Orienteering on the terrain
libre 11
Orienteering on the terrain is quite topical. Hundreds of thousands of tourists in any season go hiking in their native or foreign lands. Many take part in tourist meetings and competitions.
Travelers can be seen in the Carpathians, Crimea, in the forests of the Moscow region, on the mountain trails of the Sayan, Caucasus and Altai, in many other areas of the world. Crossing a turbulent river, night fire, sleeping in the open air attract unusualness and romance. 
It is not easy to protect yourself from midges, build a fire in the rain, to understand the tracks of animals, to find a ford through a rough river or to determine where north, south, west, east without a compass in cloudy weather, that is to orient yourself on the terrain, to determine the sides of the horizon and your location relative to them.
Radio beacons, radio compasses, mechanical wayfinders and other devices serve this purpose. Tourists do not have them. A compass, map or the simplest scheme of the terrain is enough for orienteering in an ordinary hike.
But it happens that people of various professions - surveyors, topographers, geologists, botanists, foresters, hunters, army soldiers find themselves in unforeseen conditions.
Orienteering by compass has its own nuances, you can read about them in a separate article. In the familiar book by B.Polevoy"The Story of a Real Man" pilot Alexei Maresiev, finding himself in a dense forest fifty kilometers from the front line without a map and compass, clearly knew which way to go, because he knew how to orient himself by the sun.
He was also helped by the wind, which "pulled from the east" and brought to him clearly distinguishable sounds of cannonade. More and more examples of the ability to find the direction on the ground without the help of tools can be given.
A person who knows the nature well, freely "reads" the "writing" closed for the inexperienced eye. In the proposed series of articles on the topic"Orientation on theterrain" on the available observable examples from life and direct communication with nature tells about many reliable guides and "pointers" of the countries of the world in the nature around us.
By studying them, you can become an active helper in the protection of crops and nature. The ability to navigate on the terrain will be a reliable assistant in competitions and hiking trips, and if in the future you choose the profession of a "man of the first trail" - in your work.
