dhmiriam
2007-01-22 21:53:14
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GPS versus Compass and Map
Simon3, weedavie, padodes et al, get a foothold lads/lassies. Standing on a footpath reading from a map, a debate arises, this is the best way to go, no, it isn’t, this is the way, isn’t, is, isn’t, is…..bang……not looking, step down off footpath awkwardly, tear ligaments, week in wheelchair, where ? At the foot of the Sierra Nevada on one weeks holidays.
GPS versus compass and map, is this really the way to go, yes it is no it isn’t, yes it is no it isn’t BANG, guys look where you are going!
Proof of pudding: Place map, compass, mobile phone, tracking device or whatever nature GPS, et al in small box with tiny lock and key. Remember key must be tiny…..swallow key. Pack the box in bottom of backpack.
Set off with three days supply of anything you will reasonably need to keep alive following a substantial meal of roughage and bulk, and GET LOST if you can manage to, its amazing how difficult a thing this is to do, if, you have a reasonable knowledge of your terrain. My apologies padodes, there is no sense whatsoever of a pristine charm about my suggestion, and certainly not in two or three days time.
People you may discover a hell of a lot more about where you are at any given moment as opposed to where you are going. Once one can memorise where one is at any given moment, really soak it in, and where one has been, and can retain the information, and of course this will all be limited to one’s capacities for memory and retention (pardon the pun) one gets somewhere by linking individual to his environment and gaining an intimate knowledge of it, like goat herders, shepherds, crows and bees. Challenge yourselves with how far a distance one can retain perfectly in memory. Your trips undoubtedly will be shorter than your current expeditions unless you are either very foolish or very regular guys and girls, at which point each of you will learn which method of navigation is imminently more suited to you, or the best one for you personally.
Neither do I recommend depending entirely on Nature as suggested above, not that I reasonably expected anyone to try it, really proof of pudding that!
Getting oneself lost, Safely, IS more of a challenge than you might think. Give it up guys, life is too short. Why not post your getting lost and survival stories? Thoroughly more enjoyable. |
