Finding your way with the sun...
Just as the use of a map and compass is indispensable, it is equally essential, as well as useful, to know a few techniques for holding a bearing (direction and sense) along the chosen route.
The direction, that is the imaginary axis along which you move, can be held once you have identified a fixed point to refer it to.
The first essential reference, both for the sailor at sea and for the hiker in the mountains, is the sun.
Some fairly experienced and sensitive people are able to recognise the cardinal points simply by observing the position of the sun in the sky. This kind of observation is all the easier the further you are from the equator, since right at the equator the particular condition can occur in which the sun is exactly at the zenith (that is, on the vertical axis above the person), a condition that, in the middle of a desert, makes it impossible to work out where the cardinal points are.
In this particular situation the only way to find the cardinal points is to watch the movement of the sun, which traces an arc across the sky from east to west.
Once the cardinal points (North, South, East, West) have been determined, you can choose a direction. Anyone who cannot identify the cardinal points with a compass or simply by watching the sun can rely on the combination of sun and watch, provided the watch has hands.
It is a fairly simple method: you hold the watch horizontally and turn it until the hour hand points towards the sun. The line bisecting the angle between the hour hand and the number 12 indicates South (in our hemisphere); with summer time, use 1 instead of 12. The minute hand is not needed. It is an approximate method: it works best in the morning and afternoon, while around midday, with the sun high, the error can be large. Use it only to get a rough direction, and check it with the compass as soon as you can.
Holding the “compass bearing” to get round an obstacle...
We have said that the use of the compass is essential if you don't want to lose your bearings, yet its use can go well beyond simply identifying your position within a space and with the help of a map.
The compass lets you hold your direction, that is the imaginary axis we have traced in our mind and which ought to lead us to our goal.
Moving through nature may not be as simple as moving around a city.
Woods, bushes, rocks, ditches or clefts in the hills, deep valleys and inlets, slopes and banks can force us into continual, sudden changes of direction.
Changing direction during a hike is the most delicate moment, especially if we feel ill at ease in terrain we don't know. So it is a good idea to hold a direction in a straight line, generally corresponding to the one in which our objective lies, unless we are walking on well-marked paths.
Once the line of direction has been identified on the map, we line up the direction-of-travel arrow on the compass baseplate parallel to it.
As we walk we hold the compass in our hand, taking care to keep the chosen direction fixed.
Being forced to change course, a change of direction would risk turning us round together with the compass, so that we lose the direction we had chosen before.
For this reason the best practice would be to stop at every change of direction, note which point the direction-of-travel arrow is pointing at and, keeping the compass still in space, change your own direction. By carrying out this simple “stop and change direction” procedure (keeping the position of the compass fixed) you manage to keep your direction towards the chosen objective.
We can also sum up this technique by saying that it is enough to keep constant the angle formed between the direction-of-travel arrow and the magnetic needle.
This technique, however, is not enough to be sure of reaching a well-defined point. Every sideways movement with respect to the chosen direction must be compensated by a movement the other way. If the sum of the movements to the right or left of the direction do not cancel each other out, we will never be able to reach a precise point.
An example: to get past a ditch we move at right angles (to the right or to the left) to the chosen direction for a distance of 100 paces, then carry on again in the chosen direction; once past the ditch we must compensate for those hundred paces with as many paces at right angles to the chosen direction, but in the opposite direction to the one taken in the first detour.
This problem matters all the more the bigger the detour from the route. When we go round a ditch, as in the previous example, we can easily find our correct direction again. But when we have to go round a hill or a thick patch of woodland, the sideways movements with respect to our direction of travel can make us lose our line considerably. That is why it is necessary to check our position periodically, so as to calibrate the compass again.