How do you know you are a good navigator? Have you ever tested you navigation skills? Ok if you are like me you have probably crossed some terrain using map and compass in conditions less than perfect which suggests you have confidence in you navigation skills but have you ever truly tested them?
I used to study and teach survival skills. A couple times each year some friends and I used to set tests for ourselves. These always started by choosing a century, we would research what technology people would have to hand. We would collect, borrow or make replicas of this technology and go out into the wilds and see if we could survive. For instance, if we chose the 18th century we would go out in the woods dressed in clothing made of natural fibbers. Use tents of canvas, bed roles of wool and canvas. Boots of leather. We never allowed any equipment newer than that century. We were all very confident in our own survival skills so we didn’t even take modern emergency equipment, such as mobile phones or anything.
The further we went back into history the harder it became. We did two weeks on Dartmoor as Neolithic men, which was very tough. Dartmoor’s landscape and climate has changed a lot since then. And stuff Neolithic man traded for such as flint tools in the case of Dartmoor me had to make or have made for us before we went. We were lucky we knew some Archaeologists that would help us and in return we would test some of their theories. It was these trips that proved to ourselves we could practice what we preached.
My question to you is. Do you think you could cross Dartmoor or the Cairngorm Plateau using only kit of the 19th century including a map of the time, you might be lucky an OS map of the area might exist. And, Field compass and separate protractor. That means all clothing, rucksack, tent, sleeping bag, cooking equipment, food and navigation equipment of the time.
How do you think you would fair? Would you be up for the challenge?