18.02.18 - Natural Navigation workshop

Last night I left work bound immediately for Brighton with the intention of gate-crashing an astronomy gathering on the promenade that very evening
It was a disappointing affair, consisting of a surprisingly large number of people standing around staring silently upwards. A few took the time to point out Orion to their young children, enjoying the opportunity to divulge the information upon the only spectators who might not have known what it was. But beyond that, despite my unabashed eavesdropping, I picked little more up from the star-gazing horde than that.
A solitary beer further down the moonless beach listening to an invisible sea proved to be more cathartic for me, before heading back to the £20 room in the family home I found on Air BnB for the night.

At 10:10am the next morning I join a congregation of less tardy participants for the 3 hour Natural Navigation workshop. It is led by an unimposingly friendly woman by the name of Jo who studied under Tristan Gooley - one of the more entertaining authors on the subject. As such, much of what she divulges is familiar to me, but since I learn better by being told than by reading, this is no hardship for me.

One thing she  clarified for us was the 'Tick effect' of trees - whereby the side of the tree most exposed to the sun (from the South, if in the UK) will have lower, denser, more horizontal foliage than the North side, that will stretch upwards and more sparsely in an effort to capture more sun while not wasting time on unnecessary leaves that would be doomed to failure. This is more likely to be seen in solitary trees, rather than in denser woodlands, where the effects of the sun will be confused by the obstructive shady growth of surrounding trees.


In a similar respect, south facing hills on the horizon tend to be steeper as they are subject to more erosion from the UK's prevailing winds, while protected North facing hills tend to be gentler in incline.


When traversing farmland, the side the barbed wire are attached to fence posts indicate the side of the fence the farmland is on... the wire will be attached on the side of the fence against the farmlands fields, to take the weight of livestock pressing against it. If weighty cattle were to routinely press against barbed wire attached to the opposite side of the post, the wire would detach itself from the post in practically no time at all.



I was also introduced to my hereto unknown concept of a Dew Pond, which is a man-made pool of water usually constructed at a high point on a hill, sloping downwards to capture condensation from the air, with the purpose of providing a renewable source of hydration for cattle and other hill-grazing livestock. The presence of a Dew Pond indicates chalky soil as this soil absorbs water and therefore does not readily hold water in a substantial pool without additional coercion. In an ideal situation the Dew Pond is lined with clay or cement to prevent absorption of the water into the ground. Unhappily on this occasion it is lined with plastic tarpaulin.

In a cityscape, the taller buildings should indicate the centre of the city, where it is more expensive to build horizontally than it is to build vertically. And satellite dishes tend to point South East. Meanwhile, churches and grave stones are invariably aligned to face East to West, with wealthier people being buried to the sunnier South side of the church and the rif-raf like me being buried to the shadier, gloomier Northern side.

In a woodland, Jo - on the training of Tristan Gooley - advises that both Holly (Ilex) and Ivy (Hedera) mostly grow on the edges of woodland, and therefore indicate an imminent return to civilisation to a lost woodland traveller. I'm not sure I agree... In my experience they both seem to grow bloody everywhere, but I shall re-check my facts upon my return to my local woodland. In particular, she further advises, the prickly variety of Holly tends to be closer to humans and livestock, as per its need to develop a defence against being attacked and/or ingested.

Also in the woodland, one might notice that the roots might be more prominent on one side of the tree than the other. Similar in name and function to the Guy-Ropes on a tent, these Guy-Roots often point towards the direction of incoming prevailing winds - again, South Westerly in the UK - as additional support for the tree against the gusty onslaught.

Regrettably, all I learnt on this truly fascinating workshop did not prevent me from being unable to navigate my way back to my car at the end of it.