#walk1000miles latest
Get friendly with your compass, win gear, make a new group of friends...
IT DOESN’T MEAN to intimidate you. But of course it does, with its numbers and lines and important-looking things in red. But so would your phone if you looked inside it – you needn’t be anymore intimidated by your compass. And don’t forget, this direction-finding device weighs about as much as a packet of crisps, is free to use forever, completely happy to be dropped in a puddle and never needs recharging!
1 DON’T BE AFRAID OF YOUR COMPASS
It’s a tool, and a simple tool at that; your servant, not your master. At bottom, you can ignore everything about it save for the fact it has a straight edge and a needle that always points north. Think of the rest of it like the obscure blades on a Swiss army knife – pointless, until suddenly useful. The main-blade and handle of your compass are its straight edge and needle that points north.
2 HOW IS THAT USEFUL?
Fundamentally all the needle does is show you which way round to hold your map to make the things on it – a church, a wood, a mountain – line up with their counterparts in the real world around you. And all the straight edge does is line up accurately where you are on the map with where you’ve decided you want to get to. These two things together give you the ingredients you need to navigate.
3 I CAN SEE WHERE I WANT TO GO – WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?
Weather changes and sometimes deceives; landmarks you’re heading for can be indistinct or confusing; paths can be unclear or there can be too many choices; you’d be surprised how prone human beings are to stopping for lunch and then heading off afterwards in completely the wrong direction. Your compass can give you the confidence to know you’re always heading in the right direction. That’s a really nice feeling for you and the people around you.
4 OKAY, TALK ME THROUGH IT
Most often you use your compass to set your map – which means holding the map the way round that matches the real lie of the land. The top of the map and the direction of the compass needle are always north, so holding both flat, turn the map (or shuffle your feet round) until the the compass needle and the lines that run vertically up and down the map are lined up. The things on the map and things around you now line up. Do this whenever you consult the map to get the best feel for your surroundings and direction.
5 THAT WASN’T HARD! NOW WHAT?
Line up the long edge of your compass like a ruler from where you are to where you want to go. Not the walk’s ultimate destination, but the next waypoint (the next point where you’ll have to change direction). Now without moving your compass, turn the twisty bit (the needle housing) until the lines printed on the bottom of it line up with the grid lines running up and down on your map (you can ignore what the needle’s doing). Once they do, you can separate map and compass. Now hold the compass straight in front of you and shuffle your feet around until the tip of the needle fits precisely inside the arrow that’s also printed on the base of the compass. Once it does that, the direction of travel arrow etched or printed on the compass’s base plate points where you need to head. That’s it? That’s navigating? Yep, and in a sense the rest is fine-tuning.