YOUTH RANGER PROGRAMME 2009

 

REVIEW:    DAY 2    21st July 09

 

DAY 2 : Mountain Navigation Day

 

Today’s plan was to do a navigation exercise in the mountains. Everyone got geared up with waterproofs, rucksacks, maps and compasses and got out to the roadside on time to get the Mourne Rambler Bus which we used to get to the start of the navigation route at a laneway off the Head Road.

 

The weather was very wet with steady rain, strong winds and poor visibility (under 30 metres at times) which made careful navigation necessary. Although temperatures were mild the effect of the wind makes it feel physically colder by reducing body heat in a condition called “wind chill”. The waterproof jackets and trousers that everyone was wearing, being wind resistant, give good protection against this.

 

The route followed a track up to the old quarry workings along the south side of Slieve Binnian. These quarries would have been busy producing stone for kerbs, millstones and dressed building block from the nineteenth century up until the Second World War. Much of this stone was shipped to England and the granite industry was the main employment in the Mourne area at that time. The granite was cut and shaped at the quarry sites and the many small tumbledown buildings that are often mistaken for sheepfolds are actually smithies where the tools for working the stone were made.

 

Back at the navigating and unable to see the landscape or where we were going we had to keep track of our position by checking off the features we came across like when a stream crossed the track or when tracks joined. We also used the compass to take  bearings along several tracks at a junction and checked this on the map to see that they matched to confirm our position. At one stage we walked across rough ground for over one kilometre following the compass bearing only. This led to a wall which ran across our direction of travel so that we knew once we hit it we just had to turn left and follow it to reach the next checkpoint.

 

By the time we had successfully navigated our way back to the Silent Valley Gate Lodge everyone we soaked through so we spent the rest of the day getting dried out and warmed up with lunch and hot drinks. We also spent some time on navigation theory and learning the 1, 2, 3 of using a compass.

On the map -

1. Line up Direction of travel arrow from your position to where you’re going.

2. Turn the rotating bezel until the North arrow lines up with Grid North.

3. Adjust for Magnetic Variation. This is 6 degrees west for the Mournes area.

Taking a bearing from the map to use on the land (small to big) add 6 degrees.

Now hold the compass horizontally in front of you and turn yourself until the North arrow in the rotating bezel lines up with the North end of the compass needle. Now the direction of travel arrow points where you want to go.