The Outdoor Adventure Giving you tips, tricks & recommendations to help make adventuring in the Outdoors fun, safe & exciting for you and your kids.
We want to look at one more tip on how to find out which way is north. All it requires is a watch. An analog watch (one with hands) is best, but if you can draw an analog watch based on the time displayed on the digital watch then you’ll be fine.
This one is fairly straightforward. Here’s what you do:
- Point the hour hand from your watch at the sun.
- If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere then you’ll want to take the measurement half way between the hour hand and 12 o’clock. This is due south.
- If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere then you’ll want to take the measurement half way between the hour hand and 6 o’clock. This is due north.
That’s it. Now if you have a digital watch don’t worry. Draw a circle and then your minute and hour hands in the right place based on what the digital watch says. Don’t forget to adjust the hour hand to match how many minutes have passed.
One last tip
OK so this isn’t to do with navigation but it’s fun none the less. How much daylight do you have? You probably have seen this on shows like Survivorman, but it is worth the reminder nonetheless. Here’s what you do:
- Without looking directly at the sun, hold out your hand horizontal.
- Using your four fingers line up the top of your hand with the sun. Each finger you have indicates about 15 minutes of sun left in your day.
- Move your hand down to just below where your hand was and repeat until you get to the horizon. This will show you just how much time is left in the day.
As always, be careful, be prepared and have fun out there. Make sure you are experienced in outdoor survival if you plan to rely on these tips.
