Navigation is the art of getting from one place to another. It’s about making a plan around how to get from place A to place B, and then actually getting from A to B.

While navigation may seem like a big and scary topic, everyone can navigate! Think about it: every morning you get up, navigate from the bedroom to the bathroom and then out the front door. Navigating in the bush is the same, it’s just a little more complex. Learning to navigate around your house just means learning a few routes and remembering them. But in the bush, navigation involves working out and following a new route each time, and the landmarks are unfamiliar. There’s also more pressure to get it right on a bushwalk because getting lost in the bush is a bigger deal than getting lost in your hallway!

Navigation is a skill acquired by experience, study, and observation. It takes a long time to master. When starting out, it’s easy to be wrong. Unfortunately, the only way to get better is to persevere and keep on going! Navigation is a fun skill to learn, and many bushwalkers find that learning to navigate gives them a whole new appreciation of the landscape.