Tristan Gooley has a very full passport. I caught up with him just as he was unpacking from a trip to  Libya.

Tristan has led expeditions in five continents, climbed mountains in Europe, Africa and Asia, sailed small boats across oceans and piloted small aircraft to Africa and the Arctic. He has recently been awarded the Royal Institute of Navigation’s Certificate of Achievement by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh for becoming the first European and only living person to have both flown solo and sailed singlehanded across the Atlantic. And when, briefly, he puts his passport down, he’s also non-executive Vice Chairman of Trailfinders.

What really interests us is that Tristan is the only person in the world working full time in natural navigation. He has set up The Natural Navigator School and runs courses all over the world.

Tristan explains, ‘Natural navigation is about finding your way without using map, compass, gps or any other navigational tool at all. It’s not just about getting from A to B, it also makes you feel better connected to the world. It can be very powerful on an emotional as well as physical and practical level.’

Tristan runs one day, classroom-based courses and then likes to follow these with outdoor courses. ‘Even at the end of a one-day course people will be able to orientate themselves at a basic level on land, sea or in the air, both by day and by night,’ he says.

So apart from stars, wind and sun, how else can we navigate our way around? ‘All the senses are incredibly important. For example, smell – so the smell of the sea from land, or land from sea. I remember coming in to the Caribbean after a month at sea and it smelt to me like cut grass mixed with a teaspoon of honey and one ground clove! We can also use sight, sound and taste. With taste, you can, for example, taste the difference between estuary and river by the salt levels in the water. With sound, two sides of a path will often sound different as you walk over them. This is due to moisture levels in the earth and the wetter side will usually be on the southern side.’

We’re fully on board for getting back to basics and having a go at one of these courses. And there’s one thing you can be sure of, you’ll never feel lost again.

Tags: GPS, navigation, outdoor, stars, Survival