johnsunter.com - The adventures of an ordinary person...

When Sarah returned from Thailand a while ago, I drove to the airport, parked up, and went to meet her.

After the initial euphoria, it became obvious, that I had lost the car, and it took more than 2 hours to find it.

I have always had problems with direction and navigating and whilst the situation above was resolved with a meal and some flowers, a similar scenario in the hills in bad weather, could have been much more serious.

I decided to attend a National Navigation Award Scheme Bronze course to improve my skills.

As I left to set off, on Friday night, I must admit, that I had my doubts. The railways in the UK are not known for their tolerance of inclement Weather. It was snowing outside, and freezing cold.

Luckily, only one of my trains were delayed. I arrived at Rugeley, and began walking to my B+B.

After walking through the snow along various roads I came to a rugged track leading into the hills.

At the top of the road, was Park Farm (a B&B on a working farm) where I met the proprietor, the charming Mrs Lewis, her family and the farm dogs, who were all friendly and helpful.

The course would be run by an old friend JK, who runs Abbot outdoors, and first taught me navigation in the Morocco desert.

I have always liked his teaching style (during the 2nd evening, he confided in me, that he would have happily stayed behind for 2 extra hours, to assist if anyone had not quite understood something. That kind of passion and professionalism aren't easy to find).

I headed into town, to join him and a few of the other course members (and a great bloke who restored motor cycles ?) for a night out.

Suffice to say, that this was a John Sunter adventure, and evenings in the pub were to play a pivotal role. After a great evening around Rugeley, I left the pub at 1am and returned to the B&B by taxi.

The farm was in the middle of Lambing, and as I arrived Mrs Lewis was working with the Sheep and Lambs.

I helped (well sort of) to put one of the Lambs into the barn. I had to put down my garlic pizza bread to take this picture.

The Lamb in the picture, was actually, born about a minute before it was taken.

Knowing that people are working all night, in the rain and freezing cold, and then tidying your room, and making your bed, is a humbling experience.

The Course was run, from Cannock Chase.

The first day was mainly theory, and was taught in a superb training room, right in the middle of the forest.

JK had set up some impressive technical aids to enhance the learning experience.

We started by learning to set a compass and orientate a map.

A few times during the day, we popped out to practice outside.

Within minutes of stepping outside I had made a mistake, I never would have made in the training room.

A bearing is always taken in the direction of travel. Distracted by the cold, I had taken it the other way, and would have been walking in the opposite direction.

I was able to rectify this, and resolve how to avoid it happening again. That's the real value of experience I guess.

I knew a fair bit of theoretical navigation before the course, but there were holes in my knowledge.

We learned how to work to a six figure grid reference, about contour lines and map symbols and Naismiths rule.

We also learned simple practical things, like how to fold a map properly, the CROW act and what to take on a walk

At the end of the day, we had to sit a short exam.

For the first time, in a room full of joviality, there was a deathly silence, everyone was determined to pass.

I returned to my B&B. A superb venue, my bed quite the comfiest I had slept in for some time (it was so comfortable that I slept through my breakfast, both mornings) and a lovely view of the hills through my window.

That night I visited the Talbot pub to meet JK. A chap called John, was telling us about his plans for an expedition to Siberia.

John drove a white van, and we joked about the novelty of traveling across the siberian waste land in it, with all its associated cliche's.

Next day, its back to Cannock for some practical navigation training.

On one occasion a path featured on the map, didn't actually exist at all.

This further instilled a need for pacing and accurate measurement of distance.

It was much warmer on the 2nd day, and the sun coming in through the trees, was a sight to behold.

We took it in turns, to lead the group.

The value of handrails, became very apparent.

We navigated around lakes, through forests, over hills.

It was amazing as we had spent the previous day studying a map of the area, and actually walking around it, sort of brought the map to life.

After several hours of great walking and practical training, we head back to the training room for lunch.

Although the training room had great facilities, it was still very much part of the countryside as this picture shows.

In the back of the picture, is a lad called Mark, who attended the course with his mate Bob.

They were guests at Park Farm and I learned something of the mysterious Yorkshire sense of humor during time spent with them :)

In the afternoon we split into groups of two and had a go at orienteering around a pretty dense forest.

Simon was from Bury (I didn't recognize his accent, until he pointed out, he was born in Windsor !).

We had great fun running around in the forest, and I was surprised and delighted when our efforts changed from "have a go" to finding all 12 points, with just a few minutes to spare.

When we returned from orienteering, we were delighted to find that we had all passed the written paper.

When it was time to go home, Simon gave me a lift into Chester, which saved me nearly 3 hours of my evening, and refused any money towards petrol (this demonstrates, the kind of good natured people that you meet on courses like this).

I learned and practiced loads of useful stuff, had some great nights out, met some old/new friends and got to wander around a forest. Superb.

I would like to thank JK of Abbot outdoors, Mrs Lewis from The Park Farm B&B and everyone who took part for making it a great adventure.

Weekend Navigation course at Cannock Chase, I meet up with an old friend, learn about Yorkshire humor and discuss "white van" expeditions.