later, unless you look at them now! Subconscious thoughts flit away like dreams, so express them first.
“Oh I didn’t expect to reach this so soon!” ? Misidentified

“North seems to have changed. It shouldn’t be out there!” Disoriented!
“Hasn’t the wind swung? Does anybody agree?” ? Are the others asleep!!
“The shape’s not quite right” Most probably because it’s wrong!
“The markers have stopped” ? Off the main track
The same goes for run-of-the-mill clues. A forgotten clue is a missing jigsaw piece when you need it, so say them all out loud.
“We’re crossing a divide — see — we are now going downhill”
“Creek number... four” “Marker!... Blaze!... Cut Branch!...”
Back-track in Your Mind before You Back-track on Your Steps

Lost?
“Don’t Be Afraid to Think”
Spend time rethinking.
Try to reconstruct where you might have erred. Have I overrun my goal, or am I not there yet? Or am I simply off course to left or to right?
Did anything ‘not make sense’ on the way out?
▪ Work backwards from now, before you forget.
▪ Assess how successful back-tracking might prove.
▪ Don’t ask “Where do you think…” but shoot for the details — ask “Why do you think…”
▪ Each of you should draw a mud-map separately, then come together, to compare recollections. Argue out the sequence.
▪ Back-track on your presumptions.
Detail the facts with a cool head and many problems will dissolve.
Distance using Apparent Size & 6°

The visual size of people, cars, houses, as measured at arm’s length, varies with distance. You know how big they are already.
Blink your eye or otherwise guesstimate what fraction of 6° it makes, and multiply its size up by 10, plus for the fraction, to get the distance to it.
E.g. something one knuckle space wide is 3 times further away than if it were 6° big, and therefore is 30 times further away than its absolute size.
Visual Angle, Size and Distance

Find the angle, and multiply the size up by 60 in 1-per-degree. E.g. If something 1m wide looks 5° across, = it is 12m away. 0.5° means 120m.
Find the distance from the map, and work out the size from the apparent angle, by 1 in 60. Something 10km away, 10° wide is 10/6 km across.
Using 7/4 in 100, for accuracy because the angle is small, something 10km away and 10° across should be 1750m wide.
Side-wise Offset
Blink your eye at something in the distance, and it will shift across the background skyline.
Walk sideways, pacing out the distance, until it lines up with the new skyline mark. Multiply by 10 for the distance to the something.
Alternatively, mark the new position alongside the object, which the ‘blink’ indicates, then walk up to it and pace out the offset distance & ten-tuple
37
Don’t Just ‘Get By’ and ‘Make Do’

We all have a handful of techniques we feel comfortable with. We all get lost.
Most “How to” books necessarily are telling you how to battle uphill — against your natural incompetence.
This is doubly true for a “How to Improve” (your navigation) book!
E.g. ‘Improve your memory skills’! Easily said; hard to digest.
Get used to the idea, and therefore embrace it — the idea that you, as a good navigator, should want to extend your familiar range.
Navigation is inherently a problem (of not being able to see around corners; of not having a magnetic sense; of not having excellent memory; etc.).
However humans inherently do have the potential skills to cope. But do you have the guts?
Memories are Made of Landscapes, Not Compass Needles!

What to look for is detailed later, but for now consider...
How to ‘look’ …
Use your compass and map vaguely! Approximately! Lightly!

It is safer to be aware of their meaning, rather than to be accurate but disoriented.
Imagine you had no map, no compass. No signposts. No highways.

“How did the pioneers do it!?” You learn how to not get lost; how to ‘see’ what you are looking at.
Once you get oriented, then you can bury yourself in the instructions on decimal places, for accuracy when you need it.
Otherwise numbers and recipes have an ability to preoccupy your mind and numb your thinking.
Treat your map and compass as shy — self-deprecating — and turn your piercing stare away from them to what they are pointing out to you.
You Need a Road-Map To Climb a Hill!

It is a waste of effort to realise your mistakes at the top of a hill.
“I wish we had brought binoculars” is all too common a regret.
“We must remember next time to bring all our maps”
You have few such opportunities to positively identify landmarks,

and so you should take the chance to familiarise yourself with what each hill looks like from every other hill.
But often, it is only your smallest-scale map — the roadmap — which will show you the big layout.
“Didn’t anybody bring the compass??”
It’s up to you to plan ahead, to plan on making the most of your efforts.
‘Land to Sky — Sky to Land’ Navigation Sun Tower

Step Zero: Leave yourself out, and your compass, of the scheme of things — so that the whole lifeless picture only changes slowly. 1
The result is simplicity itself — You see how the Sun shines across the landscape. Remember the angles. 3 2
Step One: “The Tower is by angle, from the Sun as I see it” Both change only slowly (or rather, seem to) as you move. 4
The Big Bonus is: You can keep track of all your bends, twists & turns, by the Sun & Land working in conjunction with each other.
You can locate a landmark easily through the vegetation — you know where to expect it when it shows itself occasionally.
i.e. You can always easily locate the tower/peak/etc, from kilometre to kilometre, in relation to the (now slightly shifted) Sun (or Moon, wind, cloud)
Step Two: “The Tower is from my shadow” This allows you to walk away from the Sun, yet still stay oriented to the landmark.
Step Three: “The Anti-Tower is ..from the Sun” These allow you to walk away from the landmark,
Step Four: ..from my shadow” yet still “see” where it is.
Step Five: Mnemonic: “The Landscape on the Left Lingers Longest in the Light” — its apparent movement as you walk, follows the Sun
& the Shadow’s anticlockwise shift. (SH only) i.e. you don’t need to worry much about time passing, and angles changing.
“But Landscape on the Right… soon goes wrong” — it ‘moves’ against the clock-sense of the Sun. (Southern Hemisphere rules)
i.e. you need to refresh your angles more often during the day. (NH: Left Loses the Light; Right is all right)
Step Six: Rule of Thumb: “15 km away changes at 15°/hour (i.e. at about the same rate as a low midday Sun) as you walk past it at 4 kph”.
The Sun shifts at less than 15°/hr when it is rising or setting — so try “20 km away/12°” to match it; and “10 km/25°” if the Sun is very high.
Yes, you should convert the angle to “ESE” or rename it “just S. of sunrise” for later, but the idea is to use the Sun as it is now, not North.
Grid-line Walk — Explore in a Square Grid Pattern

This only adds 20% walking effort, but lets you know where you are, and how to get back, A0 B0 Guess the right-angles, well
and along a route of your choice, among many choices.
You need to judge a given distance, well, e.g. 100 double-paces; one minute; or 100m; or by pedometer.
Choose a reference direction as ‘Up’ or ‘ahead’. Sun-North; Compass Needle North. B1 D1
Up-weather by clouds; down–clouds. A strong wind. Distant Hill. If needed, keep a straight line by marks.
Choose a scale to suit your ambitions, e.g. 100m squares (so that each 10m is an extra 0.1).
Try to cover a whole square at a time. Use 0.5, if needed, or you can cross at a diagonal, 140m long. D2 D2
Count forward and back progress in whole chunks, as A-Z. G.5 means 7½ squares.
After Z comes AA, AB, AC. See p84b for making suitable mnemonics. Don’t lose count! That’s the worst of it.
Count right and left progress as +/- 0-10, etc. Minus simply means ‘backwards’ or ‘to the left’ of the reference.
When you have definitely decided to head back to base, remember the grid-reference. Stop counting.
Reset the count to Zero. This is easier than trying to count backwards, using subtraction, to get back.
Reverse the reference direction, e.g. to downwind, shadow South, compass South, and continue.
When you arrive at the original grid-count, you should be within sight of home-base. C0 B0 E4 A0
38
Orientation
Disorientation is More Dangerous than Being Lost

…because the same disorientation that will get you lost, may then get you more lost.
Orientation is primarily a mental picture — therefore — Disorientation is a wrong mental picture. It is one and the same principle.
So Disorientation really extends to cover more than direction sense, into bewilderment and logical debilitation!
You can be disoriented, deluded, bewildered and irrational about more than direction or position. E.g. You may misjudge which way is up/out/back.
E.g. you may be mistaken about the time of day, or the existence of a road, or whether the promised weather front has passed you or not.
‘Lost’ is ‘I don’t know where I am’ which is different from disorientation, since position sense is independent of direction sense.
Again, you can know where you are on the map, but still be bewildered on the ground — not ‘fitting in’ even if direction-wise oriented.
Then again, you can be oriented, but lost — yet not necessarily worried or in difficulties — because you are oriented.
You can be disoriented unawares — even when you know where you are — i.e. not necessarily aware of the danger of loss of direction sense.
To be both disoriented and lost is most dangerous, but it is orientation which stops you from getting lost.
Orientation keeps your finger on the pulse. It stops you getting disoriented. In many ways it gives you a position sense too e.g. that you are in a
particular catchment, downwind of a known landmark, up-Sun of the overall course. Orientation of the map puts the map onto the landscape—
aligned to reality—so that the map can point out its riches to you. Orientation lets you know where you are, recognise places, & know the way back
Logical Blunders — Examples

Mistakes of category: “The last stream was flowing to the left” (Oops!)
“We have crossed the main road” (Now, the main access road is dirt, whereas the main through road is bitumen,
but you muddle them up. Or maybe you are unaware of a fork in the main road.)
Mistakes of number: “We have passed two lakes” (which were joined behind the intervening vegetation).
Mistakes of quantity: “We haven’t changed direction” (except for one hairpin bend!)
Ironstone may have swung the compass, when you put the map and compass on the ground ‘for extra certainty’!
Mistakes of quality: “From the peak to the lake was 090°” — but the false peak you were on, gave you a false sense of accuracy, in the mist!
“See those houses ‘across’ the river?” — Rather, see the bend on the left — they are on this side!
“The island should poke out from behind the far point. Why isn’t it there?” (It is ‘the far point’, of course)
“But we have crossed the River” No, only a main tributary, or only onto an island.
Gaps in knowledge: “We haven’t seen the junction” — because you short-cut past it; around one bush is enough!
Unexpected: E.g. there are sometimes two parallel roads — the old & the new. E.g. a stream sometimes goes underground “Mole Creek”.
E.g. A water canal may cross catchments. E.g. “Remember the creek junction at the base of the hill” — The ‘hill’ was only an island.
Assumption: “That will be the ridge we want up ahead, let’s turn off here” — Unproven!
“Ah, we are back to the road!” Yes, but not the same road!
Trust the Untrustworthy

It’s like people. ‘You can’t trust anybody’, but you have to trust your life to them sometimes.
A compass has dozens of potential faults, but in a fog, you trust it, implicitly.
You yourself are less trustworthy than a compass.
When all you have outside your own opinions are reasonably reliable external clues (like where the Sun is!) you had better trust your life to them,
not to yourself.
For instance, sometimes that ‘external clue’ is someone else telling you that you are disoriented, when you don’t think so — you had better listen!
A disoriented person may not want to trust the ‘untrustworthy’. Don’t let that be you.
E.g. You may find yourself twisting the map to make it line up with a mountain which doesn’t really line up, except to your expectations.
You prefer to believe that the map may be distorted!
It takes practice to believe. I once spent a whole week wondering why all the trees were pointing too much to the sunset side of noon.
I was trusting myself, not the trees, and was simply wrong about where North was. I didn’t realise which was the more trustworthy.
Lost? Rule 2: Start! Getting Unlost. Find yourself. Regain confidence.

(After you STOP getting lost — Rule 1) It is time to START NAVIGATING — Rule 2. (You can practise this ahead of time, without getting lost.)
E.g. What can I see & recognise? E.g. Can I interpret the wind or sky or trees or drainage for direction?
▪ First: Mark your spot e.g. tie up a hanky. Mark your Trail—so you can get back here, as ‘base’. Retrace your steps, if that is the best option.
Act out a Search & Rescue, looking for your ‘lost’ starting point. (If you can see your surroundings, you don’t have to feel ‘lost’.)...
▪ Explore in all directions systematically.
▪ Make a map. ‘You’ in the centre. Locate yourself in the landscape. Climb a high point, to orient yourself; at night too, for lights.
Let others find you...
▪ Leave notes about your plans. Especially at ‘findable’ places e.g. a hill top.
▪ Leave clues so that searchers will not give up for ‘lack of clues’. Make some marks visible from the air.
Search out a track...
Ask: “Where should there be a track?” E.g. to... that peak?, a fishing spot?, any low pass through the range?, the main access valley?
Mental Grid Map

This is the square grid method, where you simply walk, along a path of choice, and rather than following the grid lines,
guesstimate your decimal position in the grid scheme.
The beauty of it is that it constantly forces you to orient yourself to a reference direction, to notice distance, and to be aware of position,
yet it takes nothing more than mental equipment. You should aim to practice it properly, once, and you may not want to discard it.
It causes less mental strain if there are two or more of you. Delegate the left/right to one person; the forward/back to another.
The one person guesstimates distances by one method, their way; The other gauges perhaps a different distance and with different accuracy.
It doesn’t really matter if your guesstimation mismatches, provided you remain consistent and imagine a rectangular grid.
In addition you need a feel for triangle lengths, for a 1 in 10 slope, up to a 10 in 10 slope, so you can guesstimate decimals.
~You need to divert 5 in 10 to add more than 10% to the length walked. E.g. from Z0 to A0.5 takes 112m across 100m squares.
~Maximum extra length is a 45 degree diagonal, at 141%. E.g. from Z0 to A1 takes 141m. These two set the feel for guessing distances
1 in 9 adds one third. For 6 in 10 to 8 in 10, triple the first figure as the extra %. E.g. from A0 to B0.7 takes 122m.
If in doubt draw a 10x10 square, draw in the diagonals to each of 18 opposite points, and label the lengths as the square root of 100+n2
This lets you see the direction of each n in 10 slope, and know its length.
~You could use degrees, up to 45, and call them percent extra distance, with fair accuracy, but there’s no need for such figures.
When I simply guessed, by eyeballing distances and directions, it brought me back home without noticeable error, after a few kilometres.
39
Walk Where the Navigators Talk — if you want to learn navigation

Not out of earshot.
Navigation is a learning experience.
It works better when you can share the process of learning with someone.
Explore
Explore the unexpected — the side tracks. You walk to explore, usually, not to exercise.
It’s No Fantasy
Navigational know-how is not “If I were lost I could do this…” but is “What I am doing right now, all the time, will stop me getting lost”.
Learning new skills and how to interpret all the clues is the practice of navigation here and now.
Continuously pointing out new clues to yourself, and to others willing to listen, is the process of not losing yourself.
Feed Your Subconscious through Your Conscious Focus

E.g. To improve distance guesstimation, focus on the finest visible distant detail. Notice the haze level, the shadow hue, the sizes you can see.
To train your direction ‘sense’ (which is entirely lacking in humans) feed it all the clues you can —
Sun & shadows, wind & weather, compass & landmarks, trends & bends… Don’t just look at them! Put words and meanings onto what you see.
To extend your memory of a sequence of turnings… use pencil and paper ‘memory’.
A working rule of thumb: Bring to conscious note

what you hope to keep track of subconsciously.
Don’t expect to be able to remember what you haven’t noticed or thought about consciously.
So learn what to look for, and how to see it.
Look into the Far Distance

..for Trig. Points; Towers. They are there to be seen, by definition. ..for Roads; Houses
..at night, for City glow; Auroral Lights ..for the dip and strike of the underlying geology
Assess the difficulties ahead, whenever you glimpse them e.g. a steep bank on the other side of a lake. Use binoculars.
Look through the Haze

What are you looking for? You want to pick: intervening ridges, hidden gorges, distant cliffs, overhangs, false peaks, mountains or islands, the
Moon, and the trail ahead. Those cloudy lumps are not always clouds. Those invisible peaks are there to be found.
If you don’t see them right away… Wait ..it is the changing light conditions which show up the contours.
E.g. Look at night, when the whole emphasis shifts, and light sources show up.
E.g. Wait for the haze to shift — it moves with the Sun.
E.g. Wait for the haze to thicken — to show up the valleys — weather is changeable
A rain shower may show up a valley; a cold front might clear the air of haze.
E.g. Wait for a cloud shadow or patch of sunlight to drift across — it will disappear into any hollows, and highlight any foreground.
Join the Invisible Big Picture To the Visible Landscape

The Big Picture might be invisible — e.g. the South Pole Star is “Over the South Pole in Antarctica” — but geographic “South” is quite different and
is visible — “that knoll there!”. Join the two!
The first principle to practise, is to work top-down; but the second and more important need, is to integrate everything.
When you put a continental or global picture onto the landscape, you have a full-scale map of the world in front of you.
e.g. Point just beneath ‘that Knoll’ and put your imagination into gear...Down over that horizon are icebergs separating from glaciers with
a huge splash! Can’t you feel the chill? Up there is the night-time aurora. Down there, anti-polar bears look straight up and see
the Southern Cross whirling around overhead! And we must be on the south side — the cold dark side — of this hill behind us.
You say: “The destination lies beyond that valley.” “Mount Saddleback marks sunrise”
“The track winds around behind this hill.” “The Sun skims those treetops”
“Porpoise Bay must be yonder; Melbourne that way; and my girlfriend, 50km in that direction…”
Integrate as you walk — in real time and place
Cyclical Motion Divided into 12ths

Any back-and-forth motions or cycles which are caused by circular orbits or sinusoidal oscillations are easily understood and followed in units of 30°.
This is because 30° of rotation will swing half way across a radius from top-dead-centre, or half-way up/down from right/left extremities.
E.g. quick rising for 4 twelfths, then 2 twelfths in the top half of the swing, 4 quickly reversing itself, and wallowing for 2 at the bottom.
You may not see the ‘circular’ nature of a one-dimensional oscillation, yet it will still conform to this rule.
Tidal Height Sun’s Seasonal Latitude (or Moon’s monthly position cycle; use 2½ days) 30°
1 hour falling slowly from the top 1 month at Northern solstice slowly coming South
2 hours dropping rapidly to midway 2 months rapidly moving back to the Equator — to the South
2 hours dropping rapidly from midway 2 months rapidly moving South of the Equator
1 hour dropping slowly to minimum height 1 month slowly approaching Southern solstice
1 hour at bottom rising slowly 1 month slowly turning back to the North
2 hours rising rapidly to midway 2 months rapidly returning to the Equator — toward the North 30°
2 hours rising rapidly from midway 2 months rapidly moving North of the Equator
1 hour rising slowly to top 1 month slowly approaching the Northern solstice
You can simplify that into sixths, saying: “1 sixth at the extreme; 2 on each change; 1 at the other extreme”
Or say: “twice as long on the change”. That makes ‘the change’ sound ‘slower’ but it actually goes faster and for longer.
40
Orientation
Which Way Did I Come In? Which Way Do I Go on?

Have you ever interrupted your pleasant journey at a roadside picnic area and driven out the wrong way — back the way you came — and not
onwards? Or you turn left instead of right when you drive “out” of a local dead-end network, into another dead-end maze?
Or you sat down for a rest on the track and when it’s time to go, both directions look identical to you?
It’s embarrassing on the road. It’s nerve-racking in the bush! You feel struck with insanity. But it’s normal enough.
Or when you come back to visit a familiar place, it’s on the ‘wrong’ side of the river! Every time you come back?!
An extra external clue, like the Sun, is needed, and needed to be believed, but it is really needed before you make a fool of yourself.
And you may have to undergo ‘re-orientation’ to dis-illusion yourself.
Don’t let it happen to you deep inside a cave system!
Logical Presumption Leads to Utter Delusion

Think about those example ‘logical blunders’, about your own fallibility, about the dependence of logic upon its basic assumptions.
Being twitted by a logical mistake leaves you with a horrible ‘lost’ feeling, plus a pathetic ‘helplessness’ about how to reorient.
These are not simply mistakes of guesstimation, subject to fine-tuning!

Once you subconsciously make a decision about how the world is, then your mind will close to the possibility of error.
False assumption is presumption, so I say “Presumption Means Delusion”
Such Left/Right, Yes/No, crossed/uncrossed, 2, or was it 1? -type mistakes lead to utter bewilderment, so I add
“and errors involving discrete categories can be especially indiscreet!”
Being aware of the phenomenon of logical blunders, is half the battle in overcoming them, when they bite.
Keep an Open Mind about the truth of your assumptions!
Trust Less and Prove More

Don’t trust yourself At numbers
Or remembering accurately
At judging time or distance
Or walking in a straight line
At identifying landmarks properly,
Or walking back upstream, and so on.
Don’t trust A compass to be dead accurate
A map to show North reliably
The weather forecast
Old track markers
A navigational ‘fix’
Complicated or finely adjusted instruments. They can easily go out of adjustment, without letting you know.
The point is not so much to double-check and cross-check, as to: back-up with an alternative; interpret for sense; understand; and be wary.
The Simplest Way to Get Unlost is to Retrace Your Steps

The sooner you go back to where you went wrong, the sooner you can relax. Yes that might be uphill. Yes it might be a long way.
“Oh I wish I had retraced my steps earlier, while I had the chance!”
You still have the chance, you probably just don’t want to.
For instance, if you have been pushing on, hoping to find the way, you should be doubly aware of exactly where you have come,
since you doubly anticipate the need to retrace, if you fail.
“Short” cuts have a habit of surprising you at just how long they can turn out to be, repeatedly.
A track naturally avoids gullies and obstacles, so a ‘shortcut’ is almost guaranteed to hit one square on!
Retracing your steps may be something you can’t short-cut. It is the shortcut. It short-circuits many other possibilities.
Caution: Sometimes retracing your mistakes will only compound them—more of the same!
You may sort yourself out better if there is an alternative system to try e.g. to walk back upridge if you got lost going downstream.
Approximate Sine-Wave Values 97% accurate

(From school you could have memorised that sin 30° is 0.5 and sin 60° is 0.866, and perhaps sin 45° =0.707 ???)
The first twelfth of an oscillation takes something half-way (0.5) to its peak amplitude (1.0) from the middle ground (0), by the rule of twelfths.
~The motion is virtually linear for that first 30 degrees. So to convert those first 30 degrees to a sine-value, Divide by 60.
I.e. add at a rate of 0.5 in 30, or 1 in 60. E.g. 25°/60 = 5/12 (or 0.417). Sin 25° is actually 0.423, which means we had a –0.006 error.
Sin 15° is 0.259, but we get 0.25 (–.009 error). Sin 20° is 0.342, but we would guess 0.333. That’s about the maximum error, 0.01 low
The next twelfth carries the motion from half-way to 86.6%, in a curve; The extra is 36.6% or a slope of 1.22 per degree. Let’s use 87,36,1.2
A linear fit cuts the curve twice, and so is close to most of it. If we could add 36%, over 30°, to 0.51, to arrive at 0.87, we get +/– 0.01
~To the extra degrees, Add 20% ; Add 1; Call it a percentage (divide by 100). (To add 20%, add 1 tenth, 2 times, e.g. 55 + 5.5 + 5.5 = 66)
E.g. 60 degrees = 30 plus an extra 30; so start with 0.5 and add 0.3 then 0.03, 0.03, 0.01 to get 0.87, which is 0.004 too much.
E.g. 40 gives 0.5 + 0.1 + 0.02 +0.01 = 0.63, instead of 0.643, or a –0.013 error. Sin 45 is about 0.5 plus 0.15 + 0.04 =0.69 or –0.017
To make the next approximation, use 0.87 for the first 60 degrees, then worry about any extra degrees.
The last 12th is the flattish top of the curve, building up to the crest. It climbs only 13.6% from 0.866 to 1.00 in 30 degrees, in a curve.
We start at 0.87 and finish at 1.02 cut the curve twice and best-fit to within 2%.
~For the last 30° degrees Divide by 2, then 100, to gain 15%, from 0.87 to 1.02.
E.g. 80 degrees moves to 0.5 then to about 0.87, then an extra 20 degrees or 0.1, yielding 0.97, 0.015 below the real value, 0.985.
75 yields 0.5 + 0.37 + 0.075 = 0.945, 0.021 below the true value 0.966. 70 gives 0.87 + 0.05 = 0.92, 0.02 below 0.940. I.e. +/– 0.02
41
Self-Motivation is Fundamental
For a sense of direction to become “second nature” you need to train your second nature.
Improved navigational ability boils down to… putting new ideas into practice.
(Not perfecting old mistakes! Nor leaving the right technique on the shelf)
Don’t just know about a good idea; make it yours.

For this you need to want to improve your skills.
to force yourself to practise your weaker points.
to push yourself to develop new habits.
Which is fun.
Enjoy the trip!
How to Feed Your Brain

When and where does the Sun get up?
Get up and look (not at it!). Don’t make it an academic question.
You don’t need an academic answer, either. You measure it with your eyeball. Perhaps draw it.
That doesn’t mean “ignore the details” but “memorise the feel”.
You do ‘measure’ it, but not with numbers. There! This early!
Star navigation? It doesn’t have to be a “trigonometrical nightmare”.

For us it means: Find the Southern Cross.
Guess the time of night.
Find the Pot. Get to know the stars.
Project their movement forward into the daytime.
Let your brain do the calculations. Show it what to work on.
Wait for a Change in Perspective...

..to reveal the hidden shapes and layout.
As you drive up, keep re-examining the changing skyline. Continue the process as you walk. Look for ridges & valleys showing up through the
vegetation as well as on the skyline.
E.g. Use parallax to reveal a deeper horizon behind a hidden valley...
Keep your eye on particular bumps on the skyline.
If there is a deeper background, i.e. more distant, then a lump on it will show up by moving with you —
more quickly than a ‘foreground’ horizon. You may have to look through the deep haze to even locate particular bumps.
Climb a tree, or a hill.

Use binoculars. Look especially for the trail ahead, in relation to the terrain.
It is the Changing Parallax which Shows Up the Landform and its Relative Distances.
Landmark to Landmark Network Navigation

This is a permanent, unchanging, top-down, whole-region method, prepared at home, for a large area, and for particular walks. NE
1. Choose only prominent landmarks from the map. e.g. peaks with transmitters. NW Point Island
Add in major ports, mouths & coastal extremities, lighthouses, around the coast. 020°
Draw the network of triangles between them. (“Which one am I inside?”) /200°T 20km 90° 45°
Draw the circumscribed circle for each triangle. (“Am I inside or outside?”) 50° 80° 115° camp2
Label each line in kilometres. (“What does 20km look like?”) E
Label each horizontal angle in degrees. (“Does it look larger (inside the circle) or smaller (outside)?”) 235°T
Label each line with its trend-direction. (“Am I to left or to right of track? Which is this river parallel to?) Camp1 Mt 205°T
On the right of a line you will be looking to the left of its trend to see one of the landmarks.
2. Keep a notebook for local peaks — smaller but locally prominent lookouts. Notebook
The idea here is to navigate only by landmarks, not by (favourite) low spots. Larger angles inside Map (Part of the network)
You don’t have to worry about whether one landmark is visible from another. Smaller angles outside (See Section 4)
The idea is that even when you can’t see a landmark (as well as when you can),
you can know where it is and how it lies in the land layout, how other trends line up with it and with other visible lines, and how you fit in.
Name Each Clue — with solid ground

“That’s Pacific Sunlight shining” — a mid-morning Sun, for Australia
“I have an Anti-American Shadow at the moment” — pointing away from North America
“It’s a West Coast Cloud Flow” — you can’t lose your orientation
“I love a Tropical Moon” — when the Moon is North of you (SH)
“That wind would blow straight in our back door” — ‘Back-Door Blow’
“Downstream from here is uphill from Port Stevens” — ‘Steven’s Stream’
“This cliff sees the Southern Lights” — ‘Cold Cliff’
“Topple-Tree Trunk would take us to True North”
The next step is to add something in line with that — see the next page.
42
Orientation
Disorientation — A Killer Syndrome

Pilots have been known to fly upside down, or rigidly leaning to one side according to their mistaken belief about “up”!
If even our natural senses are unreliable we certainly can’t afford to believe in any ‘sixth sense’ of direction, or on any unproven magnetic inbuilt
direction-sense in humans! A trudge can dull & distort our senses. Your mind tries valiantly to maintain mental orientation—that is the problem.
Several times each year pilots die, scuba divers get lost in sea caves, cavers fail to find the way up and out, boatmen falsely navigate the fog,
and bushwalkers get lost in the bush, fatally. They were not just careless; they were probably trying hard, but in the wrong direction, stubbornly.
Belief is an irrational master. Its force is stronger than reason. The conflict, combined with physical tiredness and sensory deprivation, is stressful.
We prefer to get lost rather than to rethink wrong assumptions!
We become willfully blind to strong contrary clues in view (including signposts, instruments, buoy colours and numbers!).
We magnify weak clues, to justify our delusion. This heightens the stress, because our sub-subconscious knows that we are wrong.
We actually lie to ourselves about what the clues do say! (e.g. we change the number, colour, reading or wording in our mind!)
Such irrational behaviour is explained as defending our psyche from hurt pride and from being devastated by confusion, fear and panic.
Don’t laugh it off as “Oh, that’s only for the worst case” because it is the less obvious self-delusion which will likely trap you.
Being human includes you — you definitely are vulnerable to being even less sensible than trained pilots!
Casual Outings Catch You Out

..unprepared e.g. without a map or compass or weather forecast.
Casual outings also have a habit (because exploring is interesting) of “I’ll go just a little bit further”; and turn into longer than expected full-scale
safaris. Exploring is built into the genes of a small fraction of any animal population—it’s a group-survival insurance. But don’t let it catch you out.
Serious trips go more reliably because you know what is needed, but you rarely prepare well for a casual trip.
e.g. you have no pedometer or notebook and so don’t keep a good enough log of distance or direction.
So Lesson Zero: Make some precaution (to avoid getting lost) every time you wander off.
Another unexpected casual mistake is to decide to leave the track without thinking what precautions may be required.
Try this. Look up and repeat after me: “God, have I forgotten anything? Is there anything I should do first?”
Let someone know the single biggest clue: “I’m going exploring that way”,
but then don’t forget the unobvious catch—that person might also go exploring & not tell anyone where you went.
(Being disabled by an injury is one thing, but dying of exposure or thirst or wild animals, simply because no-one knows where you are, is another
whole added dimension—that is probably the strongest reason for bothering to let someone know.)
So before you go off, pass on any vital information about others, as well as about yourself.
Trust Yourself Less

..when the compass and you disagree, for example.
When the map shows the junction there, but you reckon it should be here, for some reason such as ‘but we’ve come too far!’
Or similar cases, of confusion.
Your reasoning sense has holes in it, big enough to outsmart yourself.
In the end you will usually conclude “Well, I was wrong, due to this very good reason(!), and it was how the map and compass told me it was.”
But you don’t want to admit it, at the time, until you are proven wrong, yet again.
Your reasoning is not, despite your worship of it, the highest god in the Universe. You need to be able to criticise it freely.
Unreliable as map and compass can be, at times, it is better to trust them more and yourself less.
More is Better — Thought, Time Care

A simple principle to apply is to do a better job at what is marginal.
For instance, “flat” ground nevertheless does have a slope which you can determine with care.
The wind may be gentle but a little extra time could make the difference between success or failure at determining its direction.
You can always double-check a casual decision, e.g. about which way the dry creek-bed flows.
Instead of wandering in an unrecorded meandering fashion, you can mentally log your changes in direction by lining up pairs of marks.
Just before you leave the track, a quick checklist can bring a few necessaries to mind, but only if you take the trouble.
A little extra thought; an adequate time-allocation to each task; more faith; and that bit of extra care—will solve a lot of problems.
Moveable Position vs Fixed Orientation

• It helps to park the car in a cardinal direction, or pitch the tent North/South, since we all rely on such clues to revisualise what we left behind.
• But when you do try to orient yourself to something invisible such as how the car was parked when you walked off, there is a simple trap to avoid
Don’t imagine the car/tent as ‘behind’ you and twist its imagined orientation to suit the Sun or compass;
Instead change its position — move it to somewhere other than ‘behind’.
Mentally manipulate its placement, not its orientation only. Or else the ‘correct’ orientation will confuse you — nothing will make sense.
Don’t let the Sun ‘change its direction’ — that is a tell-tale that you are keeping the reference position fixed behind you rather than moving it as
you swing to left and right.
Because we have no good tools to log changes of position or distance, we tend to neglect that half of the story in favour of maintaining orientation.
• As another hint on how to use a fixed orientation, e.g. North-South, so as not to let it ‘change’ in your mind, imagine it as a long, huge, high, iron
girder bridge overarching you and your car/campsite, in the appropriate direction. Whichever way you imagine it, e.g. through-bolted to the conti-
nent, or from one peak to another, make it so solidly fixed to the ground and impressively immovable that you feel so insignificant yourself that
you feel you must turn yourself around in order to pass under it.
43
Routine Mind-Shut-Down Procedures

You know how you become dull and passive — when being over-taught, lectured at, just entertained, occupied in repetitive tasks, sitting in front of
the television, failing to solve too-difficult maths problems, or being proved to be a perverse idiot against your own opinion…
Automatic self-defence from constant attack... involves shut-down — into a semi-hypnotic trance.
Similarly,
Walking becomes a “trudge” after about an hour without a break, depending on the load, the heat,
and how many trudges have preceded on that day, and previous days.
Pain-relieving opiate levels rise. Conversation takes a dive. The path sliding under your feet gets stared at a lot.
Your mind is passive, plus your body is on auto. It is physiologically involved in the hypnotism.
Mental Torpor is a navigator’s constant enemy.

Keep the Different-to-Same-Ratio up, for both yourself and your companions, so that you can stimulate each other into full consciousness!
Feed Your Subconscious Subconsciously

E.g. Open your Atlas to a map of the world. Orient it and leave it open, oriented, and in view.
E.g. Place a magnetic compass somewhere in view at home.
E.g. Develop a habit to Orient your watch N-S each night when you take it off, wherever you happen to sleep.
E.g. Sleep with your head to the north each night if possible.
E.g. Clearly visualise what direction your feet are facing before going to sleep each night.
E.g. Imagine your body lying across a map of the continent.
New Habits Open up New Horizons.
“Retracing is Re-preciating”
..This memory-aid is something you have to tell yourself — to avoid blinding yourself and missing the goodness of the walk back.
If you are only titillating your senses for the passing instant, by constantly seeking “new” experiences, you will develop the mind-deadly
“Bin there — Dun that” attitude
Familiarity breeds contempt… “I know the way” doesn’t guarantee that you know much else about the way.
The return journey degenerates into a dull, silent, often over-fast, boring, mindless trudge, even if you drove all day to come and see this top-
quality location! In effect, you have walked the track twice, but looked at it only once.
Two solutions:
Take an interest in your surroundings, to overcome passive mindlessness.
Questions on your mind overcome boredom. If you have asked questions about a new place, you should be able to answer them on the way back.
Remind yourself of the opportunity to “re-preciate”.
Aim to Integrate…
▪ ..Integrate daytime clues with night-time orientation—use the Moon, the place of sunset, the sunset glow later (which is further South—
SH), the twilight Blue Band, Venus, the Ecliptic, the skyline — anything to carry you over from daytime to night-time,
during that awkward twilight changeover phase.
▪ ..Integrate invisible landscape with visible landscape—work out what lies behind each hill, to picture the outside world against that skyline.
▪ ..Read the “map check-list” and specify what each item means from your point of view—if you didn’t have a map, for example.
▪ ..Integrate the changing, with the unchangeable. E.g. the Sun’s daily rotation needs to be followed, by naming its current direction.
Same with the track; and your nose; and the wind.
▪ ..Integrate one walk with another — don’t just carry two separate mental maps, add a third overall view.
▪ ..Integrate each system with each other one. E.g. don’t let the map be one “world”, while the walk is another, and the night sky a third.
Join them into one whole.
▪ ..Integrate each direction clue with each other direction clue — E.g. “The tower is just before magnetic noon from here” (3 pictures in 1)
E.g. the boat-radar may fail in the heaviest weather, unable to penetrate the rain squalls—you need a boat-compass too.
It is the combination of clues which stops you getting disoriented — if you mistake one, the others will alert you.
Notice and Match Up

‘Notice the clues’ is the easy half of navigation.
Sometimes it is as simple as seeing that the track is curved.
However, a slight curve due to a river bend can turn you in a hairpin without you realising, even if you do notice the curve.
Until you also notice the extent of the curve, you are at the mercy of disorientation. Something more than looking is needed.
You need something to orient to, like the wind or clouds or landscape.
Again, it does you little good to have seen the clouds steaming by if you forgot to see where they came from.
‘Notice and Interpret’ is the catch-cry, which never stops.
But when the wind stops, will you know what direction you have been going? And ‘heading for the mountain’ is fine, unless you lose sight of it.
Something more than single-clue orientation and interpretation is needed.
Do Notice; Do Interpret; Do Orient; Then Match up; Link it to something else. And to something else. E.g. the clouds are from the mid-morning
Sun; The mountain is on my shadow’s port bow; The river has bent from ‘towards the coast’ around to ‘away from the coast’.
For special examples, see ‘3 in line’, opposite
44
Orientation
Un-Dis-Oriented
You don’t need to be perfectly and continuously oriented!
In fact it is quite hard to maintain an exact direction-sense, as soon as you turn your head, move a few steps, divert a few degrees, etc.**
You only need to be realistically confident of position & direction.
Hence it is better to be roughly aware of many clues, than to aim for perfection, say, in location or direction.
E.g. ‘Moon North’ is approximate, +/-60°, but awfully comforting! — It adds to a complete picture.
E.g. You may not even look at your map again, after studying it once, if by now you already know what it is telling you.
Don’t aim to be perfectly oriented — just undisoriented.
E.g. Hold the conversation on how to judge range; what’s behind the hill; where to find moss; why you can’t yet interpret lichens; and so on…
and you can hardly miss seeing the walk.
E.g. Run through the Start—Stop—Rest Mnemonic, p.110, as a memory challenge to all… “What’s next in it?”…
which has the benefit of practising all its clues too.
**As an exercise, guess, from a distance, diagonally, where the side of your house or car points to on the horizon, then go and line it up to find out
Or guess which point is opposite that hillock or tree, then establish how accurate your guess was. My results: +/– 10°; +/– 30° when not trying.
Trapped! By Not Looking Back

A fish funnelled into a fish trap may never again find the narrow entrance hidden somewhere in the large perimeter.
Converging tracks and sudden clearings trap bushwalkers too, when they walk through an irreversible change without noticing.
“Where did our small track join onto the main route?” “Where did we hit the fence/road/pipeline/track, and turn along it?”
E.g. stepping into the creekbed, to explore upstream, is a one-way move—you may not recognise it coming back, and could overshoot.
▪ Beware of all sudden clearings.
“Where did we emerge from the bushes: out into the clearing, onto the peak, onto the riverbank, out onto the beach”?
Look for footprints — anyone’s, but especially your own.
▪ Remember the phenomenon — and mark those junctions in your mind! Or even mark the junction on the ground. E.g. place a rock there.
▪ “Which tributary did we follow down?”
“Which ridge did we come up on?” More on p.63b
▪ Log the distance and directions involved at such changes/junctions/clearings, before you walk on and ‘lose track’.
Disoriented? Stop. Say So. Reorient!

Be prepared to voluntarily switch from ‘certainty’ to uncertainty.
Learn to live with fallibility.
As soon as you suspect a disorientation episode, admit it. Say so, out loud. Don’t miss the chance.
Tell your brain off!
“You know you’re just guessing! You made some mistake and won’t admit it! Let’s work this thing out together”
If you don’t know that you are disoriented, that can be worse than being lost but oriented.
You don’t even have to be lost — Even if you know where you are now, if you are disoriented, you may walk on into trouble, rather than be looking
to walk out of trouble.
Recall how often you have experienced a hard-to-shake feeling of disorientation.
Lost? Rule 3: Do a Good Job — of walking out or staying put

It may not be safer to stay. Well, if you decide not to stay, don’t be aimless in what you do decide to do…
▪ E.g. Retrace your steps.

▪ Keep a straight course — e.g. downstream; along the road; toward the mountain; to night lights; to the traffic noise; a chosen direction
▪ Be single-minded — purposeful, but not stubborn
▪ Leave a Trail — you may need to retrace. Yes, it consumes valuable time, but “don’t get more lost”
▪ Leave clues; notes — for others
▪ Walk quickly if you must, to cover sufficient ground, but ‘rescuers’ may not be able to keep up!
▪ Yes, your exit strategy may need to be aborted, but at least nominate an exit strategy for the exit strategy beforetime.
In-Line Integration
Put your preparation into something useful by using the ‘3-or-more-in-line’ interpretation method…
“The wind is blowing from Port Bluster, over Hot Hill, past the carpark, to us, and on towards the Sun.
“The Pacific Moon is shining parallel to the highway”
“The Mountain has Montague behind it, that cleared paddock in front of it, and that hillock in the opposite direction”
“The compass needle points past the Northern airport to the mainland”
“My anti-American shadow is pointing past Penstock to Point West at the moment”
“The stream is flowing from Mt. Big, down over Lake Low towards Mersey Mouth”
“That Tropical Sun is over New Guinea, shining Past Alice Springs, over the intersection to me, and into the teeth of the wind”
“The Nor’Easter clouds are flowing from Noumea, over the Main range, to here”
“That persistent pigeon is cooing from behind camp”
The effect is to turn your reference orientation directions into fixed tracks (see p71bi), making interpretation easy.
45
Navigation is Mental Work — Stay Alert

The tools to work with may be “map and compass” “line and direction” “time and distance”
But any workman needs, and needs to practise…
Attention Observation Analysis Interpretation Preparation Concentration Memory Visualisation
Specialist knowledge Deft application Reliability Right attitudes A store of safe and useful habits Coordination
In other words: you get lost by lapses in applying your skills, not through lack of skills.
Mental Equipment is Very Light to Carry — You already have it; Don’t forget to use it!
Instruments Instruct the Intelligent

Don’t let the instruments — compass, clock, protractor, map — do the navigating for you.
Rather, let them teach you, how to get by without them.
E.g. practise finding North by everything except the compass; then check your guesses with the compass. Try bush North repeatedly.
E.g. Guess at “adjusted Moon North”, then consult the compass.
E.g. with a watch you can practise telling the time by the Moon.
E.g. before you use a protractor, guess the angle.
E.g. gauge the distance by eye, then check it on the map.
E.g. attach a sundial compass to your magnetic compass, for the sole purpose of practising & checking your use of the sundial.
In general, predict and guess before observing, and learn from the results.
You should always check an observation for good sense, and check any instrument, or any calculation — but prediction forces you to think first
(rather than the go-to-sleep-first alternative — which is to always check afterwards).
Control your instruments — don’t put yourself onto auto-pilot — or you will hypnotise yourself into blindness.
Look Back Regularly

Look At how you got here — so that you can recognise the way back if you need it — and can make sense of your walk.
At the change from one terrain type to another i.e. at the link between natural sections of a walk — after you walk through the change.
At the directionality of the sky haze down low — the change in thickness and colour.
At the colours of the leaves, lichens & flowers — they change dramatically upsun/downsun, and therefore forwards/backwards.
Look Back… At tracks joining in at an acute angle — which otherwise you won’t see until you come back — which will confuse you.
At the bending of the track.
At what you may have dropped or left behind! (Check each other. Anyone carrying loose items should walk in front.)
At the distance come, compared to the distance yet to go.
At the weather clouds stalking up on you from behind.
Can you see your starting point, and get a bearing on it? What is opposite that — i.e. the landmark which now shows you your exact trend to date?
Look Around
Since turning your head while concentrating forwards, taking your eye off the ball or turning a smooth corner are all enough to thwart your direc-
tion sense, the anti-dote is to deliberately turn your head! Keep looking around at the wider context, including behind, so you don’t lose sight of it.
Imagine an Aerial Photograph of the Continent

Visualise exaggerated shadows lying parallel across your imagined photograph — connect those with your shadow and tree shadows.
Visualise the Sun shining like a flashlight upon your imagined continent map — connect that Sun with the Sun you see (Don’t look at it!).
Visualise the cloud shadows moving across it — there’s one! See?
Draw the isobars across it, lined up with the low clouds wind direction — feel it in your face.
Superimpose a huge compass needle across the continent map — look at your needle. You should be aligned.
Usually you avoid using any small-scale map, since it is the real and full-scale world you want to see or visualise.
But sometimes, imagining a map helps, e.g.…
1. Your navigational map (i.e. remember what you studied!)
2. The mental continent glued to your compass needle, to help you ‘(not) swing the map’
3. The continental map you walk over at bends, to help you take in the new orientation
4. The bird’s eye/satellite view e.g. when reconstructing where you might have gone wrong and when re-enacting it in miniature
5. Sleeping on a map, with your atlas open, and your compass needle showing
6. The Road Map marked out in Regional Triangles from peak to peak.
Making a M.U.D. M.A.P.-m.a.p.-m.a.p. For a more accurate job, see Mapmaking p101c,103c,106ab,109c.
Mudmap your trip onto paper, because paper remembers better than you do. Use any scrap of paper. Take a pencil and draw you meanderings.
Orient the paper to your expected trend (p51a Rhumb Line & p111c S.T.A.R.T.), so as to give you most room to map your journey.
Mark a dot where you start from — probably on the edge closest to you.
Up-arrow for a reference Direction; draw in a long one, Up-Sun is good. e.g. Up-wind; Up-shadow; Up-peak to a prominent landmark; Up-Weather
Direction. (the Cloud flow); Up-North, by compass needle, or Up-Moon. Interpret the reference-orientation-Direction(s) before you leave.
U-pD-ate the arrow direction(s) or interpretation as needed, e.g. as the Sun shifts slowly, in relation to the wind, or as you walk past the peak.
Maintain a trend, a straight-line ‘leg’ p73b. Use the reference direction if possible. E.g. use the anti-peak.
Or pick a distant mark and walk up to it somehow; Or line up two points and keep them in line (p85e,87e,89e); Or just guess.
Align the Arrow when you stop (See Map Alignment 97a-105a, 103b). Turn Around to see where you have come from, to map the directions well.
If all other direction references fail you, Align the next leg carefully to the last leg. Be careful, because this will accumulate errors.
A-lignment is the magic ingredient. But it is the extra reference A-rrow which keeps you straight and avoids those accumulated errors.
Interpret the new alignment before you disorient yourself: “Where then is the starting-point now?” — or else you have a map but no sense.
Don’t forget to use the map on the way back keeping track of the bends and where the start point is, and the finish point.
Pencil in the Progress Parallel to the last leg; Pencil in the last leg distance. Turn around again and pencil in the next leg direction.
Guess at the distance, or pace it as you go, or use a pedometer, or a stopwatch. Add helpful notes as needed — p95c, 122 might help.
Repeat the m.a.p. for each new leg. 46
Orientation
Avoid Disorientation: OverNavigate

Your aim is surely not: ‘how to read a compass’ etc. But: ‘how to avoid a disorientation episode’
Being ‘lost’ is no panic, although you try to avoid that. Being ‘disoriented’ is panic (even when there is no real need).
To avoid the psychological syndrome and the real dangers of being disoriented, and lost, the most sensible attitude is…
Avoid getting disoriented in the first place Maintain orientation
Navigate carefully e.g. learn ‘how to read your compass’ etc.! Overnavigate — don’t rely on one theory, one skill, one faculty
Don’t give in to panic, or even to anxiety.
Over-navigating when you can, makes it easier when you can’t, e.g. sea-sick or injured, bushed-in, exhausted or confused.
It is a rule in life (Murphy’s Law) that things go wrong very quickly, not just one thing at a time, but all at once, compounding the difficulty.
As soon as you realise you are disoriented, you’ll probably also realise that you also don’t know the time, the position of the sun, the direction of
the wind, the direction of the clouds, or whether you can interpret the bushes for noon. Then it begins to rain, go dark, and out come the leeches,
and you sprain your ankle too. You could learn this law the hard way, or take my advice and do your ‘emergency’ navigating before the emergency!
How to Get Lost — Follow the Track— A Track is a Trap-Door

A track will lure you into the middle of the wilds. You end up depending upon it completely.
I suppose tracks know where they are going, but you may not, and they can’t think. They are mute guides of the blind.
Antidote: Over-navigate. Do more than you need to. Don’t just follow the track mindlessly. Don’t let it do the navigating for you.
Keep your finger on the pulse e.g. How far have I come? What speed am I averaging? What landmarks can I see?
Have I checked the compass lately? The weather?
STAY ALERT
STAY SKEPTICAL
Reorientation; And a Fresh Start

Step 0. Admit it: “I am dis-oriented!”. Say So. Stop. Decide to ‘reorient’. Discuss it out loud.
Step 1. RETHINK where you might have gone wrong.
2. IMAGINE the true situation.
3. IMAGINE A BIRD’S EYE VIEW of how it ‘must’ be. Lay it all out, on the ground, in your re-enactment.
4. USE THE MAP; and all the clues — the time, the clouds, the distance…
5. ACT IT OUT on foot, in miniature. “I left this way, turned…”
6. SAY OUT LOUD a) Well that’s where I thought it was b) But it is really over there (e.g. that Sun there).
7. Imagine the stars circling where they ought to; the coasts trending the way the compass tells you; etc.
8. Aim for a NEW START “I don’t know what happened, but now I divorce the past”.
Only when ‘the ground shifts under your feet’, do you know that your brain has got hold of the new situation.
How to Leave a Message

▪ Put it in a prominent place (e.g. a hilltop; a campsite; a rock face) with a prominent marker — bright and colourful for instance.
▪ Make it helicopter-visible e.g. in a clearing; large
▪ Use international distress symbols e.g. ‘V’; Fire; 3 lots. At sea, a white flag or white stroboscopic (flashing) light.
▪ Any bit of metal may help you scratch out a message e.g. a zipper runner; a coin; a key; e.g. onto a tree trunk.
If not, try a rock, or stick, to scratch with. Next time, have paper and pen with you.
▪ Use spittle, or urine, to make mud, then cover the mud message, but prominently — e.g. when searchers remove the coat from the tepee
they see the message. E.g. make a flat mud pie; press in twigs to form letters; keep the rain off it.
▪ A freshly dead leaf is like paper, to write on.
▪ A piece of charcoal makes a handy black chalk.
▪ Brittle Yakka gum makes a bright orange powder splotch, to attract attention, and can also be used as a somewhat waterproof crayon.
Disorientation in new territory

Familiar territory does not disorient you, so you must have the mental faculties to ‘know where you are’ when you can ‘see where you are’.
The overload of novel surroundings must overwhelm your normal abilities to mentally keep track of small diversions and accumulated progress.
These suggestions aim to make an exploration more ‘familiar’ and less ‘new’. They come from all over this book. I suppose the message is:
‘Don’t just read about the methods, take extra time and care to put them into practice; extra ‘bother’. Slow down; try harder. Remember more’.
Look back very regularly, to increase your familiarity of already explored territory. If you had eyes in the back of your head, it should all look
‘familiar’. Walk back over that territory before continuing, p 68b. It will feel like old familiar ground if you bother. You could find your way through,
and back through, an obstacle course at night without a torch, if you went forward three legs and back two as a matter of habit or necessity. That’s
5 whole journeys. Talk to the obstacles along the way, and use a mnemonic to recognise them, and what you did about them, and how you turned.
Leave visible markers behind you, so looking back is more helpful to orient you. Leave a trail. It boosts your confidence, even if you don’t use it.
Look through the foreground into the distance to maintain contact with reference directions. Fix what you can see, especially ahead, in your
mind, in relation to the Sun, shadow, wind, etc, until you can point to them from behind visual obstacles. Remember more of what you see. Inter-
pret each clue for its relationship with your memories of how things looked. Integrate the bits into a whole. Use some distance measure.
Maintain a straight line if convenient, so the interpretation of where you are is transparent. Use long straight ‘legs’ so you can interpret your accu-
mulated path more easily. Notice and remember the angles between legs especially. Create a mudmap, so you remain oriented to your start posi-
tion, and to your current position, and to landmarks sighted along the way. Practise these and other techniques, when it doesn’t matter, for later.
47
To Work Harder, Rest Harder

“Mental alertness” may involve
• A siesta nap!
• An early night (not a late-night campfire party or sing-song).
• Regular rests during the walk.
Tiredness, Exhaustion, Constancy — these stop you thinking efficiently, and affect your memory badly too. So do nicotine, alcohol and drugs.
• When you are in difficulties, sleep on the problem, or take your mind off it with a diversion, occasionally.
• For the sake of having stimulating conversation, the whole party ought to guard their mental alertness too.
• Navigation games do more than orient you, they wake you up.
Be alert to your biorhythms—daily, monthly, seasonal—they affect your alertness or make you depressed—all your mental faculties can be affected.
Minds Work Best with Intelligent Questions on Them

• Am I judging the scale on the map properly? How high and steep is the next climb?
• How many creeks have we crossed? How many more to come? What is our next position-check landmark? How soon?
• What direction will the next creek be flowing in? Could we see Mount X from here?
• What is the nearest escape route? To where? What side-trips would people make?
• What does this place remind me of? Why is it sandy soil?
• Will it frost tonight or not? How fast are those cloud shadows going?
• Where would the animals drink, and shelter?
• What is this place’s own special uniqueness, and why?
Anticipate, with questions, the things you want answers to.
Look Through the Vegetation, to the Contours

• Bushes cloud your vision. If, for example, you want to ‘stick to the ridge’, or want to memorise a junction, then
look for the more permanent clues…
..like slope, creeklines, direction trends, terrain, soil & rock types, alignments, distances, context.
Of course, look at the vegetation too, but not only at the vegetation.
• Trees cloud the skyline. But there are gaps and lines of sight that open up as you pass by. Look through the forest for the ridgelines,
slopes, and horizon. As you move sideways watch the parallax—to reveal otherwise hidden contours.
• Look through the trees, to the most distant, largest, tallest features to navigate by — you will undoubtedly catch glimpses of these much
more often than you think, if you are looking. They may be other trees, so get used to recognising individual trees.
• Examine the height of the sky beneath the canopy.
E.g. the lowest sky is ‘downhill’, but the lowest sky uphill is toward a pass or gap, & the highest sky downhill shows up the ridge.
• Forest-bound river beds are often clear of trees and give you a rare distant view.
Stop in the middle of that rope bridge! And hang around, to look around.
Connections to the Outside World — You Don’t Need to Feel Isolated

Ruins connect you to the past. Earthworks and mineworkings also. Even the landscape engraves its history for you to see.
A GPS connects you to satellites; a radio to a radio transmitter direction; a TV antenna points to the transmitter; a phone connects to the grid.
The Sun, Moon, stars, planets + time + vertical can give you an astro-fix to connect you to latitude and longitude — globally.
The magnetic field connects you to magnetic poles, as do the aurorae. The deep blue polarisation band finds the Sun for you. So does a rainbow.
Navigational antennae link to flight paths. Flight paths indicate airports; pipelines indicate water supplies; electricity lines go to substations.
Paths point to points of interest. Recent tracks betray traffic. Track-markers put you on track; tracks connect to roads; roads to highways; to cities
Nightlights betray townships and cities; traffic noise links you to highways; surf noise, to the beach. Tides tell you about the Sun and the Moon.
River gravel shows up the upstream geology. East West gully shape shows up North; rivers connect you to the coast; ridges to peaks.
Air pressure here depends upon altitude; and upon the polar front and the pressure systems. Air temperature relates to the size of the landmass.
Absolute humidity tells about the proximity of oceans. Cirrus clouds show up the (westerly) upper winds. Low clouds and winds remind you of
the isobars on the pressure map. Ground winds telegraph the topography. The radio links you to weather information. Waves, to distant storms.
Fence lines connect you to farms; boundary lines to survey grids; trig points to maps. Smells to camp fires, marshes, farms, abattoirs, toilets,
seaweed, water. Stock trails lead to water; seed eating birds lead to waterholes; the plant and insect types are tied to their range and the region.
Vegetation is tied to altitude, latitude and aspect. Bush north indicates noon. Bush slant indicates the prevailing wind. Recent wind leaves tracks
of yesterday. Deep soil temperature is related to altitude. Why feel “lost”?
48
Orientation
OverNavigate: Equals Over-Familiarise

Overfamiliarise yourself with your route as you walk it, the first time you walk it.
Familiarity is the navigator’s best friend, next time.

I.e. Years later you can more easily retrace your steps. Even when the track has overgrown.
It is an investment opportunity now, not to be wasted.
The extra time and effort will pay dividends, but like all good investments you must have an interest in the future.
E.g. Notice how and where you went wrong — mentally photograph it.
E.g. Lay to heart the most permanent features — the landscape and trends — not the track, its signposts, or bushes,
which may change with time, or with a bulldozer.
E.g. Mentally photograph the lie of each junction, as if a fire might burn up the signpost.
E.g. Describe out loud your short-term memory about how you got here, lest that familiarity flits with the passing of the day.
E.g. Have your own ‘track-notes’ book.
How to Get Lost — Follow the Leader

A leader is like a track. You can follow him mindlessly. He ends up being a seeing guide for the willfully blind.
Ask yourselves, often, this hypothetical question: What would happen if the navigator dropped dead?
Could anyone else navigate competently?
Do others know where we are? On the map?
Could I find my own way back? Where are the cars?
If the ‘leader’ himself gets disoriented or lost, noone will know where they are!
Antidote: Teach. Learn. Test each other. Involve each other.

Demystify the magic art. Share it. Talk about it.
Listen to the debate. Look at the landmarks. Contribute.
Don’t walk fourth in line. (Rotate regularly)
“Here, you find the way — I already know it”
“As Solid As the Rocks in My Head”

“Who am I to argue with the Sun? to say to it ‘You should be over there — not where you are!’ ”
Telling your head off is the sort of attitude you need… when you find yourself walking uphill to the campsite which you know is down by the river!
… when the clues are shouting at you “Something is wrong here!!”
Navigators who are disoriented prefer to believe in such remote but real possibilities as a compass error or a mistake on the map, signpost or buoy,
or to believe in the majority opinion being wrong, rather than to believe in the closer and more real possibility: “Perhaps it is ME who has made
some mistake”.
True, compasses & maps are notoriously prone to error, but your internal feelings, vague recollections, position/time/direction senses
are more notoriously unreliable.
Lost? Rule 4: DON’T Do It Again!

Make resolutions. E.g. ‘I will always take a compass.’ (I tie a key ring compass to my hat string and I always take my hat.)
(I also tie a whistle to my keyring)
E.g. ‘I will buy a map/mobile-phone/EPIRB’
E.g. ‘I will always leave my itinerary with friends’
E.g. ‘I will learn more about navigation; take pencil and paper; practise’
E.g. ‘I will never go on a walk unless I have asked: “Which way am I leaving; Going in what direction?” ’
Even better… Don’t wait to be forced into a sensible habit. Declare your present attitudes to be ‘not yet fit for human navigation’
and put it right, now.
49
A Three-Track Mind
Here is a trick to avoid attention-deficit syndrome in your navigating:
Practise concentrating on two things at once.
Your feet find the path by themselves.
Your mouth talks about how good the meal will be.
Your mind sees the scenery without missing it.
Dual tracking your mind is like many other good things — just a little bit too hard to persevere with under normal circumstances,
but possible to achieve, with extra dedication.
Don’t automatically get lost into only one train of thought.

Slate this down for practice, for the rest of your life.
Interpret!
E.g. If you wear a face mask in these days of extreme UV radiation, or sunglasses, you become aware of when you are walking into the Sun.
The obvious interpretation, hanging on to this piece of otherwise subconscious information, is: “I must be travelling toward the Equator”.
It’s a chance to orient yourself to the new orientation. Can you see your shadow ahead of you?—you are getting closer to the pole.
E.g. You might be in a deep dark forest and see a rare bit of sun-dapple piercing the dense canopy.
That means you can go over there and see the sunbeams for a direction check.
E.g. The ‘crunch crunch’ underfoot changes to a ‘clop clop’ — “Oh, if this is rocky, maybe I’ve passed a break of slope.”
E.g. Exotic plants betray human occupation — you could look for an old access track.
As a general rule: Look for any asymmetry, and interpret it — usually for direction. E.g. When swimming with goggles, twinkly bubbles mean
“upSun” — dull ones, “down-Sun”. The wave and ripple pattern indicate wind direction. Sunbeams show up the down-Sun direction.
E.g. Scuba-diving: The anchor rope shows up-/down- current; alternating current is the swish/swash from the longest wavelength waves—note
their direction. Direct current equates with “away from my starting point”. Bubbles show “up” (with some adjustment for current if needed).
Interpret the whole story of settlement: Valleys attract farms, dams, fences, boundary roads, houses, access roads. I.e. you see a lonely fence post
on a mud flat, and you say “once several paddocks probably converged onto this old watering place—look for old tracks near the fence post”. Look
for old nail-holes in the post, to find out the direction of the fenceline.
Play the Field-Scientist

Vary your focus-distance.
A herpetologist will see snakes at his feet & frogs at 10 metres.
A geologist will see the skyline, and the creekbed outcrops.
An ornithologist will look upwards, a botanist downwards.
Scientists see more, because they know what to look for, and how.
The more they look, the more they see, observe, discover, and learn i.e. the more they learn what to look for.
You can begin the self-reinforcing cycle in yourself by: wanting an explanation, by trying an interpretation.
And, of course, don’t forget to look into the topic, into books about it and field guides for instance.
Be interested in all levels, in all scales and directions.
Focussing keenly will improve your navigation.
Orientation is More Fundamental Than Position Sense

We all carry mental recollections of recognisable spots—like a mental photo album.
But try to mentally picture whole stretches of a country—roads, coast, range, river—with a sense of direction & relative location & linkage.
Better is to carry a library of whole mental maps—walks, paths & layouts—not just photos of isolated spots or isolated linear features.
But Best is to keep all those maps in right relation to each other in your mind.
As your ability improves, you focus less on spots and more on the links between spots;
less on position fixing and more on trend analysis;
less on separate techniques, more on integration.
Direction clues are only helpful if you can coordinate them with what else you need to locate.
Positions only make most sense if you can say how they lie, in distance & direction, in relation to other positions.
Think in Pairs, in lines, trends and tracks

Two landmarks lie on a line, of known direction, and fixed track.
We tend to see things individually, and not see the join between them.
So try instead to get to know
the direction of ‘camp to that moored boat’,
the bearing of ‘Mt Big to Tower Hill’,
the angle between ‘sunset and the headland’
the trend of ‘Razorback Ridge’
the pointing of ‘tree one to tree two’
the line from ‘start to finish’
the track from ‘Lake Low to River Junction’
the tilt of a star-pair
the join of two subsections
50
Orientation
Needle-North, -South, -East & -West. Identify them on the Landscape
One of the major problems of navigating in bush, is keeping log of estimated side-slip, distance-wise, even if you are oriented, direction-wise.
But you can see your sideways movement, see p53a, if you plot known directions onto known points on the skyline, (E.g. Magnetic N,S,E,W require
no numbers; E.g. your initial forward bearing is already there waiting to be used). Or better, use points in the middle foreground landscape —
about as far away as you intend to walk. E.g. local hillocks, towers, houses—things which will be visible from time to time during the whole walk,
the closer the better. Make a note of their directions. Use these spots later to find home or your starting point. When you see them later, in relation
to compass, you can visualise how much distance out there you have moved and in what direction. Page 106c “Tom Thumb Parallax” shows you
how.
Orientation to Your Start-Finish (Rhumb) Line—by sight or compass

Work out the start-to-finish visual bearing to the destination if it is prominent, or to a landmark or point on the skyline beyond the destination.
Whenever you can see that point, you can see your left-to-right sideways positioning, in relation to the fixed track from start to finish.
A simple way to keep track of your sideways movement, at least in open country, is to choose an approximate rhumb line compass course (from
start to finish) and watch it move across the landscape in front of you. E.g. “The follow-me arrow is now pointing more to the left of that gulch”.
Orientation to Your Finish Point, by the Parallax Method

If you are making a one-way journey, use the same “parallax method” as above, to keep a log of the estimated sideslip, but use your destination,
not your start point, for your reference set of bearings. As the walk progresses, you can see yourself closing in on the correct destination.
Exponential Anxiety — the 11:59 syndrome

Your fear of being ‘lost’ rises in inverse proportion to the need for fear, as you approach your goal in unfamiliar terrain.
Will it be there as expected? Why haven’t I got there already? Surely it should have shown by now!
Have I overrun it?? Maybe I just didn’t recognise it? Has it disappeared?
When will this track ever end? Will it end at all?? Will I have to walk all the way back! And so on.
Now, obviously, if you have done your homework well, it will be there, where you thought it was, but maybe not exactly when you thought, so
optimistically, you ‘ought to’ arrive.
Distance guesstimation is our weak point.
Don’t add needless anxiety to your background worries. Wait and see it sort itself out.
Anxiety, fear and panic work against good navigation.
Explore Junctions, While You Can

It only adds a few minutes’ pleasant diversion to travel the branch tracks which you don’t want. (Especially if you can dump a heavy pack)
You may never get to find out about them any other way.
This includes natural junctions—of creeks & ridges—and canal junctions.
When you are exploring, you may never retrace those exact steps, so don’t say “I’ll explore that on the way back”.
The other reason not to say that, is that you will be even more tired later.
When you are uncertain of your position, such exploration ought to be considered “essential”, now — not later when you realise your mistake.
Later you may speculate about what it might lead to, but now you can prove it.
In any case, as a matter of principle, explore far enough so that you don’t have to repeat the foray
E.g. walk left, until you are sure you should not go left.
“Meet back here in 10 minutes” is one way to investigate in all directions at once.
Separated? An Agreed Plan Helps

Example: Where did I park the car? Is it stolen or am I lost? Are the others worried yet? What will they expect me to do?
Example: Our driver has driven off! Why? What will we do? What will he do?
Example: She has not returned on time! She was exploring that way.
Try these out...

“We will, for at least one hour and at most two hours, try to rejoin each other before changing to panic-plan”
“Where we were last together, is the agreed rendezvous now”
“After that we check our intended destination for messages”
“We know to communicate via a 3rd party—a 3rd person, a 3rd place, or a message bank… ”
“..the nearest post office/petrol bowzer/pub/police station/emergency service/Fire Brigade/bank/Red Cross/Salvation Army”
51
Concentrate Outwards
Both introversion and extroversion belong elsewhere.
If you cogitate inwardly, you become blind to the surroundings.
When you chatter away about other things, that’s equally distracting.
Don’t spoil the special time of being outdoors.
While it is there in front of you, look to see what is to be seen — and talk about that — about the history of the place,
or something about it that helps to keep you oriented, to its unique nature.
Learn not to be distracted from the main game.
SPELL Out Numbers — Into Words

The idea is to express, in words, what numbers measure. Humans hate hearing numbers! So translate mathematics into user-friendly words.
e.g. 270° is “West”. That’s much more meaningful.
10 past One — “Oh, it’s midday!” (in your locality, for summer-time) 10.5 km — “almost half-way”
45° South — “sub-tropical, even temperate; halfway to the Pole” 020°T — just to the right of magnetic North.
PAINT your Words — Into Pictures

E.g. To make it even more meaningful, “West” = “Sunset!” (a word-picture)…or even better……………………
“019°” = “Where the Sun is just before it reaches magnetic North”
(This translates numbers into a familiar and visual time of day.) Here!
“Midday” = “High noon!” (How high?) “Half-way” = “Within sight of the Gorge” (Picture it;
“Halfway to the Pole” = “The Sun rises and sets at 45°. The pole star is halfway up” Don’t look at it!)
‘Meaning’ usually means a ‘picture’
Words without meaning are like looking at the brushstrokes of an oil painting through a
magnifying glass, missing the painting!
Look at the Ground

• Soil types; rock types (p. 79a)
• Animal runs; animal footprints
• Fallen track markers; toppled-over cairns
• Human footprints e.g. yours, on the way back
Examine each other’s boot treads, then the boot prints. Talk them through — expressing the recognisable peculiarities.
Practise also on car-tyre treads and prints. (p. 66b)
• If you see a deep trench or a dry mud-hole in Tasmania, that may mean ‘an old track’ i.e. where constant traffic had refused to let the
vegetation grow back.
Look for Foreshortening & Overlap & Parallax

Looking flat on to a shoreline e.g. the other side of the lake, means that any slight inlet or headland is probably a major and very sinuous feature.
Focus sharply on it, looking for clues to depth. Don’t just run on past it. Move sideways e.g. 20m, to show up the depth, by parallax.
Make Common Sense of the Various Direction Clues

Maybe the navigator has his eyes glued to the compass — but you, you can say “Oh we’re just going upwind”.
Perhaps you can see six landmarks — but the sensible way to see them is e.g. “We are heading halfway between Mount William and our shadows”.
Cloud direction is a good clue, but changeable from hour to hour, so there is no loss in saying “Diagonal to the Sun” which is also changeable.
Don’t Degrade the Point of a Clue or System

E.g. The point of a watch, is to tell you where the Sun is. (Don’t look at the Sun!)
The purpose of a mnemonic is to remind you to think, not just to remember or to recite.
The reason for a “midnight-rise-noon-set” system is to work with the full-circle—even when you turn corners or turn around. It images the sky
The benefit of a skyline method, is for when you can’t see the skyline. You will glimpse it 10 times more often, if you are trying to use it.
The aim of a practical method, is to practise it, not just to know about it!
The Aurorae
The Southern and the Northern Lights are especially frequent during high sunspot years (maximum every 11 years.... 2000, 2011, …).
They are most prominent after midnight. They are best seen in ‘high’ latitudes (> 40°). One to three days after a solar magnetic storm is best.
The most common aurora is the most easily overlooked — it is dismissed as a ‘pale glow’ in the North or South, low above the horizon.
But it is not dawn — that is East. It is not from a city — because it changes. Sometimes the sky will be pale green below and rosy above (between
the clouds) and pierced by ‘searchlights’ which move left and right, slowly but visibly. Sometimes ‘curtains’ appear, shimmer and disappear slowly.
All the rays seem to emanate from somewhere near the North or South Magnetic Pole, and it spans 30° each side or more.
It is an interesting direction guide.
You can estimate current magnetic activity by analysing sunspot activity. Never look at the Sun. Instead, throw only an image of the Sun onto
white paper, as follows... Point your binoculars at the Sun, without looking through them! Then, as if you were throwing a minimum shadow of
one binocular barrel onto paper, and as if you will let the paper look at the Sun through the binoculars, from a distance of say half a metre
from the eyepiece, point the big lens at the Sun. Adjust its alignment until the sunbeams go right through it and come out at the other end where
the smaller eyepiece lens is. Steady the binoculars properly, and focus the bright, circular, white, image of the Sun so produced, carefully on the
paper, by using the focusing mechanism and/or altering the paper distance, so as to reveal tiny pairs of black dots, on the paper. The larger the dots
the bigger the storm. Caution! Looking at the Sun will damage your eyes and even looking at the bright image on white paper requires sunglasses.
52
Orientation
Orientation to Your Start Point, by the Parallax Method

Step 1: Start off Aligned: Make a note of Needle-NSEW, bearings of any other recognisable points, initial-bearing landmark, rhumb-line landmark.
Step 2: “The Direction Has Changed Its Mountain!” Instead of saying: “The landmark has changed its direction”, first say: “The direction has
changed its landmark”. I.e. retain in your mind the initial bearing, then, whenever you glimpse that landmark again, you can see how far sideways
you have moved off that track—by locating which landscape point that direction now points to. You estimate the sideways disparity across the land,
because your compass needle now points to a certain distance to one side of the original mark. Your job is to estimate that distance out there.
Step 3: “I’m moving through the landscape, out there”. Imagine a thousand of you dotted all over the landscape, all moving parallel, and at
the same speed, say, at 4 km per hour. All your initial bearings to all those recognisable spots out there, are moving with you, leaving those spots
behind at a rate of 4 km per hour, and now those bearings point to new spots a calculable distance ahead. In reverse, this lets you see how far you
have moved sideways to any direction. Bring those distances back to your feet, and see how far away from “start” you are, and how to get back. (At
15 km range, if you are walking at 4 km per hour, you will leave the landscape each side of you, behind at a rate of 15° per hour, but...) From the
satellite’s point of view, you and your directions are (all) simply moving through the whole landscape at 4 km per hour, no matter at what distance.
An alternative viewpoint is to say that every bit of the landscape always moves "equal, parallel and opposite" to your motion, relatively speaking.
Step 4: Estimate the gap between parallel tracks—See “Advancing Position Lines” p.108a. I.e. from the initial bearing (a track) to the new one.
—by taking a new bearing & using sin(change in direction) x new range. This converts the distances you can see, to a number of kilometres.
The answer, if you want an answer in numbers, is how far you have to travel at right-angles to the original bearing to restore the original bearing.
Nervous Nellie Navigation — Not Necessary

Anticipate a problem. Do something crisp about it. Clear your mind.
Examples: Continually looking at a compass needle — can be short-circuited — by dividing the route into short legs, p. 73b.
Continually gauging the distance covered — can be short-circuited — by making one prediction before you start, and waiting for it, p92b
Getting lost trying to keep track of many bends — is a symptom of not knowing the overall trend in the first place.
Continually guessing where that junction might have led to, is avoided, by exploring it when you meet it.
You never know when you may be totally distracted from your normal pattern of thinking — it is then that you will need a cleared mind.
Plus, if you habitually allow your mind to move on to the next problem, by dealing with the last problem, you avoid ongoing confusion.
Forethought can see the normal problems coming, and pre-empt them.
Look for the Essentials — the ‘Directions’

You can’t afford to miss them!
E.g. ‘Turn left at the Y-junction’ means someone has to be looking for it!
E.g. ‘Head uphill after you cross the creek’ means: notice the creek bed!
E.g. ‘If you hit the main road you have gone too far’ means that you were talking about lunch instead!
Directions are worth writing down as soon as you hear them: “First right, third left, 6 km, look for the track”
Try to give directions more sensibly: e.g. “Up Fish River Valley from the Park Boundary”
Try to use fixed directions e.g. “North West” “from the lake to the Peak” “between sunrise & Mount William”
Not variable or relative ones e.g. ‘turn left’
A Whistle-Code for Contact Calls

Example: The track splits. It’s probably just a detour. “I’ll go left; You go right”. You keep in contact by whistling, cheerfully & tunefully.
Use your favourite tunes agreed between you...
To signal: “It’s me” Try: “I did it My Way”
“You Come to me” “Oh Come All Ye Faithful”
“I’m coming” “I’m Coming; I’m Coming… ..Old Black Joe”
The rhythm is...
Radio Morse: CQ = Please Contact Me = “ Dah-dit-dah-dit Dah-dah-dit-dah ” “C is Seasick, Q Forms a Queue” “Calling Calling, All radiOs”
R = Roger — Received = “ Dit-dah-dit ” “An R dits”
Wait = “ Dit-dah-dit-dit-dit ” “aWait f’r a bit”
S&R: Come Back i.e. Recall of Party = Dah — Dah — Dah — Dah “Ree-Call-All-Souls”
Other: International Distress = XXX = Dah-dit-dit-Dah — 3 times. “all X’s hurt, all ex’s hurt, all ex’s hurt”
SOS — real emergency — di-di-di-dah-dah-dah-di-di-dit — repeated “A bit of Save Our Souls isn’t it?”
See appendix for the full code.
City Glow
From out in the bush you can usually see the direction of about three cities or towns, by their night-time glow.
This works best in hazy atmosphere — virtually any night! — and especially on overcast nights and when no skylight will show.
You need to check a map before you go — for the nearby townships — then check the theory against the facts,
then you can find it useful when you need it.
E.g. you can hold a straight line at night — relative to any recognised glow.
Don’t confuse it with aurorae, sunset afterglow, predawn Sunglow, Milky Way, asteroid belt (Zodiacal lights), headlights, local floodlights, bushfires.
Just remember to get up and look for what you normally don’t notice.
53
Come to your Senses

..And it will be surprising what comes to your senses.
Smell the air — for seaweed, marshes, farms, abattoirs, smoke, smog, civilisation, scent trails, fresh wombat dung, humid air, perfume.
Listen occasionally. To help you hear, cup your hands to your ears. Selectively tune out the high-frequency noises to listen to the low frequencies;
and vice versa. Listen through the white noise, and through the silence of night.
For occasional vehicles, trailers bumping, boats thumping, jets overflying, thunder rumbling
For constant traffic rumble of a highway
For ocean rollers thumping on shore. You can also often hear the difference between high and low tide, from the wave noise.
For running water, frogs
For wind noise
For generators, pumps, machinery
For farm stock
For the crunch under your feet, changing
Look carefully. “It is amazing what you can see, if you look”. It is a most important habit for the navigator and is very rewarding.
E.g. you read what others have scratched over the sign that says “5 hours” and discover “8 hours”; or find old track markers almost overgrown.
TRANSFER Your Pictures into Reality

E.g. “Sunset” = “THERE!” even after sunset!
Find the red glow afterwards, further to the left e.g. at 8:30 p.m.
“High noon” = Look at how short your shadow is.
“Within sight” = “Well, can you see it yet?”
“The Pole Star is halfway up” = Do you see how the Cross doesn’t set?
Living in the realm of theory is like an absent-minded professor — who can’t find his way home, or remember which way he was travelling.
Put That Experience in Your Memory Bank

E.g. “The Pot will go down behind “Pot Hill”.”
“I didn’t realise how high the Sun can get at 45° latitude!”
“You can see the Gorge from the halfway mark, provided you climb the ridge”
“The Southern Cross keeps correct time at the end of March” — the beginning of Winter. See opposite for the next step…
Look, with Vengeance Aforethought

A bird observer doesn’t just stumble into birds, he runs them down.
A native tracker doesn’t simply ‘notice’ the clues, he searches for them.
Your task is to track down navigational clues, then bail them up.
Your enemy is: losing conscious grip on your task i.e. when the trudge gets the better of your brain.
For Practice: Express the unexpressed. It’s no good to be only half aware of what is going on.
Interpret the meaning of each clue. It is no good staring at a compass needle, unless you realise where you are going!
Look outwards, to see what you can see.
Change ‘a cursory look’ into a specific search.
But, what exactly should you be looking for (once you have exhausted your repertoire of clues)??
Answer: Find out! I.e. Teach yourself. Don’t wait until someone tells you.
Preparation is the Key to Difficult Navigation

Marine navigators in rock-strewn waters, or battling seasickness in heavy weather, or short-handed, know that the only way to cope with seat-of-
the-pants reflex navigation is to have already prepared clear instructions about danger-bearings; back-bearings; lines of sight and distances to
run, so that they don’t need to leave the helm.
It is the total picture, beforehand, which orients you, later.
They need to plan the entire passage (so as to make landfall just before dawn, for instance) according to the tidal streams and ocean currents that
they expect to meet (since it is the current much more than the winds which affect boat-speed-made-good, even for yachts). Their key desire is to
sail with the current, and preferably with the wind and the weather systems, avoiding the storm-season. See “Aiming-off” p96a.
An hour seem such a long time to spare when you are busy at home; But when you get out on foot, relaxed, with hours to walk but no opportunity
for desk-work, it seems that every hour not spent in preparing what could have been prepared, was a wasted hour, as far as being useful now.
Helpful Symbols for Standardising your Chart–Work

“The Deduced Reckoning Position” Lines of possible position should have the arrow on the end
from course and distance information e.g. pointing to a landmark
(“Ded. reckoning, or D.R.) A central arrow means a course. i.e. travelling, not pointing.
One Arrow signifies the course steered through the water
“The Estimated Position” A Transferred Position Line, i.e. advanced across the chart
taking into account currents and leeway
to distinguish it from simple D.R. Two arrows is the course made good over the ground
A known position, or a Fix (A doubly transferred position line, for a three-way fix)
Three arrows is for the stream or the current.
54
Orientation
Look Backwards; Think Forwards.

You sometimes, with only a mud-map to go by, have to follow a straight line by compass or landscape, to a low-lying, invisible feature, e.g. a tarn,
hoping to come across it without bypassing it. Well, success will often make you feel that that is the end of the matter; “Mission Accomplished”.
Until next time!
But look back, if you can, to a recognisable starting point, then take a compass or landscape bearing, backwards to the start.
You then convert that to a forward bearing for next time. Place 2 pebbles on the ground in line, turn around and line up the landscape mark needed
The result is a “track”, not just a direction — see p.71b — a ‘can’t–go-wrong’ guide.
If your beginning point is not visible, turn around and take a forward bearing on the skyline feature you think you should have headed towards
(and probably did). E.g. “One span to the left of Mt. Visible”. The result is only a direction from the start—a guessed-at track—but nearly right.
On p.42d I said only to use bearings from high points to high points, for a general navigational framework.
But add to that, a mental or notebook entry of the bearing from a low destination point back to visible possible starting points, when you arrive
successfully, or of the forward course you used — preferably by the landscape itself. They are “How-to-get-to (a low point)” tracks.
(Interpret) Extend Visible Reality into the Invisible Picture

E.g. “It’s boiling hot in Baghdad”
“The Sun is over Townsville”
“From the ridge the water flows down to the Gorge and eventually out to the Murphy Mouth”
“The Earth must be rotating Easterly, from West”
Don’t be satisfied with half a meaning.

Until the interpretation leaves you oriented, and able to remember something, you haven’t gone far enough.
See p. 71b(1) for the last word on interpreting 270T.
To Get There Quicker, Go Slower

We all prefer to run ahead of necessary preparations, i.e. we prefer instant gratification to wisdom.
We also prefer to get something unpleasant, finished, and quickly, once we have started, e.g. “can we make this bad “shortcut” work out?”.
Don’t rush! “More haste, less speed” = More care, less fluster.
Slight panic makes you hurry. Hurry is a recipe for carelessness in navigation, and for blunders.
E.g. over-running the junction
E.g. missing most of the clues
E.g. taking a foolish “shortcut”
Common causes for hurry, other than anxiety, include…
“Let’s beat the rain/the dark”
“Let’s get back on time/for lunch”
“Let’s sort this out quick-smart as to where we are”
“Let’s explore one more kilometre before we admit we’re lost and turn back”
Search and Rescue Signals — Noises Repeated Regularly

One = We are searching for someone. (Is it you?)
Two = I acknowledge your signal. “Okay; Roger received-and-understood; I heard that”
Three = “Search for me. I need help.”
Four = Recall of Search Party
E.g. rifle shots; loud whistles or horns; two boards clapped together
End of Section 2.
55
Section 3: Interesting Stuff—Bush Navigation
Nature’s Norths
Learn these when the sky — the astronomy Norths — is clear, so that you can lean on them later. (Assume S. Hemisphere 1,2,3,5,6)
1. “Dew” North — Dew, moist soil & roads stay wetter in the shade. Frost will persist in the shadiest places, e.g dew South-West.
2. Snow South — Snow remains higher on the shady side of an obstacle.
3. Mud North — Half-dried mud-crusts betray the hot, wind-exposed cracked edges, with the damp mud in the shadowed places.
4. Rock Noon — a whole mountain, or a crack in a rock, can show up the sunny and the shady sides. (See next box)
— Also, in the evening, after a sunny day, you can feel the colder side of a boulder or gully.
5. Gully South — The shady bank of a creek is steeper than the sunny side, at least on average, all around the world.
The side facing the noon Sun is flatter. The side facing the pole is steeper. This results in roads, railways and buildings etc,
being more common on one side—the flatter side—of an East-West river than the other. In other words, creeks tend to cling to
the Pole-facing slope of a ridge, as if they migrate equator-wards. Perhaps this is a remnant of a past geological age when the
erosion was more marked e.g. hot days eroding the sunny side flat, with ultra-violet light; and constant moisture and icy nights
eroding the shady base steeply; therefore suitable mnemonics are: “lying down flat sunbaking” or “steeped in ice” (i.e.
South-facing in the S.H.). Lakeshores have steeper or flatter banks according to the same principle.
6. Animal Orientation — “Barnacle South” (SH), on dark intertidal rocks — it shows up the wetter i.e. shadier side.
‘Anthills’ (Termite mounds) sometimes orient to avoid the heat, so the length of them is North-South.
Insects prefer the warmer side of a trunk in winter e.g. spider cocoons, ant colonies, boring grubs.
Some spiders spin their orbs to face noon, like satellite dishes but more vertical; others face sunrise.
Migratory flight-paths may be North/South &/or upslope/downslope. Animals flee in predictable directions,
e.g. inland, uphill, North, upwind e.g. when faced with a fire. They often lie with their backs to a cold wind.
Siesta South: Farm animals find the midday shade in a paddock. You can smell the urea. You can see the dung piles.
(7—10 will be expanded soon)
7. Wind West — part of the W in the ‘WEATHER’ mnemonic. It is designed for windswept places when the wind is not blowing.
The prevailing wind leaves its signature in the visible growth history of the plants, and in the landscape.
8. Wave West — if, in the Roaring Forties, you can see the accumulated effect of ocean rollers.
9. Botanical Asymmetry — where you sort out the competing effects of wind, light, salt, exposure.
10. Bush Noon — you never need to be disoriented in the thick bush.
This works best in temperate latitudes — where the sunlight is directional.
Of course, anything to do with nature, refers to averaging continual observations. The most variable signs are the least reliable.
Less Natural Norths
11. Magnetic North; And don’t forget magnetic dip — the downward tilt of the magnetic lines of force, varying with latitude.
12. Solar Panel Noon — Observe how we set up solar panels, and verandahs. Nature gives us the Sun, and we all follow it.
13. Satellite Dish Noon — Geo-stationary satellites are, by nature, Equatorial.
14. Microwave dish to microwave dish — Peaks ‘naturally’ point to each other! See “landmark to landmark network navigation”p42d
Instead of feeling bored, or getting lost, or being ‘bushed in’, you can have the valuable bonus of feeling at home in the bush, having a
hobby, and being oriented to the slope, Sun, vegetation, ecology, weather patterns…
Bush skills are a good investment for future bushwalks. So go for some experimental walks in the bush on overcast, foggy, rainy days.
Don’t Forget to Remember, Your Way!

Long-term memory is your best friend — so feed it. You aim for recognition, years later, through familiarity now
e.g. Have you walked the track at night? both ways? twice?
e.g. Collect as much first-and-second-hand information as you can.
e.g. Reread your track-notes occasionally before you lose the memories.
Photographs, Maps, Track guides, Track notes, etc are all permanent on paper! but you aim for permanent memories, not records.
I.e. Mental photographs, Memorised records, What the locals call “knowledge”.
Use memory methods so you don’t waste your efforts. Use the paper records to help you consolidate your local knowledge.
To that end: Make drawings. Make your own map. Keep a diary. Make your own track directions, names & comments. Tell somebody.
Use biro not pencil. Make a neat copy of your notes and file it.
“Look at…” means “Notice…” means “Take note” means “Take notes” i.e. Take a notebook.
Unlock Memorable Chapters in Your Life

Memory is fundamental in navigation (alongside direction, distance, position sense, visualisation and alertness).
Medium-term memory is how you find your way back, but aim also for long-term recall.
We remember best in definite ‘bites’ — location by location.
“Right, team; We have to remember this. Help me. We need to discuss it, describe it, mentally photograph it, draw its skyline,
make it a memorable stop, time it, note it, put it in its logical place in sequence.”
Go for the Jugular. Zero In on What Matters

Concentrate on the crucial and take-away information
— the crucial “directions” E.g. the sequence of junctions
— the details that have direct orientation value E.g. the visual angle between North and Start-off
— which give relevant memories E.g. the hill-top view laying it all out for you
— track notes e.g. the bearing to follow, the “directions”
— the overall trend — top-down, top priority pieces of information
— the perspectives that fit everything into the context. E.g. the surrounding trends in relation to Sun-North.
E.g. A mental map is better than a ‘position’ on paper. A map diverts you from the real picture.
Recognition outvotes names; Zero in on the most peculiar visual peculiarity
names outvote position fixes.
The overall details — What you need to know in three years’ time, when you try again,
are the time, distance and difficulty.
The Sequence (of subsections & features) ought to be remembered... ..rather than e.g. ‘bearing 035° magnetic’
Recognising Sections of the walk... ..is more relevant than having a series of map positions.
Surrounding landmarks last longer... ..than “turn left at the red tin-can-marker”.
Appreciate the plants and animals; the soils, geology and climate. Instead of “Bin there; Dun that” you aim for familiarity.
56
Lie of the Land; Tracks
The “Lie” of The Land

Think of this as the up-down part of geography. Think “Lie-Down” (versus “Lay-Out” i.e. a map layout).
Think of — Drainage, Watersheds, Catchments & Divides—the accumulated results of Ages of uplift, drainage, erosion & deposition.
— Geomorphology — it determines the shapes
— Ecology — it responds to the shapes, the slopes & drainage
— and how they all fit into each other.
E.g. “This north-facing slope supports warmth-loving vegetation”
“These foothills of the main range drain Westerly”
“The basalt uplift has generated these clayey mud flats”
“This is an isolated hillock within the main valley”
Think of the ‘lie’ as ‘down toward what general direction?’
and ‘rise’ as ‘up toward what encircling range?’
I.e. Put a general trend on major rivers and ridges. Imagine the coast, where all the (now nearly parallel) ridges & rivers run offshore.
Lift your eyes to the “Big Picture” scenery. Interpret it; Memorise its detail; Put it to good use.
Listen to the Pioneers

I.e. listen to the place-names
“The Great Dividing Range” I suppose this one is obvious

“Blackbird Flat” This means there is a river nearby
“Stockyard Creek” A flat clearing is promised
“North Ridge” This is related to the North Arm of the River
“Huon Valley” It houses the longest tributary
“Boggy Plains” Down on the flats!
“Eliza Plateau” Up on the boggy flats!
“Bright Pass” Means a change of catchment
“East Pillinger” It ought to be East of West Pillinger
“Pelion Gap” A saddle — between catchments
“StrathGordon” It says “the Valley of” Gordon River
“-Dale” Also says “Valley”
“Mole Creek” Burrows underground
Lie Has To Do with Water Drainage

Look for dips in the skyline.
If you find a ‘soak’—where water soaks out—look for a ridge-bound marsh uphill—where water soaks in.
Carry an artificial horizon, to reveal slight down-slopes, e.g. a flat plastic jar lid suspended on three strings, adjusted to horizontal.
Or lay your clear plastic drink bottle on the ground. Maybe even pour out some water to see where it runs off to. Listen for frogs!
Stick to the Track

▪ If you are waiting for the rescue party
▪ When a “shortcut” looks inviting
▪ If you have told someone exactly where you are going
▪ When you are nursing an ailment
▪ When sacred or heritage sites are at risk from tramping and erosion, rubbish, pollution, desecration, etc.
▪ When you are one more tourist in the constantly invading hordes, and “Please keep to the track” is aimed squarely at you
▪ When you are in a greedy hurry for more of the same elsewhere
▪ If you can’t find your way out of a wet paper bag.
Reasons for Leaving the Beaten Track

▪ Tracks often fail to meet the needs of birdwatchers, botanists, photographers and bushwalkers. Remember why you are there.
Talk to the ranger about whether the “No Camping” sign refers to drunken car-based parties, or to scientists and bushwalkers
too.
▪ You sometimes want to search out the worst routes! Easy slopes have one sort of ecosystem/niche/microclimate;
Difficult terrain has the more unusual biology.
▪ Interaction with a bare-dirt strip is not exciting. Fan out, Tread Carefully, Go Slowly, Keep your party size small
— then you can appreciate the flowers, lizards, lichens. Each step is watchful — which forces you to see these things.
▪ A fast-track through a nice place robs you of appreciation-time.
The experience passes just as quickly as the tramping to get there!
▪ Designed tracks will often steer you clear of exactly what makes a place interesting to see — cliff-edge views, water-edges,
botanical hot-spots, refuge habitats,…
Isolated places often don’t have tracks, and you will need to choose, navigate and negotiate your own route.
Cross-Country Routes
All routes are ‘cross-country’ but some don’t have tracks to follow.
There are two sorts of tracks — Un-natural ones—artificial paths (man & animal made) which form a simple network,
and often stick close to the contours — gently upslope or gently downslope
And — natural routes (following the geomorphology) which cross the contours at right angles and
which form a double network.
I.e. Natural routes are determined by an interleaved network of ridges and rivers...
You are well advised to stick to these routes if only for ease of route finding.
Then there are three sorts of off-track navigation to consider…
— departing from the artificial paths
— departing from the natural routes (to follow a trend to a destination) and
— trying to keep a dead straight line cross-country...
57
Rock Noon
Rocks blister and crack in the heat. In addition, ultra-violet light hastens all other erosion processes. The top sunny sides erode easily.
Conversely, the shady side is subjected to lichen growth, icing, and moisture, especially at the base.
Differential erosion results in tilted rocks, in asymmetry of cracks and gullies, and in various light and vegetation effects.
sloped angular On the hot, rounded side, look for fissures, cracks, furrows, blisters and
pock-marking — as signs of heat stress resulting in more rapid erosion.
rounded steep e.g. Blistered flakes leave a patch of bare rock with no lichens on it.
sharp Such patches are hard to find on the shady side.
eroded flat Algae grow in the protected fissure under an almost blistered-off flake of rock.
The green stain on the underside of the flake is greener on the sunny side!
Caution: This is unreliable unless the rocks show a clearly interpretable pattern.
Of course, use bedrock or larger boulders, since they are going to be in their original position — not shifted about regularly.
Examine the cracks — The shady side is sharp and steep; the sunny side is rounded.
Just like “Gully South” but in miniature.
Examine the steps — sharp step-downs indicate a ‘dip’ in the layers down to noon.
— rounded step-downs show a geological dip away from noon.
Examine the colours — looking down-Sun you see pale, bare rock
(where it has recently blistered).
bare rock lichen clad — looking up-Sun you see multicoloured lichens
on a darker background.
— diffuse lichen grows better on crumbly rock.
grass The sunny side will grow such lichens.
— thicker-bodied, textured lichens grow older
Feel the topside vs the backside for a difference in temperature. on the shady, non-eroding side.
Look for green grass and moss in the shade of the rock. These are often far more reliable than the rocks themselves.
Beware that a fire-storm will kill lichens, moss & grass, and will blister the rock, crumble it and split chunks off.
i.e. some of the effects you will notice may be due to a recent fire, e.g. a firestorm from a particular direction.
Rock noon only needs to be reliable enough to tell you which end of your improvised compass points North.
Don’t Try to Memorise Details without an Overall Framework

It’s a recipe for confusion — to try to keep track of every bend, every hillock, every weather change, every creek bed, every channel.
There are too many of them. They all look alike in close-up.
So start with the map: Learn the major rivers and the divides first.
Go for the big names, the overall trends.
Fit the details in by retrospect, after the big picture shows itself.
Don’t Try to Remember Anything You Haven’t Memorised

i.e. put the effort in first—don’t fool yourself. There is a process to memorising something, e.g. establishing a framework first.
And...
Don’t try to remember anything you haven’t made memorable. Don’t battle uphill—make it enjoyable or emotional and it will be easier.
And...Don’t write down anything you haven’t memorised. First make it memorable, then write it down.
Notes are not an excuse to forget to memorise something!
Like most short-cuts, they are an enticing alternative, but they, like shortcuts, short-change you as well. Memories are precious.
And...Don’t try to remember anything you haven’t expressed or named. It is a fact of life that we refer to memories by name, in words
And...Don’t expect to remember details you haven’t understood, or organised, structured, or reduced to a bare minimum—a prompt.
It always helps to interact with, analyse and process anything you want to remember. E.g. investigate it with questions on your
mind; criticise it; teach it. It also helps to visually set it out in your notebook with colour, shape, balance and symmetry.
If you relax, because there is a track, or because you have a map, or you have ‘directions’ for the trip,
and maybe someone else is with you who is familiar with the area, then you cease to build up your own memories and familiarity.
Again you have short-changed yourself.
Write down What You Memorise!

Does that sound like over-kill? It isn’t. It’s just good sense.
▪ Memory isn’t perfect. So help it along. Do so before you forget.
▪ You will want to write down your track notes, for years later, anyway.
▪ Writing helps your memory — it “involves” you more — it stimulates your expression, revises your experience, adds time spent
thinking about it, involves your physical participation and your verbal and visual faculties.
▪ You never know when slight stress (I’m lost!) will distract and divert you for an unknown time.
▪ To write it all down clears your mind of the previous task — you can concentrate elsewhere.
▪ On the way back you can easily glance through your notes and then know what to look for.
E.g. DRAW a picture of where the Sun sets on the skyline. LABEL it e.g. “Sunset @239°T @5:29 p.m.”
Or was it 229°C @5:39? That’s why you write it down.
Set aside a notebook for a “TRACK DIARY” (SH)
58
Major Rivers & Ridges, vs Minor Ones

Obviously, all water, falling on one side of a catchment-dividing ridge, runs to the sea, via a single river mouth; Conversely, river-
mouth headlands are dividing ridges. Followed inland, all headlands must reach right around the river catchment—they are the two
ends of the dividing ridge. The rivers and ridges form a sort of geometrically inverse pair of systems.
The catchments with the shortest creeks occur between named River mouths, and are called ‘coastal’.
I.e. All other coastal land rises to some different, more local, dividing ridge; you may have to undulate up and down along it on the way
Not all creek-lines from a ‘major ridge’ (a catchment divide), descend all the way i.e. although the water may go all the way to the sea,
the creek carrying it may not: the creek might only be a tributary, ending where it empties into a river. Similarly not all ridges running
off the catchment-dividing-ridge reach all the way to the coast—some are “dead ends”—they end in a “shoulder”, cut off between two
creeks joining, or at a river bend. All valley-dividers are ridges, but not all ridges divide whole valleys, or even minor catchments. Those
that come to a dead-end before they reach the coast are not dividing ridges, and may be called “minor”.
All creek lines do not necessarily start on a dividing ridge: The creek itself might attach to a minor ridge, within the valley area.
Those ridges and rivers that transect or divide whole catchments are called ‘major’. The named river ought to be a major line.
Unless you look for them on the map you may not be able to notice anything special about them.
Major ridges & rivers do however tend to stay higher and lower for longer, and often provide you with the gentlest climbs,
And they attract roadways.
Main ridges also tend to run parallel to the main valleys and vice versa.
Sort it out on the Map

▪ You cannot see catchment layouts from ground level!
▪ If you walk around a slope, half-way up, e.g. following an aqueduct, then you cannot easily know when you cross a major
catchment. There are many minor ridges to cross and any one of them could turn into a saddle which divides valleys.
▪ Around peaks and plateaus, valleys spawn in all directions — it is hard to identify the right ones. High marshes may drain in
several directions.
▪ Near a major river junction, travelling along the dividing shoulder can give a confusing alternation of views,
between one valley and then the other.
Catchment Divisions Snake from Coast to Coast

Ridgetops fit parallel to and between the two highest contours marked on your map, and can be very sinuous.
They mark neighbouring catchment edges; & so theoretically you can cross the continent on highest ground without crossing any creek.
Major catchment divisions must reach the coast at a point each side of the river mouth (except, of course, for inland salt lakes).
A Catchment-Division* Separates Whole Valleys

*called a “watershed” in Australia, unlike in USA
Hint 1: Mark catchment divisions on your map with a pink highlighter — pink is opposite to blue-green for creeklines.
Hint 2: Now forget about those new pink delineations on your map. They refer only to the layout, as seen from above.
You need to imagine real, high ridges inbetween deep valleys.
Hint 3: Now forget about those razor-back ridges in your mind. You need to know that they could be remarkably flat paddocks.
— not very eye-catching — look for them carefully.
A catchment division will follow the highest flattest ground and consequently have a few marshes and puddles on it
A metre-high bump in a paddock might separate two raindrops into two different 1000 km journeys in each direction.
So you can’t simply “walk downstream” — not until you know where you might end up!
Tracks are like Naughty Children

If you take your eye off them for a moment, they will split shortcut
as soon as they are out of your sight.
bushes
A shortcut is often the result of a junction.
This is because tracks often bend at a T or Y junction. Fork in the track
Shortcutting is constantly encouraged at any bend, — missed!
So there will likely be an inviting well-worn shortcut there.
You can always split the party to explore both routes.
The same is true for creeks & ridges

Unless you stick to the bank of the riverbed, you cannot count on seeing the tributaries, and if you do stick to one side you miss the
other side tributaries. Also, where a stream is “braided” into parallel interconnecting branchlets, and you follow one gutter, you are
easily blinded to its tributaries joining in from side-valleys.
If you don’t stick to the main gutter or crown, you miss seeing junctions on the far side of the river or ridge and can follow a wrong
one. But side ridges are harder to see from the crest, just like tributaries are hard to see from the central channel!
Explore Branches While You Can

As a matter of principle, it is easier to explore something if you are there, than if you are not! no ?? yes
Be quick to remember that before you walk on past.
Remember… that you are there to enjoy the country. So put down your pack & amble off for a minute or delegate someone to explore.
You may surprise yourself by discovering a helpful signpost at a second nearby junction or a new access point and car park,
Or even, that it is the track you should have taken just now. Bends Breed Shortcuts: A shortcut may look like ‘the junction we don’t
take’ which means that you may mistake the real junction anyway.
Avoid endlessly having to wonder later… “But if that other junction turned east, then it might have been the link…” etc.
When you are there, find out for certain.
Convergent Tracks Lead to Civilisation

For example, you get lost, stumble across the track and meet a T-junction — which branch do you take? less wider
You can examine any Y-junction for signs of splitting into two or more minor branches. worn better
The most acute angle of a Y-junction usually points to a focus point (e.g. downstream; car-park)
rounder
Down-Track vs Up-Track
This one is not obvious, and so it may trap you.
You seem to be following a well-worn path down, until you turn around and try to find your way back up.
It is then that you discover a multitude of other tracks joining into yours at an acute angle!
You see, people walking downhill, downstream, get channeled into the paths of least resistance, converging just like the creek lines do.
But people walking upstream or uphill are faced with choices and tend to spread out into all possibilities, until they find the right one.
The best path is worn in from down traffic, but that may not make it obvious to up-traffic.
Allow extra time when going up-stream, or climbing a steep peak, for eliminating false leads.
59
Wind West
Assume you are in a wind-swept place in medium to high latitudes e.g. southern Australia, where strong Westerlies prevail.
‘W’ in the ‘WEATHER’ mnemonic (p.114b) then reminds you

of the prevailing Westerlies in the high 30s, the Roaring 40s, the Furious 50s and the Screaming 60s.
‘W’ for ‘Weather systems come from the West’ in temperate latitudes.
and ‘Wind in your face’ locates these weather systems for you.
and ‘Upper-level Westerly Wave’ steers these systems to the E/NE/SE in a waving pattern.
A common pattern is to have a warm nor-westerly storm preceding a strong cold sou-westerly change (SH).
and ‘Wind-West’ reminds you to look for the lower-level prevailing Westerlies, and their effect on the bushes, landscape, etc.
You don’t have to be in the Roaring 40s to find a windy place and look for tell-tale signs of the prevailing wind.
— Onshore winds near the coast, being laden with salt, leave unmistakable clues imprinted in the bushes, and on the seashore.
— High plateaus and wide open clearings are usually windswept.
— Gullies produce up-gully breezes and down-gully gusts.
— Hilltops are windy. To get an undistorted picture of the prevailing wind direction, go to a hillock.
To navigate by the local prevailing wind may be more preferable locally, than to navigate by bush north.
The prevailing wind is not as universal or reliable as bush-noon, but it can be easily visible, audible and tangible.
In general, the tallest trees are the best tell-tales.

Look for wind-induced asymmetry, especially at the tree tips and the oldest tree trunks, when you are in a wind-sheltered zone.
Think Wind
Distinguish in your mind the various causes of wind damage…
▪ Storm Winds — brief but furious, as a weather change hits. They may uproot trees. They are often hot and dry.
▪ Fire-storms—from the hot dry inland, or sweeping uphill. They can leave a trail of dead black fallen trees lying parallel.
▪ Cold Change Winds — Cold, Gusty, Strong, Persistent for a day or three; Usually south to southwesterly (S. H.).
▪ Persistent Prevailing Winds — Westerlies ‘Waving’ between northwest and southwest in between ‘changes’.
▪ Salt Laden Onshore Winds — They ‘cut’ the exposed vegetation back to size.
▪ Cold Blast Winds — These kill off the less hardy competitors.
▪ Hot Dry Blast Winds — These leave only the waxy/succulent/woody species.
▪ Sand Blast Winds — They remove vegetation, carve out sandstone sculptures, and remove lichens from the exposed side.
▪ Windy Season Winds — Ask the locals what to expect at each time of year.
Anything is Memorable
Make it personal “Where I found the pocket knife!”
anticipated Study the map beforehand to imagine the sections
active Do something; involve yourself
important Draw attention to why it should be remembered
associated It looks like a … ; sounds like my middle name ; uphill from the mine
creative Make up an enjoyable name
emotional Expect to notice, then remember, decision points & anxious times
visual e.g. symmetric, colourful, shapely
geometric This triple-trunk matches the triangle of paths here
noticed Draw attention to it “See how we have just entered tea-tree ?”
peculiar That tree looks like a traffic policeman!
prominent The tallest tree here, see?
liked What aspect about it interests you?
named e.g. “Midnight Junction”
fitting “Power Point” where the electricity line crosses the lake
funny ‘Willy Willy Waterhole’ where we saw the dust-devil
human “Betty’s”
Make Individual Memories Memorable!

The problem is an excess of information, with a shortage of enough meaning to go with each detail.
e.g. hillocks and creeks have endless detail — you can’t hope to remember all.
Visual memory is not the problem — pictures are perfect — but recall is difficult.
(And sorting pictures out later, into the original sequence is also hard.)
You need to add memory handles, worthwhile meanings, specific focus, etc.
Hint: Do something memorable there. Dance, Sing, Jump, Shout, Throw stones into the puddle.
Make a cairn. Sketch a tree. Have a meal — Chewing is said to aid memory!
Leave something of ‘yours’ there — something peculiar — e.g. lean a stick against a tree trunk; scratch the ground.
Insert it into a larger scheme — time & sequence; lie & surroundings; an acrostic poem.
Make a game of it. E.g. “Who can say what’s peculiar about this creek?”
Make it ‘yours’ e.g. Discover it. Climb it. Explore it. Study it. Explain it. Draw it. Map it. Show it to someone. Name it.
Spend time there, looking.
Remembering Trees
Simply spend time looking. It may only be 10 seconds, but that is 2000% more than the usual ½ second!
Look at the branches, the shape, the trunk, until something strikes you
E.g. “Oh, these two branches grow across each other”
E.g. “The bark is right-hand spiral”
E.g. “See that ant-highway going up into the hollow—it might have water in it”
Walk around it, to see the shape from side-on. Characterise it & its context
E.g. “entirely shorter than that old stag’s first branch”
E.g. “three tufts on top”
You get better with practice.
60
Ridges
Ridges have gentler slopes up/down ridge i.e. provided you stick to the crown.
The slope ‘makes’ rapidly on each flank. It is only the ridge-line which is flatter.
Ridges have nicer views. But these views are easily halved unless you walk right on the crest.
have nice breezes, provided you are right on the crest.
have more open and stunted vegetation plus shallower soil and more exposure to the elements.
are wider and flatter than a creek bed, and their rocks are firmer underfoot and dry.
Their run-off slides off downhill to each side.
These advantages are also lost as soon as you slip off the ‘crown’ of the ridge.
Off the ridge is steep, vegetated, narrow, loose, windless, hot, humid.
The steepest but best way up a ridge is... up the ridge because (1) it gets even steeper off the ridge
& (2) contouring is ‘easier’ but it doesn’t get you ‘up’ but only into more difficult terrain.
Ridge Names
▪ Mountain to Mountain e.g. Mount Ossa to Legges Tor (trace it on the map)
▪ Mountain to Mouth e.g. Mount Ossa to Arthur River South Head
▪ Mountain to Headland e.g. Mount Wellington to Wrest Point
▪ Catchment Division e.g. The Arthur-Pieman Divide
▪ Tributary Divide e.g. The South Arm Ridge
A ridge may not be “major” but if it divides your walk, you do want to know about it—so make up an appropriate name for it.
Mnemonic: “Ridges Rise”

Whenever you cross a ridge don’t forget to ask: “Which way does this ridge rise, in trend terms — to the left or to the right?”
It is like asking which way water is flowing, but the truth can be obscured by local undulations in the ridge.
Ask: “Does this ridge, if followed to the (right), end further inland i.e. upstream, or further downstream?”
It must correlate with the overall corresponding drainage.
Uphill — Which Hill? Upstream — to which Divide?

To Which ridge? Which plateau? Which highest ground? Just as surely as rivers reach the sea, so ridges reach a peak.
Which peak? is the question which orients you.
Until you know which catchments you are climbing out of and in to, you don’t have a grasp of where you are.
Sympathy and Understanding with Track Markers

Take time out to explore (e.g. leap-frog fashion) from one track marker to another.
Always guess where a track ought to go.
When you come across a marked trail—maybe poorly marked and/or difficult—the question arises: ‘Should we follow it or not?’
Intelligent guesswork helps here
▪ Where would I put a track?
▪ What is the direction trend of the new trail?
▪ What is the slope trend of the trail?
▪ What tracks & routes might you expect?
▪ What alternative access routes exist?
E.g. uphill, heading West, may well mean: ‘to Lake West from the lower car park’
If you leave the track behind, because it is unclear, you may never get back onto it.
But if you work with what you have (a bad track) it may be quicker in the long run.
Old Track Markers

Practise noticing them, before you need to.
▪ Old axe-cut blazes on tree-trunks — from the original surveyors
▪ Very old paint flecks in the blazes — search for them
▪ Blazes and markers on the far side of the tree — look back
▪ Old nail holes or nails or rust stains — the marker has fallen off
▪ Fallen markers — on the ground
▪ Fallen rock cairns — the rocks blend in, but show their pale underbellies
▪ Arrows on wet rock-faces — the wetness obscures the scratches
▪ Sawn branches, trunks and logs from when the path was cleared
▪ A clear line-of-sight through the trees
▪ Thick young growth — an unused road
▪ Smooth or shiny rocks with less lichen — worn smooth by feet
▪ Fallen trunks with a gutter worn across them — betraying foot traffic
▪ Broken branches of varying ages; bent stems e.g. bracken fronds
▪ Stumps cut off at ground- or eye-level.
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Be Wind-Wise: Listen
Listen directionally — the wind-noise will be mainly from up-wind.
When you think you are navigating by the beach noise, you are probably navigating by the onshore wind, and should keep track of it.
Listen through the noise — You may distinguish three frequency bands, as the rumbles emerge from the hiss.
Listen through the silence — of night, in the stillness. Up-wind sounds carry a long way.
Listen to the sounds (birds, traffic, house, factories) — They carry clearly from up-wind only, especially the high frequencies (whistles)
Listen to the beach noise — The ‘hiss’ will be from a direction more up-wind, and closer, location-wise.
The ‘rumble’ will be from further away from you and further away from up-wind direction.
Listen to the thunder — Air temperature zones create directional effects, so that approaching storms, which are preceded by
low level cold bursts of air, have their noises refracted up and out of earshot.
(See “Tips for Calm Weather” p.23d & “Topographic Level Winds” p.25d)
Obvious Tell-Tales: Landscape

▪ E/W coastal asymmetry e.g. Temperate West Coast ocean beaches might have a kilometre of surf, but East Coast beaches are
narrower and calmer. Trade-wind East coasts are surf beaches, but headlands with West facing shorelines will be sheltered.
▪ Bays end in exposed points. Look for tall, steep, bare sandhills on the weather side. If there are tall sandhills at a narrow
point, you will see sandhills from both sides, so ask ‘am I seeing the green (sheltered) backside?’
▪ Sand dunes. There are variations, but bare dunes tend to be cross-wind and vegetated dunes tend to trend down-wind.
▪ Puddles, Lagoons, Lakes, Creeks, Beaches — Look for wind & wave action effects e.g. dark mudflats up-wind & white sand-
steeps downwind. Shallow puddles often occur on the downwind end of a flat drainage.
▪ Sand ripples show steep backsides downwind, as the wind driven grains topple over the eroding crest.
▪ Clumps in sand-stretches show a long tail downwind. E.g. behind dead seaweed deposited on the dry beach.
▪ Grass-clump erosion is the reverse of sand ripples — look for steep bare dirt and exposed roots on the exposed side.
▪ Camps & campsites, picnic tables & fireplaces, bird nests & animal shelters all avoid the un-sheltered side of vegetation.
▪ Wind-shadow growth—plants grow taller in the lee of a mountain range, or of a pebble, sand ridge or house.
Obvious Tell-Tales: Windblown Objects

▪ Flotsam collects on the downwind side of a lake (but on the sheltered side of a coastal point!).
▪ Trunks fall downwind in storms; branches fall downwind in gales; leaves, nuts and flowers fall downwind in strong winds. Look
for ribbon bark hanging in a tree downwind from its source.
▪ Rubbish (old dead twigs & leaves) collects behind a clump.
▪ Dead long leaf blades lie cross-wind when blown against an obstacle e.g. a clump...
▪ Dead long leaf blades lie down-wind when blown from a source e.g. a tussock...
▪ Broken off branchlets lie with their big spread-out twiggy end downwind. Meadow-grass tufts pulled up by grazing animals also.
▪ Feathers catch in bushes, usually on downwind branches, and mat against the up-wind side of those branches.
The Difference between Looking at, and Seeing

..has a lot to do with involvement.
e.g. a seed-collector will see the vigour of the plants and their stage of fruiting. Would you even see the plants!
e.g. a hunter will see a route for stalking from behind cover.
e.g. a photographer will see the contrast in light.
Would you as a navigator care to notice footprints, or their absence? What about the flight-paths & contrails, or gems in the river
gravel?
Navigation is your opportunity to see more.
Search-Image
It is possible to stare at something obvious and not see it! e.g. the pattern of wind-blown grass stems, or the peculiar geometry of a
tree. But after some practice, you can’t miss it. So train your brain to the search images before you need them. When you are flustered
and hurried you will not feel confident in your abilities to see something difficult, and will likely give up too soon.
We Recognise ‘Sameness’ But Need to Describe the Differences

A gum-tree is a gum-tree; but this gum tree has three trunks!
A ‘bend on the road’ is just a bend; but this one bends away from sunrise.
A ‘hillside’ looks much like all hillsides; but this one is regrowth with wattles dominant.
Don’t just gaze at “the view” or “the landscape” or “vegetation”. Look past the fuzzy ‘sameness’ to the unique peculiarities.
Unfortunately that often means: ‘Focus on the boring detail’

e.g. ‘This hillock has five dead tree trunks, totalling nine main branches’ which makes this hillock recognisable and unique.
So. Hint: When all else fails, COUNT! (The same goes for botanical species identifications.)
There is often no way around a detailed look. There will not be anything unexpected to hit you in the face — you must keep looking
until the interesting peculiarities emerge.
E.g. “No other dirt road junction I have seen has an Acacia sapling growing in each corner.”
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“Shoulders Stop”
A huge mountain range may end in a “shoulder” i.e. a ‘shoulder’ amounts only to a ‘minor ridge’ stopping within the valley.
You will not get to the coast by following it down. (If you are on the very last ridge next to the coast it would be called a headland).
There may also be isolated high ground within a valley, a lot like an island, and this too is doomed to end in only ‘shoulders’.
Such high ground is drained by one river only, but via several tributaries.
It will have one, often low, flat connection (a saddle) ‘uphill’ to the main Divide.
Shoulders are Not Easy (like Ridges) To Walk on

1. They end a spur, and so are likely to be steep, as the ridgeline plunges down to the creek bend or junction below it.
2. They are wetter than ridge tops. Although they shed water, being convex, they are still fed with run-off from above, as on a
hillside. So the vegetation can easily become very thick.
Saddle — A Flat between Hills, Sitting Astride a Ridge

They are so named for their resemblance to the two-bumps-two-gutter horse-saddle shape, designed for two legs astride a sway-back.
When a flat area is drained by three creeks and so has three ridges lifting from it, it is called a “monkey saddle”.
The third gutter accommodates the tail. This can cause uncertainty-of-choice for navigators!
A “col” is a saddle.
A “pass” is usually a low point in a high ridge i.e. it is a saddle.
A “gap” however may simply be a river gorge.
Every undulation and flattening of a ridge leaves a saddle. In forest, there will be a puddle. It may also attract a campsite or a road.
A saddle may look like a valley crossing—a muddy dip in the path—but the two sides both drop away, if you look carefully through the
wall of vegetation.
Weather maps show pressure ‘saddles’ between two High’s and two Low’s—p.11d.
You can also picture a saddle as a U-shaped valley going up and over a gap between two hills and continuing down the other side.
Saddles make creek sources, but not every creek source begins as a flat saddle—any ridge or slope may spawn drainage gutters with-
out necessarily flattening out.
Track Markers
— Decode the colour-code. Separate tracks often have separate colours. Reverse track markers may be of a different colour.
— Successive generations of track marking may be evident, or several colour-coded tracks may share one leg of the journey.
— Triple marking, often means “End of Markers” or “End of Track”.
— Big cairns mark junctions, campspots, features. Cairns with a stick may also indicate a junction.
— Side-tracks are marked with something extra or different.
— Sticks over the track, or especially crossed sticks say “No Entry. Wrong Way. Go Back”.
At an unexpected junction, if you have to step over some branches you have probably missed the intended message.
— Un-needed signposts — often mark the entrance of disused tracks. They may (or may not) be at an unexplained bend in the route.
When You Lose the Track-Markers

Be suspicious! Start by over-navigating beforehand — search for all track markers as a habit, even when the track is well-worn and
plainly visible. It gives you the practice for when the track marking does get patchy.
Also, only then will you notice whenever the track takes an unofficial shortcut (e.g. following vehicle tracks, not the walking track).
Or maybe you have taken a wrong turning off the marked track and need to realise it, no matter how good the new track is.
Whenever you lose the markers or whenever you lose the track, explore in these directions: straight ahead and straight behind.
One or two markers may simply have fallen off — so maintain the trend
You may be approaching a main track junction with the first few sidetrack markers
removed to conceal the sidetrack you are on.
An unexplained bend, which deteriorates, may be explained by a missed junction/bend... behind ahead
Where a tree has fallen nearby, try to pick up the trend of the old track, on the far side...
Backtrack to where you went wrong — to the last bend & from the last certain marker.
Next, explore the unexpected directions.
Very often a marker will be placed at a bend, because of the bend, or even because of a Y junction.
Then explore in all directions — “Meet back here in five minutes” might save 50 minutes.
Notice (with Alarm!) When...

..The track itself deteriorates. You may be on a false track, made by people doing just what you have done
e.g. you overran a junction or bend; you sidestepped a fallen tree without noticing.
..Boot prints, that were there before, cease. Especially on a ‘through’ track.
..The track gets better! This means that in back-tracking you may miss your small track and follow the other track which joins in there
..The country abruptly clears e.g. a beach, a peak, a clearing, a road. There may be no way to find the single small track you used.
By the time you remember to look back, you may have lost the way back out. There may be too many paths to choose from.
..Any barrier e.g. a beach, a road, a fence, a riverbank — clear or not.
When you hit the barrier you do a right-angled bend, but later you may not remember exactly where you met that barrier.
..Any catchment change i.e. crossing a ridge, or even a creek crossing—into “another part of the catchment”.
Name the enemy: Be the first to say out loud “Abaracadabara! Peek behind you! because it’s a…(fill in the blank)” A Barrier;
A Ridge/River/Road Junction; A Clearing; a Down-track (or focus point); A Better/worse track; A Ridge/River crossing; A Peak.
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Light & Colour Effects

This is one of the delights of nature! Chances are that you will be startled, even if you know what to expect, but only if you look for it.
You need to wade out into a uniform reed-bed, preferably when the Sun is side-on to the prevailing wind, then look up- & downwind.
Up-wind, the tussock tips are pointing toward you. You then see between them into the deeper shaded body of the plant.
▪ The view up-wind is dark & colourful. The best effect is from rich brown or dark green, drooping, chest-high reeds.
▪ Down-wind the tips lie flat and reflect the sky shine at you — faded & bright.
The prevailing wind may result in permanent sunbleach on one side of the grass blades.
▪ On a windy day you will see gusts causing bright patches in a dark background, due to the same flat blade effect.
▪ To neutralise the directional lighting of the Sun, look down-Sun — to your left & right will show pale vs colourful.
▪ The combined effect of the Sun and the wind result in four quadrants — darkest up-wind; shiniest downwind; greyest up-Sun.
▪ This happens even with ordinary green plants — look for it in any low, flat, wind-swept vegetation.
▪ The prevailing wind doesn’t need to be blowing to see its permanent effect on the plants.
▪ At sunrise in the reed-bed, you should notice a ‘funnel-web’ effect on your right — like the circular scratches showing up
through a sunlit window.
▪ At other times you may simply notice that any shiny leaves on the left of the Sun tilt left, and on the right of the Sun tilt right.
▪ Looking up-wind anywhere is greener. Downwind looks more bleached — due to leaf-tip scorch, leaf fading and leaflessness.
▪ Weather-side sandhills are white. Lee-side sandhills are greener, due to thicker growth.
▪ Exposed lake banks are steeper & eroded. So, sandy lagoons show white sandy vs dark muddy ends.
▪ In sandy heaths, downwind shows up as windblown sand patches of erosion. Up-wind shows up as continuous plant cover.
▪ Rocks in sandy places are sandblasted pale on the up-wind side and darkened with lichens on the downwind side.
Sun
Downwind
shiny
“funnel-web” on right grey
dark shiny
grey coloured
dark
dark shiny Upwind colourful
Shiny leaves Expect some variations
Place Recognition
You Recognise What You See, By What You Can’t See
Every locality fits into a context — the invisible surroundings.
How long did I take to get here? How far from the turnoff? In what direction from home-base? Uphill or down or contour?
How many creeks have we crossed up to now?
To know where you are, you can’t ignore where you are not.
e.g. ‘It was an all-day slog to get there, we finished the day worn out’
is part of where you were, and fundamental to your memory of it.
Landscape recognition is relative.

That involves your senses of time, direction, distance, difficulty, slope, topography, layout, number and network.
Aspects, invisible to the eye, which surround a place, live in your mind’s eye.
Description Requires Words

Can You Describe All That You Can Recognise?
E.g. a magpie. What pattern is on the head? What colour legs?
E.g. your brother — what colour eyes? what voice accent?
“Recognition” means “I need to see it before I can recognise it”

“Description” is “I can recall it to my mind and describe it”
If you don’t deliberately memorise something you can only recognise it but can’t describe it.
So thoughtful examination, notes and practice, can fill in a lot of blanks.
Repeated visits build up a subconscious picture, but you can speed up that familiarisation process by deliberate scrutiny.
Expressing the description in explicit words, forces your subconscious ‘recognition’ powers, into a new dimension.
Hint: Open your mouth; say: “The place where… ” and see what comes out spontaneously.
try: “In between…” “Running alongside the… ”
“You probably would remember it as the time when… ”
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Notice When You Cross a Catchment!

It is a major method of navigation
e.g. at night; or in a blizzard; or when you are lost; or in a forest; or descending from high ground; or exploring upstream.
But you need to get used to noticing ridges and to counting creek crossings and to matching the catchments to the map.
Notice also, when you cross from one side to the other side of a catchment.
Ask: Is this riverbed likely to be the lowest, largest channel in the whole catchment?
Look for creek-line vegetation, as sometimes the only clue to the drainage pattern.
Look for any darker patch in the road or track or beach, as a tell-tale sign of a dry creek bed.
Look at the track ruts. If the rocks are exposed, water flows over it. If the ruts flatten out, water drains away from the track there.
A subtle rise, dip or bend in the track can be traced to an obvious ridge or drain crossing it. Look sideways to appreciate the lie.
Assess any puddle, marsh or mud hole — Is it a creek line or a saddle top? — Is it in a dip or on a crest? — Can you trace a gutter?;
Notice any crest; Trace ridges to a nearby peak. I.e. Don’t get caught whingeing about the government, instead of noticing the lie.
Ridges divide: they shed water. Creeks collect: they catch water. Valleys drain: they empty into the sea.
Rivers cut the catchment in two.
See “Understanding Contours” for some hints — later in this section. See also p.83b.
The Giveaway! A Change of View — Mnemonic: “Catch the View”

The new panorama is the tell-tale sign that you have changed catchments.
Perhaps you are contouring around a headland and catch the new view around the corner, or you are sidling around a ridge,
or you are breasting the saddle, or reaching the peak, or cresting a paddock… It is the new vista that greets your eyes
which tells you that something has changed. It is also the loss of the old valley view.
Well, maybe you can’t see the view, but you may now be able to see the skylight or even blue sky down through the trees below you.
When climbing, you find yourself looking down instead of looking up. Your muscles, of course, tell you the same story.
The deeper the new valley, the more far-reaching, on average, the new view.
You Can’t Cross a Creek Twice from the Same Side

If you make two successive creek crossings in the same flow-sense, you have crossed a creek divide into a different creek catchment.
Alternating crosses=same creek... “Different creek”
“Same creek”
Up-creek is on your left both times
The same rule can hold for ridges, but only those which slope uniformly down from high ground.
Otherwise an unexpected crest slope, instead of being a ‘different ridge’, may alert you to ‘a local up-trend’ on a down-sloping ridge.
Mark Your Trail a pair of stones...
Two principles are needed 1. Trail marking takes extra time — budget for it.
And this one is widely applicable… 2. It’s easy when you know how, so think how! a gumnut on a rock
Mark Your Trail Non-Permanently

E.g. when you could otherwise get lost
▪ Use what is available — pebbles, leaves, tussocks — throughout the area, for ease and consistency.
e.g. “always look for a pair of stones”; “tie a grass blade on the top shoot of any shrub”
▪ Leave your mark in a visible place. E.g. “look for freshly broken twigs at the base of each trunk on the path”;
“check the topmost leaves of anything chest-high for a mark”
▪ Leave your mark in an expected place. E.g. cross-country: Zig-zag in straight lines between prominent features,
so coming back you know exactly where to look for the next markers, and searchers do too.
E.g. hillock, to tall tree, to clearing, to outcrop. a cut leaf…
▪ Do something only slightly unnatural: (see diagrams) A gumnut on a rock; a twig through a leaf; a pair of torn leaves;
grass stems bent in a consistent direction; or tied in a knot; or crumpled; a scissor-cut dead leaf; a scissor-cut fresh
leaf; bark hanging from a barkless branch e.g. gum bark in a Banksia; a twig drilled into the ground;
a leaf wedged into bark at eye level; a triangle of twigs; a half broken bent twig hanging in a shrub;
an opposing pair of gum leaves; a trail of sticks; windblown debris which is reversed; upturn a rock onto leaf litter
▪ Deliberately plant your boot print when you can. Step on top of older footprints, deliberately. dead twig…
▪ Use fresh material so that your trail may be ‘aged’ according to the fading or drying e.g. of green leaves or mud.
▪ Position markers so that time, animals, wind & rain will disrupt them (at a recognisable rate). E.g. a teepee of sticks.
▪ Try a snow cairn; chalk marks on rocks; cotton tied around a branch; a stick dragged in the dirt; a scratch on a rock;
balls of mud; charcoal or charcoal marks; tiny shreds of paper.
▪ Choose one method and stick with it, with a backup method in reserve.
▪ Double-mark a trail e.g. when doubling back, by duplicating it.
Tracking Someone Else

▪ Look for the absence of: spider webs across the path; dew on overhanging branches. To discern a foot-path look for
the absence of fallen branches; leaf litter; lichen & moss; old wombat dung on prominent rocks; unbroken sticks; un-
trampled seedlings; undisturbed soil
▪ Look for the presence of freshly disturbed stones/soil crust/puddles, plus footprints.
▪ Examine puddles: for wet edges — indicating a recent forward swash; examine for muddy water; look for muddy water
in the deepest layers — indicating disturbance some time ago; for wet stems above the water — they have been trod-
den in and have sprung back
▪ Overlapping fronds across a path — they ‘remember’ which way they were last pushed through.
▪ Don’t step on the boot-prints or tracks you are trying to decipher—you often need to look at them again.
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Botanical Tell-Tales
permanent lean tilted clumps dead stalk dead tussock-grass fall
e.g. Bracken fern e.g. Yakka dead leaves
curve of stem
fallen fronds downwind

The dead stems snap in the wind
initial trunk lean e.g. Banksia tree final lean double curve (exaggerated)
e.g. Yakka flowering stem
‘battle back up-wind’

‘go with the flow’ downwind
asymmetrical
tree-tip
(top view)
alternating bush ‘streets’
and blowout channels
climber- & parasite-

load downwind
top-view...
..grass ‘streets’ in the wind-wake of a fallen branch
Wind exposure on
leading edge causes
leaf-kill, leaf-strip,
and leaf-scorch some flowers open downwind
Discuss It
Let others open your eyes: “What can you see about this?” “Where does it remind you of?”
Ask Questions: “How do you know where you are?” “Could you get back here again next year?”
Make a game of it: “What else can you notice from here?”
Express the specifics: e.g. “That boot-print has zed-shaped ripples on the right and ess-shaped ripples on the left.
The heel patten is a smaller version of the front half, as per normal.”
e.g. “This tributary lies northwest/southeast and points to the left of the peak.”
Many aspects of navigation yield to these simple tricks…
discuss it express it out loud make it the topic of conversation
delegate the tasks between yourselves
keep yourself alert
make up your own names
collect the details integrate them
Collect the Details

Identify a Specific Place by its Specific Collection of Details
E.g. “A low conical hill in flat terrain south of Mount Cameron”
That is not ‘interesting’. The bits are not ‘peculiar’. But the collection of the bits is unique.
E.g. Plant and insect species are often so similar to other family members that no one character is ‘characteristic’ enough.
The species will be identified by a set of characters.
E.g. Is this our old road?? Does anybody recognise it from last year?? but it has…
trend e.g. toward sunrise
slope e.g. mostly uphill
straightness e.g. can’t see for more than 20m mostly!
traffic intensity e.g. many fallen trees across it, and encroaching bushes
length e.g. it goes on and on and gets nowhere!
vegetation e.g. set amongst old gums with yakkas under
ends e.g. it came from the saddle and ends up behind the peak
If you think you recognise it, by the combined characters, you will probably be right.
E.g. Make one name for the big tree on the crest; another to name that crest; another to describe its relative position…
and soon you can’t mistake it…“the big tree with the south facing hollow on the port-side Dam-wall Ridge downstream of Tree-fern Crk.
The add-on bits are part of the name of each bit i.e. “the Big-tree Crest” (downstream of Tree-fern Creek) (near the dam wall).
The smallest collection is two, but that is a powerful combination, e.g. a peculiar log, plus a recognisable hollow trunk, is almost unique.
The combination is the peculiarity to remember — a third peculiarity.
The geometry of the combination is a fourth and even more powerful memory aid… “This log points to that hollow”.
Include What You Can’t See

For instance, have you noticed that there is no bare ground showing? That you can’t see farmland? That there are no intervening
ridges?
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Break of Slope/Make of Slope

The ‘make’ of slope is the steepening as you go downhill ie the “slope” is a down-slope. The best views are at the most abrupt ‘make’s
The ‘break’ of slope is the first flattening out as you descend. The thickest soils occur below the ‘break’.
Flat ridge top… The make and the break refer to points which separate different ‘slopes’.
..Abrupt make of slope There is a difference between a making, or eroding slope
and a breaking, or sedimenting slope…
..Abrupt break of slope A ridge-top is a make of 2 slopes, in cross-section, but any abrupt steepening
can also be called a make of slope.
Scree slope ..Making — convex out-wards. Convexities shed water (usually in all directions) and shed silt
and are poor sites to locate a dam or to dig one — there is bedrock below.
Cliff The water table will often break the surface at the more abrupt breaks.
..Breaking — concave up-wards. Concavities collect water and collect silt from above.
You can locate and dig a dam in silted up areas.
Constant slopes lie in between deposition and erosive scouring
..slope so on a constant flat slope the streamlets can ‘braid’ together
Deposition ..make of next slope constant slope
Beginning of erosion again

Beginning of deposition… ..break
Paddocks are often cleared up to the break—the rocks. River—erosion on the banks = convex
A band of moisture-loving vegetation will often separate the slopes. — ‘break’ at water level; concave
below it
Valley floor deposition
What you see in three dimensions can often be more complex
than what you see in cross-section!
— When convexity changes to concavity there is a momentary straightening — a ‘break of slope’.
This is also called a ‘point of inflection’ in the curve.
It’s not just a meaningless mathematical quirk; it betrays a set of real changes, resulting from the erosion history.
Scree Slopes — Tread Carefully!

The boulder-field at the base of a cliff, gives you a false sense of security!
Each rock seems so solidly jammed in place, but the whole field could ‘slump’ and slide all the way down, if given too much of a shake.
That is why there are no old trees growing in landslide-prone slopes!
The essence of a scree slope is, like a pile of gravel: It is in a continual state of critical instability, as evidenced by the straight-edged
slope (flat but not level), about 36°. 36° doesn’t sound like much, but up a sandhill, it puts you on all fours!
The rock surfaces look ‘fresh’. Soil doesn’t accumulate.
Tread carefully. Distribute your weight on all fours. Tread on bigger rocks.
Choose the cliff-base — it has hand-holds — or the scree-base — it has a solid bottom.
Mark Your Trail More Permanently and Ostentatiously

E.g. when you are lost or in trouble or in doubt
▪ A teepee
▪ Mud upon a tussock — quite unnatural; A tussock upon a tussock!
▪ Hang a piece of clothing from a prominent tree limb
▪ Dig a hole and make a hump
(Direction of travel is )
Mark Your Trail Invisibly

E.g. so that other walkers who are not lost, don’t disrupt your markers, out of a sense of bush etiquette.
▪ “One mark every 50 paces”. E.g. one pointed pebble. You may like to use double-paces.
It is almost impossible to notice accidentally, but impossible to miss if you look.
▪ “Every 10 paces, as an option” added to your scheme — to cope with junctions and bends.
▪ Place a pebble on the ground, on the onward side of an existing cairn. You can recognise it, and scatter it, when you come
back through the fog among a maze of similar cairned routes.
▪ Put a small mark at the base of each track marker (e.g. under blazes-on-a-trunk or ribbons-on-a-branch)
— you can easily find it, and know that you have been along that track.
▪ “Half way between (2 markers)” or “10m North (of a juncture)”, can remove the marks from obvious view or significance.
A pebble Code — Keep It Simple

All codes have to be memorable to all users — complications never survive the years of disuse.
I.e. use ‘one’ to ‘four’ only, preferably only ‘two’ and ‘three’.
Tread the pebbles into the ground for clarity & permanency.
Upturn the pebbles for visibility, and point the stones appropriately. Use the smaller pebbles at the front.
One: “I woz ‘ere, going that way”

Two: “Me go that way”
Three: “I’m lost, exploring that way”
Four: “Look for a message, there”
Five: “Someone has seen this message”
Square: “Don’t go this way”

Circle: “Oh” for “I’m OK”
Bull’s-eye: “I will be back here soon”
Junction: “I have turned off (and returned, then continued)”
Double marking: Close the pebbles up the second time past, until they touch.
67
Combined Effects of Wind, Salt and Light

When assessing wedge-shaped shrubs, leaning trunks, tilted canopies, etc., try to distinguish wind-cut from salt-cut and from light-
lean. But beware, in any natural system, it would be easy to over-generalise from a few known specifics,
or falsely extend an inadequate interpretation.
Here is a typical wind-ramp. The leading edge consists of dead twigs.

The vegetation gets greener and thicker and taller downwind.
But you cannot easily tell whether it is the result of salt-laden wind, or strong wind only.
Salt-cut will show you the direction of the prevailing onshore wind only.
Inshore, wind-ramping will show you the direction of the prevailing wind, which may be significantly different in direction.
Botanical Asymmetry
Plants must respond to the wind.
If they did not deliberately push up-wind, we would be walking through a landscape of leaning-over plants.
Therefore it must be possible to ‘read’ the effect of strong wind written into the branching history of a plant.
The branches of a bush may grow according to the strong wind, but the leaves will still respond according to the asymmetrical light.
The two effects may or may not be independent and you will need to examine them carefully to see the difference.
Look for asymmetry in the green parts of a plant to show up bush-noon and look for asymmetry in the other parts for bush-West.
If there is a macro response to the wind, which will confuse the macro light-response, look for micro signs of a light response, on indi-
vidual branchlets.
You don’t “need to know your plants” beforehand. Instead you examine the species which present themselves.
You assess what responses they make to light, wind, shelter, etc.
E.g. Do the stems colour up in sunlight? If so keep looking at that.
Do the branches throw out more leaves on one side? If not look for something else.
Extend Your Familiar Range Systematically

Explore in every direction, in ever longer legs, radially. Leave recognisable marks alongside recognisable things.
Then explore in concentric circles to make sure that you can recognise individual trees and rocks.
You know you can explore further within the endless sea of scrub, if you have ‘familiar friends’ which you have seen repeatedly.
then then then
Markers for future recognition e.g. on your own property…
Plant a tree Graft two branches together Suspend a forked branch into a forked trunk
Arrange logs e.g. a parallel heap Arrange rocks e.g. a cairn, or a rock on a stump, or a rock 10 m south of the biggest tree
Dig a trench Etch a mark Paint a rock Leave something solid behind
A stake A signpost A numbered metal tag A path A Campfire-place or Barbecue
Hints
It’s the Campsites You Don’t Use, that are Easiest to Forget
I’m forever asking: “Can anyone remember” whether we can camp between here and there?
Take notes of potential campsites. It makes your trip-planning more flexible, next time.
In general, take the opportunity to spy out and note down potential future trips — side-tracks, ridges, climbs…
Leap-Frog Walk in New Territory

I like to walk a new track twice, anyway. It is no big difficulty to take your time, once, and achieve better familiarity, by leap-frogging.
Explore 2 legs forward then one leg back, and you cover the ground 3 times on the way out, once more on the way back.
4 legs forward, 2 legs back, and it’s like walking a return track 3 times, but it gives you a much more solid handle on each section.
You gain what you want, appreciation and re-preciation, and what you need, familiarity and sequence memory.
The best way is to combine this with a mnemonic for each leg. See AA to ZZ for an excellent method.
Its also a good time to mark each new leg discretely.
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Break of Slope — And Route-Finding

▪ The first signs of an approaching ridge-top when climbing include: the change from deposition (breaking) to erosion (making);
i.e. onto outcrops; into exposure to the wind.
▪ Take a rest at the break of slope — before climbing upwards.
▪ Get your bearings at the most abrupt make of slope, where the view is clearest.
▪ Look up- and down-hill for the lowest skylight beneath the trees, to reveal the change of slope.
▪ Avoid contouring around the break of slope — it is tempting, but — it is steep and unstable.
▪ In rocky gorges, or on any creek-bank, or around any permanent water, look for a break of slope just beneath water-level.
It may be safer, than rock-climbing higher up, to get your feet wet, and use such ledges. The slope near the water may be less
steep, at least on average on jagged slopes; you can’t fall as far; your landing is softer (wet) — if you ‘keep as low as possible’.
▪ On steep gravelly roads, stick to the ‘crown’, or the ‘gutter’, to avoid slipping.
The crown will snake from side to side as the road turns.
▪ Slopes are awkward to walk on—steeper than the ridge or creek, so,
when you drift up onto the sides of the creek you want to follow, you will be forced further up — onto the ridge.
When you drift off the crest of the ridge you want to follow, you will be forced further down — into the creek bed.
In this way ‘minor’ detours (e.g. around an outcrop, on the ridge or in the creek bed) may result in major redirection orders!
easy
steep ..Avoid the steep bits.
Ridge Gully
middling Ridge
Steep shoulder steep

easy Creek
Keeping Track of the Bends

Don’t just follow your nose — follow the bends!
There have already been some hints on keeping direction sense:“Walk across Australia!” & “Integrate the Jetstream and Earth rotation”
Plus the “Sky to Land” and “Land to Land” navigation systems (p.29e,34d,38d,42d).
Following a track can be mindless. But following the bends in the track means that you understand
— that you have changed direction, and by how much.
We have an ingrained bad habit — that we walk ‘away from’ the starting point, which is therefore ‘behind’ us.
Only when we ‘turn around’ is it ‘ahead’ of us on the track.
We usually only notice junctions, features & hunger, not distance or direction or exact time.
The commonest mistakes of guesstimation, are failing to notice a track curve,
and underestimating exactly how far a gentle but insistent bend will turn you around i.e. simple disorientation.
Hints: Notice the bends, with your eye on the sky or the skyline. Establish the habit of looking back.
Desired Equipment
▪ Compass — look at it often and interpret it
▪ Polaroid sunglasses — look for the dark blue band
▪ Radio — use it to keep orientation if you don’t have a compass
▪ Map — orient the map to the landscape, and it acts as a rough compass
— lay a rhumb-line through the bends, as an average course, as a reference ‘track’…
Logging Constant Diversions

A stick or string helps you measure direction changes…
Held at arm’s length, you add or subtract, as you decide to change course left and right.
Thus you can revert to an intended course after a short ‘blind’ section,
and average out the course changes even without a compass, or being able to see the Sun.
You could use the skyline as a reference direction, or lineup two tree trunks for each change.
A rougher method is to counterbalance your diversions.

If you go left-around the rock; next time, go right-around the tree.
Keeping track of countless bends is one of the few major problems in navigation
— like keeping a log of distance covered, having no location sense, and trying to stay alert.
So aim for an independent cross-check e.g. a landscape fix or a distance log.
69
Think like a Plant

E.g. Imagine you are a small ground-cover plant. In a desperate attempt to not be eaten or trampled to death you will probably branch
and leaf out in all directions to simply survive... So don’t expect much botanical asymmetry underfoot.
The idea is to become an amateur ecologist. For instance, you could work out the pollinators available, the dispersal mechanisms used,
the biogeographical zones and overlaps, and the associations between species.
Therefore think about the geology, geoform, latitude, altitude and soils.
Temperature & Relative Humidity explain a lot of botany.

E.g. very cold morning winds are also very drying when they warm up later in the day.
Altitude, for instance, affects the species mix, so that with practice you can gauge your elevation above sea level.
You notice when sub-alpine species kick in e.g. Telopea (Waratah), then when true alpine species begin e.g. Richea (Scoparia).
Individual members of genera have altitude preferences and so are helpful to distinguish altitude
e.g. various Coffee berries (Coprosma) or Pink Berry (Cyathodes).
N.B. Since the prime effect of altitude is to drop the temperature, this is really a latitude-dependent temperature effect.
I.e. Going further polewards, the altitude preferences will change.
‘Aspect’ (i.e. South sloping or North facing) will be important in interpreting the presence of particular species.
Living stresses explain simple botanical systems.

E.g. In the desert, late afternoon is the baking-hot-sunlight side (cf noon in forest). Trees will be shiny leafed — to shed excess
light (cf searching for more).
So consider the prevailing winds, salt spray, max. and min. temperatures, wet season, disturbance, trampling, fire, clearing,
introduced competition or diseases, grazing, salinity, mineralisation.
Pioneer Species — These are the easiest to identify, because they are lonely.
Their preference is the saltiest, hottest, driest, highest, coldest, poorest, windiest, sand-blown, most flood-prone, …
If life becomes too easy, other species will smother them out. Hence, look for those that don’t mind the hot baking Sun, etc.
There is a height-succession of plantforms grading from lowest to tallest and deepest rooted.
Ground lichen; moss; grass; herbs; creepers; shrubs; trees; ‘ emergents ’
The depth of soil is crucial. The taller ones shade out the humbler ones, and their deeper roots seem to starve out the shallow-
rooted ones from below. E.g. mosses need no soil and not much light, but will quickly be overgrown if these are provided.
Other factors keeping plants humble are trampling & grazing, fire frequency and dry season. Grasses survive all these stresses
well.
Competition between species explains the more diverse vegetation.

E.g. Lichens overrun each other, and leave the rock surface, to become ‘leafy’ or fibrous or pendulous.
Lush growth betrays the most comfortable living conditions. E.g. rainforest; the underside of a rock in the desert; sheltered
microclimates — crowded with species. This is opposite to pioneer species.
E.g. Where excess sunlight is the ‘living stress’, lush growth will show up on the shady side.
Draw the Skyline, the Ridge-lines, the Outlines

Label it with the 8 main directions
W NW N NE E SE S SW W NW N
Talk the panorama into words. “Nor-Norwest Hillock, in front of a larger hill on the left, runs down into a gully behind NE– Plateau.
East Mountain is behind NE Plateau and drops away behind the vegetation south of us.
Distant Peak pokes up behind in the SW, and the closer skyline reappears in the West,
falling steadily to the NW Dip before the larger hill.”
That took one minute. You do have time to look, notice, talk it through, and even draw it.
Marine navigators know that they have to.
Don’t just imagine doing it, or do it silently, or do it half-heartedly — actually do it.
Unlike an avigator who uses a layout map to recognise roads, rivers, ranges, coastlines, etc, from the air,
a walker needs a nose-eye view…
MAPS DON’T DRAW YOU A NOSE-EYE VIEW — SO YOU HAVE TO!
Examine the Skyline BEFORE You Walk up to It

That might mean looking behind you, six hours ago, or to left or right, right now,
because the skyline ahead of you rapidly disappears behind foothills, just when you want a clear view of it!
A clear view of the skyline is uncommon, so you need to take advantage of any skyline view while you have it
— and that is often anywhere else except where you want to look — ahead.
Circuit walks and return trips mean that, if you haven’t habitually looked at the surroundings abreast of you & behind you,
you won’t be able to recognise what you are walking up to later.
One way to recognise the skyline later, is to use it

e.g. use it to keep track of bends; to keep track of progress; to disclose hidden valleys (by parallax or haze).
Another way is to name what you use e.g. “the hill behind the dam wall from camp 2—Dam Hill”
70
Mnemonic: “Down in the Mouth”

“Downstream” is “Down to the Coast”. “Which coast? Which river mouth?”
Until you have answered that, you are disoriented.
You pass a creek-bed or a flowing stream: “Which way is it flowing?” is only half a question. “Where is it going?” is the other half.
You turn and head ‘downhill’: You think ‘Down’ — then say: ‘Down in the Mouth — Which mouth?’
If you also ask “Upstream? To which ridge?” there are many possible answers because upstream is divergent.
Nonetheless it is good to know whether a river reaches to the very edge of the valley — whether it is a ‘major’ tributary.
Which way is the flow?

In dry, flat creek-beds, examine the tilt of the rocks… If any rock ever tilted up into the flow, it would be flipped over.
Examine the silt build up — on the sheltered downstream side of any obstacle.
Look for flood debris — matted against the upstream side of branches.
Consult your artificial horizon, if you have one.
flow
Side-view Top-view
scoured
clean
(This is much like grass tussocks in the wind.)
Hint Don’t think “this side” & “the other side”. It only makes sense for the one main lowest riverbed.
Think: Up-catchment/down-catchment/cross-catchment, overall, & Port half/Starboard half of the whole catchment in question.
(as seen from the coast, looking upstream)
Think plural: “the other sides”/ “another side” in the network…
Which ‘side’ of the river are you now? “I have crossed to another part of the drainage system”
Another possible answer: Examine the map for the contour heights of each channel for the lowest one.
“We are now in the starboard half of the catchment”
The Difference between ‘Direction’ and ‘Track’

‘North’ is a general orientation reference direction. But ‘North from here to there’ is a specific route
— a ‘bearing’, ‘line’ or ‘track’.
‘Stick to a direction’/a ‘heading’ means e.g.‘toward sunset’| | ‘This road points toward that Gap’ will never change
| | — it is a fixed ‘track’.
It can start from any point, | cf. | ‘Stay 5 miles off the lighthouse’ is a (curved) line of position
| | — a track.
and sidesteps around obstacles, | | ‘From this stump, past that tree, to the rock’
without bothering to return to track — sticks to a fixed straight line, despite detours.
So the final practical ‘interpretation’ of, say 270°T.,

is not ‘West’, not ‘sunset’, nor ‘Pot-set’, not ‘THERE!’, not a drawing in your notebook, Not ‘How hot it must be in Baghdad!’
but is a navigational track... “From this place to… that particular tall tree” “Then we will get a line on another point directly West”
I.e. Interpret a ‘compass course’ , finally, into accurate, achievable ‘legs’—‘on track’.
Continuous bends
Riverside tracks are especially sinuous, yet slowly so, so that they are deceptive.
Beaches near headlands, and lake edges, are especially insistent in their constant bending.
Contours, constant horizontal angles, and constant distance-off, are all continuously curved. Aqueducts follow contours.
Consequently we are necessarily continually disoriented, in following them.
No sooner do we get our bearings straight, than we lose them.
Logically then, you need to orient, not by a direction e.g. the Sun, but if at all possible, to orient by a ‘track’
i.e. a particular path on the ground — it doesn’t have to coincide with your own track, but it often will
e.g. from headland to headland. (The beach will then lie wholly on one side of this shortest distance ‘track’.)
A visible, noticeable, landscape track is best e.g. the biggest river valley around.
You now can feel continuously oriented to something fixed, something which you can see & ‘feel in your bones’.
As a second best choice, choose a fixed compass course e.g. a rhumb line, and watch where it intersects the landscape.
Follow the bends by anticipating the trends

Before you drive off, or plunge into the twists and turns of endless undulations, examine the map for your average course
— to give you some overall reference track ahead of you. It may be mental, or visual, or by compass.
You can see when you turn to the left or right of it, direction-wise. You can feel it when you drift too far to one side, track-wise.
Interpret each leg meaningfully. E.g. “toward the morning Sun”
(the time of day doesn’t matter).
E.g. “Keep Mt Wellington on my port quarter”.
E.g. “From the pine trees to the river mouth”.
Divide the journey into recognisable sections, if it helps…
Make this a first priority, before studying any details.
Preferably, mark them lightly on the map.
71
“Mosses Mop up Moisture”

◦ “Mosses grow best on the shaded side of a tree” or a rock, ◦ where there is not enough light for competitors
◦ where there is little soil to hold the moisture, ◦ and it doesn’t dry out ◦ and often there is too much moisture for other plants.
Mosses actually monopolise the moisture
In hot places it is the late afternoon which is driest, so it is the sunrise side, in a sunny climate, which is the moister side.
North noon
Note: Dead moss is black and brittle.
afternoon morning
Examine fallen logs — the shady side has a sheltered dark crevice...
Summer sunset Sunrise
In a hot climate, it may be more accurate to say,
(SH) “Mosses grow best on the sheltered side”
Examine ditches — One side might be scorched, the other, lush.

Examine bumps in the ground — One side is greener, with more moss and taller grass.
Examine underneath shrubs — for the moister, mossier, greener side under the bush.
Examine intertidal rocks — for moss-like seaweed growths on the shady, wetter side.
“Lichens Like Light”

Lichens don’t mind being dried out, so sometimes they are opposite to the mosses. However, not all lichens are so robust.
Lichens are fungi which live off algae entrapped and protected within (“Fungi Feed on Food”). They may live on mineralised substrates.
They are therefore very colourful. So the best way to learn lichen-likes is to open your eyes to the colours of each direction…
You may see white blotch lichens looking downSun but not upSun.
Yellow blotches may all be only looking uphill, not downhill. Leafy lichens like the shady enclaves, not the Sun-drenched flats.
Crusty greys and fibrous green might cohabit the underside of branches. “White paint” may only grow an the top of any rocks.
Orange granite might be just above high tide level, etc.
Diffuse lichens colonise the crumbly side of a sunbaked rock. Flat-topped rocks are trampled and won’t have thick lichens.
Look closely at surface colours of rocks and barks and soil-crusts— they may be due to diffuse lichens.
Look on the branches of shrubby growth — the lichens will grow best on one side or the other.
The idea is to start looking locally, before you need them. It’s a nice hobby. And hobbies keep you awake and observant.
“Fern Fronds Face the Front” i.e. the sunny side

Looking down-Sun, you’ll see an array of green topside fronds flat on.
Looking up-Sun, you’ll see more undersides & yellowness & edge-on fronds. It may not always show, but is clear when it does.
Tree ferns retain their lower branches longer on the sunlit side, and so seem to tilt toward the light.
(But in a windy place you will notice that the permanent lean, curve & frond-fall of ferns are downwind.)
Make a Mental Movie

Memorise a spectacular cliff looming closer overhead.
Watch the shape change. See the foreground shift. Notice the colours and contrasts. Look at the landscape flow.
Describe the silhouette. Peer into the deep shadows. Scan the skyline, looking at each interruption or change in trend.
Appreciate the hazy distance.
Follow a complete outline around, naming its shape.
Don’t forget to “record” the sound-track!
Initially try a full production only for beautiful memorable scenes.

With practice you may find that your memories stick for more and more locations.
Take Mental Photographs

Familiarity and Recognition are primarily visual. Your visual impression is adequately vivid, but your recall of it is faulty.
So put handles on the memory and you will be able to revisualise e.g. “where we found the weather balloon”.
To give your memory something to recall, take a detailed look.
The tricks are simply to give it a go, and to notice the specifics:
The colours, shapes, skyline, peculiarities, sequences — Talk about them.
Play a game: “Your turn: what else can you add to the picture”
Overlay some geometry on what you see — e.g. the log is parallel to the path and as far from it as the log itself is long.
Now close your eyes and see what you can reconstruct. Open them again and notice where you were wrong or were lacking detail.
Repeat this a few times until you could picture it in bed the next night.
Mental photographs are, after all, your take-away memories.

They are what names name; what “directions” talk about, what ‘recognition’ and ‘familiarity’ is based upon.
Take a Mental Photo of Each Change of Track

Where one subsection ends and another starts
— Look forward onto it, with the old terrain in the foreground and the new terrain joining on to it.
Now walk past the join, Look back, take in another view, with the old terrain now in the background.
This adds visual sequencing information to individual memories.
72
The Inside of a River Bend is Flatter Ground

The inside of a meander may be wider, sandier, marshier or of different vegetation.
On the outside of a meander, cliffs form, through ongoing undercutting. See also p.56a about the steeper North bank of a river (SH).
Consequently plan ahead and work out when to swap sides to find the easiest walking.
If the track becomes steeper underfoot, that would mean that you could be on the outside of a bend.
Check to see whether your heading has changed with the bending river.
If the track becomes flatter underfoot, this may indicate an inside bend (or a river junction)
Rivers Bend! Don’t Forget to Look Backwards

Obstacles cause creeks to change direction. Outcrops of bedrock and creek junctions, for instance, cause bends, and this may be shown
up ahead of time, by ridgelines pushing in closer, as you follow a riverbed.
Expect to meet a new creek clinging to the base of any ridge or shoulder which crosses your path, and also expect to change trend.
In addition, to that cause of bending, rivers follow contours and so usually are on a curved course anyway.
Furthermore, in the flats, rivers never follow a straight course but will ‘meander’.
So if, while following a creek valley, you notice the slope underfoot changing, or the vegetation altering, watch out that the creek
doesn’t leave you, by bending away from you!
If you find yourself in the middle of a larger than normal river flat, suspect a river junction, and be very careful interpreting the trends.
E.g. you may meet ‘the river’ ‘coming back toward you’ when you were trying to go downstream!
So you can easily lose orientation while the winding river-track follows the lie of the land and gradually wends its way around corners!
Look ahead to catch the trend — and interpret it.

Look back, to see the extent of the curve.
Rivers Meander. Ridges Run Straighter

A ridgetop route will often prove shorter than following a winding river.
Keeping a Compass Course, by Legs

You can’t see far ahead, but you can line up a rock or a bush which is in the right compass direction, then walk up to it.
It doesn’t matter how you get there, as long as you get there.
Repeat the procedure, even if you can see far ahead — because, if you are merely following a compass needle or a distant landmark,
you can “side-slip” off track.
Your eyes are freed from the compass needle while you walk.
Across the creek; Up the hill; Down the ridge; Through the tussocks
Required course
‘Straight’ forward!
Turn Smooth Bends into Sharp Jumps

Your brain wants something to “latch on to”. A smooth bend is just the opposite! So make a series of straight-line “legs”.
You “let go” of the last leg, and make a definite jump, to “latch on to” the next leg, and your subconscious smiles, and remembers.
E.g. ‘compass North’; then ‘to the tree’; ‘to the peak’
N
Cut the corners as much as you can and extend as far as you can.
Mind Which Way You Go tree
The related problem for your brain is: “nothing critical is happening”
— no Junction, no decision, no dilemma, no emotion, no change —
Try imagining “Oh I hate veering left; I do hope the track tends right”
— to give you some reason to judge the overall trend, to notice the bends, to remember them.
Lay a bet as to which way a track will trend! Keep a tally, with pebbles, or by counting with the 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 system,
— and have a good argument about it.
“Will it reach 100°?” “Will it drop past 0°?”
73
Bush Noon— The Sun is Always out, If You Know How to Look
Trees & shrubs live in the light, day in, day out. You would expect that they should respond to the light, and lean or reach out to the
strongest light, and throw out more branches and more leaves to the bright side.
The disposition of branches and leaves stays in view even when the Sun isn’t out, and it lasts longer than a cloudy spell.
Although the Sun is a huge factor in explaining foliage asymmetry, be aware of other factors…
▪ A lake or sea can double the light intensity on one side, pulling the foliage toward it.
▪ A clearing will let more light in on one side.
▪ Down slopes allow the trees to see more skylight on the down-side, and less skylight on the up-side.
▪ Other trees can shield a tree from the Sun. Look especially for recently fallen ones on the ground, to explain standing branches
▪ The tree itself shields its own branches, so that most growth is simply outwards.
▪ Unrelated factors like gravity, wind, and wood collecting, alter the shape of a tree.
However, if you average out all the other influences, you should be left only with the noon-side Sun’s influence — “Botanical Noon”.
With adequate practice you should never again be “lost in the bush” because it is the thick bush itself which will tell you where North is.
You may have an initial hopeless feeling of “I can’t see any meaningful asymmetry!” but the feeling will be temporary (eventually!).
Of course, this works best only where the Sun is always one-sided—in nontropical latitudes.
Hint: If a tree confuses you by pointing in the wrong direction, go over to it to learn why.
False Asymmetry
The slope of the ground False (“Chalk and Cheese”) comparisons
may be forcing the asymmetry, abound in Nature. True asymmetry is there too
rather than the differential in the lighting. Your task is to sort it all out.
In the second diagram, there is asymmetry:
A is ungrassed; B is grassed. E.g. Shaded foliage sees mostly blue skylight,
which should make it long and lanky,
compared to the red-end light from the Sun
False Symmetry E.g. the West side shadow is frostier for longer
C and D are both grassed. and the East side shade is cooler in the p.m.
True Symmetry E.g. the North side soil will be warmer deeper
B and C are both grassed. than the South side of a thick hedge
Dirt road wheel ruts...
True Asymmetry B C Look on the ground beneath a shrub, or log,

A and D are differentiated from each other. A D for asymmetrical shade and shadow effects.
Remembering the Sequence, Needs More Than Logic

Logic is logical and helpful e.g. The bridge was after lunch because we were worried about the crossing over lunch.
The red rock was after that, because the second creek was dry — it had all those beautiful red lichens in it.
Then the funny tree was where we had chocolate, i.e. 3 o’clock stop.
But logic by itself is not ‘sexy’ enough to be emotive and memorable.
So deliberately add some emotion…
E.g. “lunch”, “worried”, “beautiful”, “red”, “funny”, “chocolate”
You may need to add a song and dance, a gimmick, a clue to the time or sequence, distance or linkage.
The trouble with a memory gimmick, is that you focus on the gimmick, not on the memory itself.
E.g. If you use an acrostic, remember to feel the sequence of it, as well.
DO Something NUMERICAL
E.g. Lean one stick against “Walking-Stick Cliff” at one o’clock.
Sing two songs at “Sing-Song Pond” at two o’clock.
Make three cairns at three o’clock at the “T(hr)ee Junction”
Make four arrows on “Four Arrow Slope” during four o’clock.
Do it. Don’t just imagine yourself doing it.
E.g. Scratch numbers in the ground, in sequence, as you pass points of interest.
e.g. “5FF” (the 5th stop, with the flat floor); “6SS” (six sizzling sausages—the fireplace).
Make a SHAPE; Match the SHAPE

Every or location in a forest track or in open country can be recognised from its peculiar shapes. Every bend or fork can be matched
to the forest, or the shrubs and stones, so both the bend or clearing and the surroundings can be remembered, with joy.
Locations: What does this fallen log point to? What is parallel to it. Place something so it does make a shape.
How many shrubs do these three trunks enclose? What face or picture can you make out of the bushes, rock, clearing and the creek?
Do you see that line of tussocks; that clump of trees half-way up the slope; those parallel gutters; that oval of sand-dunes? Where
does it drain? What direction between those paired stags?
Bends: ~Look for a tree trunk leaning over at the same angle as the bend of the track, preferably leaning over the track or bend and
in the right direction. The tree stands out from all the others because of that. (Any lean at any angle in any direction will suffice.)
~Look for a branch pointing in the new direction, or curling, or bending in a way which mimics the track-bend.
~Look for a log lying parallel to the new direction, or any ditch, or line of rocks, or outcrop. (It doesn’t have to match.)
~Look for a large rock nearby which fits the shape of the bend, or orient it until it does. (Matching shapes are always the best)
~Look especially at the tree trunk, or the shrub which blocks the straight line of sight ahead, or the shape of the fallen-over trunk in
the way. E.g. “I’ll fall into that black hole in the trunk if I keep going straight ahead! I’ll have to swerve”. “I need to go around that
round stump”. A tree right at the bend will be visible from both directions.
~Look for a forked branch which matches the angle of a fork in the track. A series of parallel branches at the fenceline. A couple
of trunks leaning towards each other over the gateway. A tri-parallel set for a creek with two banks.
~Look for a branch which points downstream. Watch it for the next 50 years as it grows. A tree recognised is a friend for life.
~At a noticeable uphill pitch, find a leaning tree trunk and imagine climbing up it.
~Some leaning trunks can be interpreted in reverse… from top to bottom, to indicate the new direction.
The more you latch on to a peculiar shaped feature and the more you study its peculiarities, the better your recognition will stick.
Try to double up on the first peculiarity to clinch the recognisability. A matching pair of branches. A second confirmatory log.
You will have to look backwards at each bend if you want it to work well for the return trip.
Every bend and feature is a good chance to recognise another couple of trees. You stop at the bend and look around for your “friends”.
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Land-Form
Work downwards from a ‘Big Picture’ understanding. Start with a small-scale geology map, showing overall elevations.
Continental-scale domes (anticlines) & depressions (synclines) explain the overall drainage and watersheds.
Fault lines — shown by escarpments & cliffs — and individual ranges, interrupt the overall scheme.
The geological layers may be visible connecting across large distances.
E.g.
Pound Range Range
Easy walking on this side—don’t walk
‘against the grain’ of the layers.
Plain Plain
Layers become hardened and resistant to erosion when they are bent concavely upwards. They are compressed rather than fissured.
Convex layers are fractured and easily eroded, because they have been stretched. They will have been eroded away.
The present landform is a result of the erosion history on the previous landforms.
Hint
Most peaks have a steep side and a gentle side. Don’t forget to make a mental note of that trend
in relation to the rest of the land and the other visible peaks
— you may notice a pattern, or simply keep your overall bearings better, or recognise the peak later, from afar.
What Makes a Cliff and an Overhang?

Resistant top layer
Reverse slope at the beach The outsides of river bends
Water seepage at the change
Soft under layer
Wave action undercutting
The cliffs migrate outwards

Waterfalls form at hard layers, at fault lines and at escarpments.
Look for outcrops striking across the land.
“End the Bend” i.e. Notice the Un-Bends

A bend is not simply a sharp corner, not just a change in direction: ‘end of story!’.
It has a start, a curve, and a finish, where it straightens out again.
The curve needs to be named as a whole, measured as a whole, and thought of as a whole bend.
Look for the dividing points between successive curves Z S
The arrows show where a curve to the right changes into one to the left,
(a Z bend), & vice-versa (an S bend). These are “points of inflection”
— a straightening out, and remaining straight, is the other possibility.

Incorporate half of the straight section into each adjoining ‘bend’.
At the end of each bend, reorient yourself — look behind, at the compass, at the Sun and your shadow. Point to ‘home’.
Name the Bend, By the Trend, of its End

Trend: Left, toward Mt Michael e.g. “Viewmont Bend”
Right away from camp e.g. “The Long Right Leg”
Left into Lake Jordan e.g. “Left it down the Drain”
Handedness: Hard left around the spur e.g. “The West Bank Left Bank”
Half left from the creekbed e.g. “The Left Contour”
“Clockwise Climb”
“Right around the Bend” Bends will often alternate.
Direction: “Ending with Sunset in our face — Sunset Slap”
“Turning until the Full Moon Rises on our Right — Werewolf Way”
Compass: “North Now, to Alaska”
“Left-Sou-West”
Add some description
to seal the uniqueness e.g... Skyline: “Lone Pine Ridge” “Three Tree Hill”
Detail: “Uphill; On the Left Bank; Just past the river crossing; at 10 a.m.”
Notice and Name Perverse Bends

Unexplained bends, or ones which buck the trend, deserve a name.
Most bends are predictable — around obstacles — at creeks — around shoulders & outcrops — shortcutting
— contouring around sloping ground — at Y-junctions — joining with disused overgrown tracks
E.g. Seaside roads will hug the coast, go diagonally downhill but upstream (into a valley) and climb diagonally out of it, downstream
— as a compromise between shortness and flatness.
E.g. For the same reason, tracks will often change direction at a creek crossing.
So name the curves that go against the flow…

E.g. “Sinister Switch” (Latin for left) “A Dextrous Diversion” (Latin for right) “Unorthodox Twist” (Greek: not “right” = left)
“A Wandering a Way” “Aimless Avenue” “It shouldn’t’ve gone left!!” “The I’m-going-on-strike Uphill Bend”
“Mind Bender” “Morally Bent”
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Higher Density of Leafiness on the Noon Side

From underneath, next to the trunk, you can look up in all directions and see which side is leafier.
Looking side-on you may see one solidly green side and the opposite side patchier in its cover.
Trying to look through the foliage to the back of a shrub, you will have most difficulty on the North.
The Lowest Leafy Branches are on the Noon-Side

Looking from the sunny side you see a lower branch or even a wall of greenery, right to the ground.
Low branches on the shady side are often short, dead or only thinly covered with foliage.
Looking toward noon, you see more trunks, dead wood & grey-brown sticks.
“It’s the Shady Side that Shrubbery Shows up”

In practice you don’t look for the noon side, but for the absence of leaves low on the pole side.
Looking toward noon, you see ill-developed shapes. Many plants will throw out branches and leaves
in profusion in all directions, but you seek out the one direction which is different — the one less
densely green — where the light is in short supply. It is the ‘light null’ for solar direction finding.
Look for where no vegetation leans: “No stems, plants, branches point in that direction”.
Tall, Steep and Ragged Backside

Shade-side branches often reach for the sky, and are more vertical on that side, making it steep.
The noon side will be more of a smooth continuous wall of greenery from low-down upwards.
Wedge-Shaped
Looking away from noon, you see smooth and continuous foliage, slanted down toward you,
often clinging right to the ground, like a wedge.
Looking toward noon you see flat tall backsides of the bushes.
Hollow under the Shady Side

You can stand closer to the trunk, or at least see more of the trunk more clearly from one side.
Down low on the shady side is where the light matters most. There may be space enough for a
branch but not light enough. On the sunny side you will see leafiness deep into the low recesses.
Imperfect Shape on the Shady Side

Many shrubs seem to adopt a perfect dome shape, until you look more closely.
Gaps on the Shady Half.

The backside of shrubs is often tall, untidy, and lacking leafy branches, close to the ground especially.
Dead Branches
The overall shape may be perfect, but one side is alive and green, while the other side lacks leaves.
“Dead” South. There is a scale-effect to dead-south: The larger bushes have more depth of foliage.
The more foliage up-sun, the darker down-sun. Only the larger or thicker bushes work best.
Use a Type of Memory which you are Good at

Combine the methods for the most memorable effect.
E.g. pictorial — join images. Make them touch or glue onto, squash or hold hands, follow logically or overlap
— use a stack of pictures to put incidents into sequence.
“After the bridge we came to a red rock and then sat down for a snack at the funny tree”
E.g. ditties — A Capital Tee of Tall Trees at Three O’clock.
E.g. invented “associations”— a vivid or absurd image like a Tasmanian Tiger eating that hill.
Paint it in partly related colours, with shapes and other senses involved, to give extra “handles”/clues.
E.g. Imagine successive scenes in an invented journey/building/furnished room/street scene/pattern points.
Emphasise movement, and links between stages. Make it visual, simple, exaggerated and appropriate.
e.g. “I went inside the cave and talked to the sleepy bear (Ranger) about the bearing to follow, and he
said “Seek the morning sun”, so coming back out I turned to the east until I met the keeper of the
bridge who said “over my dead body lies the path to right; and left”. So climbing up over him...
E.g. numbers — One Wooden Bridge, Two Red Rocks, Three Funny Tree… to reflect the hours of the day
Make up a story with rhyme, from e.g. 1, bun for lunch, 2, through the dew, 3, see the sea… 7 rhymes
with leaden/Heaven/redden, 11 with Aladdin/pelican/caravan/a raven, 12 with elves/shelve/delve/selves
E.g. shapes — Make a 10-rock pyramid at the 10 o’clock stop; an 11 stick teepee at 11; a 12 leaf hexagon
— e.g. see-saw on a log at 7 and draw a see-saw in your notes—it has 7 corners.
E.g. You can weave a story, of invented images to go with the times of day.
e.g. each digit looks like a... 0 hole/ball/eye, 1 stick/pen, 2 cobra/sphinx/swan, 3 bosoms/camel, 4 yacht/picnic chair
5 measuring scoop/wheelchair, 6 bomb with a fuse/yo-yo, 7 arrow/step, 8 shotgun/glasses, 9 balloon/comma,
10 ball bouncing off a wall/golfball off its tee, 11 jail/stump/goalpost, 12 jail-break/caged lion.
E.g. acrostic — 7 a.m. Z. for Zero Rule Zero: Don’t forget to pack the lunch!....7:15 A Bend A in the Creek
7:30 B Bridge across the River at Bend B. 7:45 C We didn’t Cee the third bend on the map!
Using this method, elapsed hours happen at Z,D,H,L,P,T,X i.e. every four letters.
Use the Name of the Track for the Acrostic

L ying down tree *Every quarter of an hour, look for things beginning with that letter to remember that kilometre by.
E ee! There’s a bull! *four letters make up one hour *Use stepped word pairs, ‘Lying East-west; Exciting Exit; Extra Searches
E e-normous bracket fungus *Do Something Alphabetical
S wim E.g. Lie down at L; Scream at E; Examine the fungus at E; SPlash at SP
*Make all your names begin with that letter e.g. Pot-holes, Pines, Possum trees, Possible campsite, Photo
P addled Across *Write them all down, but try to memorise the best one.
A lternative Detour *You can attempt to improve the sequencing, by taking the letters two or more at a time e.g….
D LE In the Lee of the lying down tree
D EE EEE!
O ES E.S.P. told us to find the track next to the E-normous bracket fungus
C SP Splash Splash. Had a Swim
K *Try also to relate picture to picture in sequence e.g….
S Look at the Long horns on the Lying down tree; Enormous bull!; Enormous bracket fungus,
dripping with water… Swim!
Acrostics combine individual memories with a clear sequence — firstly by letter, and secondly, by overlapping one pair of letters
with the next, and thirdly by overlapping one picture with the next.
You have already memorised many long sequences of letters, e.g. the words of a song, which could be used as a unique acrostic.
76
Headlands, Bays, Prevailing Winds, Longshore Drift of Sand, Creeks

Headlands are ridges. Bays are valleys.
The ridges determine the headlands, bays, creeks, and — look for this — the position of offshore rocks and islands,
especially where a ‘point’ marks a change in the trend of the coastline.
Island Reef
Headland (Ridge)
sand drift
……sand spit Prevailing wind
Bay (Valley)
Lagoon
Flat; dunes This creek changes course near its mouth
The creek clings to the due to the longshore drift of sand
Pole-facing side of the
headland
One main creek per bay
Beaches — Slope, Particle Size, and Wave Energy

Energetic erosion washes away any small particles. A flat beach reduces the energy of breaking waves.
A steep beach is a high energy beach with big particles. A low energy beach is flat with small particles.
When it is deep offshore the waves break with high energy. Sandbars and shallow sandy offshore seabeds
make the waves break over a long-distance.
high energy well offshore
flat onshore
flat offshore wide overall
Much the same seems to happen on land slopes — the flatter slopes have fewer rocks. I.e. the accumulated silt which is not washed
away by surface water, covers up the larger rocks.
Sea-levels have been much higher in the past, so that there will almost always be buried boulders just above the present seashore.
Look Through the Trees, to the Sky and Skyline

This is a habit which stops you being befuddled by bends. You focus on the most distant thing you can see…
▪ E.g. the farthest tree trunk
▪ E.g. the skyline — ridges, gullies, peaks, light/dark division
▪ E.g. the clouds — but do stop to examine their movements occasionally!
▪ E.g. the Sun, the Moon — obviously the best, but they move too, and… don’t look at the Sun!
▪ E.g. the dark blue polarisation band — Use Polaroid sunglasses if you are walking a forest track and can see only the sky.
Don’t forget what is abreast of you e.g. a particularly tall tree. If you need to, look behind for some reference point.
Habits take practice to develop. This one is easy, because once you appreciate it, you won’t want to give it up.
— It turns many small bends into a few major trends —
Periscope
Climb a tree. Climb a hill. Stand on somebody’s shoulders. Or try this…
Attach a mirror (bigger = better) at 45° (try to be exact) to one end of a long stiff stick (e.g. a fishing rod)
— then scan the tree top horizon for landmarks.
Navigating by Trees
Tall trees on high ridges stand out against the sky and are visible for miles around.
Get to know the biggest, tallest, most visible ones.
Individual trees, gum trees especially, are wonderfully fingerprinted, by their branching pattern, outline, position & orientation.
E.g. look for the direction between the two largest branches. This stands out like a weathercock whenever you glimpse that tree again.
E.g. locate the relative positions of a handful of the best trees, so as to cover a wide area.
E.g. try to note the relative direction of pairs of trees.
Most big trees will have large branches to noon. So look for big branches which are not pointed to noon.
If you keep looking through the immediate green barrier for more distant (unmoving) skyline trees —
you will notice them and recognise them surprisingly often.
“East Branch”
West
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‘Solar-Panel’ Tilting of the Canopy Top

Some trees may be ‘flat-topped’, but they are not ‘level’. They tilt toward noon. Best seen from side on.
Wedge Shaped
Branches seem to know when to stop growing, and so manage to display
a fairly uniform, slanted flat wall of leaves toward the outside and especially toward the light.
Lopsided Lean
Branches on the backside usually reach higher to bask in the skylight.
Branches on the front side are more horizontal, lower and longer.
Some trees don’t seem to try to compensate and simply leave their trunk behind, on one side.
Half-Dome
— an extreme case of a steep back side
NOTE that all these signs work best in open woodland, not in forest understorey, but not always...
One-Sided Leafiness
E.g. Banksia trees
Such extreme asymmetry often only occurs in the understorey — where light is limited.
E.g. After a bushfire a gum tree revegetates from the trunk — most leafiness survives on the sunny side.
Individual Branchlets
— show similar shapes to whole trees
— tilted, asymmetrical twig patterns, one-sided leafiness, etc
The effect will show up best on the east and west sides of a plant, where the lighting is most asymmetrical.
Bare Backbone
Look for it on individual branchlets, on the rear-side of main branches, and sometimes on whole trees.
You could run your finger up the entire length on one side of many shady-side branches.
Group Several Related Images into One

This is a standard method of making your memory ability efficient.
You have less items to remember—they become a few memory prompts, each to a handful of items.
E.g. 4 groups of 4… 6,7,8,9 a.m. / 10,11,12,1 / 2,3,4,5 / 6,7,8,9 p.m.
Write each group out visually shaped e.g. at the points of a square for a group of four
with 2 opposite squares for a group of eight
inside an infinity sign for a pair of items
List the hardest to remember items, first and last.
Group the shapes i.e. the groups, into another visual structure.
Use symmetry wherever possible—it makes it easy to recall.
The Start-Stop-Rest mnemonic (see Section 5. p.110) is a good example of this “clumping” technique—never more than a handful of things to
remember, yet it leads you into hundreds of points.
Put the S for Sky at the top, and use a hexagon for the six start up points. Use a clock-face for TIME, and the compass-rose for NSEW.
Balance it all on a triangle, for the 6 a.m. start
Sky on Skyline (see p 110)
T
A
R
T
PRAYER P.R.E.P.A.R.E.D.
T.I.M.E. N.S.E.W.
UP
& Watch your Progress Forward & W.E.A.T.H.E.R.
LEFT RIGHT
Show the 6 directions in 3 dimensions... Back
DOWN
3 parts for “6/A/M”… 6

a.m.
AAAAAA MMMMMM
78
Rock Typing
Hardness — how easily eroded. Keep trying to scratch it until you find something just harder than it e.g. your pocket knife.
Colour — what colour silt. Scratch it against harder rock and look at the colour of the crumbs.
Sedimentary — the components are not of local origin. Layers — sedimentary origins. Melted sediments — crystalline bands
Sand content — grano-diorite — pale & silica rich. Clay content — basalt — dark & mineral rich. Mineral crystals in it.
Crystallisation — small crystals mean rapid (surface) cooling; large crystals means slow (deep earth—‘plutonic’) cooling.
Mineral content — what sort of soils does it produce? Flakiness. Behaviour in fire (Caution!)— it cracks, blisters or explodes! Melting pt.
Density, Magnetism, Fracture Pattern, Transparency, Permeability, Acid Solubility—evaporites and marine deposits may be limey.
Understanding these details is a key memory aid, since it gives you more meaning to look for, to memorise and recognise.
E.g. in basalt areas expect a more diverse & rich flora & fauna.
E.g. in the sandy plains, expect rivers to run underground, trees to have deep tap-roots and to line only the dry watercourses.
E.g. in dry sedimentary areas, look for a harder ‘evaporite’ layer underneath.
You don’t have to identify the mineral, but you should characterise the rock type.
Soil Typing
1. Climate drives soil typing. What is the climate?
2. Latitude drives climate. What is the latitude?
3. High altitude mimics high latitude. What is the altitude?
4. How is the local climate modified? Look especially for temperature and rainfall factors.
E.g. ranges upwind? A cold landmass? Warm ocean currents up-weather?
5. Evaporation produces salty limey evaporite deposits, whenever the evaporation rate exceeds the rainfall rate. High-temperature
and wind, speed up evaporation. Flat inland areas receive less rain. Where rainfall exceeds evaporation, the soils are acidic,
leached, and deep. Does the evaporation rate exceed the rainfall rate annually?
6. Climate drives vegetation as well as soil types. Soil types drive vegetation. The three go together. What is the vegetation type?
7. What is the parent bedrock? Granodiorite produces pale, sandy, friable, well-drained, mineral poor soils.
Basalt produces dark, clay, dense, waterlogged, mineral rich soils.
Warmth & rainfall aid chemical weathering and erosion rates of the parent bedrock, and so produce deep soils.
8. What are the relative constituents? Shake some soil and water together in a glass jar and leave it to stand until it is layered.
Organics & charcoal float. Heavy minerals, pebbles & sand sink. Silts lie on top of them; then clays. Colloids remain suspended.
Organic remnants accumulate in soil when it is warm enough to grow plants, but cold enough not to rot them away quickly.
The decay of organic materials then provides acids for leaching, provided that high rainfall doesn’t dilute the organic acids.
Can you see from the sort of soils how cold and wet it has been?
9. What are the depths & layers of soil? It is leaching which transports poorly soluble salts to lower layers, until the water table
dilutes the acidity. Subsoil clays also accumulate where leachates are deposited. Evaporites accumulate just below the surface
and above the water table. Dry areas have poor soil depth due to slow bed-rock weathering and erosion rates.
10. What is the soil colour? Red indicates partly leached soil — iron and aluminium salts remain. Paler, ash-coloured soils are left
behind after further acid leaching. Black soils result from poorly drained unleached soils. The importance is that leaching
reduces fertility due to the lack of soluble plant foods. Leaching is aided by warmth (except in the case of limestone which
dissolves better in colder climates).
Bush networks
The bush roadmap is made up of a network of interleaved ridges and rivers.
Instead of a major road or a minor road, you have a main ridge or river, shorter ones, and dead-end ones e.g. a ‘shoulder’.
A ‘cross roads’ is where two creeks & two ridges meet — a saddle.
The seashore corresponds to a boundary fence; Peaks and islands act like townships — they are a focus of ‘roads’ and ring-routes.
Don’t Navigate by Networks Only

Networks are fractal — big creeks have little creeks running into them; walking tracks have side tracks branching off from them;
big ridge lines have little ridge lines running off from them;
dirt roads have smaller dirt roads which have still smaller dirt roads joining in.
That is why it is difficult to recognise the scale of any map just by looking at the networks on it. The more detailed the map, the more
detail there is to show up. The smaller scale the map, the more detail has to be left off.
So there will always be small creeks, unmarked roads, minor tracks and minor ridges to tempt you into thinking
“This one is what is marked on the map”.
You will likely find one “exactly” where you look for it, but it may not be the right one.
Don’t navigate simply by expectations of network junctions.
E.g. the next creek-line has a 50% chance of being “just as I expected it — a creek-line coming in from the right”
or if not expected, the 50% chance is that you will say “probably just not marked on the map”!
If by chance it is actually correct, it will only encourage you to continue navigating by network,
but you won’t always pick the correct one.
Antidotes For Guessing at Network Junctions

▪ Distance covered. Accurate measurements of progress can eliminate some minor junctions which are “almost” where you
expect the desired junction to be.
▪ Trend — of the junction branches. I.e. the directions must match your expectations too. E.g. “Each side of North”
▪ Landmark bearings. Try to separate identical looking junctions by cross-checking their position in relation to skyline features.
▪ Care.
▪ Count. Look-alike branches are nonetheless unique, when numbered.
▪ Recognition, from last time, if you had bothered to identify its peculiarities. I.e. bother now, for next time.
79
Branching Patterns — Examine Them for thickness, length, angle, curvature
At each node some branches The choice of branchlet Side branches

grow better than others can curve a whole branch can curl around
usually toward the light toward noon.
i.e. stretching outwards or stiffen it bottom view Examine the ends
or up-wind upwards against the wind… looking up… of the branches.
or downwind down low.
Check the spacing.
This enhances the ‘bare backbone’ appearance
A well-leafed branchlet will usually hormonally of the dark side of a trunk or branch.
dominate one without buds, by active biochemical suppression.
In this way growth can be regulated.
E.g. horizontal decurvature
can search out extra light Double curvature can fight gravity or wind.
underneath the canopy
Branches
can also bend,
leaving tell-tale ‘wrinkles’
in the skin.
Gum trees show asymmetry especially easily, since they do not try hard
to be symmetrical in the first place!
Examine the main trunk itself. Or the trunk may be overbalanced, by its branches
It may curve away from the light lengthening, thickening and curling toward the light.
to act as a counterbalance
to the heavy light-side branches.
Length:
Some trees ‘reach’ for the light Look for wrinkles
becoming lopsided Angle: under the ‘armpit’
To get out from under the canopy, where it has bent...
The branches that noon-side branches often
find the reach out a long way
most light horizontally...
thicken most… Shady side branches
usually reach upwards
(except maybe in a windy place).
Working Names — Invent Them

E.g. Past the ‘Little Castle Rock’
Up the ‘Yellow-Crowned Tree’ trail
Under the U-shaped rock face
Between the Big-Boulder Bluffs
“40 minutes in” is a handy name — when you recognise it, coming back out.
Stupid gawky names help you remember, but even better is to do something stupid to match.
E.g. Gallop like a galah, through the pass, and call it “Gallop Gap with Galahs Galore!”
Standard Name Plus Personal Name

Actual names last longer and are widely known. Use them.
But make up a personalised name too.
E.g. “Oh it is actually called ‘Boomer Hill’, but we call it Porridge Hill, because it lies halfway between Oatlands and the Table Tier!
E.g. We call Wollongong “Kaus Australis” ’coz that’s where we watched Kaus Australis go straight overhead.
E.g. Kaus Australis becomes “The Wollongong Star”
Remembering Names
To help you later, when the name is ‘on the tip of your tongue’,
Count the syllables, consonants, short vowels, long vowels, now.
Rhyme it with something appropriate e.g. Condominium Creek has a pond of minimum seep.
Look at the spelt visual shape… for ascenders, descenders, double letters, symmetry.
Then later run through the alphabet for a guess at the first letter, then at the second, and so on.
Think about anything related, like why you went, what you ate, who you met, what you saw, the weather, the season, the news at the
time…
Ask each person for these recollections. Recreate the full scene.
80
Contour Lines
Contour lines mark horizontal ground.
A simple trick to match up the map contour lines and the landscape, is to point horizontally parallel to the ground.
E.g. if you are in a valley, point along both creekbanks, using both hands. The steeper the valley sides, the narrower the contour angle.
Contour lines on the map
Horizontal ground on the creek beds
Contour lines are like water-marks on the bank of a reservoir, lake or swimming hole, visible after the water-level has dropped.
But bigger like a global flood drying up 10m at a time, leaving water-marks.
like a photograph of it, from above.
like horizontal slices progressively taken off from the top of the mountains, as when you slice clay with a thin wire
and you look at what is left.
like building up a model landscape one layer of cardboard at a time, from below, with progressively smaller shapes
cut out according to the map contours.
Then you draw the results on a map.
They show the path you have to walk to go ‘around the contour’ so that you neither climb nor descend.
Contour Navigation: Practise It, Before you Need It

At night, or in fog, or in a blizzard, you may have no other clues, but the contours, on the map, and underfoot. Try to match them up.
Hint: Don’t expect every little bump to show up on the map, but only the average smooth slope.
Hint: Keep good track of compass direction, time & distance as your best crosscheck. Assess the wind. Use an altimeter (,GPS, radar…).
Hint: Delegate tasks — map reading; course holding; distance logging; slope assessment; exploration; memory…
Hint: To go quicker, go slower — so as to be sure. Explore the slopes to left and to right. (But don’t get lost or disoriented!)
Hold regular conferences to check your judgments.
Hint: Assess slopes by looking sideways, across them. They always seem so steep when you look up!
Boat navigators in a fog, can sail toward land until they reach a predetermined depth, then sail along parallel to the coast, using the
depth contours marked on their chart, and some method of finding the depth. Marine depth sounders rely on a good echo, but you can
always toss a weighted line over the side to find the actual depth. Make sure to make corrections for the depth of the depth-sounder,
the depth of your keel, and the height of the current tide!
Sticking to the Bush Network

▪ Walking up-ridge may perch you on an isolated hillock.
▪ Walking down-stream must get you to salt water; or at least to water, civilisation, flats, roads; but also to thicker vegetation
and a loss of view; and sometimes to impassable waterfalls and gorges.
▪ Walking upridge, uphill, upstream lands you in steeper, drier, more jagged terrain with more open vegetation, a better view
and maybe an along-ridge track.
▪ Walking down-ridge will “take you to the lake”, but simply walking downhill may lead you into a heavily vegetated creek-valley
which then drains into the lake.
Natural Routes Naturally Converge

That means that, in reverse, they must also diverge — which is dangerous, open to mis-navigation.
▪ Provided you don’t cross catchment divides, walking downstream or up-ridge is convergent and so is safe for a one-way trip,
but un-safe as a means of retracing your steps back to base. E.g. it is easy to climb a hill, hard to retrace exactly.
▪ Walking down-ridge is divergent — deceptive and dangerous.
You cannot easily see ridges peeling off below, and the map won’t mark all the creeks you can see.
If you are trying to retrace your steps or navigate from the map, you will have to be very careful.
▪ Ridges converge to hilltops — so walking downridge leads you widely astray.
▪ Upstream is divergent — you don’t know where you will end up, but at least you can find your way back,
because creeks converge toward the river mouth.
▪ Tracks & trails converge to: popular features, bridges, car parks, waterholes, homesteads, campsites, clearings, etc.
So leaving a focal point faces you with multiple choices “How on earth do I get outta here!”
Coping with Divergence

The result of “directions” such as “You can’t go wrong. You can’t miss it” is that the truer that is, the easier it is to go wrong
— after you have found it. Retracing your steps, or finding the desired way out, onward, can become a nightmare.
▪ Ask directions for the onward bit, not just how to get there.
For backtracking…
▪ Pay attention on the way in, despite your excitement at arriving. Note the direction of your arrival. Look back regularly. Mark
the junctions you used, especially from minor out onto major paths. Retrace your own tracks.
Reverse logic
Be like yachtsmen, who should always explore harbours, shallows and tributaries at low tide “in case we do get stuck”.
▪ Explore upstream — a divergent labyrinth — so that you can walk downstream to return.
Provided you don’t cross water-divides, or overshoot your starting point, “you can hardly go wrong”.
Ahah! There’s the hint: Before you set off upstream, peek behind you, to see when to stop “coming back downstream”!
▪ Explore downridge, and climb back upridge later. Only don’t climb down anything you can’t climb back up.
▪ Explore away from a focus, so that you can converge back to it.
81
Isolated Vegetation Shows the Clearest Asymmetry

E.g. Look in any clearing for downwind debris/erosion, slanted
and for up-Sun/down-Sun asymmetry at the edges. steep
E.g. an isolated tree in a paddock... tilt
E.g. an open creek will give the bushes a clear view across the water...
E.g. a roadway will exaggerate the light asymmetry on one side
and suppress it on the other...
E.g. Look in the wheel ruts of bush tracks for asymmetries due to wind & light…
Examine the tallest trees — The emergent ones have a clear view of the Sun.
road
At the edge of a clearing, subtract the effect of wind…
Closed Canopy — Look for Gaps

Each tree canopy might look uniform, but be blown back on the upwind side,
leaving a gap there, with dead branches, where it has tried to fill the gap.
But look for a gap without dead branches and without other explanation
— It might be ‘shady south’, which gives the tree little incentive to cover.
The tree could have spread that far by now, if it had wanted to, but hasn’t.
Tall and quick growing saplings show the most asymmetry... more vertical branching
on the shady side
They can be the best tell-tales of all, and the worst!
Because they respond to clearings, slope, water-shine, nearby trees — be careful!
Take extra care to average out their message.
Any one tree gives you too definite an impression!
Back-to-back saplings may show opposite asymmetry, by shading each other...
Treat the overall shape as one tree.
The sapling effect, arises from young forest trees shedding branches more often
and more easily than mature trees.
Roadsides & Campsites Reverse Some Effects!
Examine trunks for broken or lopped boughs before interpreting!

The bigger lower branches are easiest and best firewood pickings!
Trimmed! before camper
after campfire
Name the Subsections

Heart-Attack Hill Bust-me-gall Bend Starve-gut-Ridge : Be Vivid
On-the-Double Decline Cross-the-Creeks Roller-Coaster Blackberry Bank : Be Descriptive
Left-hand Loop Clockwise Climb Right-around Contour The Zed Bend : Be Cheiral
N-E Straight Into the Sun Slog West Bank Downwind Dunes : Be Directional
Long Leg Short Stretch The Middle Mile : Tell the Distance
Last-legs Leg Dinnertime Creek Sunset Strip : Tell the Time
On the Left of Third Hill Nine Mile Beach Five Ways Fourth Island : Count
The Bush Blocks The Rock Band Turning Point The Up-Part The Trip down : Be Clever
Rubble Ramble Possum Passage Flower Flats : Alliterate
The Birdwatching Bit The Deer Park The Gloriously Green Glade : Be Observant
The Monkey Saddle (three creeks) The Big Bulge Round Shoulder Tight Turn Tongue : Be Shapely
The Breakaway The Hither Side of the Hill Round the Rim Unto the Brink : Be Literary
Brown Beach Bay Wobbly Shacks (= Mount Wobbly behind the shacks) Zigzag Track : Be Visual
Perverse Reverse Inland Cusp Round the Back Out to Sea and Back : Name Whole Curves
Name the Sequence

Fit Each Subsection into a Larger Scheme.
▪ Name the Links : The Cuvier Track The Mount Barker Road The East West Ridge
▪ Name the Junctions : Point Pass Steppes Junction Tee -tree Junction
▪ Contextualise : Beyond Burrowing Crayfish Ridge Cross Catchment Climb
▪ Overlap Sections : Deer Sally to Sandy’s Shore to All-Terrain Trek } these are simultaneous
Sherwood Forest to Bumpy Flat to Uphill Haul } and overlapped 50%
I.e. halfway through one section, think about how it is changing character
into the next obvious section, and anticipate it.
▪ Time-Distance Clues : Lunchtime Lookout The Approach Thither Heather Tea Junction Ten-Mile Dam
▪ Lie-Linkage : Downstream from Dusty Waterfall Wind-Shadow Plateau
▪ Numbers : Fourth Bump Fifth Creek Tee Junction # Three
▪ Acrostic : Short Steep Step in the Southern Subdivision after the Shallow Segment
82
Contour Curves: Your Job is to Imagine the Shapes into Life

And to Match the Lines to the Landscape
Deep Vee ‘Ditches’ The sharp points, point up-river. (sharp/up rhymes in p)
— they gather water.
Round ‘Shoulders’ — they shed water. The round points point down-ridge. (round/down rhymes)
— being higher ground, they separate gullies
Peak or Depression — you can’t easily tell which. Peaks are much more common.
Hairpin ‘Ridges’ — they can look parallel, like ‘a slope’, if the edge of the map cuts them off.
Ridges usually show much rounder than this.
Parallel ‘Slopes’ —be careful about which way is ‘up’. Check that they are not the same height—on a ridge or river
Here is a typical confusing array of parallel lines.

The first two are ambiguous, but seem to lead down into a valley…
The valley is shown as lines 3, 4 & 5…
The three corners here are all sharper than the corresponding ridges.
Downstream is to the left…
Imagine a deep-vee ditch.
The shoulders and peaks shown here are all much rounder…
..Uphill is peak saddle ridge or peak ……….
Imagine a circular mound with a spur down to left and right.
Down here, upslope to higher ground is…
Trackless Navigation
When you leave the bush network to cut across the natural routes, you still navigate by them, by noticing when you cross them.
You choose a route in relation to the framework — of ridges, rivers, and the contours that cross them at right angles.
E.g. “I am now going diagonally right, uphill, on the left bank, to the Ridge, then…”
You describe the sort of route you are following, and start a new subsection whenever that sort of route changes in quality.
E.g. A dry shallow creekbed marks a change from downhill to uphill.
E.g. The major break of slope—on the “hillside”—marks the change between being on the “hill/crest/ridge” or in the “valley”.
Don’t forget to ask, as you cross each ‘road’, what that ridge or creek is doing, to the left & to the right e.g. joining, splitting, rising,
falling, dividing major valleys.
The method of Names

The point of this method is to bring your normally subconscious memory into conscious focus.
You put a name i.e. an essential description, onto each subsection. This is in addition to naming the creeks and ridges you cross.
That is equivalent to supplying your own signposts & flashing lights to the landscape. But write down the other details also.
As with memorising any journey there are a handful of steps: Notice; Recognise; Describe; Name; Remember; Put it into Sequence.
Bush Networking Essentials

Answer up to six backbone questions about each leg, before deciding on an appropriate name for that subsection…
1. Hill-wise — What Peak? — Is your direction trend in relation to it Uphill or Downhill; towards or away?
2. Hillside-wise — Slope — Choose between Upslope/Downslope/Flat/Contouring.
3. Ridge-wise — Rise — Upridge/Downridge/Crossridge?
4. Drainage-wise — Lie — Upstream/Downstream/Crossstream?
5. Side-wise — using the standard names* — Left bank/Right bank (below the break of slope); Right flank/Left flank (above).
*As a yachtsman going up-stream sees it — Port and Starboard. Use these terms in your names to remind you.
As a traveler going up-ridge sees it.
I.e. the standard directions are up-stream; up-ridge; up-north; up-wind; up-hill, up-slope.
Be careful! The ‘right bank’ is the ‘left flank’. You can climb to the right on the left flank (of a ridge which falls to your right).
Walking diagonally ‘downslope’ can be ‘upstream’.
6. Hand-wise — Tack — Clockwise around or Left around/On the left diagonal or Right diagonal?
Mnemonic: (With your right index finger) touch your head (the peak);
forehead (the slope);
bridge of your nose (the break of slope);
down the ridge of your nose (the ridge);
nostrils (the drainage);
right cheek (the side);
and now look at your hand in wonderment (What is my tack?)
Then point out some peculiarities...
Now add the non-essential — exact measurements e.g. direction/length/time/steepness/count —and descriptions, sequence, context.
(Remember: don’t navigate only by networks.) See opposite, for descriptive names.
83
Flowers Respond to Sunlight

Examine the stalk-lean and flower-head tilt
e.g. of daisies.
Look up-Sun and down-Sun to see the striking difference, whenever the Sun is low.
Look for the first flush of flowering on the sunny side of a flower spike
E.g. Yakka (Xanthorrhoea). The mid-morning sunlight direction gets the earliest flowers.
Examine closed flowers to see whether they betray where the Sun last came from.
Many flowers ‘follow’ the Sun around.
Some leafy stems seem to tilt to the noon, perhaps to point their terminal flowers into the Sun.
E.g. Sea Spurge
(Top view)
Banksia pistils sprout earlier on the sunny side.
Banksia stamens deepen in colour on the sunny side.
Fruit Distribution and Ripening

Some bushes will fertilise more flowers in the sunlight because pollinators can see them better.
Fruit are fertilised flowers. So some species ‘set’ more fruit on the sunny side.
Look in all directions to see which aspect presents the most flowers or fruits to view.
‘Ripe’ colours are a result of sunlight e.g. apple, peach.

Sun-ripened colours aren’t confined to fruits.
Mushrooms are often old enough to have seen some sunlight.
One mushroom in the open may not help you much, but they do come in flushes, so look for a pattern.
Remember the Sequence from AA to ZZ

— A Ready Made Acrostic of memorable unique items, with endless extension if needed. I recommend it as the pick of the mnemonics.
You may need to remember each tree in a forest walk, or every twist in a path, or every choice in a maze, or every square in a grid.
AA to ZZ supplies 676 differently named and sequenced letter pairs.
If you turn the letter pairs into appropriate two word phrases, there is no limit to the useful memory aids.
E.g. I could call this system the Alphabetic Zygote (of ‘letters paired’ A-Z).
As with all gimmicks, it only works best if you study and memorise the object receiving the label.
Examine the tree for anything which could attract the label DF (damp foliage; dendritic form; downpointing flowers),
or mentally photograph the MS munch-stop, or actually bird-watch at BW.
It’s up to you to use the letter pair in a memorable way. Don’t forget to use visual, emotional, sequenced and appropriate words.
Consistent rules help.
On a pure sequence walk, begin with double letters, rather than with A-Z single letters. This makes two word phrases the consistent rule.
In fact begin with any double letter, but especially the initials of the walk, e.g. BL for Blackmans Lagoon.
Two word Phrases e.g. AA = Ask Again, avoid the ambiguity about which other letter in the word or phrase might be emphasised.
E.g. is Aeroplane, AE or AR or AP or AN? Was ‘Anabolic steroids’ A or AS?
Add a third word to the phrase as needed, to spell out what it means, e.g. Backwater Island turnoff.
The trick is to make the mnemonic match the feature.

E.g. if there is a plague of mosquitoes which you attack with a stick, Aaron’s Almond-tree walking stick might be appropriate for AA.
Then the need is to somehow link the previous with the next.
E.g. AB Aaron’s Budded walking stick (if you know that story), might focus your attention on the buds in the next gum-tree.
Without a ‘theme’ it is difficult to pluck out your memory what ‘DF’ might have been. But ‘Doctor’s Emergency’ where you stubbed your
toe, leads on to ‘Doctor’s Ferari’ when you walk on quickly anyway, and on to ‘Doctor’s Gasoline’ where you topped up with lunch.
If you do a ‘grid-line walk’, you use A-Z to begin with, and say you move from A0 to C4; you might go through A1, A2, B2, B3, C3, C4.
The memory aid goes A0, then Ahead on 1 leg, hopping, then Across, on 2 legs, Ban-tu, Ban-three, See the three cattle?, Count to 4...
‘Minus’, in cases of ambiguity, might come out as ‘which was 4 metres deep’, or ‘where I left 4 pebbles behind’, or ‘and Not 4 blisters’ or
‘at anything but 4pm’.
When you get into AD you look for a-d peculiarities to remember like ‘Add 4+6 wattles (to get 46)’ or ‘33AD crucifixion tree’ or ‘Adder-
Death, two score of them’.
As an alternative, name all grid squares with letters, e.g. D-G, and look for things to name, such as Dark Green; Discarded Gaiter.
In a maze, you could choose Long words for turning Right; Short words for turning Left, a mixed phrase for Straight Ahead. These match
the meaning-words in length of sound.
Maybe you need some variations:
One, two, three or four syllables for left, right, through, reverse.
Long first vowel sound vs short vowel sound.
Begin with one letter and end with the other sound, e.g. Amanda, Abib, Ace, Add, Abbey…
Let sounds take priority where needed. E.g. few words start with K, but many start with a hard C. X is hard unless you allow Ex-.
Memorised sequences are most effective if revised almost on the spot, e.g. via a leap-frog walk (2 forward, one back), and on the return.
Equally, other methods are enhanced by adding this mnemonic, such as when marking a trail, writing track notes, or making a mudmap.
84
Contour Heights: Read the Numbers!

Determine the Contour Interval — and interpret which way is ‘up’ from the numbers… Note: On maps, the numbers are printed
70 to be read as if looking uphill.
500 This first diagram is “every 50 m”. 70
And ‘up’ is toward the top. In the second diagram, the
contour interval is every ‘10 m’
400 Zero means “sea level” 90 90
Read the absolute numbers! ‘Up’ is now downwards.
50 Note that major contours may be marked as thicker 60

60 e.g. every 50 or 100 m 50
..The first is a peak; the second is a hollow...
Marine charts show spot-depths, ‘soundings’, in metres and decimeters, below lowest water, with offshore depth-contours.
If the “depth” is underlined, it refers to a “drying height” of intertidal rocks.
At sea, keep a record of the soundings as you sail in to land, preferably in a straight line. Plot them onto tracing paper or mark them on
the edge of a ruler, and try to match the pattern to charted depths.
Contour Spacing: Close = Steep Slope

Wide spacing = flat land Examples: mountain plateaus; valley floors; paddocks; dunes
Irregular contour shapes (meandering all over the map; not shown here) = very flat land
500
Slope
520
Ridge — carefully notice when numbers are identical. The rule “Closer Equals Steeper” only holds
520 for different height levels, not for hairpin
contours around ridges or rivers.
In fact, “close” might equal “flat” i.e. on a ridgetop
500 Slope
Cliff — Very close = Very steep
440
Slope; have you worked out downhill?
Walking “Straight” through the Bush

▪ ‘Straight’ downstream; upstream; down-ridge; up-ridge; uphill; downhill
▪ ‘Straight’ around the contour
▪ ‘Straight’ along the path of least resistance
▪ ‘Straight’ through the obstacle course, dodging to left and right
▪ The Line ‘of Best fit’ — to a chosen trend cross-country
None of these are straight, but most are easier than ‘straight across a slope’ — crossing innumerable ups and downs!
Most are predictable.
The navigator simply goes last in line with a compass and logs the twists and turns, whatever course that takes.
Why last in line? It is a fact of life that following your nose through the bush quickly disorients the leader of the party,
while those following behind maintain their bearings easily.
Also, to clearly show up the trend of a sinuous course, the last person can drag a long smooth string loosely behind him.
Straight around
At a…
▪ Constant Angle—to the (changing) Sun, Moon, star, planet, landmark e.g. keep the peak “ahead on your left” — a spiral course.
▪ Constant Distance Off — as judged by the rule of thumb — you keep a prominent landmark appearing to be a constant size
— from base to peak. The course is circular, concentric to the landmark. E.g. offshore, around a lighthouse.
▪ Constant Horizontal Angle — between two prominent features. This gives a cusp-like circular course.
You can retrace these courses, but the going may well be difficult — crossing many streams and ridges.
How to Walk in an Unintentional Circle

Haven’t you heard of people walking in a large circle when they are lost?
They thought that they were walking in a straight line, but some hours later they recognise the same scenery!
I’ve done it; it’s no myth. Discover your natural drift...
Blindfold yourself. Try to walk straight across a flat. I bet you can’t.
Most people have one slightly shorter leg, usually their left leg.
Now try to walk across a slope, blindfolded of course, in a straight line. I bet you drift.
But once you realise it, you are just as likely to head uphill too much, in overcompensation.
Don’t trust your senses in a fog. Find out by trials at home — before you find out the hard way — how far ‘off’ you are.
Also find out how to properly walk in a straight line in a fog!
85
Stem and Leaf Colouring

pink green
noon sunlight
red green
red red red
Samphire saltbushes
colour up Look from the top
on the bright side and sway side to side Succulent leaves redden up
to find the deeper colour The colour deepens on on the bright side. Look one
Many other plants the bracts higher up way over the flats & it is
show red stems on the sunny side pinker than the other way,
or leaves etc especially just after sunset!
Look for a paler side.
N.B. Older stems may show a reverse trend! The colour fades on the sunny side after having deepened more while young.
Beware: When flower-stalks twist as they grow, the colouring or fading effect is unreliable. You can detect the twisting by the fading.
Example: Blackberry stems and leaves redden in sunlight, staying green on the shady side.
New Growth is Colour Differentiated

Looking up- or down-Sun (on a cloudy day) will show up new growth as yellowish or brownish or bluish (depending on the species)
in one direction more than the other.
The sunny side will ‘green up’ the new leaves more quickly and will look more normal coloured.
But test it out first — it may go the other way — sunlight might promote new growth, before it colours it up.
When new growth is distributed throughout the shrub, the sunny side will often show deeper green (i.e. more of the same pigment)
and be more vari-coloured e.g. some leaves take on a red blush or red margins in response to the Sun.
Revise your Memories

..after a 10 minute distraction
..after an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year e.g. for an acrostic which you wish to remember permanently
..and whenever after, when you begin to have trouble remembering
Choose undistracted, mindless times
e.g. while trudging or being driven, waiting or relaxing, or last thing before sleep, to run over things in your head.
Overpractise your mistakes. Out loud is always better. Take any opportunity to tell someone.
To Remember Formulae such as those at p. 19b

(1) Make up memorable ditties, and refresh your memory, as above, before you lose them.
(2) ‘Read’ the formulae for sense — They are just shorthand for how things must behave. If you don’t like maths, it’s probably because
you never understood the common sense behind it, and that is probably because you never had the opportunity to see it, or developed
the skill to read formulae.
E.g. ‘Sin, Sin, Sin! It’s High Latitudes which Declines it, for both Easterners and Westerners’
for: the three sine ratios in the formula… ‘sin (height E-W) sin (latitude) = sin (declination)’
i.e. as the latitude increases, the height must decrease, and vice-versa, to preserve any sin (dec) figure as constant.
The formula should return zero height for zero declination, and 90° height for dec=lat.
This next one assumes that you measure the angle away from East-West (rather than from the ‘elevated pole’, as on p 19b).
You can use ‘sine of the variation from E-W’ instead of ‘cosine of the angle from the pole’, because ‘co-sine’ says ‘sine of the co-angle’.
‘The sin of the increasing the sunset angle, by cause of increasing latitude, is a sign of decline’.
sin (sunset angle) (multiplied by) cos (lat) = sin (dec)
Read this as: For any specific declination, as lat increases (=the cos reduces), the angle must increase, to preserve a constant sin (dec).
You can also put in dec=0 and expect a 0° answer no matter what the lat.
At the Equator, declination directly determines the direction of set N or S of E-W.
‘Why bother with the E-W Sun? Because of its E-W timing! It’s today or too late’ t for tan; d for dec; late for lat;
90° = 6hrs each side of noon cos (time of E-W) = tan D / tan L, ‘or’ for “o’er” for ‘over’
Lat = 0 throws the calculation into a spin, because any declination other than 0 can’t be E or W. Dec = 0 must return 90° for any lat.
Dec = 90 must be impossible (it’s N or S!), but so must any dec > lat, since cosine doesn’t go above 1. Those stars stay polewards.
‘One New Day at a Time? Not quite, ’cause for tomorrow’s sunrise time, today’s time’s not too late!’
It changes only slowly, as dec changes. cos (time of sunrise) = tan D x —tan L 15° = 1 hr. each side of noon
0,0 must return 90°. Opposite hemispheres must return a large positive cos and hence a smaller angle, and a short day.
Same hemispheres must return a negative cos, which means a long day.
Too much lat, and the tropical bodies disappear altogether, as expected. Too much dec, like a circumpolar star, and it won’t even set.
Try the Equation of Time, p.17b.

The First FFive months, From FFebruary, Fence-sit Four Features (halF-each side). The next 7 finish at four more features.
–14,0,4, 0, -6,0,16, 0 Makes nice mirror patterns of the two sets of four features. Minus means a fast Sun, up early; a ‘slow’ clock.
FFFebruary Founders at FFFourteen; Marches up again; April crosses (its hot-cross buns); May turns 4; June double-crosses;
July finishes work at six; August rises augustly, to zero; SSSeptember and October get up to SSSixteen;
November and December decline a lot; December crosses at Cross-mass; January Sun decends from the cross, fast, for a new year.
86
Contour Slopes: Work Out 1 mm and 1 cm Contour Spacing

slope rise Example: a Rise of 10 m in a Run of 100 m is a Slope of one in 10 and an angle of 5.7°
Angle [ Tangent(angle)=rise/run Angle=Arctan(rise/run) ]
Run rise/run is technically called the “gradient” i.e. an up-slope.
1) Example of 1 mm contour spacing: A 1:100,000 map-scale says: 1mm equals 100m (See ‘map scaling factors’ p.92a)
with 50m contours the slope must be 50m every 100m or 1 in 2 or 26°½.
2) Example, with 1 cm contour spacing: 10 times less slope, in the same example, or one in 20, or 3°
Using these 2 reference spacings (work them out again for every new map) fit the actual contour spacing (eg 3mm) between them.
E.g. map scale: 1:25,000 (1mm = 25m); for 10m contours, 10m rise in the 1mm run, on the map (=25m in reality) is,
“1mm contour spacing = 1 in 2.5”; (10mm contour spacing) = 1 in 25; (20mm contour spacing) = 1 in 50;
So… 3mm means 1 in 7.5
Reference Slopes — To Imagine the Climb with!

One in one; 45°; One up / one across; On all fours!
One Degree is ‘one in 57’ (or approximately 1 in 60) So 10° is ‘one in 5.7’ — maximum for public roads
One in Four is 14° — a neat coincidence to memorise. So One in 40 is 1.4° — maximum for railways
36° slope — 8 in 11 — more or less maximum for sand, gravel, scree, or any loose material.
Small slopes may be multiplied with approximate linear accuracy, but in an inverse fashion…
Examples: 2° is one in 30 — from the one in 60 rule
1 in eight is 7° — from the one in four rule
5° is one in 11 — either from 57/5 or from 5.7 x 2 or 1/8 of 36° see also “sine-cos chart” p.106b
The Beaufort Wind Scale — Modified for Bushwalkers

One in 40 contour lines absent or rare; pleasant ambling; wind whistles through the lips; grey hair relatively common
One in 30 car engine quieter than road noise; perambulators plentiful; locomotives absent.
One in 20 car engine noise louder than road noise; walkers plentiful
One in 15 skin moist despite cold conditions; heavy breathing is heard above background noise
One in 10 eyes sting from sweat; bicycles experience difficulty staying upright
One in eight flies are constant companions; car smoke exits parallel to the ground; mountain bikers walk
One in six cigarette butts become less frequent; 2 wheel drives mostly absent
One in five walkers experience difficulty making forward progress
One in four cannot hear the sound of a cigarette being lit; leaf litter easily lifted off ground
One in three sturdy walkers stagger and sway; frequent rests; slow progress; loose soil swept away
One in two large trees tilt at a noticeable angle to the ground; rocks experience difficulty staying in place; walkers remain upright
only by zigzagging
One in one toenails begin to bleed; trail bikes begin to bleed
Two in one fingernails begin to bleed; small trees are pulled up by their roots
Three in one contour lines begin to merge; danger of severe falls; you are in danger of being completely… winded!
Walking an Exact Straight Line in Open Country

Assume the visibility is limited, or the terrain difficult, or the vegetation is closed in…
▪ Lengthen the Whole Party—In Single File. Shout to the leader, if he wanders to left or right. Stop still if you lose sight of the
person behind you, i.e. do something to make sure that no one gets lost in the fog.
▪ Drag a flat object (or a person) on a long string. Tie your end of the string onto a stick, and hold it forward above your head.
Alternatively, pivot the stick in your hand at its halfway point, and it will point in the right direction.
(Watch that the wind doesn’t blow it sideways; Stop the flat object rolling; Stop it sliding downhill; Don’t let it drag at an angle)
Try just a slippery fishing line with no object.
rain
▪ Harness the leader in a pair of reins! fog
Tie one string to either arm of the leader, and steer him properly. snow
▪ Hold the rear end of the string over a compass.
▪ Leave a trail of visible markers lined up exactly.
You need to look back frequently and drop a new marker.
— stones, sticks, stumps, tree trunks
Leapfrog with only three marker sticks — take them with you.
Leapfrog people!—leave someone behind; send someone ahead; line them up with each other & with a compass if available.
▪ Scratch a line into the dirt. Look back frequently. Readjust yourself
▪ Use the radio for radio direction finding.
▪ Orient by Sunset glow, the wind on your cheeks, the blue band, town lights, distant noise, etc.
To keep to a fixed “track”, manoeuvre around obstacles in a rectangular fashion, or reverse any diversion.
▪ Leap-frog a Straight Line by Looking Ahead

A. A straight line course is easily achieved visually — like keeping a hundred fence posts in a dead straight line.
In clear open country, you simply walk toward a new mark halfway between you and your destination — no problems.
Keep the 2 lined up. When you get halfway choose another halfway point in line. If you can keep sight of the more distant destination,
this method means you only use the magnetic compass once, to locate the distant destination—then keep a fixed ‘track’ visually.
When obstacles force you sideways off track, you can easily regain track, visually.
B. In more difficult circumstances, you cannot see far ahead and usually rely on looking back, as above.
But leaving markers behind you slows you down and keeps you looking around.
This method does not require you to look back, but requires a simple discipline — leapfrogging visible marks exactly ahead of you.
Step one: Choose two distinct marks exactly in line with your desired direction
Step two: On reaching the first mark, choose a third, still in line. And so on.
You can do this while following a formed track. The track will bend from the average straight line, but you’ll notice that immediately.
I.e. when you don’t get to the third mark, and have to start again, you are well aware of the change in trend.
You The end result accumulates errors
(despite the averaging process).
87
Noon-Sunlight is More Vertical

Unfaded Examine needle bush (e.g. Hakea) needles, one by one.
on shady
top side side of Some effects will be more noticeable in winter, and in higher latitudes.
faded the bush In summer, the ‘shady’ side is actually bathed in horizontal sunlight twice a day!
(N) bottom in Winter
side
faded
(S,E & W)
in Summer
The Shedding of Bark on the Sun-Baked Side

The patchwork of coloured fresh new bark shows that
the bark strips an extra layer deep on the sunny side.
Look also at the coloration of the freshly exposed bark, for asymmetry.
The bark ‘stocking’ clings higher on the shady side.
It is older, deeper, darker and allows more and older lichens.
Look for the ‘curl’ of bark ribbons — the pipe-like shapes peeling off —
as there may be more curling shown up on the dry side,
but it depends on the species.
Where to Look for Fading or Lack of it

**Turn leaf blades around to compare the greenness in each direction.
Find a pair facing the same direction, and twist one of them, then
make a comparison to see which side is more faded.
**Twist an untwisted vertical reed stem, to detect the more faded side.
Look at stumps and old posts, tree trunks and fallen sticks.
E.g. Acacia E.g. Sunlight bleaches the sunny side of bark and dries out any secretions
E.g. The dark side of the trunk will often be darkly stained
e.g. with cider-gum secretions.
Leaves dropped into the shady zone will not fade and dry out so quickly.
The shady zone is offset toward the pole,
because the sunlight penetrates deeper on the noon side.
The broken faces of lying timber may be more coloured

and less bleached in the shade.
Bumps and slopes, diggings and burrows, may show dead dark moss on the
hot side, or grass which has dried up.
Look for a very subtle pink glow on the shady side of dead timber, which is absent or greyer and paler on the exposed side.
Once your brain sees a hint of it, it becomes easier to see—so persevere.
Bracken fronds die off from their tips, but the fronds that retain their greenness the longest are on the lowest, shady side.
Dead thistle stems fade on the Sunny side.
The topsides of grass blades fade more due to being blown over flat by strong winds, and so are exposed to sunlight, wind & drying.
Upwind edges of green bushes often show a brown wind-scorch.
Fresh diggings (echidna, bandicoot, wombat) expose soil to bleaching. Look at the steepest sides for the least faded soil.
Some fading is due to oxidization (exposure to air), some to dessication (loss of humidity), some to sun-bleaching (exposure to
ultra-violet). Again it will pay to study the various effects before you need to rely on them.
Also be aware that diffuse lichens will give a covering colour to dirt, wood, rocks, etc, which may complicate the appearances.
Button-grass flower-stalks fade but darken on their exposed side, perhaps due to fungus. One side is dark grey; the other pale yellow.
88
Make a Clinometer — a Slope Measurer

One person holds the loop knots apart under slight tension. He barely touches both plumb-bobs onto the ground, to settle them.
Their identical lengths ensure a parallelogram.
The second person alters the middle string until it just touches the plumb-line.
The identical lengths ensure an isosceles triangle.
The 5 cm marks represent whole degrees of slope. Use 6 m of non stretchy cord. Measure and construct the lengths carefully.
loop knot
1.45 m E.g. the slope is 11°½ here…
every 5 cm Accurate from 0° up to 20° or so

The method is based on the isosceles triangle rule
1.45 m (double the half-angle sine; nearly linear for small angles)
and on 1 in 56. You can use 1.40 to 1.50,
but the lengths must be exactly equal.
Approx 1.5 m 1.5 m
The one-man version has two foot-loops.

plumb-bob Spread you feet and hold up the plumb bob.
See which side the plumb leans to.
Use it occasionally, to refresh your judgment of slight slopes.

It may also be used to gauge the height of landmarks or stars. (Hang the second loop knot from a sky hook; Sight along the top string;
Steady the bobs). Used horizontally, it yields horizontal angles. (Complete the string parallelogram; Sight along the two ‘top’ strings;
and double the reading)
Of course this is only for a hobby, for interest’s sake, for mathematical curiosity, not for absolute accuracy!
The more you play, the more you learn.
Just Draw It
On the map… Peak, 500 m elevation 5
The question is…
High ground, 300 m Can I see the peak from camp?
Draw three lines of 5, 3, 2 units… 3
..“Yes, I should see over the ridge to the peak”
Camp, 200 m elevation 2
Radio Direction Finding — As Good As a Compass

AM stations — Amplitude Modulated — the older style, for medium distance transmissions
— also called Medium Wave; Medium Frequency — MW; MF
Your portable radio has an internal aerial for AM stations, which is direction sensitive.
It usually lies lengthwise inside the radio, as a long ferrite rod wrapped in a wire coil.
To make that ferrite rod horizontal, you probably need to lay the radio down flat.
Now twist the radio to change its horizontal direction.
When the internal ferrite rod points at the medium wave transmitter,
the reception drops off — you have detected a “null”.
This occurs at two opposite orientations — pointing away from the transmitter as well.
(Good reception is by pointing the radio 90° away from that null direction.)
FM stations — Frequency Modulated — the newer style, of shorter distance transmission

— Very high, Ultrahigh frequencies — VHF; UHF — It does not use a ferrite rod.
With a whip aerial, or an extensible aerial, or a long wire aerial,
you can detect a null by pointing the aerial at the transmitter.
This is for horizontally polarised transmissions. Some stations are polarised vertically.
Shortwave stations — Amplitude Modulated — higher frequencies, for longer distance transmission
— SW; High-Frequency, HF — It usually requires an external aerial.
Use a long wire aerial; keep the ferrite rod perpendicular to the long aerial.
The null occurs when the long aerial does not point to the transmitter — but it is perpendicular to that direction. (Opposite to FM)
Point the long-wire aerial perpendicular to the transmitter, for a ‘null’.
Weak AM stations can also be used, provided you have a long wire aerial to pull them in. The exact length sometimes matters—you
will notice the volume rise and fall in cycles as you wind the aerial back in.
THE RADIO “NULL” ACTS AS A COMPASS NEEDLE — it keeps a constant angle to the distant transmitter tower or repeater.
You swing the radio aerial each side of the null to keep checking its direction.
To avoid having to give the radio constant attention, break your course into separate lines of sight (‘legs’) as with a compass.
Marine navigators know that radio signal direction can be distorted by mountains, or by the signal crossing the coast at an angle, or by
reflections off the rigging, but bushwalkers seldom have to worry about that, because they only want a constant reference direction,
not an exact bearing.
You could consider setting up a radio beacon so that you can always say: e.g. “The car is that way” or “Home-base is yonder”
End of Section 3.
89
Distance
Distance Guesstimation is a Major Problem for Walkers

Because distance measurement is a major problem, we find it easier to ignore.
We resort to some other method of navigation.
If we simply, out of laziness, give up on logging our pace & distance-already-come, we waste a sensible cross-check.
The first of these three sub-sections will look at the amount of distance you have covered — progress — distance made good…
▪ Elapsed distance — puts you on the map precisely — unless you are not very sure of your progress! or the map scale!
▪ Map scale — “It looked so easy on the map!” — Judging time, distance & difficulty is a question of reading the map-
scale properly. “How far could we get by lunchtime?”. Guessing at a curved distance is always a bit of a bluff. If you
hear yourself saying “On the map that’s about 5 km” stop and measure from the map-scale more accurately!
▪ Sideways drift — is a matter of trigonometry, when you discover an error in your direction heading
▪ Up/down progress — is in another dimension. You don’t need an altimeter, but it helps. (If you do take a portable
altimeter/barometer, make sure to test it to see whether or not it reacts falsely to temperature change—put it in the
fridge then in a warm place; then don’t forget to keep adjusting it according to the atmospheric pressure changes)
The second sub-section is about the rate of covering distance — pace — and distance-yet-to-go.
The third sub-section is about the distance you can see, but don’t cover — estimating the ‘range’. How Far to That Landmark?
E.g. You can identify a peak on the map — but only if you are certain enough of the distance from you to it.
Distance = Speed x Time

E.g. 4 km per hour x 3 hours = 12 km
Hint: Measure only elapsed, ‘walking’ time; Delegate someone to keep track of accumulated time out for stops and diversions.
Hint: Mentally bring forward your starting time e.g. “(as if) we started at 10a.m.” (You started at 9, but had two, ½ hour stops)
E.g. foam takes ½ a second to pass your 10 m yacht; speed equals 10/.5 = 20/1= 20 m per second.
E.g. I seem to have drifted 12 km in one day = ½ kph current. E.g. The cloud shadows cover 5km in 2minutes = 150kph wind.
Keep a Log!
That’s how mariners keep track—they write it down in the special book. Do you carry a notebook?
Adding Two Speeds 3 kph current half as fast…

Convert speed to a length (e.g. 4 kph = 4 cm) and direction to an arrow. Swimming 3
Add the two arrows, tail to tip, in either order. 4 across 4 5kph 2
Complete the triangle or quadrangle tail-to-tip. a river cf 4
Note that it is faster to swim a river by pointing straight across and letting yourself be swept downstream, than by trying to
stem the flow by pointing upstream. Only when the two speeds are perpendicular do they not affect each other e.g. the 4 km
per hour is not affected by the current in the first example. Or e.g., If your boat speed is 4kph ahead, and the tidal flow is 5kph
against you, your actual movement is backwards! (with any sideways component added in independently).
Example: Three air-speeds + wind = actual progress very fast across the ground, slightly to your right.
I.e. Your speed & direction through the medium (air/water), relative to the ground + the medium’s movement,
over the ground (the medium carries you when it moves) = your total speed and direction, over the ground.
Lastly, to analyse apparent wind speed, to avoid confusion, draw only the three winds involved. I move this way...
First convert your progress over the ground (top arrow) to an opposing apparent wind (right-hand arrow opposing it).
Don't try to add wind to your motion—that's not a sensible question/answer. The medium (air) doesn't carry you when it
moves. Answer: I feel the actual ground-wind, a cross-wind ( ) in my face, diagonally as shown…
Range: Rule One: Guess

Then don’t trust any calculation which doesn’t agree with your initial guesstimation.
But remember that distance is deceptive over featureless terrain e.g. water/beach — we underestimate it.
Birds bob their heads to see how much an object shifts against foreground and background. It’s worth some practice.
“Range” of Visibility — Two Halves to the Picture

“Extreme visual range” must be calculated in two bites — So Don’t Forget To Add!
— e.g. when asking “Should we be able to see Ben Nevis from Brady’s Peak?” range one range two
— e.g. at sea when you can first see the lighthouse lens, not just its loom.
From a kilometre high you can see 1° of latitude
before the curvature of the earth cuts your line of sight. 1 km 1° 1° 1 km
— e.g. you can see a 1 km high mountain from two degrees away high
if you are on a 1 km high mountain — see diagram… 222km
“Range Squared is Dee Height”

This is an easy mnemonic. “Dee” is dee Earth’s Diameter i.e. Extreme Range = √(D x H) see p.92c
H is your height above the intervening horizon e.g. the wave tips, or a 250m plateau.
Since the Earth is 40,000 km around, divide by Pi to get 12,700 km diameter.
range The formula is a theorem in geometry,
tangent about the geometric mean (the tangent) of an extended diameter and the extension length (H).
H The formula states: the square (range x range) = the rectangle (not shown: H x D+H).
Diameter D (i.e. the range substitutes for both parts of the product, ‘geometric-’ or area-wise)
but since the height H, in reality, is very small, therefore range2 = D x H
90
Map and Compass Work
To “Read” a Map — Rule One: Don’t Lose Your Place!

Get the geometry fixed in your vision — of where you are on the map e.g. “in the top right grid square, next to that lake”.
And then don’t keep losing your place every time you look at the map again!
..Whether the map is now upside-down, side-on, or whatever.
Rule Two: Imagine Arrows, for the Sun, & Your Movement
Again, visualise them geometrically, in relation to the whole map shape, from one corner of the map, for the Sun, and from
where you are on the map, for your movement. When your map is properly oriented, the movement arrow will point in front of
you, ahead, matching the trend of your movement onwards.
Rule Three: Get Used To Any New Map Scale

Maps are “Fractal” They show “self-similarity across scale”
i.e. A river system will look the same on a small-scale or large-scale map — there is always finer detail to show.
A road network is the same — the smaller the scale, the more roads are left out, leaving a similar looking network.
A coastline shows such self-similarity. Magnify the details and it still looks like ‘a coastline’.
New Map-Scales are Hard to Adjust to
It takes time and testing to get used to a map scale, because they all look alike no matter what the scale.
To get used to the new ‘feel’ of a map, check up regularly on your map-progress, until you are no longer surprised by how far
you have or haven’t come.
Rule Four: Don’t Give Up!

Don’t let the combination of difficulties bluff you!
E.g. You misjudge the scale, misjudge the Sun’s direction by optical illusion, you see turns & bumps not marked on the map,
doubt the accuracy of the map, fail to assess the slope accurately,… and so eventually… give up in confusion!
Problems are normal, and solving them by the map is normal too — don’t give up trying.
—Also See “Map Checklist” p.113—
“L.M.N.Or P.”
L for Landscape; M for Map; N for Compass Needle: Or for Either/Or (the big point of the mnemonic); P for protractor
Either/Or means: Each component of map&compass work can be used alone and independently for some tasks, if desired.
Plotting compass bearings can seem complicated. This mnemonic is designed to smooth the way.
A navigational compass has a protractor independent of its needle. The trick is to remember that!
The protractor has 2 parts too (p.93b). Note that some compasses have the magnet one-piece—glued onto—the protractor card.
If you get used to using each component separately, you will find ‘map and compass work’ to be simpler.
The trick is to isolate each of “LMNOrP” in turn, to avoid confusion. That includes the 2 moving parts of the protractor.
It is hard to use more than two at a time! so know which two you need to use at each stage.
E.g. A ‘prismatic’ compass will let you see both Land & numbers (P) at the same time—to take an accurate bearing e.g. at sea.
E.g. You can align the Map to the Landscape, without ever using a number. Or you can point the Needle to the horizon likewise.
E.g. The Protractor may be used to assess slopes, to measure the Sun’s height, to take a map bearing, to draw an angle on the
map, to take a horizontal angle between two landmarks, to sight a vertical angle like a sextant (this may need two people), to
find North from Sun-time, or to set a course to the left of the Sun.
So don’t forget to use the Protractor to its full potential, quite independently of that funny little piece of metal rattling around
inside it. (N).
E.g. An emergency ‘compass’ is just a floating sewing Needle, or a suspended magnet. So the protractor has little to do with
orienting the map by the magnetic field, or with heading North by the compass needle.
If your navigational compass has a magnifying glass, a set-square and a graduated ruler, you should hardly get confused by
thinking they had something to do with the magnetic field! — so don’t worry when you see some numbers marked around your
compass needle — I think you learnt how to use a protractor in elementary school, didn’t you?
Working from land to compass is called “Taking a Bearing” (L+P1,N+P2) You use the protractor to put a number on the direction
..from map to compass is called “Getting a Heading”. (M+P). You then use the needle (P+N) to find then follow that heading (L).
Working from compass to map is called “Plotting a Fix”. (P+M). I.e. You use the protractor, ruler and set square to draw angles.
Maps Mean: Imagine Me! — Making Mental Maps

The meaning of using a map is that it lines up
— with what you see; with what you saw; with your mental maps; with what you know; with what you can’t see & don’t know.
E.g. You glimpsed the coastline as you drove in, the lie of the valleys, the drainage of the creeks, and of course you know the
highway that you drove in on! You can no longer see them, but it is normal to orient yourself by imagining the invisible.
And then, your mental map is still incomplete, so that you need to use the map to add to your imagination…
“Map To Mind” Navigation

Transfer from the map both visible and invisible features back into your mental model and mental layout.
1. Start with the Invisible Big Pictures — visible on the map but not to you.
Look at the sky and the skyline as you interpret the map for what lies out of sight.
2. Add in the local visible features — visible both on the map and to you.
These two steps work together like lock and key — each is not very useful without the other.
Yet both steps are often neglected and seldom put together as a whole.
“The cars are now behind that notch in the skyline”
“The highway runs behind that hill then turns South-East”
“That low spot marks the river we want”
“Our camp tonight is in line between Mount Socks and the pine plantation yonder”
When you become temporarily bushed in, or blinkered by the rain, or shut in by the dark — then you see whether you can
maintain proper orientation — by the invisible — or whether you just feel lost — “I can’t see where I am!”.
If you do not make a mental map and orient yourself by imagining the invisible—you will be disoriented,
even if you “can see where you are”.
♦ Part of the job is to look at the map in order to join your several local mental maps into one regional map.
Remember that a map is a great memory aid, or a great memory bypass — take your choice.
♦ Rather than “put yourself on the map”, put the map in you!
91
Distance
Use the Map Scale — Don’t Just Look at It!

Many errors of judgment result from guessing at the map distance, even when the map scale is clearly marked.
The scale is not much good down in the bottom corner of the map, fixed in place! So copy the map scale onto cardboard.
Somehow attach it to the map e.g. into a separate paper-pocket; onto a string; in the map bag.
The string is useful for measuring distance accurately. You place it over a curved path then stretch it out straight to measure it.
Point the corner of the cardboard at the starting position; position the string from there; then stretch the result along the scale.
The Jargon
“Large-Scale” is like a “Full-Scale Model” It shows all the details.
Like a ‘large-scale simulation’ — it leaves out nothing. Picture a magnified ‘Large’ map-scale.
“Small-Scale” is like a “Small-Scale Model”. You can’t see the small details.
It is like a ‘small pilot study’ — not full scale. Imagine a very hard to read small map-scale in the distance. No Details.
“Full-Scale” is “1 to 1” like the Cosmos. “Half-Scale” is “1 to 2”. “Small-Scale” is “1 to a million” like Cosmological diagrams.
The bigger the second number, the smaller the fraction. The bigger the big number, the bigger the span on the map.
Map-Scaling-Factors are Meant to be Interpreted

1:100,000 means “One unit represents 100,000 units”
Split this into two parts: (a) 100 & (b) 1000 and use centimetres i.e. 1/100 m — 1 cm: 100,000 cm
Say (a) 1 cm represents 100 cm i.e. 1 m — drop off two zeros and call centimetres ‘metres’
And (b) 1 m, from part a, represents 1000 m i.e. 1 km — drop off another three zeros and call metres ‘kilometres’
So the answer is: “1 cm to 1 km”
1: 1,000,000 1 mm = 1 km I.e. You can also drop off three (or 6) zeros and call millimetres ‘metres’ (or km)
50,000 units makes you calculate ‘1/50th of a metre’ (=2cm), so 1:50,000 must be ‘2cm to 1km’. Or multiply to 2:100,000.
1: 250,000 Turn this into 4:1,000,000 by multiplying both sides by four. 4mm to a km (since 1mm is 1/1000m)
or (a) ÷100: cm to m (i.e. 4cm to 10,000m no longer cm to cm) (b) ÷10: cm to lots of 10m (c) ÷1000: cm to 10km
the grid should be marked in 10 km squares, of 4 cm each
Your compass will be marked in centimetres, but perhaps also in special scales e.g. 1 inch to a mile (1: 63,360)
Pace Your Progress — Pre-Dict It, Don’t Post-Dict It!

To avoid looking at the map continually, to locate yourself continually, predict the estimated time of arrival once,
and relax.
We are normally lazy about looking at our watch often, poor at calculating, on the hop, distance covered, and lazy about
locating ourselves on the map often. Mental arithmetic is clearly noxious, so we try to avoid it. Working abstractly from time to
distance to map, after the event is too hard for us. But we usually only resort to the watch after we begin to doubt our position.
(See “the 11:59 syndrome” — we do doubt.)
Something needs to be done about this!
Consequently, the antidote to us refusing to log our distance, is to anticipate the timing instead
i.e. to work more concretely, from map (I can see that) to distance (I can visualise that) to time (I can calculate that).
▪ Examine the map beforehand — as a first step not a last step. You will have to do the calculation later anyway, on the
trot! Why not do it now, calmly.
▪ Guesstimate the time needed to cover the distance ahead — to the next recognisable milestone. E.g. use 4kph, ¼hr/km
▪ Look at your watch, as the last step, when you near your goal.
In this way the landscape ‘means’ time to you; “When we reach the bridge, we turn left — and that should be in 25 minutes”
Your guesswork will get better too.
You will find yourself looking at your watch more frequently, with the question: “Should I be there yet?”.
Anticipation Is Exciting. Back-Calculation is as exciting as the washing-up.
“Range Squared is: Dee Height” “Dee” is Diameter

i.e. Extreme Range of Visibility = √(D x H) on this side of the horizon. Don’t forget to add the ‘beyond the horizon’ range.
Five round-number rules are highlighted. By playing around with some approximations, we can find some rules of thumb…
127 is close to 128 and 125 and 11.32 ; Pi (3.14) is close to √10 (3.16);… I hope these tricks will make the square roots easier
40,000/pi x 40/pi km = 400 km range from 12.7 km Notice the two related doubling sequences I have given.
40,000/pi x pi km high = 200 km range from 3.14km You can only see twice as far from four times the height
12,500 km x 4/5 km = 100 km range from 800 m high 125 is five cubed
1132 x 92 / 102 = 100 km range from 810m 34 km from 90 m; 11.2 km from 10 m — 1/3 from 1/9 height
12,500 km x 1/5 km = 50 km range from 200 m high “Rule of (lesser) fives: 50 km from 1/5 km”;
12,500 km x 1/20 km = 25 km range from 50 m high Multiply or divide H by four to double or halve the range
12½km range from 12½m e.g. from the top of a beach
12,700kmx.0127km=12.7km from 12.7m—from a ship’s deck, to the horizon, when estimating distances across open water.
12,700 km x 1.27 km = 127 km range from 1.27 km high 1/10 from 1/100. Remember the number 127 must be 400/Pi;
100,000/8 x 10/8 km = 125 km range from 1.25 km 0.125 is 1/8
12,800 km x 1/2 km = 80 km range from 500 m high or “Rule of (greater) fives: 50 miles from 500m”
12,800 km x 1/23 km = 40 km range from 125 m high You can also derive 160 km from 2 km; 800 km from 50 km
40,000/√10 x 0.4/√10 = 40 km range from 127 m high = “400km from 12.7 km” = 1/10 range from 1/100 the height.
12,800 km x 1/25 km = 20 km range from 31 m high = 200 from 3.14 above.
7
12,800 km x 1/2 = 10 km range from 7.8 m high ..if you bother to halve 1000m seven times!
12,800 km x 1/500 = 5 km range from 2m high From a dinghy/beach. 1/5 range from 1/25 height cf 50m high.
21,600 nautical ml/pi = 150 nautical miles from Pi n.ml high approximately, because 150 squared is 22500.
832 n.ml x 1 n.ml. = 83 n.ml. 150km from 1 n.ml. 60 x 360 / Pi is approximately 83 squared nautical miles
12,300 km x 1 km = 111 km range from 1 km height 1° of latitude, from 1 km high, approx. “55 from 1/4” = 250m
1112 km x 1/9 km 37 km range from 111 m high 1/3 of the range from 1/9 of the height
92
Look Carefully at the Fine Detail on the Map

E.g. a kink in the track, just before a junction, may make it look “not like the map!” until… you re-examine the map…
“Oh yes, it is marked like that after all, I just didn’t look closely enough”
E.g. that maze of fine blue watercourses marked — don’t be a-maze-d by it — look at its detail!
There is usually a magnifying glass on the compass.
For a stronger magnifying glass, reverse your binoculars. For an even stronger magnifier, remove the eyepiece and use it.
Look Carefully at the Fine Print

E.g. date of compilation ..1864?
E.g. “adjust all longitudes by + 2 minutes of arc”
E.g. yearly magnetic drift
E.g. Contour interval — 10 m or 100 m?
Some Map Details are Not to Scale!

E.g. Two wheel ruts might look like a 100 m wide road on a map (if you took it seriously).
Consequently…
..may be a 100 m Zig-zag! And… ..is not a
E.g. A “cascade” symbol… cross-road
..might equally mean two huge waterfalls, 300 m apart. and the hut is not
E.g. ‘Smooth’ bends “at the junction”
..probably hide many small extra sinuous ones. E.g. in a river.
Moral: Keep an Open Mind. Keep your eyes open for alternative interpretations.
Using the Protractor by Itself

The protractor has two sets of lines — the lines on the movable 0-360 protractor-circle, and the fixed “follow me” arrow, taken
together with the edges. Line up one set with horizontal, or North, or whatever; line the other up with the slope or angle to be
measured. The angle in degrees clockwise is the space between the zero and the “follow me” arrow, not the other way around.
Mountain slope North by sundial When the angle of the Sun

0 (SH) (it moves around at 15°/hr)
Horizon corresponds with the time of day,
0 0 you must be facing North/Polaris.
Pocket sextant This may be used when the magnetic field
is locally anomalous or untrustworthy.
Point the edge of the compass body directly at the Sun (Tilt the compass axis to Polaris)
until it casts no shadow. (Don’t look at the Sun) Reverse this to get the time from North.
If your compass fluid has a bubble in it,
it can be used as an artificial horizon.
Keeping a course relative to a landmark. Peak Measuring a horizontal angle

for a circle of position.
Draw an angle
or measure it
Measuring a
top view vertical angle for ‘distance off’
Mental Networks
Our mental maps seem to run on networking — junctions and joins; choices and destinations; routes and ‘directions’
Consequently mental maps are prone to logical-type blunders
▪ Missed junctions e.g. of creeks or paths
▪ Misidentifications e.g. of segments, features or forks
▪ Poorly judged measurements of lengths or direction e.g. hairpin bends which aren’t noticed
▪ Mistakes of number
If you reread the section “Logical Blunders” (p.39b) you will notice that most can be seen as a wrongly imagined network.
That’s one more reason to study the real map, in order to bring your mental map up to speed.
When we function on short term memory of mental branching directions, any shock or daze can be crucially disorienting.
The Most Valued Map

..Is one which you have made yourself. A do-it-yourself job makes it “yours”. Practise with a MUDMAP, p46e.
When you copy important detail from other maps onto your map e.g. peak elevations; track notes; waterholes,
then your map becomes more valuable than a replacement map.
You add extra details e.g. campsites; walking times; side-tracks & old tracks and suddenly you prefer the old dog-eared version
to a brand-new map!
Sometimes it is even better to start with a blank sheet of paper.
But since it does you no good to pinpoint your position on a blank map, unless you are at sea,
you proceed to add in the important local details so that you can tell where you are…
To copy a map: Copy the Grid First. ..if there is one. Add in many diagonals as guidelines.
The next rule is: Get the Landmarks in their correct relative position first i.e. work top-down.
93
Distance
The Psychological ‘Half-Way Point’

You have to judge and juggle several factors before you decide that you are ‘half-way’.
E.g. The “Unknown Territory” Scare-Factor (Ambition versus Safety Margin). In planning your time-budget, you can’t
relax in a one-way journey through unknown territory, until you know you have a reasonable safety margin in hand
So 2/3 the distance along, might be ‘half-way through the test’. Other examples...
The “Point of No Return” — You tend to speed up, once committed to the next goal.
The “Downhill Run” — It is the quicker half.
The “Back-Track Return” — tends to be quicker i.e. the turnaround point can be after lunch.
The Morning Spurt-Afternoon Hurt Syndrome — puts ‘halfway’ before lunch.
The Side-Track Scheduling — if you don’t explore side tracks on the way in, when you are fresh,
you may not want to tackle them on the return journey.
The “My Feedbag is That Way” Home-run spurt on the last day.
When You Meet Other Walkers

“When did you leave this morning?” = how far to your next camp.
“Anything about the track that we should know?” E.g. slow sections
“Any deep water crossings” or other hold-ups
Other questions, less related to walking progress and pace, are…
Anyone else ahead of us? (Will there be room for us all?)
Do you carry a track guidebook? (Can I read it?) Do you know the forecast?
Any good water available on the way? Can you recommend a camp site?
Did you pass our tents? (Are they still there!)
Pluck up your courage to ask what you want to know, and be prepared to share what you know.
Advice about Walking Times — Double & Halve!

E.g. Brochures seem to add “return” or “one way” by guesswork sometimes.
So “6 hrs” means 3 to 12 hours until proven otherwise.
E.g. Fit young rangers saying “six hours” may mean “for me; double it for you” or “for you; halve it for me”
E.g. “walking time” may mean “excluding stops, rests and meals” — you could find yourself pushed for time.
E.g. “Not far, you can’t miss it, it’s easy all the way” could prove disastrous. E.g. (‘provided you find the right track’)
20 Minutes per Kilometre — Double & Halve — Easygoing Maths

It means 3 km per hour —an easy-going overall walking pace when you include short rests, difficult vegetation (within reason)
and lack of any hurry — tourists on track, walkers off track.
Obviously you need to multiply and divide by 20 to convert kilometres to minutes, or minutes to kilometres.
If the number is small — kilometres — multiply it up to the larger number — minutes — double it and add a zero.
If the number is big — minutes — divide it down to the smaller number — kilometres — halve it and subtract a zero.
You could also express it as a “half a kilometre every 10 minutes” but the “20” makes the maths easy;
And even simpler, to cope with the zero, express yourself in ‘lots of 10 minutes’.
E.g. 5½ kilometres will take about… (double it, to get many minutes)… 11 lots of 10 minutes
E.g. “We’ve been going 50 minutes — (five lots of 10 minutes) — ; that’s about… (halve it, to get a few km)… 2½ kilometres”
4 km per hour — Normal Walking Pace — Double and Halve!

You can easily double or halve your pace. Start with 4kph as a sustainable rate of progress, and use the doublings 1,2,4,8…
8 km per hour is someone tall walking in a hurry. 2 km per hour is someone small dawdling. 1kph is for very difficult going.
Coincidentally 4 km per hour is 10 miles in four hours or 2½ miles per hour.
Incidentally also, at 4 kph, a landmark 15 km on your left will change direction at 15° per hour as you walk past it.
Double, the Acute Angle, off Your Nose — For the Distance Off
This double-angle method puts numbers on a very “natural” method of gauging distance…
In the first diagrams you walk from the bottom left to the top, and watch a landmark, ahead on the right, pass you by.
The distance walked = the distance off if you walk far enough to double the original angle (away from straight ahead).
The initial angle must be acute. You need to maintain a straight course throughout. 120°
The simplest case uses the diagonal of a square. 45° changes into 90°
The next simplest example is the equilateral triangle. 60° changes to 120° r
Followed by the 30° isosceles triangle. 30° changes to 60° 60°
90°
But the general case is made clear by the geometry of two equal radii in a circle. r
It is because the angle at the centre of a circle is double the angle at the circumference.
The angle at the centre is the final angle—double the initial one. top view…
45° 30°
Ahead of you, the angle is always less than 90°.
In the second diagrams, below, the landmark may not be ahead of you and the initial angle may not be acute...
30°
If you walk backwards, from top to bottom, using the top method in reverse, you get...
Halve, Any Angle, from your Stern—For Distance Off,

..i.e. In Retrospect The initial distance off, not the final distance off is what must be travelled. 60°
The initial angle is now the double angle, and need not be acute. 45°
I.e. turn the bow-angle diagrams upside-down…
E.g. 90° becomes 45°; or 120° becomes 60° becomes 30°…
120°
94
Permanent Landscape is More Trustworthy Than Surface Detail!

When what you see “doesn’t match what is on the map” have the sense to distinguish between 100 m deep contours which
would take an atom bomb to shift, and walking-track junctions which a fire could reshape.
Professional map-makers and satellite photos rarely make mistakes — in landscape positioning.
But when they add the local details, it is another story.
Time changes such details also. New roads, cleared bushland, second bridges — these will mislead and confuse you.
When your mind says: “The map is wrong!” remember that what the map says — about landscape — is not wrong.
Details Added on to a Map Are Prone to Error

Notorious for errors are: Map North; Map Scale; Roads.
So beware of anything other than a good-quality official government map.
Expect The Map To Be Unhelpful

Many important details will not be shown on the map — you just have to expect that.
You can often trust what is on the map; You can often trust that what you want, won’t be on the map.
Maps Do Give You 10 Times More Detail Than You Can Notice
After you get lost and finally sort it all out on the map, you notice… “Oh yes, silly me, those contours are upslope not
downslope! And they do show a creek-line, by those sharp bends! Oh, of course, there is a peak on the right, and that
fenceline opposite — I missed both of those when I first studied the map. You can see Mount Bruce, lined up with the lake,
from there, but not at all from over there. And that squiggle in the blue line, is the hair-pin bend that tricked me, but I should
have realised that all rivers must drain to the north-west eventually…”
Try to reduce your ten-fold folly to five-fold folly for next time!
Using the Needle Alone — Emergency Magnetic Compass

▪ Magnetise your repair-kit sewing needle; It will probably already be magnetised somewhat. Stroke it with a South Pole
toward the sharp end, so that the North-seeking pole is at the pointy end.
▪ Float the needle in calm water, on the surface tension (no detergent!)
(a) lay the needle on toilet paper
(b) lay both on a bowl of clean water
The paper will wet and sink, leaving the needle afloat. You could also try sticking it through a piece of foam.
▪ Hang any magnet horizontally, from hair or fine thread. It helps if you know which end is North-seeking.
In the field, test it against a Natural North, eg, Bush Noon. At home, test it on a compass. Like poles repel…
Hint Understand that magnetic poles should be called ‘North-Seeking’ and ‘South-Seeking’
and that our “North Pole” is a South-seeking pole!
N.P. (so that North-Pole seeking poles point to it — Unlike poles attract)
The Earth’s internal magnet is as shown (It is slightly off-line with the rotation axis!)
A compass needle on the Earth’s surface has a red end labeled ‘N’ i.e. North-Seeking
The white end is labeled ‘S’
S.P.
Strip Map Navigation — Follow-Your-Nose Navigation

Our mind definitely prefers a strip map — a sequence of “directions” to follow. (None-the-less, make a MUDMAP in conjunction)
Our eyes definitely prefer a strip map — “up” is “straight ahead”! (See “N.O.R.West/N.O.T.Least” “Nose Navigation” p31e)
A strip-map is simply a way of formalising your track notes—every navigator really ought to do it this way…
There are two good ways to make a strip map as you go: with a sheet of graph paper, working from bottom to top, and
in a track notebook, working from top to bottom, but…
Both assume that progress arrows are up-page. You could turn your notebook side-on or upside-down to write in it.
In either case you set aside several vertical lines for each type of information,
and set aside one horizontal line for each subsection of the journey,
and a second line for descriptions and for comments,
and a line for overall information e.g. trend, drainage, season; totals: time, climbing and distance.
The trick is to use symbols. One vertical line for one sort of symbol e.g. compass needle direction
(See the Symbol appendix p 122) Another line for another sort of symbol e.g. slope-direction, and steepness
This way you can cram a lot of information into a small space, in a consistent and regulated manner, and be able to read it!
e.g. …
track compass up landmark time leg leg distance comments e.g... Saddle
feature needle slope direction check time distance check
Peak by lunchtime Crest
Climb Lake 1:20 6km
Stop
1pm 20m 1km 5 cliffy
Turn
Peak 12½ 30m 1km 4 trend right after creek
End Bend
10½ ½km munch stop overlooking creek Start Bend
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Distance
AIMING OFF by 10° — 10° is 175m per kilometre
1° is one in 57.3, so one in 5.73 is about 10°, (and 1 / 5.73 = .175) or 175 in 1000. (For bigger angles use the 1 in 60 rule)
Alternatively, 2sin5° = 0.174 isosceles chord, yielding “0.174 per one” or 174 per 1000. (167m per 1000m / degree for >10°)
This is easier than working in sixes using “one in 60”. Hint: Express any ratio as “something in 1” or “in 10, 100, 1000”
E.g. ‘1 in 50’ becomes ‘2 in 100’ or ‘200 m in 10 km’ (.4 in 20 etc)
Example: “The T-junction is somewhere ahead — about 017°, 5 km. But so that we can’t miss it, we must aim off to the right
e.g. 027°. We therefore expect to hit the road 875m to the right of the Junction” (5 lots of 175m).
This is how ocean navigators find an island in an ocean: Step 1: sail N/S to the right latitude. Step 2: sail E/W to the right long.
Don’t just head straight toward something. If it doesn’t show, you won’t know which way to turn!
Remember that a 10° error is fairly easy to make when using a compass over rough terrain (or trackless shifting ocean)!
10° 175 m
5 km
one kilometre
Aiming-off at Sea … 875 m

Aim-off to arrive up-current & up-wind of your destination—to make it easy to turn and sail to it.
▪ Aim-off 6° to counteract leeway when sailing into the wind; 10° in stronger winds; 15° in a storm.
Measure the appropriate angle from the wake e.g. 6° is how much your pointing-finger-tip shifts when you change eyes
▪ Aim-off 6° (1 in 10) to counteract a 10% (1 in 10) cross-current. This refers to the perpendicular component, compared
to your speed. The rule works +/–1° up to 36°—up to 60% cross-current. To avoid judging components...
▪ Aim-off 1°,2°,3°,4°,5°,6°, to counteract a 10% current at 10°,20°,30°,45°,60°,90° to course, either ahead or behind.
▪ Aim-off to avoid GPS-induced collisions caused by very accurate course-holding. You should plot a course off to one
side of the obvious line on the chart, to avoid vessels coming the other way on the same line!
Aim Off 6° or 10%

Blink your eyes at the destination, and when you get there, pace off the 6° offset. Ten-tuple the result for the distance there.
1 Metre per Second is 3.6 kph

This is merely a logical reference point for your calculations. (And slightly faster than “20 minutes/kilometre” (3 km per hour))
60 minutes x 60 secs per min is 3600 seconds in one hour, at 1 m per second, is 3600 m in one hour, or 3.6 km per hour.
One metre is Up to your belly button A child’s double pace One strong fast stride
One second is the time it takes to pronounce “Alligator One” in a normal fast voice—don’t let it drag. Follow it with “Parramatta
two”, “Oodnadatta three”, (or “a thousand and four”, but “alligator” keeps its speed more consistently when drowsy).
Get used to the rhythm of tapping your finger in time with the seconds — your mind subconsciously remembers the timing.
Take a Watch, Perhaps a Stopwatch
1 m per second is very nearly 2 knots.
“1 Hour Extra per 5 Hours”

You can normally walk at 5 km per hour, on a track, on a short walk.
But you will sustain an average 4 km per hour, when you include fatigue, and rest stops.
“1 Hour Extra per 500m easy climbing”

Gentle up-climbing is tiring—allow this extra time. (We are not concerned here with how long it takes to rock-climb!)
Down-slope walking may speed you up, or slow you down, depending on the slope.
Dense tussock country (e.g. snow grass; button grass) is the equivalent of a climb, in its up-down-up steps. Crossing the
drainage can also be as tiring as climbing, in its regular climb-descend-climb-descend path.
Distance by Optical Rangefinder — Accurate up to a Kilometre or Three

We are woeful at guessing distance in that range, so there are focussing devices available which are designed for it.
Range by Parallax and a Piece of String — DIY Rangefinding

Animals shift their heads to see how much an object shifts. Blink you eyes to see the effect; walk sideways to practice it.
For more distant objects, the very slight sideways offset can be magnified then measured...
The landmark you are measuring appears in a slightly different direction from each of two different viewpoints.
Pack a long non-stretch string e.g. a polymer kite-string. Know its length. Mark it every 5 m before you go.
Use it as a giant pair of eyes—a long baseline—& to mark out a large square or rectangle on the ground, one side at a time.
Guess at the right-angles — they don’t need to be accurate. Just make sure to use equal tension when you stretch the string.
But use a plumb-bob to mark the corners of the square on the ground accurately — with a pebble.
Use the plumb-line also for accurate sighting of the landmark. (You can pack up the string once you have placed the pebbles.)
Twice as big = four times as accurate (in measuring d) If you have enough room to move, aim for over 10 m sides.
Range = ab/d or a2 /d if a = b; from the similar triangles involved. Measure the shortfall, d, at the front, or the
distant landmark parallax overfall, d, at the baseline.
parallelogram An easy way to remember the formula
d is to say that the area R d = the area a b
r/a = b/d because if you shear the ab rectangle,
it becomes a long thin parallelogram
a d R long, and d wide, preserving its area.
range
b d b As a result, the formula becomes...
baseline b Range = Area / parallax offset, d
a a d km sq. m mm
The Range=ab/d formula also makes sense

The range should so depend on a & b and d
96
“Maps Grip the Universe”

When you swing the map in your hands, around with you as you turn, the whole Universe doesn’t follow it! — it doesn’t twist!
Instead your map gets disoriented.
Leave the map behind, as you twist! — leave it lined up.
The map is designed to lock into the landscape, to ‘map onto’ it, and should be used like that, not twisted out of alignment.
You need to swing the map an equal and opposite amount to neutralise what you do.
It’s called “swinging the map” (when you leave it locked onto true North while you swing to left and to right).
It should not be called that!
It should be called “NOT Swinging the Map with you”
Map work includes ‘not swinging the map’. See “Magnets Grip Maps”. The most common method is to match the map to
a compass needle p.103b
Maps mean landmarks — those landmarks there! Open your eyes — and line the map up with the visible landscape. p101a.
i.e. orient the picture of the land — the map — to map onto the actual land.
Line the Grid North up with North e.g. by compass or by Sun.
You may have to twist yourself, or put ‘North’ at the bottom left, but to always put ‘North’ up the top, is to divorce your eyes!
Yes, you may have to read names upside down! Yes, it is a bother, to keep changing its ‘up’ every time you turn.
But it means that you can just lift your eyes from the map to see what it points out. And can know what lies beyond that.
If your map is not consciously oriented, how can you be oriented, to other than what you can see in front of your nose?
Think “+/- 5°” For Compass Bearings;

“+/- 10°” For Following a Compass;
“+/- 15°” For Using a Compass!
Compass bearings “+/– 5°”
Test yourselves: Ask each person in turn to nominate where “magnetic North” is on the skyline
using one particular compass, handheld. My results:+/- 5° “User Inaccuracy”
Now try putting that compass on the ground. My results: +/- 3° “Needle Instability, friction” etc
Try stretching a fishing line over the needle. My results: +/- 1° “We still can’t agree!”
Next try that best method for different compasses. My results: +/- 3° “Calibration and Zero Errors”
Now try not being very careful, with an untested compass, at night, when you are tired!
Following a compass blind: Walk on a fixed compass bearing for 100 m or so in a fog i.e. eyes glued to the compass.
Repeat it e.g. turn around & see where you come back to. Give the next person a try at doing better.
I think it matters which eye you use and which hand you hold the compass in.
We don’t necessarily walk ‘straight ahead’ when we try. We don’t necessarily point the ‘follow me’ arrow straight ahead.
We don’t do very well at integrating and averaging out any diversions around obstacles.
Slopes play havoc with your sense of a ‘straight’ line ahead.
The front person finds the route.

The back person guides the route-finder.
Try this… The navigator logs the route directions taken.
Using a compass: You may plot a single line on the map, or as +/- 5°, but mentally allow an extra +/- 10°, i.e. think +/- 15°
(for accumulated errors, possible blunders about magnetic variation, etc.). Keep the possibility of error in the back of your mind
Caving Strip-Maps — Come in Books

Book
A “cave-directory” booklet records each separate section of a cave on a separate page.
E.g. Make your own… 2C
small high hole; go to page 6

You may need separate booklets for different levels of the cave system.
Main corridor
lower level channel p.10
Use the same symbols as before, for needle, slope, turns, etc.
Use Abbreviations: E1, E2, E3… for Exits; L1, L2, L3… for Light sources; Parentheses (L1) = “Can see L3 from here”
Make up names for each section e.g. “Chamber of Horrors”
Add copious notes e.g. “water level up to ½m deep”
Forethought and cooperation is required to quickly and effectively map a warren or a labyrinth.
Initially you make a muddy map, as you go, but then you add a neat copy into the book later.
(But keep your muddy copies, for next time.)
97
Distance
Up-down Progress
In the first diagram you can see that you are halfway up the mountain
1 2 alongside of you — use the horizon to gauge your altitude.
Note: the horizon drops below true horizontal as you go higher.
In the second diagram your shadow is obviously halfway up the shadow
3 of the hill you are on — use the shadow of the mountainside.
To find your tiny shadow:
Close one eye — to line up more accurately.
Look past the shadow of your head falling onto your hand
4 Look for a ‘halo’ — a bright spot directly down-Sun on the plain
Wave your raincoat around
5 Well, you know where the shadow should be by now!
So you don’t even need to see your shadow!
Keep count of height in body-lengths

6 Square-topped Walking stick (3) Walk up to a stone which was horizontal from you before.
(4) Downhill can be counted by leapfrogging with two people.
Plastic drink bottle Half-Way across? Provided you stay in one position...
Looking parallel from half the height gives you half the distance
Reversible stick (5) E.g. when someone is swimming across a lake
Artificial horizons allow you to maintain parallel gaze (6)
String parallel E.g. “The edge of the lake is ‘two fingers low’
to the horizon <horizon (or any distant landmark)
Clear plastic tube
with water
The bubble in your compass <lake edge (now, halve your height
above water e.g. by squatting down)
Adjust Your Expected Pace

! Three hours up, two hours down — are typical proportions, except in very steep or loose descents — 6 hours up, 6 hrs down.
! You walk more briskly while fresh, in the morning, than after a whole morning’s walk. Pace yourself with this in mind.
! Groups travel slower. Allow the slowest person to set the pace, because stragglers may battle or even panic if left behind.
! Retracing your steps is quicker, since it has fewer diversions, less interest, and no unknowns. Allocate less time to return.
! Carrying packs is not necessarily slower, on flats. If your pack is uncomfortable, you won’t dawdle, or even want to sit
down, and can’t stop to look at insects or flowers or to chase birds.
! River crossings chew up enormous amounts of “fussing around” time — organising and reorganising afterwards.
! Beware of smoothed out “routes” marked on maps. The actual terrain may involve many obstacles and consequent slow
going and detours. The words “route only” are trying to tell you that.
! Your pace quickens surprisingly when the party falls “into the groove” of walking (without talking, noticing things or relaxing
often).
! Path finding can make you nervous especially in unfamiliar territory, which tends to quicken your pace without you knowing it.
The same person, following a leader, is relaxed — and slows down.
So when you take the lead and you wonder why the others seem to fall behind, realise that you are too keen.
Don’t Overcompensate for Slopes And Meanders

The worst case for slopes is about 36° for rock scree. But that adds only a quarter to the distance shown on the map. It is far
more relevant to say “It’s the climbing and the awkwardness which will slow us down more”.
The worst case for obstacles is grass-tussock negotiation — but that only adds a maximum of 50% to your distance covered.
An ordinary zigzag may only add 10%
steep
slope rise 1/cos of 25° = 1.1 1/cos of 36° = 1.24
Pi x r
baseline run 57% further Top view — 25° zigzag
Distance by averaging Maximum & Minimum Guesses

Yes it is worth doing, because it reduces the slop in your individual guesses.
E.g. “More than a kilometre, for sure. Less than 3 km surely! Split the difference & say 2 km
Distance by Comparison with Some Length You Know

E.g. The central business district—1 square mile or whatever
E.g. old-fashioned ‘chains’ i.e. cricket pitch lengths
E.g. 100 m race; playing fields
E.g. “a day’s walk”
E.g. that island which you can see, which the map says is 1 km long.
Distance by Cloud Shadows — Look for Them

▪ Notice how quickly the cloud shadows move here (use distance/time), then look how slowly they are moving over there
▪ Time how long they take to get there.
▪ See how large they look here, and how large there.
▪ Look how high the cloud base is here, then compare the size of hills
in relation to that ground-to-cloud gap, over there.
Hint: To see which shadow attaches to which cloud, hold a string,

to pass from Sun to shadow (past its cloud) but… Don’t look directly at the Sun!
Sound Travels Three Seconds to the Kilometre

This tells you how close the lightning storm is. “(Flash), Alligator One, Alligator Two, Alligator Three, Boom!, One Kilometre!”
If you see a flash to ground, you can find the distance there.
Otherwise, the distance is to the nearest part of the lightning flash overhead.
98
Align the Track

Line the map up with what you see! Often that is the road ahead, or a well-marked track.
This is a great trick for the car navigator when using a road map — it’s so easy to see the line!
It’s equally helpful when following any marked track on the map with the map aligned to the landscape
— it locates you on the map — on that bit of the map which lines up with the track.
If you were landing a fighter jet onto an aircraft carrier in the fog, you would not want to miss the runway!
Well, think of the real track as the runway on the aircraft carrier, the land as the sea around it, & the tiny map-picture of the
track as the jet plane.
Twist and turn your ‘jet plane’ until it can come in to land properly. Even when you are in the fog!
Assuming you have a properly oriented map…
You can find where you are on it… me!
If you know where you are on the roadmap… ..Now the map is properly oriented.
Compass Errors — Be Impressed! Be Careful!

Electrical currents swing the needle e.g. reading the compass by torchlight; untwisted pairs of DC wires e.g. marine compass
lights; Mobile phones; GPS; radio. “Impressed (DC) current” anti-corrosion systems in marinas.
Magnets e.g. other compasses, motors, loudspeakers, clocks, ironstone. Note: Iron-rich dolerite doesn’t look rusty.
Iron & Steel e.g. your pack, pocket knife, keys, wrist watch, cutlery, steel-capped boots, glasses, geology hammer, batteries,
torch, studs, zips, pens, trig points, shed, fence, car, ironstone, buried machinery, coils of old fencing wire half-buried in the
ground, tools, fuel stove, internal springs, reinforced concrete, railway lines, power pylons, pipelines. Navigating in a mineshaft.
Many of these might have permanent magnetism too. Stainless steel is often magnetic.
User error
Parallax — viewing the needle from one side; viewing the scale from side-on.
Misreading — e.g. any scale marked every 2° is easily confused. Mis-setting the movable scale.
Miscalculations — especially applying the variation the wrong way — adding it instead of subtracting. Confusing left and right.
Out of date chart of deviation. Deviation is the general name for any compass error—apart from expected, normal variation.
Quality of Construction
Needle instability; under-damping; over-damping; motion. Let it settle. Put it on the ground.
Vibration — has unpredictable effects e.g. twisting the needle clockwise. Walking provides regular slow vibration! Motors.
Sticky pivot — Tap the compass Un-centred pivot
Zero-error — the needle doesn’t match the ‘zero’ Mis-calibration of the protractor
Needle mis-magnetisation — not quite longitudinal; amateur attempts at re-magnetisation.
Reversed polarity — Poor quality needles can pick up remagnetisation from nearby strong magnets without you knowing it!
Variation The difference between True North and Magnetic North changes with time and place. The map is out of date.
Magnetic drift of the magnetic pole — we only have ‘predictions’ or ‘trends’ of an unpredictable variation. Are you up to date?
Latitude change — alters the magnetisation of surrounding fixed iron e.g. a car body or a boat’s motor or hull.
Local anomalies e.g. Tasmania is full of ironstone dolerite. Many rocks preserve ancient magnetism.
External magnetic fields e.g. which way a boat moors, or who moors next to it. Competing fields change or capture each other.
Lightning strike after-affects.
Correcting mechanism out of adjustment.
Map Folding and Map Holding

Maps aren’t forever — they blow over waterfalls, tear & get unreadable.
Pack a spare
Cover the whole surface with (non-shrinking) clear plastic film
With good-quality laminating plastic & cutting, taping and sealing, maybe it will last forever!
Folds and Corners lose details, and wear through.

Cut along the fold lines cleanly e.g. to A4 size
Use a photocopy of your own map to use in the field, to keep your original map in good condition. A4
Wet maps lose details when rubbed.
Get an A4 plastic sheet protector for the map. Tape it closed. Hang it around your neck.
Mapwork requires bearing-lines to cross the whole map.

Tape the (A4 or other) sections back together with wide clear tape, leaving wide gaps, as shown.
— you can butt the edges closely when needed; the tape will crease out of the way
— you can refold it at will, as often as you like, and show the two most useful sides out of the many sections.
large gaps
99
Distance
Distance by Double Pace — Test Yours

A ‘mile’ (or “thousand” in Latin) is a thousand double-paces, on forced march i.e. 5.28 feet (Romans were small people)
My dawdle double-pace is 5.25 feet. What is yours? In metres?
Answer: Test it. Test it again and again. Average it. Each person is different. Relax, don’t push yourself.
Test it again uphill, downhill, laden, unladen, tired, in a hurry.
Test it at one double-pace per second — walking by the clock.
It helps to make a 10 m cord. Use a tape measure to make the cord, then use the cord.
E.g. I know I use 12.5 paces (single steps) per 10 m i.e. alternating 12 & 13 double places per 20 m.
and I walk at 4.5 kph; 1 1/4 metres per second; eight seconds per 10 m. The timing varies more easily than the distance
While watching the seconds tick over on my watch, and striding out in time with them, I manage 1.5m/sec, get tired,
and step further out.
You Can Be As Accurate As You Have Been Careful. If you are full-grown, working this out once can set you up for life.
Tie Your Ankles Together!

For a well-measured pace (heel to heel) use a 50 cm cord, for instance.
Count double-paces, and don’t lose count — see ‘finger math’
Test your pedometer

Pedometers work in different ways, so test yours on different terrain. Your knee-lift is higher on uphill sections, and your pace
is shorter in rocky terrain. You can make your own pedometer from an old odometer, working off the flex of your boot, your
hip, your walking stick, or whatever, or you can roll a small bicycle wheel along the ground, fitted with an odometer.
Don’t Lose Count! Use Finger-Math

Finger counting is a silent and number-free counting method — you only pronounce the number after you have finished
counting. Count automatically, by placing your fingers down, each in turn, onto a hard surface.
A thumb counts for five fingers, and the left-hand counts 10 per finger.
When you run out of digits you have 99, so you next say aloud “A hundred” and start over again with no fingers down.
Place each finger down onto a surface, in a definite sequence: Right Index (“1”); Middle (two fingers down); Ring (3); Little
(4); Lift all four and put down the thumb (“5”); Leave the thumb down and put and leave down the index finger (6); middle
(7); ring (8); little (9); Lift all five and put down the left index finger (“10”); Then put down the right index finger again (11),
and so on, until you need to put down the left middle finger in place of the other five (two ‘tens’ down).
With practice, you can count, add, subtract, multiply and divide — almost thoughtlessly — as quickly as with an abacus.
We are concerned here with counting single or double paces, e.g. in a fog, and doing so in lots of 10m (or 20m or 40m for
double paces). I.e. you count up to about 12 or 25 single or double paces mentally, and add “one more lot” to your finger tally.
If you are in a group, you can check each other’s counting by stopping where you think every hundred metres is.
+10 +10
+10 +10 Lift all your fingers off
+1 +1
+1 and nod your head down
+1
for ‘100’, then start again.
+50
+5 100 lots of 10m equals 1km
100 lots of 20 m equals 2 km
100 lots of 40m equals 4 km
99 or 100 double paces is 1/10 of your mile
Lighting Conditions & Eyesight

Make allowances for optical effects…
Looking up-Sun, especially in the afternoon, you see haze (backlit dust & insects) which gives a false impression of ‘distance’.
Looking down-Sun on a clear morning after rain or after a cold change (i.e. minimal haze) things ‘look close enough to touch’.
As your eyesight begins to fail in mid-life, everything seems ‘distant’ but turns out to be surprisingly close
i.e. you have been judging distance by crispness of detail all your life…
Visual Acuity is about One Minute of Arc

..which means that you can spot a 1 m object at 3.6 km on a clear day (since one minute of arc is (1/60)° or ‘1 in 3600’).
I.e. You can see details several thousand times smaller than the distance to them.
This is how seamen can judge distances over open water, to land, even though there are no other clues to go by.
They ask: “Can I see trees? What about tree trunks? Or branches? Or leaves!”
Lighting, Contrast, Haze and Eyesight play havoc with accuracy; But experience is a great teacher.
Feed your mind and memory by deliberately looking through the haze to the finest details you can pick up.
Use binoculars as a cross-check. Have competitions with your family.
Children have better eyesight, but the idea is to judge the distance according to how it looks to you.
100
Align the Map to the Landmarks

Make the Map Match the Marks — if you know where you are on the map you need only one landmark…
me
peak
The easiest way to keep the map aligned to the landscape is by then using the direction of the Sun now, a very visual method.
The commonest method uses a magnetic compass to find North.
This one-landmark method can be used whenever you can see something in the distance.
If you don’t know where you are on the map you can still orient it to match the landscape, but you will need two or more
landmarks identified to do this.
Compass Use — Master It, but Be a Good Master.

▪ Use it to orient yourself, then put it away!
▪ Use it to orient the map or to choose a route, then put it away!
▪ Use it as a protractor. Use it as a ruler. Use it as a map scale measurer. Use it as an artificial horizon. As a set-square.
▪ Use the set square for a back-course or a side-course without altering the forward-set-course.
▪ Don’t rely on it — use other methods of direction-holding.
▪ Let it point your eyes outwards, to the horizon.
▪ Use NORWEST/NOTLEAST, if you have to stare at it — e.g. in a cave.
▪ Hold it 1½m above rocks; 10m away from cars, sheds, etc; several item ‘lengths’ away from small items — test it.
▪ Let it point out a foreground mark as a destination, then follow a visual line of sight
e.g. ‘leapfrog’ or manoeuvre by ‘legs’
▪ Don’t consult it again until you need to check or choose another point.
▪ Don’t trust it, but trust yourself to it, when you need to.
▪ CHECK ITS ERRORS. Check it against the map by taking a bearing from a known point to a distant landmark
▪ Take a pair of forward and reverse bearings—to and from a chosen mark, to check for local magnetic field anomalies.
▪ Check your errors in using it, e.g. on the move; against someone else.
▪ Interpret it for orientation value, not just for route-finding.
▪ Consult it more often than you want to, when you are ‘not using it’.
▪ Check your guesswork as to e.g. ‘Gully North’ or ‘Wind-West’ by it.
▪ Take it.
Layout Map — Blind

▪ This project requires a pedometer to measure every hundred, metres or paces or something. A stop-watch could do.
▪ Use graph paper, so that each square on the graph paper represents one ‘leg’ of 100 (or ‘1 minute’s walking’).
(Hint: Graph paper is a handy thing when making a casual mud-map of your progress, for this very reason.)
Try it at least once. Without triangulation and cross-checks you can build up the layout just by reading the compass.
i.e. Beware: This is a bottom-up method, prone to inaccuracy. After one accurate practice-run, you can do a better casual job.
I achieved over 90% efficiency at coming back to my starting point after a 24 km circuit on my first try!
(In fact I know that the 8% error was mainly only due to a few blunders in marking the wrong direction.
Also, I only measured ‘direction’ to +/–15° since I was also testing the ‘clockface method’ of direction — to the nearest ½hr.)
When the compass read “2:30”, I needed a reverse clockface on the map, and I needed to mark…
0
1 11
2 10
3 9
4 8 one unit long
5 7
6
(Hence I made a few left-right blunders which I had no record of!)
You don’t need a map for position-sense, if you make your own as you go. Position sense is hard to come by, otherwise.
101
Distance
Line of Sight Can Be Extremely Accurate

..But is often neglected, for far inferior methods. ‘position line’
E.g. locate yourself on a ‘position line’ as a means of marking your progress… Me!
E.g. keep a straight line by walking to a point ½ way between you and your next destination
E.g. 100 fence posts can be positioned to look like one when seen end on.
E.g. fishermen can locate their offshore fishing spot again track
— “The jetty is underneath Mount Lofty, and the tower is behind the Town Hall”
You can sometimes consult a map to fix your position...
E.g. You may notice that “this part of the track runs directly toward” a peak.
see below
Un-mappable lines abound. Choose the nearest objects in front for best accuracy.
E.g. “That far rock lines up with this bush. Remember them!”
Use mapped features and the accuracy is still extraordinary.

E.g. “The peak lines up with the intersection, but if you step only three paces left you can see the difference!”
The alignment doesn’t need to be accurate, provided you can memorise the exact inaccuracy e.g. 1° to the left of the hillside.
Two such alignments are needed for a fix. Look around: “What is in front of Mount William? What is behind the lighthouse?”
Two Opposite Landmarks

It more than doubles the alignments available to you if you have eyes in the back of your head!
With two people, separate some distance, for accuracy, then look past each other’s heads.
Walk slowly around in a circle looking at the horizon for possible line-ups.
With one person, place a rock on the ground then circle it, scanning the horizon. Place a pebble to mark each feature.
The good thing about this method is that one landmark cannot ‘blot out’ another — all the visible features are available to you.
You may use this method to stick to a direct ‘track’ between two landmarks.
A Slow Kilometre Cancels out Three Quick Ones

Let’s try to keep up an average of 4 km per hour…
First we travel 2 km in half an hour, but then we hit a slow section and manage only 1 km in the next half-hour (2 kph).
To counteract this we would need to triple our slow speed to 6kph for the next half-hour!
So we then decide to stop and catch our breath for half an hour.
To counteract that we would need to double our desired average speed (to 8kph) for the next ½hr!! Or 6kph for 6km.
i.e. a wasted hour takes several hours of catch-up, to regain.
(2kph for ½ hr + 6kph for ½ hr = 4kph; 0kph for ½ hr + 8kph for ½ hr = 4kph; 0kph for ½hr+ 6kph for 1hr= 6km in 1½hr)
Slow sections chew up the time available, so don’t dawdle.

Quick sections can’t easily repair the damage, because they don’t last long.
You may try to be time-efficient and walk more quickly on the easy sections i.e. hurry along the flats,
but you can’t gain much time that way.
To Progress Faster More Easily

Pace Yourself — Slow Down, but Don’t Stop
i.e. Pace yourself so that you don’t need rest stops, since they ruin your time budget, and it is time which determines pace.
It is better for your overall pace to keep walking slowly than to stop completely.
Go slowly on the hard sections. Pick up your pace, maybe, on long flat easy sections.
Shorten your rest stops e.g. don’t remove your packs.
The old rule to cover a lot of ground quickly is: run 50, walk 50 (paces or double paces).
Catch the paradox of it — to keep going faster, go easier.
Approximate Figures for Visual Acuity

At 1:1,000 “I can just count my grandchildren” You need to supply figures which work for you.
At 1:2,000 you can count individual items. Multiply the size of the smallest objects you can count by 2,000
At 1:3,000 you can’t count them. E.g. people/shrubs/birds Multiply the size of the largest objects you can’t count by 3,000
At 1:4,000 you can see items, but can’t count them. Multiply the smallest items you can see by 4,000.
At 1:5,000 you can’t see them individually. Multiply the largest details you can’t see by 5,000.
At 1:6,000 you can read unfamiliar letters Multiply the letter-stroke widths you can read by 6,000.
At 1:7,000 you can’t read unfamiliar letters. Multiply the letter-stroke widths you can’t read by 7,000.
At 1:8,000 you can read familiar signs.
At 1:9,000 you can’t read familiar signs
At 1:10,000 you cannot see that there are individual letters.
At 1:15,000 you can see single objects e.g. trig points against the sky.
Of course it’s rough! I told you so in Rule 1: Guess!
Adjust the numbers to your eyesight e.g. “I can only count to 1500”.
The idea is to build up your subconscious guesswork.
E.g. “I can count to 3000 and can count house windows” try 1 m x 3,000 = 3 km away
“I can’t quite see heads” try 25 cm x 4,000 = 1 km away
Test Your Own Visual Acuity

Walk up to a signpost until you can read it. Pace the remaining distance.
Measure the size of its letter strokes.
When do you lose sight of a dollar coin?! Can you count heads in a crowd at 600 m?
Set up a 1 cm test pattern of squares (for others) to count. Try yellow squares too.
Test yourself in different conditions — on an overcast day, in direct sunlight, in glare, on a hazy day, and at a large distance.
102
Align the Map to Identify Landmarks

Lift your eyes from the properly aligned map back onto the landscape… “There should be a peak in the distance over that way.”
“Look for an outstation in this direction” “Can you see the transmitter structure??”
This is “Map To Land” navigation.
If you are on a peak, you may want to keep a copy of these relative directions in a notebook
(especially the ones which go off your map).
“Magnets Grip Maps”

This mnemonic is meant to remind you to twist the map to the north — the map should be one piece with the compass needle.
▪ Place the compass on the map
▪ Grip both the map and the compass in one hand
▪ Turn the whole map, or yourself, or both — so that the magnetic needle points to the map’s magnetic North
The result is that the map is aligned to the landscape.
Keep it that way!
Even while you walk, and twist, and turn… This is called “Swinging the Map”. The Magnetic North
A one-off effort is called “Orienting the Map”. marked on the map
Swinging all three of you is called “Orienting yourself” e.g. to North. is crying out
to be matched up with…
Align Your Map in the Dark ..the magnetic needle

The commonest way to align the map to the landscape is by a magnetic compass. but check
The magnet — the compass needle — must ‘grip the map’, magnetic North to magnetic North, that the
in order to keep the map oriented. angle is
One method is to set the compass protractor to zero — true North — and drawn to
set the compass edge to grid North/true North (see diagram) and then scale!
set the magnet needle to magnetic North — as marked on the compass rose on the map
Another method is to line the edge of the compass up with the magnetic North mark on the rose.
Then you simply keep the needle point pointing to zero on the protractor.
A third method is to set the compass to the correct compass heading then line the protractor edge up
with the desired course on the map, and the needle to the protractor, then follow the compass arrow.
A fourth method is to set the compass to the correct true course on the map, then line the compass needle
up with magnetic North on the map, then follow the arrow. But always line up the two magnetic Norths!
A Compass Holder
Rather than hanging the compass around your neck, where you hardly ever see it, you can make it constantly visible.
For map making, it is indispensable.
for your head
Version 1: Aluminium wire around your neck and around the compass, like a bib or harmonica holder…
The compass circle is grasped by a circle of non-magnetic wire.
Version 2: Hang a flat map board from your neck, and blue-tack the compass on to the map board…
Drill holes in the four corners of a light board.
One string loop goes around your neck and through the two close corners.
Another string loop goes around your neck and through the other two corners
and has an adjusting knot in it (rolling hitch).
The compass protractor is set to 0° i.e. Use Magnetic North
or it is set to x° i.e. Use True North
To orient the map, or yourself, turn around and face North.
For a back-bearing, turn around and use the white end of the needle to read your direction — where you have come from.
Use the “NORWEST; NOT LEAST” mnemonic to keep you in touch with normal orientation. See p.101c & 106b for how to build
up a map, or keep track, blind, using such a compass holder.
103
Distance
“Changeover Lines” of Progress — Relative Apparent Sizes

All visual elements which surround you have an apparent size, each of which changes as you progress.
E.g. “The hut behind us seems so tiny now, poking out from the sea of snow”
E.g. “That hill now seems to loom high above the plain” (a vertical angle).
Two apparent sizes will, at some stage, become equal, at e.g. as you move away from one object, which shrinks, and toward
another, which expands. Simply notice “the changeover” and you have ‘a line of position’ to log your progress.
“The hill is the same size as the leaning over gum tree” (a vertical angle, a diagonal angle, and a changeover line)
You don’t need to remember what size you measured — just compare them for equality!
“The width of the patch of forest is much less than the island is across” (horizontal angles)
“But the island alongside us is about the same width as the gap between the two” (another “changeover point”)
You don’t get a single point fix, only a line of separation. The third and fourth diagrams each show an example.
A measurement without numbers is like saying “We are halfway there” instead of saying “4.5 km on”
or like waiting until you are “Exactly East of Mount Big” rather than measuring “079°C” at any time
or somewhat like “These two line up, if you put a hand span in the gap”
The closer the objects, the better. The more distant, the more careful you need to be!
Use the Landscape Itself to Measure & Mark Progress

Example: “Where I came out onto the beach,
Sloop Rock was one island to the right of Gannett Island” A B C
A top view shows that this is simply a line of sight, locating a point next to the island.
horizontal angles: AB>BC AB<BC
Island = gap;
An apparent-size Rule of Thumb for counting changeover line, AB=BC
changeover line
Distance-Off by Vertical Angle

The simplest range finder is a piece of grass held at arm’s stretch, (if your fingernails are too small).
Measure the apparent height of something which you can recognise later,
then measure how many millimetres of grass was needed!
You can relocate that distance-off later by its apparent height e.g. distance from a prominent peak;
from a lighthouse seen from offshore; from any recognisable tree; or from a cliff with a clear base to measure up from.
This is how our mind analyses the skyline heights — it is a very ‘natural’ method.
Yacht navigators will find out the height of a lighthouse from a chart, height
measure the angle with a sextant, and calculate the range by trigonometry… angle
To fix your position requires two separate measurements e.g. two different vertical features horizontal distance
In theory, the plotting looks like two circular arcs intersecting, because any distance-off must give you a circle of possible
positions.
The closer the features, the smaller the circles, and the more accurate the fixing of the location.
Confuse your friends with: “1 inch away from the windmill, and 13 mm from the pine tree”…
Safe Distance Off 1.5 km

You might be sailing around a headland or reef, and want to maintain safety… 2 km pine tree
Without needing to know where you are you can maintain a minimum distance off.
E.g. “no higher than 1° apparent height by vertical angle”
E.g. “keep the horizontal angle acute, between those two points” Windmill
E.g. “stay outside the apparent radar range of 5 km”
E.g. “deeper than 20 m” Discard one of the two possible positions.
Circle-of-Position by Horizontal Angle

Here you keep track of the horizontal space between two prominent points; or any noticeable gap; or the apparent width of an
island. Use a string stretched across your line of sight, or a stick gripped between two fists.
In this horizontal case though, unlike the vertical angle, the ‘circle’ of position is really only a cusp — part of a circumference,
which must pass through the two points, and your position.
If you are closer — a wide angle — the arc is flatter; a narrower angle means you are further away — a larger part of the circle
lies on your side of the landmarks.
There is a constant angle
at anywhere on the circumference
when looking at the two points.
You don’t need to draw this though.

Only memorise or note the angle.
To fix your position make two separate measurements e.g. one vertical angle and one horizontal angle too; or two horizontal
angles—using three landmarks (or two vertical angles; or a radar range & direction from a single landmark; or use any other
line(s) of position e.g. a compass bearing or line of sight or an advanced position line).
Now you can relocate that buried treasure, that fishing spot, waterhole, rare plant, good campsite… simply through making a
couple of notches in your walking stick.
The best range-finder

..is a theodolite/sextant — designed to measure angles very accurately. You can use them horizontally.
104
Align the Map to Fix Your Position

Match the map to the landscape visually.
(The first result is to show you geographical (true) North.)
(The second result is to show up other landmarks.)
The third result is to show up where you must be.
(The fourth result will be to indicate which way to continue.)
I.e. Work backwards — from Land to Map.

One method is as follows…
Place a small pebble on the ground.
Place other pebbles in a circle around that,
each one lining up with some landmark.
Now place the map over that centre pebble.
Twist and shift the map until it lines up.
Get down behind the map and visually sight over it.
When everything lines up you must be at the centre of the circle
— over the central pebble.
Your position should look obvious!
A Horizontal Angle between Features Yields a Position Circle

There is no need to draw this position circle (diagram 1), and it is somewhat awkward to construct, but there are two cases which
are well worth drawing (permanently) on the map…
Diagram 2. A right-angle between two peaks — it means that those two peaks mark the diameter of the circle — easy to draw.
Diagram 3. The ‘circumscribed’ circle of three peaks — you can see whether you are inside or outside of that circle.
To find the centre of the circle, use perpendicular bisectors.
The angle seen from the circumference is constant. Horizontal angles are larger on the inside.
Smaller outside
A diameter yields a right angle.
‘Two Horizontal Angles’ Usually Fixes Your Position

Mount Near Mount Far Gulch Gully
Record the information on a piece of string at arms’ length

Or drawn onto paper
Or onto tracing paper
Or by compass bearings*
Or with a pair of compasses; Fold the paper against your eye
Or by angles cut into a leaf; drawn on the ground; folded into paper; etc
*you could plot back-bearings, or simply record the three directions for reference.
This is a quick, natural, accurate method which uses no numbers or circles. It is how our mind judges the horizontal layout.
Only one position on the map will produce such a pair of horizontal angles.
If you draw the angles onto tracing paper, you can place it directly down over the map, to fit it on properly.
If you make a three-arm trio of compasses with a locknut at the pivot, you can also place this directly onto the map.
Coastal yacht navigators find the method useful, and to measure angles very accurately they use a sextant horizontally.
In theory it plots as two intersecting circles — only one intersection makes sense.
The nearer the landmarks, the smaller the circles, and the better the fix. Place your eye
Just don’t choose three landmarks which are already on one circle along with you! directly over the pivot
Wrong Right
You don’t have to draw these circles
Also, if you want to find an angle from the map
you can just read it from the map without drawing any circle
105
Distance
The Sine-Cosine Tally Method of Keeping Track, Blind

This project is only “for experience” — i.e. you are unlikely to want to do it twice! — but you should do it once.
The idea is to keep a running total of your ‘Northing’ and ‘Easting’ from a starting point.
I scored 97% efficiency in getting back home, on an 11 km circuit, on my first try, with an unreliable home-made pedometer!
It is a ‘bottom-up’ method — for when you are walking blind — when you cannot work down from the Big Picture.
With pen and paper you record your pedometer readings & directions, and update the numbers, say every hundred double
paces.
E.g. “Current Pedometer Reading: 1400; (time-check 1 1/4 mins; pacing check 140 m) efficiency: 90% (slightly indirect path)
Recent Direction 005°; adjustment needed +90, +8; new tally: 419, -45; (comments: crossed a wet ditch)”
The chart of ‘adjustments’ follows this box, with an example.

200% efficiency would mean “I missed the last 100 reading”
50% = “I had a diversion” 110% =“I stopped at 110 — make the next reading 90% efficient”
◊ Set it all out with headings and long columns.
◊ Your judgment and arithmetic don’t need to be accurate, because the errors are likely to cancel (!)
◊ Check your pedometer for each type of terrain, by time and by pacing.
◊ Avoid blunders e.g. check that the direction and the adjustments are similar between two legs.
It is quite pleasant to stop every minute or so — at every 100 on the pedometer — It keeps you alert, rested and oriented.
Making a full map (see ‘Layout Map—Blind) is more satisfying and just as quick.
Mariners can (either draw their tacks, or, using this method) calculate an overall course-made-good from their many compass
legs, by first adding up (distance x sin true course) East, and then adding up (distance x cos true course) North, from each
individual distance and course.
Their overall distance is √(sum12+sum22 ) at an angle of arc-tan(sum1/sum2). Then correct for magnetic variation.
Rise and Run Adjustments — Sine and Cos — North and East
Caution: These are COUNTER-Clockwise Bearings! — as seen from a compass holder… Change
I.e. The needle swings to left and to right while you point straight ahead. Actual direction…(NE SE SW NW) N E
E.g. when the needle points to “20° East of 0°”, as in the diagram, Adjustments… + + –– cos sin
“N(orth) O(n) R(ight)-West” reminds you that you are heading NNW-ish, –+ +–
not to the East. N20°W is your anti-clockwise heading. Protractor Readings… 360 180 180 000 100 0
Don’t let this unusual method of measuring bearings confuse you N nnn° W… 355 185 175 005 100 9
about normal clockwise bearings. 350 190 170 010 98 17
There are really only 10 pairs of adjustments used in the whole table Ahead 345 195 165 015 97 26
I have made East positive, only to match normal bearings and 340 200 160 020° 94 34
Map grids, which use East as positive (West as negative). 0 335 205 155 025 91 42
Here, West is negative; East is Positive. 20 330 210 150 030 87 50
South is negative; North is positive 325 215 145 035 82 57
Examples: North East is + + N315°W; 320 220 140 040 77 64
South West is – – N135°W; 315 225 135 045 71 71
North West is +– N45°W; The next figures rerun the previous ones...
South East is – + N225°W 310 230 130 050 64 77
The + and – signs tell you 34W (sin20 = 34 per 100) 305 235 125 055 57 82
how to change your tally of North and East. 300 240 120 060 50 87
E.g. 295 245 115 065 42 91
100 paces to the NNW ish, as in the diagrams is... 94N (cos20 = 94 per 100) 290 250 110 070 34 94
94 paces of Northing and 34 of Westing 285 255 105 075 26 97
Or +94, –34 20° to the West of North 280 260 100 080 17 98
275 265 095 085 9 100
270 270 090 090 0 100
e.g. As a different example, a tally of –640 +770 means that you are 640 paces South
and 770 paces East of your starting point, which means that you are now N230°W from home, according to the table.
Rule of Fingernails
Your pointing fingernail should be about 1°, one in 60, when you stretch your arm.
Your thumbnail at arm’s length, held upright, might be one in 50……
A pencil in your fist will be about one in 100.
Check it out with a tape measure and calculator. E.g. 1.2 cm (width) / 69 cm (distance from eye) = one in 57 = 1°
Adjust how you hold your arm (e.g. square in front, diagonally- or fully- on the side) and which fingernail, etc, until you find
suitable combinations which you can remember.
But the trick to making this useful in range guesstimations is to guess the distance away first, then estimate the height of a
mountain, as follows… 60 km away — use one in 60. One full nail means 1 km showing;
30km away—use 1 in 60 =½km showing; 50km away—use 1 in 50 = 1km showing; 10km away—use 1 in 100 = 100m showing
Reverse logic can give you the distance away, if you can see the base clearly e.g. from sea, and know the full height.
Rule of Tom Thumb

At various times you have to judge parallax.
And the trick is to project the needed sideways movement onto the intervening landscape.
Tom Thumb
Imagine yourself over there on that ridge — Are you as thick as that tree trunk? Are you as tall as that bush?
To make the two landmarks line up, imagine the distance over there in the distance.
“I would have to walk that far sideways over there” = “I would have to walk the same distance sideways over here”
Apparent Size
The size of people, cars, houses, as measured at arm’s length, varies with distance. You know how big they are already.
To get a good gauge of very small angles, compare their width & height with a key or knife-blade or toothpick, held edge-on.
106
Which Way is North?

Left Edge of Grid North True North; Due North; Geographical North
Star North
Botanical North Grid North
Bush Noon (SH) Grid North Right Edge
Adjusted Cusp North Magnetic North on Map
Moon North Magnetic North currently
Psychological North Compass North
(Person A) Compass North near my boots
Upper Westerlies North Snow North
Wind North today Landscape (Skyline) North
Gully North (if my map is dis-oriented)
Rock North Prevailing Wind North
Map North (on a bad map) Yesterday’s-Wind North
Wave North Previous Landscape North
Dew North
Barnacle North These are only the horizontal Norths
Low-Cloud North Galactic North; Ecliptic North; Polaris
Noise North are not horizontal.
Neither is the North Pole.
Calculated North
Reversed polarity needle
Not included are Coast North and other mental Norths.
Psychological North
(Person B)
A Northern Hemisphere Person Judging North by the Southern Hemisphere Sun
‘East-least; West-Best’ Rule — Tells You Which Bearing is ‘Best’

This rule works only for horizontal directions, measured clockwise.
It is for shifting between True, Grid, Magnetic & Compass bearings 0-360°.
“Least” really means “Less than the other alternative number” “Best” really means “More than the other choice”
The following wording (“the North which is”) is important, since you need to choose correctly between a right and wrong choice!
The “North” which is East (clockwise) of another “North” gives the Least bearing.
Any “North” to the West (anticlockwise) of an alternative “North” yields the Best & Biggest numbers.
Specifically, it is most used to shift back and forth between magnetic North and true North bearings.
The wording may then be rendered: “Compass error West; compass heading best”. Memorise that wording.
Because this mental arithmetic is a difficult ask, you need to draw a diagram to make the conversion clear.
Learn this reminder “Check-up-on-yourself!” diagram… And visualise it, on the real landscape in front of you.
North ‘A’ North ‘B’ North ‘A’ is West of North ‘B’: it yields the Best of the two bearings.
(e.g. if A is true North, and B is magnetic North, the ‘magnetic variation’ is ‘To the East’
and “the compass heading is Least”)
Bearing A is Best (It yields a bigger number — East-around)
(e.g. if the magnetic bearing is 085°, the true bearing is bigger… 120°)
Bearing B is Least North ‘B’ is East of North ‘A’: it gives the Least clockwise angle.
It is the North which is “East” or “West”; The bearings from it are “least” or “best”.
Numbers are meant to make sense — your job is to look for that sense, visually.
Landmark
E.g. Compass Deviation………If my compass North points too far East e.g. by 10°, 050°M = 040°Compass (-bearing is Least)
E.g. Grid Convergence Correction…If Grid N is 2° tilted to E of true N, 070°T = 068°G (Grid is Least, since Grid N is East)
E.g. Map to Compass………… 090° on the map means: set your compass to 100°M, when magnetic variation is 10° West (Best)
E.g. Compass to Map………… 205°M as a compass bearing = draw 220°T on the map, when magnetic variation is 15° Least
E.g. Add the GridtoMagnetic Convergence clockwise E angle to magnetic N to get Grid N “MAG=Magnetic, Add(the GMC)=Grid”
String Map
This is a fun-project. As you un-do each knot later, you relive the journey!
A suitable string is builders’ twine — long, thin & strong.
An extraordinary number of code variations are possible, provided you can “read” the different knots afterwards!
Keep it simple, for a start.
Example: Start with a slip knot. Half-hitch it every hundred paces, to keep track of distance.
Tie a special knot at any change — to remember it by.
E.g. a strangler hitch around some bark for “thick forest”!; a thumb knot around a feather for “Water Bird Lake”
Chain the slip loop to keep it going. Or thumb knot the loop to lock it all up.
A simple numerical code is: slip knot; + n half-hitches; chain on; m half-hitches; chain on; ongoing tally…
n might mean something like ‘direction’ by clockface
m could be ‘terrain type’
Here are some variations…
right and left

half-hitches multi-twisted hitch
twisted hitch crossed hitch figure-of-eight loop
multi-turn hitch
slip knot; two half-hitches; chain-on reef knot chain-on

thumb knot
107
Distance
Progressing A Position Line across the Map

Situation: You catch sight of one landmark; plot a back bearing; then travel — say for
two hours, West — before you catch sight of a cross-bearing. You can still plot a ‘fix’! Ayer’s Rock Mount Connor
Example (fictitious): You lose sight of Mount Connor in the Northeast; and later see
Ayer’s Rock. Your pace is 4kph. From the bearing of Mount Connor, you plot a position
line (by a back bearing running back from Mount Connor). You must label this ‘10 a.m.’ 12 md 12 md 10 a.m.
Now shift the whole position line 2 hours to the West i.e. 8 km, and label it ‘12md’.
To do this choose any two points on it; shift those points 8 km West;
draw a new line parallel to the old. You are now ready to plot another back bearing
— this time from Ayer’s Rock — to cross the advanced position line, for a ‘pinpoint fix’. 8 km
Alternatively, you could ‘shift’ only Mt Connor on the map, first.
Pinpoint “Fixes” are a Myth!

(Rule: Don’t suppress uncertainty, nor reject any unwelcome information! )
Any ‘line’ of position looks exact. But it comes with unavoidable uncertainty
and should be plotted (mentally at least) as a wide band of ‘likely position’. +/-5°
Potential inaccuracies abound. E.g. lining up the compass;
reading the compass; plotting that angle;
grid north variation across the map; map distortions;
errors in magnetic variation; protractor inaccuracy;…
+/- ½km
You can now advance your “area of uncertainty”
across the map, expanding it with each blind move! +/- 5°
‘Deduced Reckoning’ navigation at sea (i.e. “intelligent guess”)
is more a matter of keeping track of accumulated errors
due to tides, leeway, inaccurate course-holding/recording/plotting, inaccurate instruments. So too on land.
Getting Started in the Dark

The task is to know what direction to head off in, when you can’t necessarily see the landscape… North of me
You need a Map & Compass. my destination
TAKE A MAP-BEARING — Find the desired angle, on the map, in relation to the North-South grid……………
— “About 60°, as a guess”
— Use the edge of the protractor
— Measure the angle — only the protractor is needed for this!
Line up both sets of parallel lines — mapgrid lines,
and the lines on the needle-holder-circle.
— The protractor will display the angle between the two sets of its parallel lines
“55° E. of N.” (It is marked clockwise)
(This is Called Working from Map to Compass)
SET THE COMPASS — Using 5° East magnetic variation, and ignoring compass deviation…
Compass bearings should be ‘Least’
i.e. 050°C
— adjust the ‘Follow Me’ Arrow to point to 50° (to the East of North)
Twist the circle on its mounting.
— Don’t alter the protractor again!
FOLLOW THE COMPASS — Now turn your attention to the needle
— Line it up with the ‘zero’ on the protractor, by twisting the whole instrument,
And by using the grid lines on the movable circle as a guide.
— Twist yourself this time, to line up with the ‘follow me’ arrow. And off you go!
Mnemonic: Map to Compass (= Map to Compass Course) Means Map Grid to Compass Zero;
Angle the Arrow to the course target;
Put on the correction; To Get it, use the East Least West Best Rule;
Compare the Compass Zero to the Compass Needle; Past the Follow Me Arrow is the Course Target.
Thinking Backwards
“Danger bearings” allow you to stay safe, without knowing your position accurately, but you need to think accurately…
As seen from the lighthouse, you must stay on the right of 315° (and to the left of 060°). That much is clear from the chart.
Anything ‘to the right’, is clockwise from the observer, so for the keeper to keep something (e.g. you) ‘on the right’ means to
keep its bearing bigger than ahead. ‘Ahead’ is parallel to the 315° track shown, since the lighthouse keeper is wishing to see
you ‘on its right’. He will be happy to see you on any bearing bigger than 315° and less than 060° i.e. 315 to 360, 0 to 60.
From your point of view, that means, that you must use back bearings, of 135° and 240°, and then keep those tracks on your
right and on your left respectively, as you look in. ‘Ahead’ is parallel again, but opposite to the track shown on the chart, if you
are trying to keep the track ‘on your right’. Looking in, moving yourself to the left will place the track further to the right, and
make bearings to things on it bigger. That means, in numbers, the lighthouse will bear more than 135° and less than 240°,
i.e. It is safe to approach at anything between 135° and 240°. Notice that the more/less sense is preserved with such use
of backbearings.
white light (safe) sector
red light (dangerous) sector
red (dangerous) sector
rocks 315°
Point 060°
lighthouse
Safe Harbour
108
Taking a Bearing from the Landscape

▪ Start with a guess e.g. “That hill is about 060°T from me”
▪ Point the ‘follow me’ arrow to the landmark
▪ Grip and twist the movable protractor circle until the grid marks on it — i.e. the zero — line up with the compass needle
▪ Read the resulting angle off — between the zero (which is “North” —Compass North in this case), and the landmark.
The result should agree with your guess e.g. “The landmark lies at 065°C” i.e. East of Compass North i.e. clockwise from.
Take a B.E.A.Ring Mnemonic: Bearings are Tracks; Expect to have to plot a back-bearing;
Arrow to Landmark; Ring to Needle and Read It off. (Think: “Arrowing” to remember A)
65
top view
If it helps you sight the landmark, hold your compass string vertically upwards from underneath the tip of the follow me arrow.
The ‘Zero’ is meant to be used for ‘North’! But if you point the follow-me arrow to North and the ‘zero’ to the landmark,
then (a) it is more awkward and (b) it is an anti-clockwise “bearing”.
If you are about to use a map, you must now convert the compass bearing to a ‘True bearing’.
Firstly mentally change the compass bearing to a magnetic bearing if you are aware of any compass deviation i.e. compass
errors. (You usually do not worry about compass deviations when bushwalking.)
Next mentally convert the magnetic bearing to a true bearing using the East-least, West-best rule.
Example: “6° variation West” (The Magnetic North is West of True) “Compass Best” so… 065°C = “059° True”
Lastly, physically change the protractor to read 059° when you want to draw on the map, at an angle to the map’s True North.
See opposite & above Plotting a (‘Compass-to-Map’) Back-Bearing

Draw a line on the map from the landmark in an opposite direction. Use the protractor to get the angle right.
If you see a landmark North of you, you must be South of it. 239°
Or, what looks ‘South-West of me’ must mean that you are ‘North-East of it’. 059°
Think backwards! See “Back bearings: +/-200° then -/+20°” p.18e E.g. 059°T from me to it…
Note that I have already converted Compass to True. 239°T from it to me.
One bearing yields one line of position (from a back-bearing plot — diagram 1)…
Two bearings from two different directions cross for a ‘fix’ — diagram 2…
Three bearings don’t cross. They form a ‘cocked hat’ and keep you humble — diagram 3…
In this case, you could be anywhere nearby (which is also true for any “Fix”).
Expand your possible positions, don’t try to pinpoint a “better” one.
Take more care next time, especially on the closer i.e. the more reliable landmarks.
Check your compass for fixed errors e.g. “always 3° too much”.
Choose directions which are quite different from each other, to get the clearest crossing.
Compass to Map Mnemonic: (Compass B.E.A.Ring, then) Compass to Grid (or True) Correction;
Make it a Back Bearing; Angle to Grid; Pencil to Paper—Draw It in. (Think: “Mangle” to remember A)
No-Number Back-Bearings
Method 1. Use the white-tipped (South) end of the compass needle, when you take the bearing.
Method 2. Point the “follow me” arrow back toward you, when you take the bearing or follow the compass.
Method 3. Line the protractor zero up with Map South, when you plot the bearing.
Method 4. Point the compass edge to the landmark on the map and draw your back-bearing line backwards from the landmark.
You don’t need to alter the compass setting at all (except for the magnetic variation or grid/magnetic convergence angle).
Warning 1. Don’t mix back-bearing shortcut-methods, or you may get a ‘double negative’!
Warning 2. Check all you do, against reality, for sense.
Warning 3. Don’t try to shortcut Compass-to-True conversions at the same time as shortcutting the back-bearing,
or you will get confused.
Parallax While You Walk — JUST DRAW IT!

Most hand-made maps start with a known baseline scale — a straight segment of a known distance.
I.e. “I walked from here to there in a straight line for 1 km” — for this you may need a pedometer.
Or if you are Captain Cook or Matthew Flinders “We sailed on (this) bearing at (this) speed for (this amount of) time”
You can then add cross-bearings at any time to fix the position of distant landmarks Mt Near
— obviously at the beginning and end of the baseline are the preferred places, Mt Next
perhaps combined with one from the middle…
The longer the baseline the more accurate the fix on distant marks. 1 km
You really only need a protractor for this running base-line triangulation. To Mount Far
(And on a Mudmap, you just eyeball the direction and draw an arrow in freehand.)
Here is an example of the easiest sort, and the reverse of a double-angle…

After a week at sea, with no sight of the sky to navigate by, I was understandably over-anxious about my position, and
“needed” a “fix”! I decided to sail toward an isolated lighthouse-island, in the hope of passing close enough to see it, perhaps, if
we weren’t too far off course. The winds were hurricane force, of course, and the sky was filled with salt-spray lifted off from
the water’s surface. It was dusk. Suddenly, above the mist, dead ahead, the lighthouse turned on! Alarmingly high, and close.
Too close!
Were we “found” or about to be “lost”!? (See “Aiming Off”!) After the cheers: “What do we do? How far off are we?!”
“Turn at right angles to it; Maintain that course; Take regular bearings until it is diagonal; Keep track of the distance run.
Then resume your course. That way we can tell how far away it is.”
“How can you do that!” said the bewildered, inexperienced navigator.
I replied: “I’ll just draw it” “We will pass as far away
as the sideways distance we have run”
109
Section 5. Navigation Mnemonic
A “Start-Stop-Rest” Navigation Mnemonic Overview

START
“Start” has six points, as illustrated in the diagram below…
These mnemonics, e.g. S.T.A.R.T. or S.T.O.P., will be expanded in the rest of this section—they summarise the book.
◊ Start with a Prayer— “What more do I need to do to avoid getting dead?”

◊ P.R.E.P.A.R.E.D. — What have I forgotten to do or to take, to practise or remember? Start off oriented before you go!
◊ S.T.A.R.T. — with your start-off-trend-direction, which is the single most important navigational item. Start off aligned!
◊ Start on T.I.M.E. — Read your watch, and benchmark your trip. Say: “Time & Tide” as well, because sometimes tide levels are crucial.
— Check pace & progress. Estimate the Range, because time is all about distance.
◊ Start time is 6 a.m. — It’s always time to look in 6 directions, plus 2—Time to Look All Around, Appreciatively, plus time to look at the Map
◊ Start with N.S.E.&W. —4 sets of 4 directions. The final W is for W.E.A.T.H.E.R.
The final R signals that you are Ready to go. Don’t start until you R!
S.T.O.P. A Stop is a Signal—Interpret the Why? of your stop: Does it Signal a change in watershed, catchment or view;
in Trend or Terrain or ‘Time & Tired’;
in Orientation (embarrassment—if lost, rule one: Stop);
in Progress/Position/Placement—campsite, junctions, features?
REST is best remembered as a mnemonic of 5 RE’s…

R.E.-O.R.I.E.N.T. — using these letters as a mnemonic. E.g. RI re-Visualise the Invisible Big Picture, and ENT Relate yourself to Nature.
RE-RE.L.A.T.E. — re-interpret all directions to relate to each other and to the skyline, as explained below. Now don’t forget...
RE-MEMBER — the WAY and the SEQUENCE and especially to NOTE down (in the NOTEBOOK) the NAMES, and DRAW what you need to.
RE-LAX — Play the Navigational Game—teach it—and 5 other games.
There is a final ‘-art’ to ‘stop and rest-’
RE-ST-ART 1.1 re-pray; 1.2 re-prepare; 1.3 re-s.t.a.r.t; 1.4 re-t.i.m.e.; 1.5 re-look (6 a.m.); 1.6 re-direct (NSEW), (which includes re-weather)
... e.g. 1.3 Re-S.T.A.R.T. after a rest, on the next leg—to relate it to the last & to the start-finish trend.
Summary: “Start” 6 times; “Stop, and Re-st-” (with 4 new “Re-”‘s)
(The Start mnemonic is a good example of the “clumping” technique

—never more than a handful of things to remember, yet it leads you into hundreds of points.)
Put the S for Sky at the top, where it should be.
Use a hexagon for the 6 START up points.
Use a clock-face for TIME,
and the compass-rose for NSEW.
Show the 6 directions in 3 dimensions.
Balance it all on a triangle
—for the “6 a.m. start” , since it has 3 parts. Sky and Skyline
Toward what Target; through what Terrain
Away in what Anti-direction
Rain catchment; Region; Ranges
Trends
See the boxes to follow
PRAYER P.R.E.P.A.R.E.D.
T.I.M.E. N.S.E.W.
UP
Watch your progress Forward & W.E.A.T.H.E.R.
LEFT RIGHT
Back
DOWN
6
a.m.
AAAAAA MMMMMM Now read the boxes to follow, downwards...
P.R.E.P.A.R.E.D.—A Before-You-Go Checklist ..so that most of your navigating is already done, from home!
P.ractise Global orientation. Get a blow-up globe. Teach others. Learn (what to learn, look for, do etc.). E.g. predict the Sun.
Learn the Mnemonics, Codes & standards e.g. S&R signals, compass directions
Pace your paces — metres per minute; steps per 10 metres. Left-right bias (blindfold).
R.esearch History. Ruins. Artifacts. Mines. Geology. Get a geological map from the library. Landform. Soils. Climate. Windy season. Prevailing
winds. Wet season. Vegetation analysis. Rare species. Biogeography. Geography — global neighbours; time zones; local coasts & river
mouths. Catchments. Cardinal features — places N,S,E,W from you. Land lines on map. Place names — their meanings and history.
E.quipment See the next box.
P.lace names See the box after that.
A.stronomical orientation Sleep on a map, and with a compass nearby. Point the map North. Times and directions and heights of Sunrise & set,
Moonrise & set. Southern Cross. Pot. Sun at noon, at magnetic North/South, when East, when West, at magnetic East and West.
What landscape markers (from the map) for these directions? The star opposite the Sun. Time zone. Local noon — its exact time.
The Sun’s coordinate predictions. Your longitude. The “Equation of Time”. Moon-phase, -number and –day of week. Tide times.
R.eminder Note your intentions—and tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back.
E.xpectations of the Weather Barometer reading. Get the Weather forecast. Follow the Changes. Buys-Ballot’s law. Steering winds.
D.irections & Familiarity Ask someone who has been there. Read track guides. Look at an aerial photograph. Go beforehand! Find your old track
notes. Look closely on the way in. Choose a route. Plan your strategies. Coordinate the cars, the car keys, any food drops, shuttles or codes
110
Equipment — A What-You-Might-Like-to-Take Checklist

(E. in PREPARED, for “Equipment”…)
▪ A Map A compass A clock

▪ A notebook and pen — for track notes. A track guide. An aerial photograph. A navigator’s handbook.
▪ For map making — graph paper, paper, pencil, a compass-holder. A map-holder (string around neck to a…), clipboard, stopwatch.
▪ Polaroid glasses — to orient by the dark blue sky band. Radio — for RDF, weather. Mobile phone. GPS. Camera.
▪ Binoculars. Pedometer. Rangefinder. Calculator. Altimeter. A sine-cosine table.
▪ A map cover. A spare map. A navigational protractor. A magnetised needle. A sundial compass. A two-flap cardboard compass.
▪ Marker tape; Chalk; Scissors (for cutting leaves!). A clear plastic tube. A clear plastic drinking bottle (for an artificial horizon).
▪ A long piece of string (e.g. for a range-finder). Short pieces of string (e.g. for a plumb-bob). A walking stick. Someone who knows the way.
(P in PREPARED) Place-Names —Learn Them—You Navigate by the Local Features!

“Look. That’s Big Split Rock and that’s Little Split Rock. Wild Dog Tier is that range over there, and this plain drains out over there, into the Ouse River
You can find your way anywhere around here from those.”
Suddenly I was unforgettably oriented, just like he said he was, when his dad told him.
For me, the funny names on the map now meant something worth knowing.
Place-names are not just names you don’t know; they name places, which you ought to know.
More accurately, place names ‘place’ you in the landscape, as well as ‘orient’ you to it.
A sense of location is almost independent from your sense of direction, and is rarer to come by.
Direction-sense places you in relation to very distant background references i.e. it doesn’t ‘place’ you at all!
Location-sense places you in relation to the immediate foreground — visible landmarks, catchment basins, fixed ‘tracks’, etc.
Place Names Place You
S.T.A.R.T. off Oriented

— Start-off Direction? (e.g. “upstream”) — the Single most important navigational knowledge — it tells you the return path, and the search path.
Sky/Skyline i.e. especially according to the Sky (e.g. “toward the Moon; into the sunset”) and related to the Skyline.
Start-off directions for the parallax method, pp. 51a,53a, e.g. to magnetic NSEW skyline or recognisable middle-ground points, or rhumb-line point
and another set of such bearings, taken from the map, as seen from the finish, if you are on a one-way trip.
— Toward what Target? Specify a
Track (e.g. “downhill to the lake”) or a Trend. A rhumb-line bearing is best—from start to finish.
Through what Terrain? (e.g. especially see what the land-shapes would look like without vegetation)
— Away from What Point? (e.g. “from the lookout carpark), and in what
Anti-direction (e.g. toward that other peak”—a skyline direction)
— Rain Catchment — In what major
Region? — as can be gauged by the surrounding
Ranges. (e.g. “on the main spur dividing North from South arm, downstream of…”)
— Trend: Read the Trend off the map, for starters; then continue to Read the Trends & bends and the progress as you go on.
Read (your compass; map; watch) in Relation to the Trend, i.e. in order to follow the trend, which is the focus of this mnemonic.
Plus: Read any other Trends, from any other places, from memory, in relation to the sky. Be able to revisualise them at will.
— Re-s.t.a.r.t. on the next leg, to relate it to the start-finish trend, and to relate it to the previous leg.
T.I.M.E. & Distance — that’s the point

TIME to Look at your Watch — PACE YOUR PROGRESS — the point of this T.I.M.E. mnemonic is distance.
— “Watch” your steps—i.e. calculate your pace from the elapsed time;
— “Watch” the Sun without looking at it, because your watch tells you where it should be.
— TIDE times may be necessary.
Instrument Check — watch, stopwatch, pedometer, odometer, rangefinder — for progress

— compass: Double the bow angle, or halve the stern angle p.94c; parallax readings on landmarks.
— (and other instruments — barometer, altimeter, GPS, radio null, radar, depth-sounder)
Map-Scale Check — are you judging the scale well? — What is the next goal? (This M is not for Map in general, but only for distances.)
Estimate the Time of Expected Arrival — guess each milestone ahead of time to set you free from a nervous TIME. Nominate an E.T.A.
Distance
PROGRESS: can also be gauged by lines of sight and changeover lines. Use a stopwatch, or pedometer. Read the scale.
PACE: distance divided by time; 20min/km, double and halve = 3kph; 1mps = 3.6kph; 4kph normal walking pace;
finger-math helps; pace yourself evenly.
RANGE: Use the letters of RANGE & FACULTIES as a mnemonic to remember the different ways of gauging distance in the distance...
Range squared = dee height; Area divided by offset; New direction parallax; Grass-leaf vertical angle, horizontal angles too; Educated guess
Familiar lengths, and Fingernail Rule; Acuity of vision and Apparent sizes; Cloud behaviour; Upper and lower guesses, averaged; Landscape lengths;
Tom Thumb Parallax; Intervening detail & haze alters your perception of distance; Extreme range comes in two bites; Sound travels at 1 km/3secs and
Sidewise offsets with blinking.
150km from 1 nautical mile high; 1° latitude from 1km; 50 miles from 500m; 50km from 1/5 km; 5km from 1/500 km (2 m); 12.7km from 12.7m.
111
Look in These 6 Directions — in 6 ways — Up and Down (Part of “Start at 6 a.m.”)

6 Directions to Look in UP — Astronomy — Sun Moon Calendar-Stars
— Sky — Clouds, Contrails — Blue Band
Up/Down — What’s up with the Weather?
Ahead/Behind then DOWN —Geology — Soil Type; Rock Type
Right/Left —Clues — Animal Trails; Bootprints; Fallen markers
— Up-Sun — haze & glare

— Over what tropical country? Then — Down-Sun — haze, shadows, colour changes
— Wind-wise — Up-Wind — Where on the skyline? — Down-Wind — Around what obstacle?

— Around what pressure system? (Wind in your face)
— From what coast/ocean? Listen; Smell
— Up-Breeze — To what cold surface? — Down-Breeze — To what warm surface?
— What’s up-Weather? Where are the steering winds coming from?
— Land-wise
— Up-Hill — To what dominant peak?
— Point to the dominant peak, even when it is invisible,
— Down-Hill — antidirection?
turn around to see what lies away from the peak — the “anti-peak”,
especially in relation to your shadow — this anti-direction has a lot to
do with a compass back-bearing—a visible line of position, you see
— Up-Ridge — To what hill/hillock? — Down-Ridge — Down which ridge? — To what headland?
— what offshore/underwater topography e.g. shallow reefs; islands?
Since this mnemonic is about direction, try to point to them.
— Up-Slope — To what ridge? — Down-Slope — Into what valley? Name them.
At what angle across the gradient?
— Where is the lowest upslope skyline, under the canopy? — Where is the highest downslope skyline, under the canopy?
— Up-Stream — To what distant divide? — Down-Stream — What stream? To what distant mouth?
— to what sedimented shelf; or deep-water channel?
Summary: Above & Below (twice each) + Sun & Wind (above eye-level) + Land & Water (below eye-level) = 6 ways for “Up & Down”
4 More Slopes
1 in 4, is 14°;
10° (aim off, 1 in 6) is 175 m per km;
1 in 60, is 1° (1 in 57.3 is the exact figure, but it doesn’t multiply up linearly after a few degrees, whereas 1 in 60 does well after a few degrees)
& n° is n in 60
(1 in 6 is 10°; 1 in 10 is 6°);
The equivalent is 5/3 in 100, 5 in 300, 167 in 1000, for use with multiplying up with the isosceles triangle angle method.
36°, 8 in 11, is critically unstable.
Multiply them up, inversely.
Look in These 6 Directions — in 6 ways — Ahead and Behind

Look Back Regularly: Is bad weather sneaking up behind you? (p.46c) “Abracadabara Peek behind you” (p.63b)
How much has the track bent around behind you? Any acute track junctions? Can you remember this way back?
Compare Forwards with Backwards: Do you need a back bearing? Are you half-way? Is your starting point visible, to get an anti-track forwards?
Are there any changes in the terrain, to photograph, in your mind? Have you memorised the transition, from the far side?
Look forward — in time — the forecast! What is the Estimated Time of Arrival? Look Back — in time — How far have I come?
Look ahead and behind in Upper case Time — Could you recognise this place much later, in hindsight? — What is the history of this place?
Look AHEAD — Has the view changed — into a new catchment? Look BEHIND — Have you left the old view behind — crossed a divide?
— at the terrain, the track showing up ahead, and the difficulties — Do you remember the way? Could you recognise it again?
— Look for track markers, and for trails ahead — Look behind for hidden, reverse track markers.
— Line up two (new) marks exactly ahead to keep your direction sense. — Look for the old lined up mark left behind.
Is it time to choose another leg, and a pair of marks lined up to it? Do I need to find new ones behind me?
Mnemonic: R,S,T-U,V,W,X-Y-Z Regularly Reverse your nose. Start/antiStart bearing & Snapshot-Sequence your transitions
time (+Upper case Time); The View; Way (remember it?); XYZ: X marks the Track (Markers); the (Y&Z) Leapfrog Marks =6 ways for Ahead & Behind.
Look in These 6 Directions — in 6 ways — Right and Left

Look RIGHT Through! 1. —
the bushes, to the land-form underneath; to the contours & bedrock
2. —the canopy, to the skylight beneath it
3. —the trees, to the most distant marks, including other trees
4. —the treetops, to the sky — the Moon, clouds and the blue band
5. —the foreground, to the most distant skyline horizon, whenever you can glimpse it
6. —the haze, to the skyline details beyond the land horizon—use binoculars too.
E.g. to barely visible mountain peaks, or a second skyline & its parallax, or to islands in the haze, or the rising Moon.
Look LEFT 1. — to the most distant thing you have LEFT BEHIND on each side! i.e. Have you left it behind yet? Is it time to choose another one?
2. — Have you left behind your: handbook; air photos; track guide; track notebook? — No, well, don’t just carry them — Look at them!
3. — Have you left anything behind at the rest stop? It’s an important habit, to ask this each time you move.
4. — Look to the right and left, for the contours, the natural ‘tracks’, and the behaviour of the network you are crossing and leaving behind.
5. — Things on the right have big bearings; things on the left are lesser; than straight ahead, even less as you leave them behind.
6. — NORWest & NOTLEast — North needle ‘on the left’, means you are heading roughly East. (N. On your Right = West-ish)
Summary: Right Through & Left Behind.
In summary for all the 6 directions make sure you Check Each One Out—Thoroughly! (6 ways each)
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..Plus in 2 More Directions — (1.) All, Around, Appreciatively, And At 6 L’s

1. All your senses: Listen, Smell. Look around with your other senses.
2. Look 360° Around for the best & worst showings of colour, shine, flowers, greenery, new growth, fern fronds, lichens, trunks, branches, dirt.
Compare Ahead with Behind, & Left with Right, & upSun with down-Sun, & up-wind, uphill, etc. for direction-dependent light and colour effects.
3. APPRECIATE — the scenery; the colours; the contrasts; the shapes, outlines and silhouettes; the foreground movements.
4. An Environmental Notice Time (see later box E.N.T. in REORIENT)
5. Any LOCAL PECULIARITIES to remember.
6. And At — the six L’s... — Landmarks — distances, sizes (apparent Largeness), altitudes Use binoculars.
— Are any familiar, from other walks you have done elsewhere?
— Do the place names make any sense? — interpret them!
— Layout — relative angles, compass bearings. Am I inside or outside of major landmark circles/triangles?
— Lie — slope and terrain, catchment and drainage, contours and altitude
— Lines Catchment Dividing Ridges and Rivers; Contours at right angles to the slope; Flight Tracks
— Ligns — ‘Same direction’ Lines of Sight, or nearly so; and ‘Opposite directions’ alignments: Am I in between?
— the fixed A-lignments . Am I left or right of major ‘ligns’?
— Sky-Line — talk it through; draw it. Cross-relate all directions to each other, and to the skyline
Summary: ‘A’ for ‘a.m.’: 6 A’s, with 6 L’s
..(2.) Look at the Map: a Systematic Checklist. (What ‘System’??)

The system is to examine top-down. From general to specific detail. From large-scale to small-scale. Look for the downward progression in these…
3-D location: Latitude, Longitude, Elevation. Centre of the time-zone. The inset map showing where you are on the continent. Scale & size. The overall
width- and breadth- distance of the map coverage. Grid size e.g. 10 km squares. Where you are on the map, geometrically too. The Starting Point. The
Relative Location—over the horizon landmarks; coastal towns N.S.E.W. of you; something NE,NW,SE,SW of you. Radio stations. Highways. Light
sources. Powerlines. Pipelines. Place names. Visible Landmarks. False peaks. Lines of the land — between landmarks. Recognisable hill-hill reference
distances. Recognisable elevations e.g. towers. Grid North; True North; Magnetic North; Magnetic Variation; Yearly Drift in Variation.
Catchments & Divides; Catchment Size; Adjacent Catchments; River Drainage. Land shapes i.e. interpret the slopes, contours, the contour interval.
Trends and Bends — of the coast; rivers; roads; ridges; ranges; the track. Notice any creeks which flow backwards i.e. against the trend, and why.
What rising ground will be visible in each direction? Perimeter features surrounding your walk e.g. a river, a range, a road, the coast, a forest. Escape
routes — unplanned exits. What are the ridge-line limits of the sub-catchment which most encloses your possible location? What high points are on it?
Possible routes. Clockwise or anticlockwise? Distances. Overall distance of your route. Milestone features. “ Wake-Up ” landmarks.
Initial bearings to landmarks. Initial angles to landmarks. Initial horizontal angles to landmarks. Final bearings. Rhumb–line trend from start to finish
Around what Obstacles? Fine details of the route. Don’t forget the fine print — the date and reliability of all the map details; the grid datum for GPS
use; the legend of symbols; colour codes; contour line thicknesses.
Mark the Lines-of-the-Land On Your Map

6 M’s for Map:
Map Checklist (above); Map-Lines (this box); (all below...) Map Alignment; East-Least West-Best Mnemonic; Map & Compass; Map-Making Methods.
Pre-prepare your map — Mark in the navigational lines which the mapmaker has left out. Most of these are permanent.
A. Cardinal Tracks — NSEW lines. Across the whole map, from the very prominent peaks; or simply covering a local area, from the local peaks
B. Alignments — e.g. from Peak to Peak; Tower to Town; Point to Point — You may see two in line, or walk in between two landmarks.
C. Directions to major distant features — (for orientation purposes) — e.g. capital cities; coastal towns
D. The Overall ‘Track’ — the RhumbLine — from start to finish. Mark this lightly; &/or two or three obvious overall ‘legs’
E. Circles of Distance Off — e.g. 5, 10, 15 km from Mt. X.
F. Circles of 90° horizontal angle — i.e. make two landmarks the diameter of a circle
G. Circumscribed circles around (i.e. which just include) the triangles in the triangular grid of landmarks
H. Transmitter to Transmitter networks — i.e. a triangular network of major peaks; include the distances and bearings on each line.
I. Flight Paths — if you can get hold of an aeronautical chart — it forms a second triangular network.
J. Catchment divisions.
Mnemonic: Four Straight Lines; Three Circles; Two Sets of Triangles; And One Very Sinuous Set.
Mnemonics for Map and Compass Work

◦ Map Alignment
A.L.I.G.N. the M.A.P:
A… Align the map to Sun with an imagined Arrow, and to your course with Another Arrow;
L… to the Landscape;
I… To Identify Landmarks and to get a Fix;
G… Grip the Magnet to the Map, and the Map to the Universe;
N… Not “Swinging the Map” As You Turn;
Magnetic Needle to Magnetic North (in four variations, “0°” to North or arrow to course, Magnetic or True);
Angles Horizontal, fit over the map;
P… Align the Path like landing a Plane, or align the map by aligning the Path.
◦ Mnemonic East least, West best

East is Least and West is Best, tells you the North which gives the bearing that is best. i.e. the biggest in number; or lesser in number.
◦ Map & Compass

LMNOrP: Landscape; Map; Needle; Protractor; either one Or two at a time, but not all three.
M.A.P. To Com.Pass, = Map to Compass Course, Means…

Map Grid to Compass Zero; Angle the Arrow to the course target; Put on the correction;
To Get it, use the East Least West Best Rule;
Compare the Compass Zero to the Compass Needle; Past the Follow Me Arrow is the Course Target.
Take a B.E.A.Ring: Bearings are Tracks; (Expect to have to plot a back-bearing); Arrow to Landmark; Ring to Needle and Read it off.
Compass to M.A.P.; Compass bearing, then Compass-to-True Correction; Make it a Back Bearing; Angle to Grid; Pencil to Paper—Draw it in
◦ MUDMAP:
Mudmap on paper; Mark the start point on one edge; Up-arrow for orientation (Update it); by a Reference Direction (UpDate it);
Maintain a trend, a long straight leg; Align the Arrow when you stop; Pencil in the Progress, and a new leg direction.
◦ Other Mapmaking Methods — Use the letters of COMPASSES:

Copy a Map Top-Down; Own Map is Valued; Mental Map—Map to Mind Navigation; Parallax onto a Running Baseline; Accumulate the Layout Blind;
Sine-Cosine Tally of Accumulated Eastings and Northings; String Map; Exploring a Cave System Needs a Book, of Strip Maps.
113
“N.S.E.& W.” — the four cardinal directions, is a mnemonic of fours

N for “North Coast” — all about visualising the invisible directions…
Name which coastal towns are N. S. E. W.

“Sweetheart” features Name your favourite spots NSEW of you
Encircling horizon features — Horizon North; Skyline South; Environmental East; Landscape West.
Which-way-am-I-going trend (rhumb-line), from the map, then marked onto the terrain—e.g. to behind that hillock
S for “Shortest Shadow South” — all about the path of the Sun (and Moon)—the 1234 system
— and the Sunny Skies quadrant system
— How the Sun, Blue Band trend & ends, and your Shadow, currently lie in relation to…
N Highest Noon (How High?)

S Shortest-Shadow Souths (SH) & the two-flaps South. Coldest South is the best reference in the SH. String South using the Sun’s Shadow.
E Sunrise (Where?) Anti-sunrise from a string-line to the horizon.
W Sunset (When?); Bisect them. Anti-sunset from a string-line in the afternoon.
E for Equinoctial East—i.e. other things astronomical, Etc.
Needle-North-Seeking-Northern-Canada—over Red Hot tropics!

South Pole Star (How High?) & Southern Cross (Where?) & Star-Chart octants & Star Compasses & Star Fixes
Ecliptic & Equator & Equinoctial Precession
W for the motion of the Pot, setting in the West (rhyme), at the latitude angle
W for Wind West, i.e. Natural Directions.
N for Nature’s Norths: Rock Noon; Botanical Noon; Solar Panel Noon; Satellite Dish North
S for Snow South; Frost South-East; Steep Gully South; Mud-in-the-Shadow South; Dead South; Siesta South.
E for Moss East-South-East
Wind: Upwind: scorch, erosion & flats, Downwind: shelters, debris & steeps; Noise & colour from up-wind; Rumble & skyshine from downwind.
& Weather Directions (& see below)—Where is Wind West? What is Upwind? Upper Winds Steer the Weather (from the West?) What is Upweather?
Summary: 4 directions with 4 variations; Then finish with W.E.A.T.H.E.R. After a rest, re-direct yourself.
W.E.A.T.H.E.R. — Check for Change

W. for Wind. Has it changed — in strength, direction, gustiness?
for Wind — in Your Face — Low on Your Left. Low winds bring the rain, clockwise.
for “Weather systems come from the West” — in temperate latitudes — can you make a prediction?
for the upper level steering Westerly-Wave Winds — are they deviating much from average? Are they steering a storm toward you?
for “Wind-West” showing up in the vegetation, for when the prevailing wind is not blowing.
for the prevailing Westerlies (or whatever).
E. for Ephemerals — i.e. the clouds and contrails (don’t forget this E.!)
Have they changed? — in height, type, wateriness, thickness, darkness — in directions — steering wind directions? In relation to the Sun?
— Examine them carefully for dissipation (i.e. thinning, soft edges, layering) or for building up (hard edges and heaping).
A. for Atmospheric Pressure Change — imagine the isobars across the land from the forecast.
Sometimes you can see a lowering atmospheric pressure when marsh gas starts to bubble in cold weather i.e. not due to warming.
T. for Temperature — of the air-mass
H. for Humidity — the absolute one (measure the dew point — will it frost?). For the relative humidity try huffing to produce a fog, or onto metal.
Does the air mass humidity & temperature, speed & turbulence let you know which direction the wind must be from?
E. for Expectations — i.e. the weather forecast — test it — is it coming true?
R. for Rain — Will it? R.ight? Are you R.eady to move? Grab your R.aincoat and let’s go… Keep looking until it is time to S.T.O.P. for a rest…
Oriented? No?
Rule one: Stop! getting more lost.
Rule two: Start! getting unlost. Start navigating! Trend And Terrain—Has it changed?
Rule three: Stay, or Steer a Straight course. Time & Tired—Does that explain your stop?
Rule four: Don’t do it again!
Position/Placement/Progress—has it changed? STOP

Have you arrived somewhere?
Is it a named feature? A campsite? A junction?
Have you changed view?

Have you changed catchment?
Interpret the Why of your stop...
Stop -Signal: Why have you stopped?
REST and R.E.O.R.I.E.N.T yourself

Take 5; a 5 minute rest; REST is a mnemonic of 5’s.
RE-RELATE; RE-ORIENT; RE-member; RE-lax; (= the 4 new RE-’s before you) RE-start. = 5 RE’s
RE-RELATE to the skyline.
RE-RE for Re-Read the map,
L for Re-Late the Map to the Landscape
A for Astronomy—relate the Sky to the Skyline
T for Trends—imagine the Trend of invisible landscapes, in relation to the Sun, and relate your current trend to a point on the skyline
E for Each direction clue Re-lated to Each other direction clue, especially to the landscape/skyline shapes.
RE.O.RI.ENT — RE for Re-Orient the Map to the landscape,
— O. for Oops! Don’t make logical blunders; Have questions on your mind; notice; speak up; integrate; connect; interpret.
Observe the Overall trends and bends.
— R.I. for Re-Visualise the Invisible (Next checklist; and see Section 1 Astronomical Overview; Include the clock-sense mnemonic here)
Re-late yourself to the Big Picture
— E.N.T. for an Environmental Notice Time — Re-late yourself to Nature — coming up.
114
R.I. For Revisualise the Invisible (and then Relate It to the skyline!)
Work down from the Biggest Picture. Work most on the ones you can’t yet visualise.
Astronomy — Visualise the paths of Sun/Pot/Moon/Stars; Point to the South Pole Star; North Pole Star; the Clock-sense of stars around each Pole
— The star opposite the Sun during the Day & during the night; the Southern Cross during the day; the Ecliptic; the Milky Way
— Earth rotation; Horizon rotation; horizon trails; clock-sense of Horizon rotation; clock-sense of low stars’ movement around horizon
— the Moon-Sun, and Ecliptic line; The Moon phase explaining the present tidal force. See the overview at the end of section 1.
Global — Latitude; Polar distances; Equators; Earth Poles; Seasonal Sun height; Shadow South — visualise the aurorae; Antarctica;
— North Magnetic Pole in Canada, as a ‘South-seeking’ Pole; Aurorae; Unequal Tidal bulges. “Go Overseas” p.25e.
— Tropical countries — corresponding to sunrise, noon, noon height, sunset, the country under the Sun now, the time zones
— Light & Dark halves — Sunrise-/sunset-circle countries; Half the arc-distance; How the horizon is shifting due to your movement.
Continental — Weather map isobars—visualise them across the continent — the one in front of your eyes, and on a continental aerial photo.
— Latitudinal wind system and pressure system helices.
— North Coast; N-S-E-W townships; NW-NE-SW-SE features. “Walk across the Continent” p.29e. “Compass-needle Continent” p.9e.
Local — Catchments; Divides; Mouths; Mounts; Radio Transmitters; Night Lights
— Nearby landmarks & places & highways; Home; Car
— Perimeter features; Escape targets & Routes — Bird’s-eye layout of your route.
0 The standard viewpoint is “seen from above”; ◦ Clockwise is to your right; Compass Bearings Circle Clockwise;
1 Wrong Way Go Back! Anti clockwise is ENWiSE ◦ ◦ SWiNES That’s how the Sun moves in the northern hemisphere
2 Unscrewing is an anticlockwise motion (on a right-hand helix) ◦ 12 ◦ Screwing in is a ‘right-hand’ motion (for a right-hand screw)
3 24 hour clockfaces have only 15° per hour, like the Sun ◦ 11 1 ◦ one hour = 30° clockwise, on the 12 hr clock face method
4 High pressure systems circle anticlockwise in the SH ◦ ◦ ‘Low’ winds come clockwise, in the SH.
5 Things on the Left have a Lesser Bearing ◦ 10 2 ◦Things on the Right have a Bigger Bearing
6 All the solids rotate anti-clockwise, seen from the N. ◦ Clock-Sense ◦ Low stars all around the horizon follow the Sun-sense
The ground under your feet shifts anti-clockwise in NH ◦ 9 Mnemonic 3 ◦ The ground under your feet turns clockwise (SH)
7a&b So the hoRIzon Never Heads RIght in the NH ◦ ◦ The hoRIzon SHifts RIght in the SH
8 Wind-shift due to ground friction opposes the Sun-sense ◦ 13 pairs of points ◦ Coriolis forces follow the Sun sense
9 North lies between the SH Sun and the hour hand ◦ 8 4 ◦ The NH Sun is between the hour-hand & South
(actual noon points to Sun; clockface tilted parallel to Equator) (noon-time to Sun; axis to Polaris)
10 The SH Sun seems to move anticlockwise ◦ 7 5 ◦ The Moon goes backwards, night by night (clockwise, in SH)
11 Nose Nav’n turns everything away NOTLEast Nth on the left=E ◦ 6 ◦ NORWest — Needle-North on the right = heading West
12 Shadows Follow the Sun-Sense. + You can’t cross a stream twice in the same flow-sense
E.N.T. for Environmental Notice Time —Orient yourself to Nature

Take a top-down approach...
Geology; geo-trends; geo-morphs i.e. landforms; geo-Norths
Dividing ridges; dominant peak; upstream catchment size; wind shadow; rain shadow
Season; climate type; prevailing wind; average rainfall
Rocks; bedrock; outcrops; parent rocks e.g. upstream
Soil types; nutrient availability
Soil Drainage — good or poor; Water Sources; groundwater? salinity
Aspect i.e. which direction does the slope face, in relation to high noon?
Living stresses? — salt, minerals, wind, exposure, frost, heat, low humidity, fire, flood, wet roots, pests, diseases, competition, grazing, trampling,
disturbance, rock instability.
Vegetation type; the overall density of green, and of cellulose, and the height; dominant species; associations of plant types; diversity;
individual species; individual plants. Pollinators available; seed dispersal mechanisms operating.
Mammals; Birds; Reptiles; Insects. Drinking water availability, cover for animals, hunting pressure
The ‘Natural Norths’ — Gully North; rock North; Bush North; insect North; Dew North; snow North; ripple North; prevailing wind North
RE-MEMBER to Note down the Names in the Notebook

Remember the Way, and the Sequence.
Remember to take a Notebook. Make a neat permanent copy of your notes i.e. in ink, maybe sometime later on, in your master track notebook.
Be Bit-wise!
Name the subsections, junctions & links. Name the peculiarities. In the name, try to include…
The Why, When & Where of your stop. Link & Sequence information — time, distance, context
Lie of the Land Words to indicate the direction trend, & curves — left or right
Visual words — colour, shape, alignments, curves Descriptive words. Collect the details. Enlist the others to describe and name it.
Give yourself something to remember — create an acrostic; craft a creative name; sit down and write up your track notes
Update any acrostic alliteration. And the count e.g. of the creek crossings. Do something numerical. Do something alphabetical.
Be vivid, clever, memorable. Do something Shapely or Geometrical there Do something Memorable there. Do something there.
Draw the shapes, outlines & skylines. Draw the directions of other landmarks from any high viewpoint. Take reference photographs.
Remember most of all to do it all — don’t just recite the reminders to do it all!
Mnemonics of Fives: Remember the Way; the Sequence; Make Notes; Invent Names; Draw What You Need to.
Re-lax, and Play — Navigation Games and Activities (5 pairs to recall)

Walk & Talk — a night walk — a fog walk — a walk off the track — climb a hill with a small scale map & binoculars & compass.
“Track My Trail” (“If you want lunch, you’ll have to find me — give me a quarter of an hour, then track me down”).
Keep a compass course, blind — keep a straight course, blind — on a slope? “Let’s all make an acrostic to remember this track by”.
Try Orienteering — Try making a map of a maze of trails — then a string map — a strip map — or a sine/cosine tally map.
Look & Learn — “Go to the front of the line if you spot a track marker which the others have missed” In a windy place look for wind clues, etc.
Take it in turns to name a navigational or orientation clue which is visible, until you have to drop out.
“I notice… (fill in the blank). Your turn. What extra can you add (to the description, or to the clues)?”
Guess & Test — Each of you estimate the time of arrival; the direction to the car; the distance to a landmark — then check the map.
Guess the time from the Sun, Moon, Southern Cross, or other stars, then check your watch. Use your compass to check your guesstimation of North
from the bush, gullies, rocks, a star-trail, a star-set etc. Predict the tide, or the time & direction of moonrise — then sit down and wait for it. Predict a
star-set position. Find your ‘shortest shadow’ angle today & use it tomorrow.
Make & Use — an odometer from a wheel, a pedometer, a sundial/declination compass, a portable sundial, a string rangefinder, a slope-meter.
Measure — Try some star navigation observations — Rise & set bisection; Use a plumb-line; a bush quadrant; a bush sextant.
Test how accurately you can each use a compass. Test each compass against the others.
& Memorise — yesterday’s acrostic. Remember all the mnemonics! Can you add to any of my checklists? Have a star identification evening.
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Appendix
Moon-Phase & Tide-Time Dial

This is a handy tide-predictor, based on the assumption that tides will follow the moon. It shows you where the moon will be, at high
tide. It also tells you what the moon is doing if you know the date but haven’t seen the moon for a while. The deluxe version can pre-
dict tides and phases years ahead of time. It consists of a series of dials rotating on a single pin.
◊ The idea is that many of these concentric cardboard/plastic dials rotate together once properly adjusted, and as quickly as the Moon
orbits the Earth. They show the Moon Phase, the Sun, the Earth and the resulting astronomical tide-producing forces.
Each disk is loosely fixed to a neighbour with friction (e.g. a smear of dried silicone glue) or a clip or tape or a pin, to allow adjustment.
Set it up by observation, or by tide-table predictions. Add notes, as you accumulate information about locations, tidal range, etc.
It can be especially useful for travellers, e.g. when fishing an unknown coast.
If the dials are correct for any one tide (spring-tide is best), they should be correct for all the tides thereafter *
* give or take a couple of hours for the smaller effect of the position of the Sun.
The effect is 43% of that of the Moon, and can be estimated with practice—change the hour reading to toward the Sun, or the anti-Sun,
a little, if the Moon is near the Sun-anti-Sun line (no more than 45° from). Local shallow water resonance effects will also alter the
actual effect of the Sun. When in doubt, around neaps, try averaging the tide-time for one or two days ahead and 1 or 2 days after.
The theory is that slosh resonance, or the Moon alone, or the Sun alone, might predict the difficult tides better.
◦ The hanger (outline not fully shown) is hung from the wall and also folds down behind to receive the pin on which the dials rotate.
It doubles as an indicator window, and should mark five consecutive high tides (ignoring a.m./p.m.).
◦ The clockface is 24-hours i.e. 15° per hour clockwise, (markings not fully shown). Think “a.m./p.m.” for the two high tides per day, no
matter what the reading says.
Each new location visited may need the clockface to be twisted slightly to allow for local tide delays. Keep a note of such settings.
Daylight saving requires a +/– 1hr change — to relocate the Sun forward in summer, back to normal in winter.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
5 6 7
am am am
Winter
23 rd
Da
y2
12
6
ne
ap
s
md
1 pm
March
Sum- mer
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Appendix
◦ Friction-fix the Moon-window dial (white with grey window) to the hanger, so that it maintains its position. It covers over all the other
Moon phases.
◦ The Moon-phase diagrams (29 of them) underneath that, on a separate dial of the same diameter, should look right for the Southern
Hemisphere—i.e. the Sun rising in the East, illuminating the Moon; all the phases parallel. Make the Moon-shape highly visible from a dis-
tance. Attach the Sun to the No-Moon phase, Day 0, via a transparent link; then set the Sun to the Clockface, to indicate true noon—when
the Sun is exactly North.
◦ The optional tide-type ring (showing “neaps”), set to the Moon-phases, allows you to adjust the delay after new/full Moon, before spring
tides.
If you also indicate which high tide is dominant—the one nearest the Moon or the one farthest—then that will need adjustment when the
Sun crosses the Equator. I suggest that you set the top tide for the tide when the Moon is visible, to give you a visual feel for the tide pro-
ducing forces.
◦ The date-dial is 29.5(30526805) days around—the complete lunar month—and marked clockwise from 1 to 32 (only one date is shown in
the diagram). Dial up the date, by rotating the Sun. (For a 12-hour clockface, you would need to double the 12.19077473° per day).
Since the next high tide will (if you are looking in the daytime) be on average that afternoon, I suggest you think of the date number as
“the middle of the 23rd”—to avoid adjusting the date hand minutely for how far through the day the next tide will be.
◦ The month window is attached to the date dial, at Day 1 of the month, if you include a month setter.
◦ The optional but useful month-setter dial (markings not all shown) starts at March 1, to avoid leap-year adjustments; It makes March 32
= April 1, April 31 = May 1, and so on—spanning approximately 11 days for the year. Restart every March 1, and reset it every month.
Calculate the monthly positions by the day number since March 1, avoiding an off-by-one error
(17.9°;23.6;41.6;47.3;65.2;83.1;88.8;106.7;112.5;130.4;148.3). Set the month name to the first day of the date dial.
You can also calculate and indicate a one-year increment, 129°.6327779, a leap year, 141°.82355, and a four-year increment,
170°.7218865. To make an adjustment, make the old date indicated by one mark on the month dial, now line up with the increment mark
selected, so as to indicate a date in a new month/year/leap year cycle.
◦ An optional Earth ring in the very centre, can show the entire Southern Hemisphere map (not illustrated, or NH on the reverse side), and
be set to the right longitude. It is fixed to the hanger, and to the tide-bulge ring...
◦ A second ring just behind the earth can indicate two tidal bulges, one pointing upwards (or otherwise if you want to indicate the local tidal
delay compared to the actual ocean bulge).
Mock it up in paper, until you understand the functioning.

Glue those paper discs onto cardboard to trial the thing for a while.
After deciding on improvements, make it neatly, to last for decades.
E.g. Try getting the computer to print the dial markings onto acetate, and glue that to sheets of stiff plastic.
You can experiment with different dial orders, e.g. the date-dial on the outside of the phase-dial.
You can make room for comments,

e.g. by expanding the dial area showing, to say when the moon rises and sets; e.g. “light from midnight onwards”—beneath each Moon-
phase diagram
e.g. when and where the Sun rises and sets; Mark three horizontal lines in the background for Summer, Equinoxes and Winter.
I.e. mark them on the backfold of the hanger piece, or on the wall. Try to match midwinter sunrise time to where the “winter horizon” cuts
the clockface, which will also suggest the approximate direction of sunrise.
e.g. when and where the first, second and third quarters set in each season; Full Moon opposite the Sun, i.e. 6 months different; Half
Moon Waxing is one season ahead of the Sun; Half Moon Waning is one season behind the Sun (as far as which horizon line to use).
You will discover that an invisible connection needs to be made between the outer top window and the inner window and dials, so that they
do not rotate with the other dials. One way to do this is to push the pin through a piece of rubber eraser, and glue that rubber to the dial.
Another method is to have a square pin, and key the inner dials to it, while using round holes for the rotating dials. A third and simpler
method is to have a transparent link from the centre, over the top of the other dials. You do not want the hanger to obscure any diagrams
or dials which need to be visible.
The Time and Date dials are the indispensable ones. Instead of dialing up the date, you can use a normal clockface (12md always on top)
and an hourhand to point out the next tide; you point the pointer at the date. On a 24hour clock-face it can be made like a + sign, to point
out all 4 tides that day.
Here is the simpler alternative version, showing an 11:30 high tide on the 19th…
12
19 20 21
9 3
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Appendix
Divide the Star Globe into 8 Octants—and Learn the Stars in Each
The three dividing great circles are the Equator, the Ecliptic, and the Milky Way Galactic Plane.
A star may be North or South of each line, or on one or more of them. The lines on the backside of the globe are shown dashed.
The labels refer to the three lines in the order given. Six of the octants show in the front view with the two in parentheses on the back.
Verify each label before you start. E.g. NSN = North of the Equator, South of the Ecliptic, North of the Milky Way.
Compare with a good star chart e.g. out of a large atlas, as this is only a memory aid.
Polaris The Milky Way Crosses the Equator

at the centre of
Procyon-Sirius-Betelgeuse
NNN
Galactic Plane
NNS—The Great Square, etc.
NNS
Summer (Northern) Solstice SS Ecliptic
Elnath to Gamma Geminorum
NSS
Aldebaran
Betelgeuse NSS NSN NSN
Bellatrix Procyon
Menkar Equator Gamma Geminorum
POT
SSS SSS SSN SSN

Pot The Centaur
Big Dog Antares
Canopus Spica
Diamond Cross Corvus
False Cross Suhail
Acamar Alphard
Achernar (central) (SNS) (SNN)
Magellanic Clouds
South Galactic Pole
South Pole Star between SSS & SSN
Diphda Southern Cross
Ankaa Southern Pointers
Fomalhaut
The Crane
Peacock
The Archer
Scorpion’s Tail
Atria
South Pole Star
The Southern Figure of Eight—Two Star-Circles—joined by the backbone of Canopus—Achernar—Fomalhaut, a straight line
(not to scale; consult a star chart to verify each star, then find them in the sky)
Fomalhaut Al Canopus
Achernar Pl Achernar (find Acamar on the way)
Canopus Pot Fomalhaut (find Ankaa on the way)
Sirius | Great Square (find Diphda)
Orion’s belt | these 3 are also straight Si Ar Aries, the Ram
Aldebaran | Pleiades, The Seven Sisters
Pleiades C Ac Aldebaran, in the Bull
Aries GS The Pot, Orion’s belt
Great Square A An D Sirius, in the Big Dog
FC Fo
Around the South Pole Star
Milky Way SP Gr Canopus (find Acamar next)
Cn=Pointers (alpha and beta Centauris) DC Achernar (find Ankaa next) Ach.-Fom.-Pck
Southern Cross Pk Fomalhaut form a triangle
Diamond Cross SC At Grus, the Crane, with Alna’ir to find AlNair
False Cross Cn Peacock then Atria (find Scorpio) & Ankaa
Centaur, the two Pointers (find Arcturus)
(find Spica)
Southern Cross (find Corvus, the Crow)
Visible in its entirety in October plus or minus a few months. (find Leo)
Diamond Cross, False Cross, Canopus
118
Appendix
Divide the Star Globe into 8 Octants—and Learn the Stars in Each
The smaller groups, and the crossover points, are worth learning, because they show you the three lines best.
NNN
Alkaid (central)
Capella
Twins
North Galactic Pole
Big Dipper
Little Dipper
Polaris
Arcturus
Alphecca
Rasalhague
Draco
Vega
Deneb
Most of Leo Polaris The Milky Way Crosses the Equator
(Regulus adjoins NSN) at the extension of
Beta-Delta Aquila (see p.15c)
Summer Solstice (SS)

Between Aldebaran & Pollux
Autumnal Equinox
Between Spica (NSN) (NSS)
and Regulus
NNS
Altair AE NNN Galactic Plane NNS Spring Equinox
Enif between
Great Square Diphda & Markab
Mirach Equator
Almach
Algol, Mirfak
Aries
Pleiades SNN SNS SNS
Elnath Beta Aquarius
(Caph, Schedar, Ruchbah)
Ecliptic
Winter Solstice WS
Nunki to Sabik
SSN SSS
SNN
Zubenelshemali
Sabik
(Zubenelgenubi adjoins SSN)
South Pole Star
The Zodiac i.e. the constellations along the ecliptic. In order of appearance. Not all of them are bright or obvious in shape to look at.
Mnemonic: Are Tall Twins Cancerous Leo? Virginal Liberated Scorpions Shoot Capricious Aquarium Fishes.
i.e.: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Lion, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces
Ram Bull Crab Scales Archer Goat Water-Carrier
119
Apprendix
Morse Code & Rhythm Mnemonics

Dit/Dah/Pause is an extremely flexible system. Adapt it to torchlight, sounds, sewing stitches, body movements… A lot of fun for all the family.
if dit = one time unit; then Dah = three dits long; the di-Dah separator = one time unit; letter separator = three units long; word-separator = 6
Say… Write… Signal… Special Meanings (only for reference)
A an A ._ di Dah
B B bi-bi-bips _... Dah di di dit Fog Horn: I am under tow
C C is Sea-sick _._. Dah di Dah dit Between ships manoeuvring: I acknowledge your signal
(Capital letters for a Dah syllable; lower case for a dit) i.e. You may overtake on the side you indicated
D Dee did it _.. Dah di dit Fog Horn: restricted manoeuvrability; deep draught; sailing; etc.
E egg . Dit I am altering my course to... Starboard
F f’ f’ Forfeit f’ f’ Fore foot .._. di di Dah dit
G Gee Gee git Go Go get __. Dah Dah dit I intend to overtake you, to Starboard
H h’-h’-h’-hit .... di di di dit I intend to turn completely around to…
Fog Horn: Pilot vessel on duty
I is it .. di dit I am altering my course to... Port
J a J Goes Jay .___ di Dah Dah Dah
K K for Kay _._ Dah di Dah
L an ELL leph’nt /in ELLement /inELLegant . _ . . di Dah di dit (draw out the Ell sounds)
M My My __ Dah Dah Fog Horn: “under power, not making way”
N No en _. Dah dit
O Oh Oh Oh ___ Dah Dah Dah
P a P Goes pip .__. di Dah Dah dit
Q Q Forms a Queue __._ Dah Dah di Dah (to the tune of “Here Comes the Bride”—Queue up to get married!)
R an R dits ._. di Dah dit
S s-s-s ess ess ess ... di di dit I am under Astern propulsion
T Tea _ Dah Fog Horn: “under power, making way”
U it is U .._ di di Dah
V v’ v’ v’ Vee ..._ di di di Dah (to the tune of Beethoven’s V)
W a White Wine a World War .__ di Dah Dah
X EX mimics P All ex’s Hurt _.._ Dah di di Dah (drawl the EX, to lengthen it in the first, not in the second)
Y Why is Y Y? _.__ Dah di Dah Dah (say the ‘is’ quickly)
Z Zee Goes zi-zit Zees Go zi-zit _ _ . . Dah Dah di dit I intend to overtake you, to Port
Ü it is U too (this pairs to Zed) ..__ di di Dah Dah (U umlaut or U diaresis. Invent a meaning for it.)
Hint: For Learning, repeat each letter thrice.
By the time the other person recognises the first, the second has finished and he is waiting to check it out against the third.
0 No No No No No _____
1 it Carts Four More Dahs .____
2 it is Two Two Two ..___
3 di di di Makes Three ...__
4 di di di di Four pitter patter 4 (your puppy’s feet) ...._
5 fit ‘em in a mit (your five fingers, that is) .....
6 Five si– si– si– six _....
7 Five Seeks seven dits (=567dits drawled on the 6) __...
8 8 8 8 bi bits (8 binary bits in a byte) ___..
9 9 9 9 9 nips ____.
Long dash Daaaaaaaash _______ e.g. (Fog Horn or car horn) before you enter a blind bend!
Error it isn’t a bit of it ....... Between yachts: “I do not understand/agree with your intention/action”
: Colon Now Here Comes in a list ___...
Learn the next ones in pairs i.e. swap dit for dah
. a STOP a STOP a STOP (i.e. don’t pronounce ‘stop’ as short) ._._._
; SEMi SEMi SEMi (i.e. drawl the first syllable) _._._.
These 2 shapes are convex to the right
, Go Go comma Go Go Dah Dah di di Dah Dah __..__
? did he Dah Dah did he? did ’e Blah Blah did ’e ..__..
These 2 come in pairs normally
“” a Quote is a Speech bit di Dah di di Dah dit ._.._.
() Here’s the Blah Blah bit Here There’s the Blah Blah bit There _.__._
These 2 are in the middle of a word ..hyphen and apostrophe
- ’Aitch in the middle Daash (‘Hyphen’ starts with an ’aitch) _...._
’ it Saves All Those Hard bits di Dah Dah Dah Dah dit .____.
/ Slaash t’ diVide it (Drawl the first vowel) Slaash is a Slaash bit There was the Whole bit _ . . _ .
Á an A Sharp an A You could use it for “Repeat”: re Peat Whole re Peat .__._
É it is E a-cut(e) .._.. cute is cut short (You could use it for “Bad Reception”: cannot Hear the bits)
Ñ Nya Nya ny’ Nya Nya __.__ (with thumb to nose, fingers waving) “ny” sound (I use enya for “Do You reCeive Me”)
SOS a bit of ‘Save Our Souls’ isn’t it? (no letter breaks; repeat regularly) ...___... ...___... (Life & death only)
XXX Come quickly Come, Come quickly Come, Come quickly Come All ex’s Hurt All ex’s Hurt All ex’s Hurt (When you Need urgent help)
Signals procedures, developed by hard experience, short circuit a world of miscommunications — stick to them. I.e. learn them too.
I’m Looking For Talk; CQ CQ CQ; Calling Calling All Radios; Hear ye Hear ye All AuditOrs; Tune in Tune in Lend Me y’r Ears
From; D, E; De = French for ‘from’ Heard of it ; fr’m Dah-di-dit dit
Go Ahead; invitation for anyone to transmit; K Call in Now
Break In B, K Break in to it; Make a Break (“BK DE (identify yourself)” = “let me use this channel”)
Starts; Attention; Message Coming Start it Start it Now Start of My bit Now _._._
End of Paragraph; Pause; new thought; double dash Pause if it is New _..._
Wait a Wait f’r a bit ._... You could invent “Speed up All Your Work” to pair with it.
Over; invitation for your contact to transmit O ver Your Turn stop _ . _ _ . (to start a person-to-person contact: ###DE### Over)
End of Message in traffic; not end of contact; not clear of station the End of My bit; con Clude con Clude it . _ . _.
R; Roger; Received and Understood all of Message
End of Work; but still on air; clear of contact it is the End of Work (to the tune of… here we go Out to Play) ..._._
Clear of all contacts; shutting down; Clear of Station; C, L Clear it Clear it, b’ Clear of it
Add your own signals for procedural or other matters. E.g. “Please repeat my message back to me for a check” “Adjust the beam left”
Ä an A an A ._._ an A ‘m Laut It pairs to C Invent a use for it like “i Don’t a-Gree” to be opposite to C, I Agree
Å an A an A too ._.__ an A an Aang Strom
Χhi Khi Khi Khi Khi ____ K-H-Like-H soft Kh sound (I use it for “to” i.e. T+O, after DE “from”) cf Ree Call All Souls
Ö Oh Oh Oh dit ___. Goe– Goe– Goethe It pairs to V You could use it to say Sorry
North American Morse is somewhat similar. There is also a Japanese version. Morse is no longer supported as International.
120
Appendix
Semaphore Signalling Code & Mnemonics for it

4
Semaphore is a clockwise system, as viewed by the decoder, and it starts from below. 3 5
When the two hands can’t be seen, that is the neutral position, used for a… Pause
The black square represents the signaller’s body; the line(s) are his arm(s).
The numbers 1-9 and 0 are the same as A-I and J. The first 7 single-arm positions are shown… 2 6
You can tell the difference, because the signal “numbers coming” precedes a number,
and a “pause” follows the end of the numbers.
1 7
One arm, pointing up, therefore is either D or 4, D

Think of God as the 4th Dimension to your life, and remember ‘up’ as “4D”
Or if it sticks in your memory, think perversely, that “Up is fo(u)r D.own!?”
Learn the letters in symmetrical pairs.
Here is a “B Flat” mnemonic. One arm flat is either a B (-flat) or an F (-flat) B F

“2 be or not 2 B?” and a “F Sixth chord” might help you remember the numbers.
Wave the C to say “Replying”. Wave the E to signal “Error” C E

(cf Morse “C” for “Acknowledge”)
The odd number positions are diagonals.
1,3,5; 7… One is an ACE isn’t it? And Diagonal has a G in it doesn’t it?
a G7 chord to follow the F Flat minor 6
ABC = 123 is easy enough to see, and 5E follows 4D makes the E position easy
A G
2 Hands...
R
“Roger” is simply an indispensable signal to learn… it means “Yes, I understand, OK, Received” up
For Learning: Acknowledge every letter understood, with a Roger
2 Hands Straight: Slash L

Think “Long, then Left down = Slash down or Left up = Lift up” (referring to their Left arm)…
down
2 hands in a catching formation, above the head…
Shout “Catch iT...” and think “..Tee—numbers coming”
T #
O W
2 Hands in a slip-catching formation, to one side…
Shout: “HOWZ”at!
You are meant to wave black and white flags around,

but usually you make do with opening your palms.
Only be careful to position yourself against a good
uniform background.
’aitch rhymes with eight 8 H Z

2 hands at a right-angle…
“Ya gotta have the Right PyJamas” (“PJ”s)
J, the tenth letter, is used for Zero ABCDE FGHIJ
PJ is not in alphabetical order, because in the Semaphore Alphabet J comes after # P J 0

2 hands at a right angle, Vee-shaped, up or down…
Can you see the shapes of the lower case letters n and u in them?
To attract attention wave U, to say “Message Coming” N U

2 hands, like a Roman Numeral Five on its side…
I and X are Roman Numerals too. The I is used for numeral 9 (IX) in semaphore
The X looks like the right-half of the X
So it sort of goes, left to right “nine, ten” 9 I X

Y Q
2 hands flapping and banking. I.e. a shallow Vee formation…
“MY QueueS” is the clockwise mnemonic
But YQ is not in alphabetic order (like PJ, the only two cases).
You can use Q for “Query” - What did you say/mean?
M S
From the sky, down to earth come… “KiloVolts” (or “KillerVolts”)
You can follow the clockwise logic of Semaphore if you leave out the JVWXZ till last
Pause, ABCDEFG, HIKLMN, OPQRS, TUY/, #JV, WX, Z
Make each in turn to see the progression. K V

121
Appendix: More symbols for map-making Useful for mud-maps, or for track notes.
The first symbol in a strip map column should show the reason for the stop. This saves a lot of words and is instant to read.
In turn these are:
A Context Entry; Surroundings; Overall Perspective. E.g. catchment and drainage. It’s a chance for a general note.
A Stop. Expect a reason like ‘Lunch’.
A Location. Expect a description.
Crossing. This might be a crossing of a ridge, river, road, canal, boundary. Expect notes on what is to left and right.
Leg. The first of the 2 main reasons for an entry: either a new subsection (leg) or the location between two sections in its own right (next symbols).
Overlap-section between legs. This is a memory aid, to sequence subsections, to remind you how individual sections join to each other.
Change of legs; new subsection; = notes on the changeover, rather than on the next section.
Junction (Y for Y junction, but used also for other junctions). This might be a ‘natural’ junction between ridges or creeks; or an intersection of paths.
Viewpoint; Change of view; First glimpse; Last glimpse (I for ‘Eye’)
Corner
Bend
Curved section beginning; Arrow shows clock-sense. This one is a Right-hand bend.
Curved section ending; Arrow should show same clock-sense as previous one. This one ends a left-hand bend.
Change from left-curve to right-curve
Break of slope
Feature
Special feature
Ridge; Crest
Saddle;
Valley; creek-bed; Gutter
Tent; Campsite
Peak
Fix
Cliff Boundary walks: fenceline; railwayline; road; path; circumnavigation; shoreline
Creek Use symbols which work for you, e.g. Rise or Set direction. Add your own, e.g. Hut
New grid square
The second symbol ought to show the main direction clue, followed by subsidiary ones as a third symbol
Trending half left from that landmark (write the name of the landmark next to the arrowhead). Useful when following a windy path.
Maintaining half right of downwind;
Walking the crest down ridge — Progress is assumed to be ‘Up’wards on the page.
Leg.
Trend direction (for when the terrain is up and down, left and right) (‘T’ for Trend).
Named landmark; General purpose arrowhead; add the name and the bearing
Peak
Anti-peak direction (e.g. as mentally marked on the skyline opposite the peak)
Up-Slope.
One arrow for ‘below average’; Two arrows for ‘average’; three arrows for ‘above average’ — low; medium; high. Use this for other things too.
Compass needle North, modelled after the symbol for North
Up-Sun
Shadow; Down-Sun 1
Wind source; Upwind. Use the 1-2-3 code for strength. This one is ‘above average’. 1,2,3 for size and importance
3 3
Down-stream river flow of junctions…
Up-stream (to a peak) (useful when ‘downstream’ is behind you)
Moon direction
Up-Ridge; The direction of the highest skyline through the vegetation, if that is all you can see. 2
Down-valley. The direction of the lowest skyline when that is all you can see.
General Drainage trend (down the valley to the river mouth)
Up-Weather; Low cloud source direction; Cloud Source (when only one set of clouds is visible)
Down-clouds
Alto Clouds source direction (make the circles fluffier than I can show)
Cirro-clouds source direction
Glow at night
Radio-null (from the symbol for an antenna)
Trend of some feature like the coast — write in the details.
The notebook might be set out as follows: The first line across a narrow notebook is in informal columns; the second is for written notes.
Time ; Reason ; Trend ; Directions ; Times ; Distances ; Grid
Fill in a number Use the top symbols Use the main clue make a rose of others elapsed time total elapsed e.g. A5
if you don’t leg time last leg length
have a watch Start with an ‘Overall’ lost time lost distance
total time out total diversions
Sequence is a net walking time net progress
primary need (Use abbreviations, e.g. NWT, or dedicated columns)
(Do your calculations here at leisure)
Now write across the next line(s) the name; mnemonic; description; comments
The description of a cross-country leg could include the side or flank, hand, clock-sense, break, steepness, difficulty, curviness, hilliness, perversity, ter-
rain, contours, topography, view, what you can’t see, skyline, traffic intensity, track-markers, their age, rock type, soil type, vegetation, biology, colours,
peculiarities, reference to another page of the notebook to a diagram.
The more you include in the symbols, the less you need to say, and the easier it is to read later.
122
Appendix: A List of Star Coordinates. 100 brightest stars
Declination is equivalent to Latitude. –nn = South; +nn = North
Siderial Hour-Angle is equivalent to Longitude West of Zero.
Common Name (s) Dec. S.H.A. Constellation Common Name (s) Dec. S.H.A. Constellation
Miaplacidus -69.72 221.70 b Carinae Polaris N. Pole Star +89.26 (322.06 ) a Ursa Minoris
Atria -69.03 107.83 a Trianguli Australis Kochab +74.16 137.32 b Ursa Minoris
Acrux -63.10 173.35 a Crucis Alderamin +62.59 040.35 a Cephei
Rigil Kentaurus/Toliman -60.84 140.10 a Centauri Duhbe +61.75 194.07 a Ursa Majoris
Hadar /Agena -60.37 149.04 b Centauri Navi /Cih +60.72 345.82 g Cassiopeiae
Mimosa -59.69 168.07 b Crucis Ruchbah /Ksora +60.24 338.55 d Cassiopeiae
Avior -59.51 234.37 e Carinae Caph +59.15 357.70 b Cassiopeiae
Aspidiske /Tureis -59.28 220.72 i Carinae Schedar /Schedir +56.54 349.87 a Cassiopeiae
Achernar -57.24 335.56 a Eridani Merak +56.38 194.53 b Ursa Majoris
Gacrux -57.11 172.21 g Crucis Alioth +55.96 166.50 e Ursa Majoris
Peacock -56.74 053.60 a Pavonis Mizar (+Alcor nearby) +54.93 159.01 z Ursa Majoris
k Velorum -55.01 219.46 k Velorum Phecda +53.69 181.54 g Ursa Majoris
d Velorum -54.70 228.82 d Velorum Eltanin /Etamin +51.49 090.86 g Draconis
e Centauri -53.47 155.02 e Centauri Mirfak +49.86 308.92 a Persei
Canopus 2nd brightest -52.70 264.01 a Carinae Alkaid /Benetnash +49.31 153.12 eta Ursa Majoris
Muhlifain -48.97 169.62 g Centauri Capella +46.00 280.83 a Aurigae
Regor -47.34 237.61 g Velorum Deneb (not Denebola) +45.28 049.64 a Cygni
Alna’ir -46.96 027.95 a Gruis Menkalinan +44.95 270.12 b Aurigae
b Gruis -46.88 019.34 b Gruis Almak /Alamac +42.33 329.02 g Andromedae
Suhail /Al Suhail -43.43 223.01 l Velorum Algol +40.96 312.96 b Persei
Akrab/ Sargas /Rastaban Sc. -43.00 095.67 theta Scorpii Sadar /Sadir /Sadr +40.26 054.45 g Cygni
Ankaa -42.31 353.43 a Phoenicis Vega +38.78 080.76 a Lyrae
eta Centauri -42.16 141.12 eta Centauri theta Auriga +37.22 270.07 th Aurigae
Naos -40.00 239.10 z Puppis Mirach +35.62 342.57 b Andromedae
k Scorpii (not Akrab) -39.03 094.38 k Puppis Aljanah +33.97 048.45 e Cygni
Shaula -37.10 096.60 l Scorpii Castor N. twin +31.89 246.34 a Geminorum
pi Puppis -37.10 250.71 pi Puppis Alpheratz /Sirrah +29.09 357.90 a Andromedae
Menkent (not Menkar) -36.37 148.33 th Centauri Elnath /Nath +28.61 278.43 b Tauri
Kaus Australis -34.38 083.96 e Sagittarii Scheat /Schert +28.08 014.06 b Pegasi
e Scorpii -34.29 107.46 e Scorpii Pollux S. twin +28.03 243.67 b Geminorum
Ascella /Nushaba -29.88 074.36 z Sagittarii Izar +27.07 138.75 e Bootis
Fomalhaut -29.62 015.59 a Piscis Austrinis Alphecca /Gemma +26.71 126.33 a Coronae Borealis
Aludra -29.30 248.97 eta Canis Majoris Hamal +23.46 328.20 a Arietis
Adhara -28.97 255.34 e canis Majoris Sheratan /Sheratain +20.81 331.33 b Arietis
Antares -26.43 112.65 a Scorpii Zozma /Zosma +20.52 191.47 d Leonis
Wezen -26.39 252.90 d Canis Majoris Algeiba +19.85 205.00 g1 Leonis
Nunki -26.30 076.18 s Sagitarii Arcturus +19.18 146.08 a Bootis
Dschubba -22.62 119.91 d Scorpii Aldebaran (not Alderamin) +16.51 291.01 a Tauri
Diphda /Deneb Kaitos -17.99 349.11 b Ceti Alhena +16.40 260.56 g Geminorum
Mirzam /Marzim -17.96 264.33 b Canis Majoris Markab +15.21 013.82 a Pegasi
Arneb /Arnebo -17.82 276.82 a Leporis Denebola +14.57 182.73 b Leonis
Sirius /Dog (brightest)-16.72 258.72 a Canis Majoris Rasalhague +12.56 096.27 a Ophiuci
Sabik -15.72 102.41 eta Ophiuci Regulus +11.97 207.90 a Leonis
Spica -11.16 158.70 a Virginis Enif +09.88 033.96 e Pegasi
zeta Ophiuci -10.57 110.72 zeta Ophiuci Altair +08.87 062.31 a Aquilae
Saiph -09.67 273.06 k Orionis Betelgeuse +07.41 271.20 a Orionis
Zubenelschemali -09.38 130.75 b Librae Bellatrix +06.35 278.71 g Orionis
Alphard -08.66 218.10 a Hydrae Procyon +05.22 245.17 a Canis Minoris
Rigel not Rigil K. -08.20 281.37 b Orionis Vernal Equinox, defined as fixed 00.00 000.00 ‘the first point of Aries’
Alnitak S. belt -01.95 274.80 z1 Orionis
Alnilam Mid belt -01.20 275.94 e Orionis
Mintaka N. belt -00.30 277.00 d Orionis Figures are from Epoch 2000.0.
Precession of the equinoxes:

Stars drift about 1° of position relative to the (0,0) reference star, in 72 years, because it moves to the WNW along the Ecliptic. See p 33b
The third figure will therefore become off by one after 10-20 years. E.g. Mimosa used to be –59.59; Atria used to be 108.3W
One degree of latitude or declination = 60n.ml. =111km; so a maximum change in 0.1° over 18 years represents 11km, or about 0.6km per year, max.
(The actual change in Declination depends on its relationship to the Northern Spring Equinox point — see below.)
One degree of SHA = 60n.ml. at the Equator; half that at 60° Lat. ; 1° reduction in 80 years is about 3 seconds later in timing per year, or 1.4 km
max, at the Equator.
Ecliptic The first point of Aries moves along it at about 50 seconds of arc per year (5/6° in 60 Years)
23°½ triangle
50” 20” Declination change of 1/3 minute of arc per year (20 secs of arc)
Equator 46” SHA change of 46 seconds of arc per year 20² + 46² = 50²
(0,0)
If you set your star watch by the actual visible stars each year, you eliminate E-W ‘precession’ component, and are left with only the drift in declination.
So it is of some worth to be able to predict how that rate of change in declination depends on SHA.
Obviously Stars to the North of Aries lose Northern dec, at the full rate. Stars to the South must gain Southern Dec.
Stars opposite Aries (SHA=180°) do the opposite. Stars exactly in between are unaffected (SHA=90° or 270°).
The rate for all cases follows the cosine of the SHA. E.g. stars at 60° SHA will have 50% of the full dec adjustment (of 1/3 n. ml. per year).
Take care with Polaris, since it is too close to the Pole.
123
Appendix: Drawing Great Circles
First, bisect a globe.
Two equal halves.
Put the halves back together.

Notice the ellipse.
The backside is dashed.
Draw it symmetrically around the centre.

Use flat ends to the ellipse.
Choose the clearest perspective

E.g. 1. Rising/ setting is 90° away, so put yourself in the centre, surrounded by a 90° circle. Z is used for your Zenith — overhead.
E.g. 2. Look at the Equator side-on to make it and the latitude circles straight.
E.g. 3. Centre on the pole, to show up the polar distance. P is used for the Pole.
E.g. 4. Curve away from the centre. If in doubt, draw the whole ellipse and discard the unwanted parts.
5. A Great-circle can be drawn as a straight line. X is used to mark the position of the Star/ Sun/ Moon/ Planet
6. Draw the ‘Vertex’ of the course as a tangent to the maximum latitude small-circle.
7. The vertex can be drawn side-on.
The PZX spherical triangle

8. Deliberately avoid straight lines to show up the curve of the triangles.
8a. ZX is the angular distance from you to the star, or the co-height.
8b. PX is the polar distance or co-declination to a point directly underneath the star.
8c. PZ is the polar distance or co-latitude of your position, 90° — lat.
8A. The angle ZPX, or ‘t’, is a longitude difference — between the SHA of the star and your West longitude. A longitude difference is a time delay.
8B. The angle PZX is a horizontal direction relative to P, towards X. Technically called an ‘azimuth’.
8C. The angle PXZ is similar but only meaningful if there were someone under the star, looking toward you.
9. A, B, C and a, b, c are used to label angles and sides of any spherical triangle; It’s up to you to know which ones label what.
10. Draw a full 180° to show up the supplementary angles.
11. Draw the Equator cutting East and West of you, 90° away. Mark any right angles, and the complementary angles.
The PZX navigational triangle conforms to a handful of standard fundamental spherical trigonometrical formulae…
The Angle Sum: a+b and A+B are both greater than, or both smaller than, or both equal to, 180°
The Sine Rule: sina/sin A = sin b/sin B = sin c/sin C = constant. Ambiguity (about obtuse angles) can be resolved by the angle sum rule.
The Polar Triangle Rule: abcABC can all be swapped for the supplement of the opposite members.
E.g. ‘a’ becomes ‘180°—A’; ‘B’ becomes ‘180°—b’, and the resulting formula is still valid. E.g. the sine rule simply inverts.
The Cosine Rule: cos a = cos b cos c + sin b sin c cos A
The Polar Cosine Rule: cos A = — cos B cos C + sin B sin C cos c
The Four Parts (in a row) Rule: e.g. AbCa or aBcA in the triangle aBcAbC or aCbAcB. You can find the 4th (outer) part from the first 3.
cos (inner side) cos (inner angle) = sin (inner side) cot (other side) — sin (inner angle) cot (outer angle)
If you want an inner part, use the sine rule and angle sum rule to find the 5th part, then go to the half-angle rules.
The Five Parts Rule: sin 1 cos 2 = sin 3 cos 5 + sin 5 cos 3 cos 4, where 4 is a side. It gives you any but part number 3, from the other 4.
The Polar Five Parts Rule: sin 1 cos 2 = — sin 3 cos 5 + sin 5 cos 3 cos 4, where 4 is an angle
The Half-Side Rule, to find the middle of 5 parts, when the middle part is a side: halve each side and angle first:
tan (half side) = tan (half sum) cos (half sum) / cos (half difference) ; tan refers to sides, sin and cos to angles
= tan (half difference) sin (half sum) / sin (half difference) but this introduces order-ambiguity because of the sines.
The Half-angle Rule to find the middle of 5 parts when it is an angle
cot (half angle) = tan (half sum) cos (half sum) / cos (half difference)
= tan (half difference) sin (half sum) / sin (half difference)
Make North and West positive, and East and South negative, and the formulae automatically work on PZX for angles up to 360°.
The formulae simplify where a side or an angle is 90°, since sin 90°=1 and cos 90°=0.
Napier’s Rules...
The rules for right-angled triangles and right-sided triangles are simplified when the 5 other parts of the triangle laid out in a pentagon,
and the 3 parts not adjacent to the right angle are changed to their complement.
In addition the part opposite a 90° side must have an extra negative sign.
E.g. if A is the right-angle, use (90°—a) as part 3, (90°—B) and (90°—C) for parts 2 and 4; if a is a 90° side, use A-90° for part 3.
Then… Sin of any one part = tan tan of adjacent parts or = cos cos of opposite parts (in the pentagon of changed parts).
Ambiguity must still be resolved by special rules: Problems occur when there are 2 or more right-angles in the triangle.
‘A’ and ‘a’ (opposite parts in the triangle, with matching letter names) are both less than or both more than 90°. Likewise for Bb and Cc.
If one part and any part not opposite it (i.e. not A and a, as above) are on the same side of 90°, so are all the other mismatched pairs.
If one part and any part not opposite it (i.e. not A and a) are not on the same side of 90°, neither are any of the other mismatched pairs.
These refer to the triangle parts, not the altered pentagon parts.
124
Appendix: Calendars in the Sky — the first glimpse and last glimpse of stars
~ Firstly, What’s wrong with sunrise/sunset time?
• To know what time of year it is, you could note the ordinary standard Sun time of sunrise/set at that place (e.g. from home).
—But this is insensitive (maximum shift is about 1 minute a day), useless around solstice, latitude & longitude dependent & requires a watch
~ You need to use apparent star time; no watches, to locate the Sun’s position on the Zodiac relative to the stars.
— i.e. ‘what stars are up’ at midnight, or at twilight, or what stars are invisibly up at mid-day or sunrise or sunset.
• The Sun creeps Eastward about 1° per day along the Ecliptic (through the middle of the Zodiac belt).
• That quadruples the sensitivity to 4 minutes change a day, steady year-round.
It is only affected by the Equation of Time, which is a minor variability, 1/4 min a day, max.
• The Sun will ‘blot out’ each Ecliptic star for about a month at a time.
That’s a rough way of finding the month: ‘I can’t find The Twins’ (July).
• ‘Nautical twilight’ is when the Sun is 10° below the horizon (about 1 hour, in Tasmania), dark enough for the bright navigational stars to
be visible while the horizon still shows clearly enough to be used with a sextant;
So bright stars 10-15° away from the Sun begin to be visible. That means that a bright Ecliptic star might only be invisible for 3 weeks.
[Civil twilight is 5° below, requiring lighting; and astronomical twilight is 15° below, dark enough to be called ‘night’, and to use a telescope]
E.g. ‘What stars are up at midnight’, uses the ‘apparent star time’ of the anti-Sun, as it were. You need to bisect sunrise and sunset, and be up then
• Find which star is N-S of you (the ‘local apparent star time’) at ‘local apparent midnight’ (= opposite noon — i.e. the anti-Sun stars).
But that is difficult — you need to know the apparent noon (which is longitude dependent), not the clock noon — and it still requires a watch.
So how can you do better?
• You could note the clock-time of any particular star event. E.g. follow ‘Rigel over Capella’ during Summer. E.g. Antares at 10° high.
This is simple, and accurate, but it would only work for that location, no other, since longitude alters the clock-time of appearances.
• You could note the clock-time delay between any particular star-event and either sunrise or sunset. This is a good method,
since it pinpoints sunrise or sunset more accurately than saying ‘At twilight, when the stars come out, or when they fade out’.
For best results, choose which star-event directions to use, as explained below, so that people at all latitudes see the same appearances.
• This pinpoints the star-time—it tells you where the stars are—in relation to the apparent Sun-time (by tying it to sunrise or set).
• For Rise/Set observations, you need a good horizontal horizon (or other fixed height-of-star) for star-rise/set to be latitude-
independent, and location independent; but at home you simply need a repeatable point of view of a given horizon.
~ But to get back onto the main topic: The use of a watch can be eliminated by using twilight ‘glimpses’...
• For Twilight observations, you need dependable eyesight; & a clear sky, with no Moon or light pollution, or haze, to be repeatable.
The idea of a ‘glimpse’ is that it is positively there or not. And it doesn’t need a watch. There are 10 or so varieties...
• If you see a star before dawn, it’s positively there, or if you can’t see it after dark, it’s not there.
• Look to the East before dawn and you will see a new star appearing for the first time in the season — a first glimpse.
You will then lose sight of it due to daylight. This is the standard star-calendar event.
• Look to the West after sunset and a star will have disappeared for the rest of the season — a last sighting.
You glimpse it briefly, before it moves into the sunset glow, and is lost to sight for weeks.
• Examples: The last glimpse of Spica is just after the September Equinox; Regulus is first seen just ahead of the September Equinox;
The Equinox is between the two, and both are on the Ecliptic, about 25° each side. That’s 25 days for the Sun’s movement.
The first glimpse of Antares is around Christmas time, since it is about 20° ahead of the solstice;
Aldebaran reappears around the winter solstice; The Twins disappear soon after it.
The solstice is between these two, 25° away from each.
You need to check the exact dates of appearance and disappearance because they vary with the exact latitude—this is a semi-local calendar.
• If a star-pair has tilted out of alignment by the time the stars come out, you simply don’t see it occur;
or if it doesn’t align before dawn, you can’t see it ‘happen’.
• Look pre-dawn for the first date on which you can glimpse a star pair reach its proper alignment, before dawn takes over.
• Look post-sunset for the last date on which you can see a star pair attain its right alignment, after which it is lost for a month or so.
• Each day a Western star gets closer to the Western horizon from above. Each day a rising star gets earlier to the Eastern horizon, from below.
• Look for the first glimpse of a star clearly rising or setting pre-dawn
• Look for the last glimpse of a star clearly rising or setting post-sunset.
If you see it setting, you know it; if you see it rise, you have seen it happen.
• Wait to see whether a star reaches a known fixed height (e.g. not too far above the horizon), to make observation easier.
• Looking at a reflection of a star in smooth water or oil, will double its height ‘above horizontal’, if you want a method to work anywhere.
• Wait until a star coincides with a known fixed direction (e.g. ‘over the tower’). This makes it location-specific, but may be useful.
These all have the effect of describing the height or tilt or direction of the horizon ‘at twilight’.
• A star overhead at twilight will show up as a first/last glimpse. You look for it, but it may not ‘happen’. This is latitude-specific.
~ You could now combine the ‘glimpse’ methods and ‘crisp timing’ to avoid the indistinctness of twilight (but this is more latitude dependent).
Look ‘exactly 1 hour from sunset/rise’ to crisp up the timing of the ‘events’. Any exact time-span at least that long, would suffice.
~ To clinch the star-time, in a latitude-independent way, use Great-Circle type directions (‘at right-angles to sunset/sunrise’ ‘a star near the Sun
at twilight’ ‘opposite it’) to ensure that people over a wide range of latitudes more or less agree in their observations.
The standard direction is not sunrise/sunset itself but ‘where the Sun is at twilight’ which is 1 hour to the left (SH); the brightest part of the horizon.
• identify star-pairs at right-angles to the Sun’s direction at twilight.
• or examine the rise/set of stars near the Sun, especially those ahead or behind it, in its rising and setting path.
• or look for stars rising, setting or simply being visible, opposite the Sun at twilight.
• You can use any other ‘star direction’, but it will only apply to that latitude. The best great-circle directions are between NW/SE & NE/SW.
~ But the sensitivity can be further improved, by choosing which twilight gives the most daily change…
• The nightly change (averaging 4 mins) is not the same amount through the year.
It can be reduced to 3 or increased to 5 in a place like Tasmania, as the seasonal day-length varies by several hours.
The change in sunrise or sunset time by up to a minute a day is overlaid onto the steady star progression.
Look at the time of day when the most rapid change is taking place, since you want the most accurate discrimination:
After mid-summer, look for ‘first glimpses’ in the pre-dawn ;
• Nights lengthen after the summer solstice — more stars rise in the East than set in the West as the night-time gradually dominates
At dawn, the Sun lingers a little longer under the horizon allowing more stars to rise, in their creeping ahead of the Sun.
But at sunset, the Sun goes down earlier, like the stars do, and you don’t notice much change as to which stars are up.
• So when the nights lengthen, look before dawn and try to see any first glimpse this season.
Luckily the pre-dawn in Summer/Autumn is mild, but it can be quite early. Use the clock-time delay method ‘from sunset’, not ‘to sunrise’.
After mid-winter, look for ‘last glimpses’ post-sunset ;
• Conversely, after the winter solstice, the increasing day length dominates over the night sky — more stars set and fewer stars rise.
You will lose sight of stars setting in the West, quite easily, as the Sun will linger before setting, because of the season,
but find it hard to see a new star rising in the East for the first time that year, because the Sun pops up early.
• So when the days lengthen, to pinpoint the time of year, look after sunset for any last glimpse.
That’s not too late at night in Winter/Spring, and it should not be too cold. Or use the clock-time ‘until sunrise’, to maximise the daily gap.
The overall idea works in both hemispheres, but the optimal choices of when to look are tied to the seasons, not the date.
Use either method, when near to the solstice, or near the Tropics, or at any time you want to.
• Around mid-winter and mid-summer, you can happily use any of the 10 glimpses, or any of the clock-time methods.
• Near the Tropics, also, there is little differential advantage, compared with temperate latitudes, since day-length is fairly constant
~ Keep a special perpetual calendar (a 365 day chart with no days of the week specified) to note down your observations; with room for related
seasonal changes, like bird migrations, frosts, plantings.
All this has little to do with navigation, directly, but gives you practice in following the seasonal movements of Sun and stars.
125
About the Author.
I have a big bushy beard from too much bushwalking and

ocean sailing, but now that it has grown too grey, it is time to
hang up my boots and write it all down.
My dad was a ’plane navigator during World War 2 and as a
child I studied his manuals. Then at University I spent more
time in studying naval navigational manuals and in bushwalk-
ing off track, finding my way over the snow or canoeing across
lakes, than in studying for my exams. I used the library to
learn spherical trigonometry, then, as soon as I finished Uni,
set out across the trackless ocean. I soon found myself invent-
ing techniques to plug the holes in my normal abilities. I re-
turned home years later, not knowing what I was meant to do
in life, but as I lay there on my old bed, I knew that if I was to
be a navigator I would like to be one like Captain Cook. He ex-
perimented with new techniques, and with old — he described
native sea-navigation expertise. How did they do it? Even now,
no-one seemed to know. I immediately had a vision of one star
above another, which kept me busy for years on great-circle
navigation methods.
I had honed my skills trying to teach boaties and would-be
ocean sailors, but my biggest challenge was to teach my wife
and children. We became a feral family for a while and walked
every track we came across, here and overseas. Only then did
I appreciate how much more there is to orienting yourself to
your surroundings, than simply having a compass.
My next inspiration came while walking the forest on a foggy
day. I simply asked how the trees themselves would hold the
secret to which way is which. Years of observation and testing
later again, and this is the result. I don’t want it to die with
me.
I hope you too can now enjoy the magic of the science and
love the art of exploring, even teaching yourself, before you
too have to stop still, inside the bounds.
Learn a little before it is too late.
126
Outline
“Navigation Down-Under” is your complete manual of bush

navigation and outdoor orientation for when you go off the
well-worn track. A free pocket guide to take with you bush-
walking is part of the pack.
Do you know how to predict and find direction from the Moon
by memorising just two simple numbers? Can you interpret the
Australian bush plants for direction? You will find some never-
before published new techniques, as well as all you need to
know about traditional methods like Lie-of-the-Land.
If you come from the Northern hemisphere, you’ll need the
top-down global approach, and can try some special Southern
Hemisphere methods of direction keeping.
Sailors will find here a valuable beginning into celestial naviga-
tion.
A lot of it is about how to navigate without a compass, how to
stay oriented and how not to get lost. It is an essential course
in basic bush awareness and orientation, for surety and safety,
plus it also throws out the challenge that you can improve your
already existing competence very quickly and easily.
For Scouts or emergency search-and-rescue workers, it is a
thorough course, advancing beyond the map and compass. Or
perhaps you are a tour-guide and need more than course and
distance — You’ll get something more, something more like
biogeography or ecology.
Each page is a carefully arranged lucky dip of interesting tid-
bits.
Keywords
Navigation; Orientation; Celestial Navigation; Bushwalking;
Map and Compass; Without a Compass
127
Contents/Index
Section 1. BIG-PICTURE TOP-DOWN pp 3-33 Stars

4 The 4 Bright Stars of Orion Point out Where the Pot is Going
General Introductory Points Big-Picture Rule One: 4d The Ecliptic
3 Locate a Distant Reference Direction First 5 The Two Brightest Stars Point out the South Pole Star
3 Visualisation is your Key Skill 6 The Spinning Earth Makes Circular Paths for the Sun, Moon
3 Big-Picture Orientation, a Mental Layout Acquired Beforehand 7 Stars Leave Star-Trails
3 Compass Navigation Robs You of a Global Perspective 8 RISE and SET Directions for a (Local) STAR COMPASS
3 The Big Picture is Invisible — Your Job is to Visualise It! 9 Global Star-Compasses e.g. ‘Perpendicular to’ rise and set
Global Perspective; Earth 10 Right Around the Horizon, Stars Move to Your Left, Down S.
3 Compass Navigation Robs You of a Global Perspective 11 Identify the Stars That Pass Directly Overhead
4 Global Re-orientation — Light-Half/Dark-Half 12 Ways to Locate the South Pole Star Or the N./S. Meridian
5 A mnemonic for global orientation: “True Polarity” 12a&13a Global Orientation: the South Pole Star, and Polaris
6 Mnemonic: “Time Tells Turning” 13 Pole Stars—“(Latitude)° above and below, South and North”
7 The sky turns 15° per hour —Use your thumb and forefinger 13 South Pole Star Chart
8 Global Orientation: Latitude and Polar Distance 14 Find the Polar Axis by Star-Trail Bisection
9 The Angle of Rising and Setting—is Determined by Your Lat. 15 The Eagle Clips the Equator, South of Altair
10 Global Orientation: Point to the South Pole… 16 Equatorial Stars Rise and Set Due East and West
..half its polar distance below horizontal 17 Rigel-to-Capella is a good S./N. Pair
11 The North Pole is Perpendicular to the South Pole 18 Use the Southern Cross as an Hour Hand
12 Global Orientation: the South Pole Star, and Polaris 18 Picture the Southern Cross during the Day
13 Pole Stars—“(Latitude)° above and below, South & North” 19 Perspective Distortion — Use the Correct Vertical
Point to 2 Points on the Equator — Halfway between the Poles 20 The Southwest Corner of the Great Square is N. S. E. W.
15 Perspective Distortion — The Sun Moves in a Straight Line! 21 The Southern Summer Rectangle And a Triangle Pointing S.
16 Global Orientation: Half the Arc-Distance below Horizontal 22 Navigating by the Shape of the Night Sky
17 Half the Arc-Distance below Horizontal—2 Explanations 23a Latitude without Numbers
18 Example: Point to Tahiti 23 Matching Sky to Sky — Move Only Your Horizon
19 Use Latitude for a Distance Scale (Not ‘Long’-itude) 24b Stars Opposite the Sun
20 The Horizon Rotates to Your Right in the S. Hemisphere 24 2 Different Back-and-Forth-Star-Directions for a Position Fix
21 Global Perspective — Rotation of the Horizon 25 For Land-Navigation, the Plumb-Line Star-Pair Method
22 How to Shift Your Horizon —Its Timing and Height 26 Equal-Height Stars When the Sea Horizon is Visible
23 Latitude without Numbers 27 Great-Circle Reference Star Directions
24 Mnemonic “The Sun Travels the Tropics” 28 Leo the Lion Looks like a Lion or Sphinx Squatting
25 Tropical Countries and Places Under the Sun It Has Four Lines which Show N./S. E./W.
— Arranged in Time Zones Relative to Eastern Australian Time 29 String North Latitude without Numbers
— 10 hrs ahead of Greenwich 30 “Star-Time” Gains Four Minutes a Day
26 North/South and Noontime by Bisection (of Rise and Set) 31 Working the Star-Longitude Numbers
27 Finding Magnetic Variation by Bisecting Rise and Set 32, 33 Overview
Find E/W by Delayed Bisection of Sun & Full Moon At Rise/Set 118,119 Appendices: Divide the Star Globe into 8 Octants
28 Find North from the Combination of the Sun and the Moon —and Learn the Stars in Each
29 Eastern Australian Standard Time Zone The Southern Figure of Eight
10 hours ahead of Greenwich The Zodiac
Showing Tropical countries and places underneath the Sun 122 A List of Star Coordinates
32,33 Overview 124 Drawing Great Circles
128, 129 Tropical countries and places underneath the Sun 125 Calendars in the Sky
Sun Your Best Reference Direction: Moon
4 Imagine the Sun at High Noon — Always 4 Look for the Line Joining Sun, Moon, Planets & Zodiac Stars
5 Mnemonic: Noon Sun Passes North of My Nose Down Under — the Ecliptic
6 Notice these, Yesterday — to Guess the Time Today 6 The Moon; Rule 4: Look for It
7 Mnemonic: The Southern Summer Sun Sets Somewhat South 8 From the Moon, Locate the Sun-Moon Direct Line, Carefully.
8 Mnemonic: “Sun at High Noon — How High?” 10 Mentally Rotate the Sun-Moon Line Around Polaris
8 On Overcast Days, Average the Brightest Sky over 1/4 hour 12 “Cusp North” — Approximate Direction from the Moon
9 High Noon — How High? 14 The Rabbit Looks up Ahead at Full Moon Using the Ecliptic
10 Optical Illusion — Beware! 16 The Moon Cusps Push and Pull the Hour Hand Backwards,
— Use Your Shadow Not the Sun, For Direction Down South
11 The Dark-Blue Polarisation Band Perpendicular to the Sun 17 Watch the Clouds Cross the Moon
11 The Centre of the Rainbow is Down-Sun 18 The Moon is Lit By the Sun
12 Your Shadow Rotates with the same clock-sense as the Sun 20 The Moon Rises and Sets 50 Minutes Later Each Night
Shadow-Rise and Shadow-Set is opposite direction to the Sun 22 The Moon is “in Phase” with the Sun — Watch for It
12 Mnemonic: Shadow Rise is on the Right; Set is on the Left 24a The Moon Moves Over the Tropics
12 Mnemonic: Your Shadow Passes South of Southerners 24 Predict the Full Moon Path According to the Time of the Year
at Southern Noon 24d Finding North from the Moon, by its height & phase
13 The Sun Passes Quickly Past North-South Nearer the Tropics 25 Predict the Moon Phases by “ N minus M ”
14 Shortest Shadow South—Opposite Highest Noon. 28a Find E/W By Bisection of Sun & Full Moon At Rise or Set
Always Imagine “Shadow-Noon” on your “Shadow South” Side 28 To Predict the Moon’s Path, Visualise the Ecliptic
15 Locate Polaris (& Find N) by Imagining the Centre of Circling 29a Find North from the Combination of the Sun & the Moon
16 “ Noon ” is Not at 12 O’clock 29 A 4 Week Position Cycle of Moonrise/set, to Find E/West
17 The “Equation of Time” Diagram 29e Keeping Track of the Moon’s Motion along the Ecliptic
18 The Sun Oscillates Seasonally between +/- 23½° Latitude 30 Adjusted Moon-Cusp North:
19 Using the Declination of the Sun To the Left or Right, By Moving the Sun
20 Tell the Time by the Compass Protractor—Tilt to the Equator 32 Overview: The Moon
21 Or Judge the Time By Sight—by Mirroring the Sun Around N 116,117 Appendix: Moon-Phase & Tide-Time Dial
(To Make an Hour Hand on a 12 Hr Clockface) Wind See also pp. 60a-68a
22, 23 Walking in Phase with the Sun, Wind and Moon 5 Mnemonic: “Wind? Weather Map!”
24 Tell the Time of Night by the Star Opposite the Sun 7 Mnemonic: “Wind in Your Face”
25a Eastern Australian Standard Time Zone 10 hours ahead 9 ‘Low’ Clouds Come Clockwise Down under
25 Tell North from The Time By Using a Protractor 11 Weather Fronts Distort The (Circular) Wind Circulation
26 Longitude and Latitude from the Sun 13 Wind-Direction-Change Rule for Buys Ballot’s Law
27 A Bush Theodolite for Overnight Equal Height Observations 13 Steering Winds
28 Find North by your (non-digital) Watch-Hands 15 Atmospheric Pressure Changes.
29 Find Any Other Direction Too — Using the Hour Hand 17 Watch the Clouds Cross the Moon
29c String North 19 To Determine Upper Wind Direction from the Clouds
30 Locating Anti-sunrise Shortest Shadow Souths 21 Clouds and Con-trails and Their Winds
30 Sun Path Norths — Summary 23 Prevailing Winds on Creek Banks Tips for calm weather
31 The 2 Flaps Method for N.—Lat. & Dec. Angles Separately 27 Make a Bush Psychrometer
31 Seasonal Adjustments For Equinoctial East 31 Topographic-Level Winds
32, 33 Overview 33 Overview: Global Weather Patterns
132, 133 Eastern Australian Standard Time Zone
10 hours ahead of Greenwich 52e The Aurorae
Showing Tropical countries and places underneath the Sun 53e City Glow
128
Contents/Index
Clockwise See also Map & Compass Work Look

4 Mnemonic: “Clock”wise Northern Hemisphere SWiNES 34 Visual Assessment is Your Main Clue — Rely on It More
6 “VEERING” with the Sun is “Clockwise” 36 You Need Excuses to Stop and Have a Good Look
only in the Northern Hemisphere 38 You Need a Road-Map To Climb a Hill!
“BACKING”, against the Sun’s movement, is “Anticlockwise” 40 Look into the Far Distance Look through the Haze Wait
— but only in the Northern Hemisphere. 40 Wait for a Change in Perspective...
8 Mnemonic: (when you say) “COMPASS” (say) “CANADA” 42“Retracing is Re-preciating”
10 “Bears Circle Clockwise” Compass Bearings are Clockwise, 44 Look Back Regularly. Look Around
A Full Circle, and Eurocentric, Cee? 46 Look Through the Vegetation, to the Contours
12 Mariner’s “Compass Points” work on Successive Halvings 48 Play the Field-Scientist
14 “E. W. N. South” Of What!? Rule: Say What 50 Look at the Ground
16 Back-Bearings Killed Sleepy Pilots 52 Look for Foreshortening & Overlap & Parallax
18 Back-Bearing: Plus or Minus 200° Then Minus or Plus 20° 54 Look, with Vengeance Aforethought
20 Turn 90°? “+/-100° -/+10°” ! Integrate
22 The Clock-Face Method for Direction 3 Visualisation is your Key Skill
24 One Degree is about One in Sixty 34 Integrate: Jetstream, Earth Rotation & Heaven Rotation
26 Anticlockwise is Your Best Spin-Reference Direction 36 Visualise Familiar Landscape Trends, Under the Sun
28 Bearings & Tracks: “If it is right, it is big in my sight” 38 ‘Land to Sky — Sky to Land’ Navigation
30 “By the Nose” Navigation 40 Join the Invisible Big Picture To the Visible Landscape
32 Overview 42 Landmark to Landmark Network Navigation
Anticlockwise 44 Aim to Integrate…
5 Mnemonic: Down Under, The Sun Moves ANTI-BigBENWiSE 46 Imagine an Aerial Photograph of the Continent
i.e. anticlockwise 48 Connections to the Outside World
7 Southerners Need Anticlockwise Systems —You don’t need to feel isolated
9 A Compass-Needle Continent—Swinging the Continent 50 Orientation is More Fundamental Than Position Sense
11 Interpret a Compass Needle as “RED HOT—WHITE FROST” 52 Make Common Sense of the Various Direction Clues
13 Four Reference Directions—Name Them “Rise, Noon, Set, Midnight” 52 Don’t Degrade the Point of a Clue or System
15 “Rise-Noon-Set-Midnight” carries its meaning across the Equator! 54 Preparation is the Key to Difficult Navigation
N.S.E.W. doesn’t. 42e Moveable Position vs Fixed Orientation
17 The 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 Reference Directions 43e Name Each Clue — with solid ground
19 The Sunny Skies Quadrant System 44e Notice and Match Up
21 The “SWEETHEART” Method of Orientation 45e In-Line Integration
23 Mnemonic: “North; Coast” 50e Think in Pairs, in lines, trends and tracks
23 Go Overseas! Orientation 35 Orientation = Direction Sense
27 Walk across Australia! English! 37 The Get-Back Path is the Single Fundamental
29 South is a Triply Better Reference Direction than North, in the Sth 38e Grid-Line Walk
31 Nose-Navigation Needs an ‘Anti’ Mnemonic: “Nor-West, Not-Least” 39 Disorientation is More Dangerous Than Being Lost
32 Overview 39e Mental grid Map
Revision, Overview and Explanations pp. 32,33 41 Which Way Did I Come In? Which Way Do I Go on?
Top Down Orientation 43 Disorientation — A Killer Syndrome
Time is counted in cycles 42e Movable Position vs Fixed Orientation
Closer to Home 45 Un-Dis-Oriented;
The Precession of the Equinoxes 47 Avoid Disorientation: OverNavigate
The Moon 46e Making a M.U.D. M.A.P.-m.a.p.-m.a.p.
Global Weather Patterns 49 OverNavigate: Equals Over-Familiarise
The Moving Horizon 51 Needle N, S, E & W. Identify them on the Landscape
The Spherical Earth 51 Orientation to Start-Finish Rhumb Line—by sight or compass
The Spinning Earth 51 Orientation to Your Finish Point, By the Parallax Method
Moving the Horizon 53 Orientation to Your Start Point, By the Parallax Method
55 Look Backwards, Think Forwards
Section 2. THE INSIDE STORY—Mental Manoeuvres pp.34-55 Disorientation
35 The Navigator’s Top 10 Problems; and Band-aid Solutions
Learn 37 How I Manage to Get Lost or Disoriented
34 Navigation is More Than Navigating Common Sense 39 Logical Blunders — Examples
36 The “Good” Navigator. You. 41 Logical Presumption Leads to Utter Delusion
38 Don’t Just ‘Get By’ and ‘Make Do’ 43 Casual Outings Catch You Out
40 Walk Where the Navigators Talk — if you want to learn navigation 45 Trapped! By Not Looking Back
40 Explore It’s No Fantasy 47 How to Get Lost—Follow the Track—A Track is a Trap-Door
42 Self-Motivation is Fundamental 47e Disorientation in new territory
44 Routine Mind-Shut-Down Procedures 49 How to Get Lost—Follow the Leader
46 Navigation is Mental Work — Stay Alert 51 Exponential Anxiety — the 11:59 syndrome
48 To Work Harder, Rest Harder 53 Nervous Nellie Navigation — Not
50 A Three-Track Mind Reorientation
52 Concentrate Outwards 35 Reorientation
54 Come to your Senses 37 Voice Your Thoughts — Don’t Suppress Important Clues
Think; Interpret 39 Trust the Untrustworthy
34 Your Subconscious is Superior to Science! 41 Trust Less and Prove More
36 Think out Loud 43 Trust Yourself Less
38 Memories are Made of Landscapes, Not Compass Needles! 45 Disoriented? Stop. Say So. Reorient!
40 Feed Your Subconscious through Your Conscious Focus 47 Reorientation; And a Fresh Start
42 How to Feed Your Brain 49 “As Solid As the Rocks in My Head”
44 Feed Your Subconscious Subconsciously 51 Explore Junctions, While You Can
46 Instruments Instruct the Intelligent 53 Look for the Essentials — the ‘Directions’
48 Minds Work Best with Intelligent Questions on Them 55 To Get There Quicker, Go Slower
50 Interpret! Lost?
52 SPELL Out Numbers — Into Words 35 Lost? Rule One: Stop! ..getting More Lost
52 PAINT your Words — Into Pictures 37 Back-track in Your Mind before You Back-track on Your Steps
54 TRANSFER Your Pictures into Reality 39 Rule 2: Start! Getting Unlost. Find yourself. Regain confidence
54 Put That Experience in Your Memory Bank 38e Grid-line Walk — Explore in a Square Grid Pattern
55 Extend Visible Reality into the Invisible Picture 39e Mental Grid Map
Angle: 41 The Simplest Way to Get Unlost is to Retrace Your Steps
34 Measuring angles at 1 cm per degree 43 More is Better — Thought, Time Care
35 Point and Blink = 10% Shift 45 Lost? Rule 3: Do a Good Job—of walking out or staying put
36 Guesstimating Angles at 1 degree per cm 47 How to Leave a Message
37 Distance using Apparent Size; 49 Lost? Rule 4: DON’T Do It Again!
37 Visual Angle, Size and Distance & 6°; Side-wise Offset 51 Separated? An Agreed Plan Helps
(38, 39 Grid-line Walk & Mental Grid Maps) 53 A Whistle-Code for Contact Calls
40 Cyclical Motion Divided into 12ths 55 Search and Rescue Signals — Noises Repeated Regularly
41 Approximate Sine-Wave Values 120 Appendix: Morse Code and Rhythm Mnemonics for it
121 Appendix: Semaphore Code and Mnemonics for it
129
Contents/Index
Section 3. REALLY INTERESTING STUFF Lie of the Land

—Bush Navigation pp56-89 See Also ‘Wind’ 57 The “Lie” of The Land
57 Listen to the Pioneers Lie Has To Do with Water Drainage
Nature’s Norths 59 Major Rivers & Ridges vs Minor Ones Sort it out on the Map
56 Nature’s Norths 59 Catchment Divisions Snake from Coast to Coast
58 Rock Noon 59 A Catchment-Division Separates Whole Valleys
60 Wind West See also Wind, Section 1 61 Ridges Ridge Names Mnemonic: “Ridges Rise”
62 Think Wind 61 Uphill — Which Hill? Upstream — to which Divide?
64 Be Wind-Wise: Listen 63 Shoulders Stop. Shoulders are Not Easy (like Ridges) to Walk on
64 Obvious Tell-Tales: Windblown Objects 63 Saddle — A Flat between Hills, Sitting Astride a Ridge
64 Obvious Tell-Tales: Landscape 65 Notice When You Cross a Catchment!
66 Light & Colour Effects 65 The Giveaway! A Change of View—Mnemonic: “Catch the View”
68 Botanical Tell-Tales 65 You Can’t Cross a Creek Twice from the Same Side
70 Combined Effects of Wind, Salt and Light 67 Break of Slope/Make of Slope Scree Slopes — Tread Carefully!
70 Botanical Asymmetry 69 Break of Slope — And Route-Finding
72 Think like a Plant 71 Mnemonic: “Down in the Mouth” Which way is the flow?
72 “Mosses Mop up Moisture” “Lichens Like Light” 71Hint: Don’t think “this side” & “the other side”.
72 “Fern Fronds Face the Front” i.e. the sunny side 73 The Inside of a River Bend is Flatter Ground
74 Bush Noon— The Sun is Always out, If You Know How to Look 73 Rivers Bend! Don’t Forget to Look Backwards
74 False Asymmetry & Symmetry True Symmetry & Asymmetry 73 Rivers Meander. Ridges Run Straighter
76 Higher Density of Leafiness on the Noon Side 75 Land-Form. Hint. What Makes a Cliff and an Overhang?
76 The Lowest Leafy Branches are on the Noon-Side 77 Headlands, Bays, Prevailing Winds, Longshore SandDrift, Creeks
76 “It’s the Shady Side That Shrubbery Shows up” 77 Beaches — Slope, Particle Size, and Wave Energy
76 Tall, Steep and Ragged Backside Wedge-Shaped 79 Rock Typing Soil Typing
76 Hollow under the Shady Side & Imperfect Shape
76 Gaps on the Shady Half Dead Branches Contours and Slopes
78 ‘Solar-Panel’ Tilting of the Canopy Top 81 Contour Lines
78 Wedge Shaped Lopsided Lean Half-Dome One-Sided Leafiness 81 Contour Navigation: Practise It, Before you Need It
78 Individual Branchlets Bare Backbone 83 Contour Curves: Your Job is to Imagine the Shapes into Life
80 Branching Patterns And to Match the Lines to the Landscape
—Examine Them for thickness, length, angle, curvature 85 Contour Heights: Read the Numbers!
82 Isolated Vegetation Shows the Clearest Asymmetry 85 Contour Spacing: Close = Steep Slope
82 Closed Canopy — Look for Gaps; Saplings 85 Contour Slopes: Work Out 1 Mm and 1 Cm Contour Spacing
82 Roadsides & Campsites Reverse Some Effects! 85 Reference Slopes — To Imagine the Climb with!
84 Flowers Respond to Sunlight Fruit Distribution and Ripening 85 The Beaufort Wind Scale — Modified for Bushwalkers
86 Stem and Leaf Colouring New Growth is Colour Differentiated 87 Make a Clinometer — a Slope Measurer
88 Noon-Sunlight is More Vertical 89 Just Draw It
88 The Shedding of Bark on the Sun-Baked Side
88 Where to Look for Fading or Lack of it Tracks and Bends
Memory & Naming Skills See Sect.5, Navigation Mnemonic 57 Stick to the Track Reasons for Leaving the Beaten Track
56 Don’t Forget to Remember, Your Way! 57 Cross-Country Routes
56 Unlock Memorable Chapters in Your Life 59 Tracks are like Naughty Children
56 Go for the Jugular. Zero in on What Matters 59 The same is true for creeks & ridges
58 Don’t Try to Memorise Details without an Overall Framework 59 Explore Branches While You Can
58 Don’t Try to Remember Anything You Haven’t Memorised 59 Convergent Tracks Lead to Civilisation
58 Write down What You Memorise! 59 Down-Track vs Up-Track
60 Anything is Memorable 61 Sympathy and Understanding with Track Markers
60 Make Individual Memories Memorable! 61 Old Track Markers
60 Remembering Trees 63 Track Markers When You Lose the Track-Markers
62 The Difference between Looking at, and Seeing 63 Notice (with Alarm!) When...
62 Search-Image 65 Mark Your Trail Mark Your Trail Non-Permanently
62 We Recognise ‘Sameness’ But Need to Describe the Differences 65 Tracking Someone Else
64 Place Recognition 67 Mark Your Trail More Permanently and Ostentatiously
64 You Recognise What You See, By What You Can’t See 67 Mark Your Trail Invisibly
64 Description Requires Words 67 A pebble Code — Keep It Simple
64 Can You Describe All That You Can Recognise?
66 Discuss It Bends
66 Collect the Details 69 Keeping Track of the Bends Desired Equipment
66 Identify a Specific Place by its Specific Collection of Details 69 Logging Constant Diversions
66 Include What You Can’t See 71 The Difference between ‘Direction’ and ‘Track’
68 Extend Your Familiar Range Systematically Hints 71 Continuous bends
68 Leap-Frog Walk in New Territory 71 Follow the bends by anticipating the trends
70 Draw the Skyline, the Ridge-lines, the Outlines 73 Keeping a Compass Course, by Legs
70 Label it with the 8 main directions 73 Turn Smooth Bends into Sharp Jumps
72 Examine the Skyline BEFORE You Walk up to It 73 Mind Which Way You Go
72 Make a Mental Movie 75 “End the Bend” i.e. Notice the Un-Bends
72 Take Mental Photographs 75 Name the Bend, By the Trend, of its End
72 Take a Mental Photo of Each Change of Track 75 Notice and Name Perverse Bend
74 Remembering the Sequence, Needs More Than Logic 77 Look Through the Trees, to the Sky and Skylines
74 Do Something NUMERICAL 77 Periscope Navigating by Trees
74 Match the SHAPE 79 Bush networks Don’t Navigate by Networks Only
76 Use a Type of Memory which you are Good at 79 Antidotes For Guessing at Network Junctions
76 Use the Name of the Track for the Acrostic 81 Sticking to the Bush Network Natural Routes Naturally Converge
78 Group Several Related Images into One See also p. 110 81 Coping with Divergence Reverse logic
80 Working Names — Invent Them 83 Trackless Navigation The method of Names
80 Standard Name Plus Personal Name 83 Bush Networking Essentials
80 Remembering Names 85 Walking “Straight” through the Bush Straight around
82 Name the Subsections 85 How to Walk In an Unintentional Circle
82 Name the Sequence 87 Walking an Exact Straight Line in Open Country
84 Revise your Memories To Remember Formulae 87 Leap-frog a Straight Line by Looking Ahead
86 Remember the Sequence — from AA to ZZ 89 Radio Direction Finding—As Good as a Compass
130
Contents/Index
Section 4a. DISTANCE pp. 90-108 left-hand pages Magnetic Compass Use See also “Clockwise”, Section 1
See also ‘Angle’ 37e Chart symbols
Progress 91 “L.M.N.Or P.”
90 Distance Guesstimation is a Major Problem for Walkers 93 Using the Protractor by Itself
92 Use the Map Scale—Don’t Just Look at It The Jargon 95 Using the Needle Alone — Emergency Magnetic Compass
92 Map-Scaling-Factors are Meant to be Interpreted 95 Hint Understand that magnetic poles should be called
94 Psychological ‘Half-Way Point’ When You Meet Other Walkers ‘North-Seeking’ and ‘South-Seeking’
96 AIMING OFF by 10° — 10° is 175m per kilometre 97 Think “+/- 5°” For Compass Bearings “+/- 10°”
96 Aiming-off at Sea; Aim Off 10% or 6° For Following a Compass; “+/- 15°” For Using a Compass!
98 Up-down Progress 99 Compass Errors — Be Impressed! Be Careful!
100 Distance by Double Pace—Test Yours Tie Your Ankles Together 101 Compass Use — Master It, but Be a Good Master.
100 Don’t Lose Count! Use Finger-Math 103 “Magnets Grip Maps”
100 Test your pedometer 103 Align Your Map in the Dark
102 Line of Sight Can Be Extremely Accurate 107 ‘East-least; West-Best’ Rule—Tells You Which Bearing is ‘Best’
102 Two Opposite Landmarks 108b Getting Started in the Dark
104 “Changeover Lines” of Progress — Relative Apparent Sizes 108c Thinking Backwards
104 Use the Landscape Itself to Measure & Mark Progress 109a Taking a Bearing from the Landscape
106 The Sine-Cosine Tally Method of Keeping Track, Blind 109 Plotting a (‘Compass-to-Map’) Back-Bearing
106 Rise and Run Adjustments — Sine and Cos — North and East 109 No-Number Back-Bearings
108 Progressing A Position Line across the Map 124 Appendix: Map Symbols
108 Pinpoint “Fixes” are a Myth! Mapmaking
Pace 38e Grid-line walk
90 Distance = Speed x Time Keep a Log! Adding two Speeds 39e Mental Grid Map
92 Pace Your Progress — Pre-Dict It, Don’t Post-Dict It! 46e Making a M.U.D.M.A.P.-m.a.p.-m.a.p.
92 Advice about Walking Times — Double & Halve! 91 Maps Mean: Imagine Me! — Making Mental Maps
92 20 Minutes per Kilometre — Double & Halve — Easygoing Maths 91 “Map To Mind” Navigation
92 4 km per hour — Normal Walking Pace — Double and Halve! 93 Mental Networks
94 1 Metre per Second is 3.6 kph “1 Hour Extra per 5 Hours” 93 The Most Valued Map
94 “1 Hour Extra per 500 m easy climbing” 95 Strip Map Navigation — Follow-Your-Nose Navigation
96 Adjust Your Expected Pace 97 Caving Strip-Maps — Come in Books
96 Don’t Overcompensate for Slopes And Meanders 99 Map Folding and Map Holding
98 Don’t Lose Count! Use Finger-Math 101 Layout Map — Blind
100 A Slow Kilometre Cancels out Three Quick Ones 103 A Compass Holder
100 To Progress Faster More Easily Pace Yourself 106a The Sine-Cosine Tally Method of Keeping Track, Blind
— Slow Down, but Don’t Stop 106b Rise and Run Adjustments—Sine and Cos—North and East
102 Distance-Off by Vertical Angle Safe Distance Off 107 String Map
104 Circle-of-Position by Horizontal Angle 109 Parallax While You Walk — JUST DRAW IT!
105b A Horizontal Angle between Features Yields a Position Circle
105c ‘Two Horizontal Angles’ Usually Fixes Your Position Section 5. Navigational Mnemonic pp. 110-115
106 Rise and Run Adjustments — Sine and Cos — North and East 78b Group Several Related Images into One
Range 110 A “Start-Stop-Rest” Navigation Mnemonic
24e One Degree is about One in Sixty 110 P.R.E.P.A.R.E.D.— A Before-You-Go Checklist
34-36e Estimating angles 111 Equipment—A What-You-Might-Like-to-Take Checklist
37e Distance using Apparent Size & 6° 111 Place-Names; Learn Them; You Navigate by Local Features
37e Visual Angle, Size and Distance Side-wise Offset 111 S.T.A.R.T. off Oriented
51a & 53a Parallax methods 111T.I.M.E. & Distance — that’s the point
90 Range: Rule One: Guess 111 Distance
92 “Range” of Visibility — Two Halves to the Picture 111 Progress; Pace; Range
92 “Range Squared is Dee Height” 112 Look in These 6 Directions — in 6 ways — Up and Down
92 “Range Squared is Dee Height” 112 4 More Slopes
94 Double, the Acute Angle, off Your Nose — For the Distance Off 112 Look in These 6 Directions — in 6 ways — Ahead and Behind
94 Halve, Any Angle, from your Stern—For Distance Off 112 Look in These 6 Directions — in 6 ways — Right and Left
96 Distance by Optical Rangefinder 113 ..Plus in Two More Directions
96 Range by Parallax and a Piece of String DIY Rangefinding 113 (1) All, Around, Appreciatively, And At 6 L’s
98 Distance by averaging maximum & minimum Guesses 113 (2) Look at the Map: a Systematic Checklist. What ‘System’?
98 Distance by Comparison with Some Length You Know 113 Mark the Lines-of-the-Land On Your Map
98 Distance by Cloud Shadows — Look for Them 113 Mnemonics for Map and Compass Work
98 Sound Travels Three Seconds to the Kilometre 114 N.S.E.& W.—the 4 cardinal directions, is a mnemonic of fours
100 Lighting Conditions & Eyesight 114 W.E.A.T.H.E.R. — Check for Change
100 Visual Acuity is about One Minute of Arc 114 Stop-Signal: Why have you stopped?
102 Approximate Figures for Visual Acuity 114 REST and R.E.O.R.I.E.N.T yourself
102 Test Your Own Visual Acuity 115 RI For Revisualise the Invisible & then Relate It to the skyline
104 Circle-of-Position by Horizontal Angle 115 Clock-Sense Mnemonic
105b A Horizontal Angle between Features Yields a Position Circle 115 ENT for Environmental Notice Time—Orient yourself to Nature
105c ‘Two Horizontal Angles’ Usually Fixes Your Position 115 REMEMBER to Note down the Names in the Notebook
104 The best range-finder 115 Re-lax, and Play — Navigation Games and Activities
106 Rule of Fingernails Rule of Tom Thumb Apparent Size
Miscellaneous pp. 34e - 55e
Section 4b. MAP and/or COMPASS pp. 91-109 right-pages 52e The Aurorae
Map Use 53e City Glow
54e Helpful Chart Symbols 122 Appendix: Symbols 54e Helpful Symbols for Standardising your Chart–Work
38,39e Grid-line Walk & Mental Grid Maps
46e Making a M.U.D. M.A.P.-m.a.p.-m.a.p. Appendices pp. 116-121
91 To “Read” a Map — Rule One: Don’t Lose Your Place! 116 Moon-Phase & Tide-Time Dial
91 Rule Two: Imagine Arrows for the Sun, & Your Movement 118 Divide the Star Globe into 8 Octants
91 Rule Three: Get Used To Any New Map Scale —and Learn the Stars in Each
91 Rule Four: Don’t Give Up! 118 The Southern Figure of Eight
93 Look Carefully at the Fine Detail on the Map 119 Divide the Star Globe into 8 Octants
93 Look Carefully at the Fine Print —and Learn the Stars in Each
93 Some Map Details are Not to Scale! 119 The Zodiac
95 Permanent Landscape is More Trustworthy Than Surface Detail! 120 Morse Code & Rhythm Mnemonics
95 Details Added on to a Map Are Prone to Error 121 Semaphore Signalling Code & Mnemonics for it
95 Expect The Map To Be Unhelpful 122 Symbols for Track-Notes and Mud-maps
95 Maps Do Give You 10 Times More Detail Than You Can Notice 122 A List of Star Coordinates
97 “Maps Grip the Universe” 128, 129 Tropical countries and places underneath the Sun
99 Align the Track 124 Drawing Great-Circles. The PZX navigational triangle
101 Align the Map the Landmarks 125 Calendars in the Sky
103 Align the Map to Identify Landmarks 126,127 About the Author; Outline
105 Align the Map to Fix Your Position Index pp. 128-129
107 Which Way is North? Contents p. 2
131
Appendix
Eastern Australian Standard Time Zone

10 hours ahead of Greenwich
Showing Tropical countries and places underneath the Sun
p24a,25a
(CANBERRA 36° S.)

ROCKHAMPTON 23°½ S.
NEW BRITAIN 5°S
12
21° S. NOUMEA 11 13 ALICE SPRINGS 23°½ S
15° S. FIJI 10 14 MANILA 15° N. PORT HEDLAND 20° S..

SULAWESI 0°
WEST SAMOA 14° S.
23°½ N. HAWAII 9 15JAKARTA 7° S; SINGAPORE 1° N.;
CHRISTMAS IS. 10° S.
COOK ISLANDS 11° S. COCOS ISLANDS 12° S.
17°½ S. TAHITI 8 13 16 CALCUTTA 23°½ N.

SUMMER TIME
Rotate this for other time zones
23°½S. MANGAREVA7 17 MALDIVES 0°

/MARQUESAS
PITCAIRN/Easter Is6 7 19 18 Gulf of OMAN

25° S.-27° S. 23° ½ N.
(34° N. Los Angeles)
Tip of Californian Peninsula 23° ½ N Seychelles 5° S.
Is. De Revilla Gigedo 20° N.
Gomez 26° S. 5 19 Port of Aden 12° N.
Mexico Guadalahara Mogadishu 3° N.
23°½N. Madagascar 23°½ S.
Galapagos Islands 0° 4 20 Lake Victoria 0°

Guatemala 15° N. N limit of S Africa 23°½S.
Panama 8° N. 1 Sudan/Egypt; 23°½ N.
Aswan Dam
Cuba/Haiti 20° N. 3 21 Lake Chad 14° N.
Bogota 5° N. Namibian Desert Coast 23°½ S.
Trinidad and Tobago 10° N. 2 22 Accra 5° N.

Timbuktu 17° N.
Brasilia 16° S. 1 23
Sao Paulo / Río de Janeiro 23°½ S. 0 West African Coastal Bulge 15° N.
Mid North Atlantic 23°½ N.
Places in capitals are less than 6 hours away from Australia. The others are on the other side of the world.
View this as if from above the North Pole—the Sun ‘moves’ clockwise, but the Earth spins anticlockwise.
132
Eastern Australian Standard Time Zone
10 hours ahead of Greenwich
Showing Tropical countries and places underneath the Sun
Cut this one out and post it on your wall until you have learned most of it.
(CANBERRA 36° S.)

ROCKHAMPTON 23°½ S.
NEW BRITAIN 5°S
12
21° S. NOUMEA 11 13 ALICE SPRINGS 23°½ S
15° S. FIJI 10 14 MANILA 15° N. PORT HEDLAND 20° S.

SULAWESI 0°
WEST SAMOA 14° S.
23°½ N. HAWAII 9 15JAKARTA 7°S;
SINGAPORE 1°N;
COOK ISLANDS 11° S. COCOS ISLANDS 12° S. CHRISTMAS IS. 10° S.
17°½ S. TAHITI 8 13 16 CALCUTTA 23° ½ N.

SUMMER TIME
Rotate this for other time zones
23°½ S. MANGAREVA 7 17 MALDIVES 0°

/MARQUESAS
PITCAIRN/Easter Is 6 7 19 18 Gulf of OMAN

25° S.-27° S. 23° ½ N.
(34° N. Los Angeles)
Tip of Californian Peninsula 23° ½ N Seychelles 5° S.
Is. De Revilla Gigedo 20° N.
Gomez 26° S. 5 19 Port Aden 12°N.
Mexico Guadalahara 23°½N. Mogadishu3° N.
Madagascar23°½S.
Galapagos Islands 0° 4 20 Lake Victoria 0°

Guatemala 15° N. N limit of S Afr. 23°½S.
Panama 8° N. 1 Sudan/Egypt; 23°½N.
Aswan Dam
Cuba/Haiti 20° N. 3 21 Lake Chad 14° N.
Bogota 5° N. Namibian Desert Coast 23°½S.
Trinidad and Tobago 10° N. 2 22 Accra 5° N.

Timbuktu 17° N.
Brasilia 16° S. 1 23
Sao Paulo / Río de Janeiro 23°½ S. 0 West African Coastal Bulge 15° N.
Mid North Atlantic 23° ½ N.
Places in capitals are less than 6 hours away from Australia. The others are on the other side of the world.
View this as if from above the North Pole—the Sun ‘moves’ clockwise, but the Earth spins anticlockwise.
133

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Navigation Down Under

1001 Ways to Extend

Your Navigational Know-How

3 REALLY INTERESTING STUFF

Big-Picture Rule One: Locate a Distant Reference Direction First

Visualisation is your Key Skill

Big-Picture Orientation is a Mental Layout Acquired Beforehand

Smaller-scale clues can then 'fit-in', sensibly, to the larger context.

Compass Navigation Robs You of a Global Perspective

The Big Picture is Invisible — Your Job is to Visualise It!

Global Re-orientation — Light-Half/Dark-Half

Mnemonic: “Clock-wise Northern Hemisphere SWiNES”

A mnemonic for global orientation: “True Polarity”

Go outside and take a look.

West/Set/Left North/Nose/Noon/Down Under East/Rise/Right Let the reality sink in.

Mnemonic: “Wind? Weather Map!”

∗ Look at the skyline “from Bruce Valley”

Mnemonic: Down Under, The Sun Moves ANTI-BigBENWiSE i.e. anti-clockwise

Mnemonic: “Time Tells Turning”

Notice these, Yesterday — to Guess the Time Today

The Moon; Rule 4: Look for It

“VEERING” with the Sun is “Clockwise” only in the Northern Hemisphere

Say “Clockwise” and “Anticlockwise” instead

Mnemonic: The Southern Summer Sun Sets Somewhat South

Stars Leave Star-Trails ..if you photograph them with time-exposure...

It helps you with global orientation to use ‘star compasses’ .

Mnemonic: “Wind in Your Face”

Southerners Need Anticlockwise Systems

Global Orientation: Latitude and Polar Distance

Mnemonic: “Sun at High Noon — How High?”

On Overcast Days, Average the Brightest Sky over 1/4 hour

RISE and SET Directions for a (Local) STAR COMPASS

The circles in the diagram will rise from the

From the Moon, Locate the Sun-Moon Direct Line, Carefully.

Bust the illusion with a piece of string…

Prove it in 3 dimensions, by using a torch and a ball.

Mnemonic: (when you say) “COMPASS” (say) “CANADA”

Check it out on a globe. Locate the Queen Elizabeth Islands.

The Angle of Rising and Setting — is Determined by Your Latitude

High Noon — How High?

Global Star-Compasses e.g. ‘Perpendicular to’ rise and set

‘Low’ Clouds Come Clockwise Down Under

A Compass-Needle Continent—Swinging the Continent

Global Orientation: Point to the South Pole…

The question is: “What is the exact angle below horizontal?”

Mentally Rotate the Sun-Moon Line Around Polaris

(Southern Hemisphere view)

“Bears Circle Clockwise”

The North Pole is Perpendicular to the South Pole

A simple way of looking at it is to say

Now go outside and point to the Poles.

The Dark-Blue Polarisation Band Perpendicular to the Sun

The Centre of the Rainbow is Down-Sun

Identify the Stars That Pass Directly Overhead

Weather Fronts Distort The (Circular) Wind Circulation

Col In the trough, crossing the ridge,

Mnemonic: (Interpret a Compass Needle as) “RED HOT — WHITE FROST”

Global Orientation: the South Pole Star, and Polaris

15 Ways to Locate the South Pole Star Or the N./S. Meridian

“Cusp North” — Approximate Direction from the Moon

Mariner’s “Compass Points” work on Successive Halvings

The Sun Passes Quickly Past North-South Nearer the Tropics

Wind-Direction-Change Rule for Buys Ballot’s Law

Four Reference Directions — Name Them: “Rise, Noon, Set, Midnight”