johnsunter.com >> adventures - uk >> silver navigation course
I attend a second Navigation course with the excellent JK of Abbot Outdoors.
Having previously attended a NNAS (national navigation award scheme) Bronze course, I decide to go further, and study for a Silver.
It was run by my old friend, JK (John Kelly) of Abbot Outdoors.
The Bronze course was run at Cannock Chase, the Silver was run in Snowdonia, in a village, near betsy coed.
I arrived early on the Friday afternoon and was picked up from Betsy Coed station by JK.
JK went of to prep for the weekend, and two of the other lads and I had a wander around.
The weather really was fantastic.
We unpacked our stuff in the bunk house.
It worked out at something like £8 per night.
The beds were very comfortable and it had a well equipped kitchen (missing perhaps a fridge) and a shower and toilet block attached.
My only regret was due to the warmth of the weekend, we never got to fire up the arga.
In the evening, we head next door, to the local pub, The Bryn Tyrch Hotel and have something to eat.
The food was quite expensive (there weren't many other pubs nearby to compete), but tasted delicious.
To the left of this picture, is my old friend Jo, who I last met in Morocco on the desert survival course (details here and here).
A pretty good evening was had by all.
In the morning, the course begins in earnest.
We pop to the local shop, for last minute chocolate bars and cornish pasties, and then we review the map, and set off.
We follow a path into the mountains.
Just a few hundred yards from the bunkhouse, the countryside opens up in front of us.
The previous evening, somebody had mentioned a resection, so JK showed us all how to do one.
As the course progressed on from the Bronze course, the main purpose of today, would be to learn the finer points of Micro-navigation.
We continued along the path, working closely with the map, to find small landmarks, like where the path crosses a stream.
The path winds down through a small forest.
A lad in the group called Paul, worked for the environmental agency.
The T Shirt he was wearing, was for Inka Cola (so he had obviously walked the Inca Trail, I now have one of my own).
He really was a smart guy, and as you can see from this picture, he got on pretty well with plants and animals.
From the top of the hill, the view down back into the valley.
We took it in turns to lead legs of the walk.
There were lots of small ponds and streams around the path.
It looked like some sort of Petrol or Oil had found its way into the water.
Paul explained that he had been called out to this kind of thing before, and it was in actually fact bacteria.
He illustrated this, by running his fingers through it. It broke apart. He explained that oil and other stuff like that would immediately stick back together.
Back in the bunkhouse, we relax around the dining table and discuss, one of my other hobbies Bushcraft with Paul who was also interested in the subject.
A brilliant guy called Dave, brought all his own food.
He made some soup, and offered me some. It was quite delicious.
I offered to do the washing up, but by the time I finished my soup, he had already done it.
As we headed out to the pub, we had a great laugh, and plenty more ale changed hands.
The following morning, we set out for the hill, once again.
This time, we will be doing Micro-navigation, with much more realism, and its test day, so there is a chance of passing the NNAS Silver.
A Sea King helicopter fly's overhead.
The previous evening, there had been talk about taking in a peak on one of the gliders.
As we became engrossed in the navigation, we decided to leave it.
JK selected random places on the map, and we were challenged to find them.
It was very difficult at first, but we got better with practice.
Here, we wander around looking for a path, but its nowhere to be found.
By trusting our map reading, we eventually find it, about 15 feet from where we had been standing (it was like that Bridge in Indiana Jones and the last Crusade !).
We continue to navigate around, see loads of the countryside, and some fresh air, for the rest of the afternoon.
Here, a picture of me, thumbing the map.
As we finish the day, and head back to the bunkhouse, I found out, that having successfully led 2 legs of the Micro-navigation, I had passed.
Just goes to show. I have never considered myself any good at navigation, but with training and practice its perfectly possible.
Overall, a brilliant weekend.
Long walks in the sunshine during the day, good food, beer and company in the evening.
On the way back, Dave even gave me a lift back (JK asked if I ever actually use my train ticket's).
A quick thanks to JK and everyone at Abbot Outdoors for a really excellent weekend.
