Bush Navigation

The skills of reading a map and using a compass are essential for bushwalking and having these skills means relying less on your phone and being stuck when it runs out of battery or loses signal. Knowing the basics will also give you confidence to be out on your own or tackle a new walk with friends. It will give you the knowledge to start learning more about navigation and the enthusiasm to get out and about.

This day hike is for people who have limited navigation skills and would like to upskill, or those wanting to refresh their skills. We'll cover things like:

– Contours – Scale – Map orientation – Terrain matching – Route choice – Compass types, cost and use. – Norths (all of them!) – Taking and following a bearing – Phone navigation

We will provide a topographic map of the area and a compass (or you can bring your own) and, after a briefing to go over some of the basics and a summary of the walk, we will head off into the bush to learn new skills under the guidance of our instructors. This walk will be a variety of both on and off-track with full reliance on our navigation skills to get to certain pre-marked features and challenges. This isn’t a race or competition, just a fun day out walking through the forest to learn and apply the essential skills of navigation using a map and compass.

This informative day out entails the best of hiking and navigation so join our experienced guides and get out of your comfort zone with people you can trust.

Where to meet? This event takes place about 10 minutes outside of Ballan, to the west of Melbourne – it's lovely forest for walking through, with some light to moderate scrub, perfect for walking through and having some fun. This event get a huge amount of positive feedback – so come and try it out.

We usually walk about 8-10km with some off-track and some tracks/road.