ML (Summer) Training Day One – Micro Nav

Arrival

With the course starting on Saturday morning I had taken the Friday off work to give me time to pack and drive up there in reasonable time. Even with a load of faffing I was still packed by about 11.30am and so set off to North Wales at a steady pace. Typically, it was only as I was driving through Llangollen that I realised that I had not packed the summer walking shirts that I had been planning to take with me. Nor had I packed any sun cream or insect repellant. A quick stop at Cotswold Outdoor in Betwys – y – Coed remedied all three of those omissions and I was quickly on my way again, arriving at the Brenin around 4.30pm.

The room would not be ready until around 8pm so I had a couple of hours to kill. Taking advantage of the glorious weather I wandered across the bridge out the back of the Brenin and up the path leading towards Moel Siabod.

I got back to the car about 5.30pm. So, still having a couple of hours to kill I went to the bar, where I sampled a pint of each of the three bitters and enjoyed a great bar meal of pie and chips.

Suitably fed and watered I headed to reception to sign in and collect my key. The Brenin have finally taken a step into the 21st century and now have plastic key cards rather than the heavy key fob we had had on the winter walking course. As I was expecting, the room was clean and tidy with two single beds and a large bathroom. Being the first in the room I bagged the bed furthest from the door and nearest the window and unpacked some of my kit.

It was quite late in the evening and I had gone to bed when my room mate arrived. Jim had arrived by train at Llandudno Junction and been picked up, along with several others, by one of the Pyb mini buses. We introduced ourselves and had a quick chat before turning in for the night.

Introductions

Saturday morning saw the first of many great meals at the Brenin. I was very good and refrained from having a cooked breakfast each day – sticking instead to cereal.

After breakfast there was an introductory welcome talk from the duty manager who then sent us to the relevant rooms under the guidance of our instructor for the week – SM. We 11 delegates sat ourselves around the table with SM at the head. There then followed the normal training course staple of “Who are you and why are you here?”. To which the answers were “to help run DofE” or “to develop personal skills”, mainly.

SM then split the elevel of us into two groups. One group of six guys would be looked after by another instructor – Steve, while SM would take the remaining guy and the four girls.

We had a chat about the weather, a chance to collect some kit and then we headed out in our respective groups for some micro nav.

Micro Nav

The day started with some pacing. We all walked along and counted the paces required to cover 100m. I came out at 63, which was only slightly different from the 66 I did in the snow last year.

We then practiced map memory by looking at the map and deciding what features we might see as we walked a specific route and then ticking off those features as we actually walked the route.

These exercises led us through the woods at the back of the Brenin to the youth hostel in Capel Curig. From there we headed up towards Clogwyn Mawr and Nant y Geuallt, where we looked at contours and re-entrants before practicing walking bearings for short distances by placing objects in the area and getting someone else to retrieve them, given only the bearing and the distance.

Following this game our instructor, Steve, set us objectives. In pairs we were to navigate the rest of the group to the given objectives. From the starting point it was up to small spur, then on to a stream source and then pairs were given their own objectives before heading back to the Australia contour.

Click here for the map.

Here there was short break to discuss lichens (crustacose, foliose and fruticose), heathers (ling, bell and ?), before heading off to one final objective (Hill 337) and an (almost) final debrief from Steve. On the path back to the Brenin we passed through some old woodland at the base of Clogwyn Mawr and spotted some wood sorrell. Although this is edible we refrained from trying any of this as it was right on the path used by dog walkers. (A week later I was in Wytham Woods near Oxford – from where dogs are banned – and I found some more wood sorrell, which I did taste).