Hidden away on BBC2 is a short series of 3 programmes called All Roads Leads to Home. It stars the trio of Sue Perkins, Stephen Mangan and Alison Steadman. In the series we’ll see them undertaking various walks using only nature as their guide – so no sat-navs, maps or compasses.
Last night saw our intrepid group head out to the wilds of Cornwall after having a training session from expert Tristan. Bodmin Moor provided the backdrop of their first venture out into the wilderness unaided by modern technology. The other 2 walks took in Mousehole and Cape Cornwall.
The programme will be a bit of a hit with walkers and ramblers I’m sure as it will add on a bit more variety to walks. I’ll certainly not look at another cow pat again without trying to figure out which direction I am travelling in.
Some of the natural navigation aids will be pretty much well known to many who enjoy the outdoors – such as the rising and setting of the Sun. The windblown direction of trees is also a well known direction finding tool that many who spend outdoors will know about.
The tick effect of trees will be something I’ll be looking out for on my future walks to see if I can notice the difference of leaves and branches caused by the predominate direction of the Sun – it’s supposed to be a subtle sign so care is needed when using this method.
Using churches as a navigation aid is something new to me also. I knew that alters were mainly found in the eastern part of the church but that little fact had been filed away in my history and culture portion of my brain, so a bit of re-filing is needed for that morsel of information.
There was definitely lots of interesting bits of information such as darker green field boundaries with woodlands point north – or is that south? (I’ll make sure I take my android phone and can tune into iPlayer on my walks) – because of the shadowing impact of the trees.
I do wonder though what standard of celebrities we are breeding in the country. There was too much ‘panic’, ‘confusion’ and ‘we’re lost’ claims being made. Did they really get so disorientated so quickly and so easily? It did spoil the programme a little bit and surely there must have been better things to talk about?
It all came to a head really on the last walk where they were heading for Cape Cornwall. At a junction in the road they started to hunt around the posts for lichen to try and decide what way to go. Cape Cornwall is on the coast - if they looked left they would have seen the sea and if they looked right they would have seen the countryside. I really was on the verge of shouting ‘it’s behind you!‘.
Still it’s all good practice for panto season.
