An orienteering excursion is essentially a hiking trip with the added objective of using methods and tools to determine your position or the direction you need to take to reach a specific location.
Practising Orienteering: Who and Where?
There are few limitations to practising orienteering. It's actually an ideal way to explore natural areas and enjoy fresh air with the whole family.
This sport is for all ages, making it a perfect excuse for family activities or outings with friends. You can participate from childhood right through to old age. There are no age restrictions, provided the difficulty level of the chosen route is adapted to participants' ages and physical conditions.
You don't need to travel far to practise orienteering. In fact, this sport can be enjoyed in any natural setting with varied terrain. The most enjoyable locations are typically large or small forests where limited visibility prevents seeing a wide horizon, creating opportunities to "get lost". This doesn't mean the activity involves getting lost - quite the opposite. You need diverse terrain to have the opportunity to use orienteering techniques.
The preferred locations for orienteering are forests or mountains, as people often lose their sense of direction in these environments. When this happens, you need to employ specific techniques and tools to find your way. Chief among these is observation, which is the primary skill in this sport. However, there are also various tools that prove invaluable for navigation.
Using Compasses and Maps
While there are numerous navigation systems used in orienteering, compasses and maps remain the best companions for mountaineers, climbers, hikers and mountain bikers.
These marvellous tools have saved many from harrowing survival experiences in unfamiliar locations. Therefore, if you love the outdoors, it's extremely useful to know how to use these tools.
Maps: Maps form the foundation of any excursion as they provide a graphical representation of the terrain and its features in miniature. To read them, you need basic knowledge to decode all the information and use it to your advantage.
To master your movements in nature, maps provide latitude, longitude and degree data. These correspond to geographic coordinates that indicate a point's position on Earth's surface. These coordinates reference major imaginary lines across the globe, starting from the most important horizontal line: The Equator, and the Greenwich Meridian at 0 degrees.
While this geographic coordinate system is very precise, it's not particularly practical for mountain use despite being universal. Therefore, geographic features were added to maps for better overall interpretation. The inclusion of the kilometre grid called UTM Projection makes map reading more comfortable and precise. However, to measure ground distances on a map, it's essential to understand the scales used.
Compass: The compass is the adventurer's best friend. It's a simple navigation tool that provides excellent orientation on a map. Using a compass with maps allows you to follow a specific direction and even measure terrain angles.
There are various types of compasses. The simplest consists of a magnetised needle balanced on a vertical pivot. Housed in a small case with a glass face for reading, the needle rotates freely, with the magnetised end (typically marked in red, orange or similar) pointing to Earth's magnetic north.
Today there are many compass types, all serving the same purpose. Modern compasses contain liquid to stabilise the needle's movement. However, depending on the activity, there are specialised compasses. For hiking or orienteering, a simple, lightweight compass with map-reading features suffices.
With all this information, you'll have realised that an orienteering excursion has much to offer. We invite you to try this activity with your favourite people and have great fun!
