Compass and GPS

[Carlos Zenteno]

Do I need to bring a compass and/or a GPS to walk the Norte/Primitivo?

 

[Bradypus]

Haven't walked the Norte but they are not necessary on the Primitivo. A well signposted route.

 

[Peter Fransiscus]

Do I need to bring a compass and/or a GPS to walk the Norte/Primitivo?

Hi Carlos , it's not a wildernes so no need for a compass or GPS for that matter.

Wish you well,Peter.

 

[Deleted member 43985]

To avoid getting lost, no. To create a visual track of exactly where you walked, how far you walked for yourself, Family and friends, sure! But if it is the latter I’d also recommend just an app on a smart phone so you don’t add any extra weight.

 

[Bristle Boy]

If your feet get wet you've walked too far North.

 

[Jeff Crawley]

If your feet get wet you've walked too far North.

Or, as we'd say in east Kent, if you spot the coppers are wearing funny shaped caps you've gon too far east!

 

[Anniesantiago]

Do I need to bring a compass and/or a GPS to walk the Norte/Primitivo?

NO

 

[Arn]

My first CF (2008) my daughter was concerned I'd get injured (or lost?) and so I carried the the SPOT Gen3 Satellite GPS Messenger. It is great for wilderness adventures, but over kill for the Camino. The SPOT tracks my every move and, when linked to Google Earth, sends to folks on an email, my position. It has a "help" mode that tells family that I need assistance...but not of a critical nature. The most impressive capability is it will (when activated) send a message to a 24/7 monitored site that will then dispatch EMS, or in some regions a HELO.
Sounds great, but. My daughter responded on one occasion asking why for the last four days I've been sitting at the same bar.
Kids!!!

 

[trecile]

If your feet get wet you've walked too far North.

Or west

 

[Peter Fransiscus]

Or, as we'd say in east Kent, if you spot the coppers are wearing funny shaped caps you've gon too far east!

True , but you had a nice swim

 

[Bristle Boy]

True , but you had a nice swim

And cooled those blisters.

 

[Peter Fransiscus]

And cooled those blisters.

Absolutely

 

[Tincatinker]

I think the best advice that we can offer to the navigationally challenged is that they should "always ensure that the sun is behind you as you walk the Camino Frances" that way they will always arrive at a familiar Albergue

 

[trecile]

I think the best advice that we can offer to the navigationally challenged is that they should "always ensure that the sun is behind you as you walk the Camino Frances" that way they will always arrive at a familiar Albergue

That doesn't work so well in the late afternoon!

 

[Jeff Crawley]

True , but you had a nice swim

Spoken like a true Roughtie-Toughtie Dutchman! As a retired civil engineer who once worked around Dover and knows where the "emergency" sewage outfalls are you wouldn't get me swimming in the Channel for all the tulips in the Netherlands!
We once poured too much tracing dye into a sewer in Dover town and stood by Shakespeare Cliff to watch the sea turn red as the cloud got bigger and bigger and slowly drifted into the harbour entrance.

 

[Tincatinker]

That doesn't work so well in the late afternoon!

But it does get’em back to where they started so they can have another go

 

[Bristle Boy]

But it does get’em back to where they started so they can have another go

That's why the thread goes back to 2018...they are still walking.

 

[henrythedog]

My first CF (2008) my daughter was concerned I'd get injured (or lost?) and so I carried the the SPOT Gen3 Satellite GPS Messenger. It is great for wilderness adventures, but over kill for the Camino. The SPOT tracks my every move and, when linked to Google Earth, sends to folks on an email, my position. It has a "help" mode that tells family that I need assistance...but not of a critical nature. The most impressive capability is it will (when activated) send a message to a 24/7 monitored site that will then dispatch EMS, or in some regions a HELO.
Sounds great, but. My daughter responded on one occasion asking why for the last four days I've been sitting at the same bar.
Kids!!!

A friend was showing me his new Garmin watch a few weeks ago. It has features I’ll not live long enough to figure out.

Anyway, whilst walking along describing the device and staring intently at his wrist (trying to get out of the ‘golf course’ menu I think) he tripped over a tree root and fell heavily. His watch’s shock-detector automatically called an ambulance and sent the precise location then sent his wife a text saying he had had a skiing accident.

He wasn’t hurt but I nearly cracked a rib laughing.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

that way they will always arrive at a familiar Albergue

That only holds true for the addicts who have walked the Camino Frances multiple times!

 

[Arn]

A friend was showing me his new Garmin watch a few weeks ago. It has features I’ll not live long enough to figure out.

Anyway, whilst walking along describing the device and staring intently at his wrist (trying to get out of the ‘golf course’ menu I think) he tripped over a tree root and fell heavily. His watch’s shock-detector automatically called an ambulance and sent the precise location then sent his wife a text saying he had had a skiing accident.

He wasn’t hurt but I nearly cracked a rib laughing.

My Apple watch has a similar feature but it alerts me about a fall and, if I respond I am OK, it doesn't follow through with EMS. My daughter is the ICE on my phone. I do not want her to know I've gotten injured, but she set the watch and I don't know how to turn it off.

 

[Arn]

That doesn't work so well in the late afternoon!

That's why I'm off the Way well before late afternoon.

 

[Tincatinker]

Chrissy, many years ago while practising getting lost in the Sahara I was advised: "Always keep the sun at your back. That way you'll get back to where you started and can try again". That is, you will always walk in a circle back to where you began

The truth is that solar navigation requires a wristwatch as well as some sunblock; though, arguably, Magellan got famous by always chasing the Sun set rather than the Sun.

 

[Arn]

Chrissy, many years ago while practising getting lost in the Sahara I was advised: "Always keep the sun at your back. That way you'll get back to where you started and can try again". That is, you will always walk in a circle back to where you began

The truth is that solar navigation requires a wristwatch as well as some sunblock; though, arguably, Magellan got famous by always chasing the Sun set rather than the Sun.

That's why he arrived in the Philippines instead of China.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Got it Tincatinker...thanks!

 

[Camino Chrissy]

That's why he arrived in the Philippines instead of China.

He must'a been a very good swimmer.

 

[Jeff Crawley]

Chrissy, many years ago while practising getting lost in the Sahara I was advised: "Always keep the sun at your back. That way you'll get back to where you started and can try again". That is, you will always walk in a circle back to where you began

The truth is that solar navigation requires a wristwatch as well as some sunblock; though, arguably, Magellan got famous by always chasing the Sun set rather than the Sun.

Why would you need to practise getting lost in the Sahara? I would have thought that you get lost the once and that would be sufficient?

(Got Ralph Bagnold's book Libyan Sands: Travel in a Dead World for Christmas - now there's a man that never needed GPS in the desert although NASA have used his treatise on wind blown sand dunes in their planning for journeys to Mars!)

 

[Theresa Brandon]

I keep a tiny Suunto compass clipped to my watchband. I use it to get my bearings particularly when I'm wandering around cities.

 

[C clearly]

This is an old thread, reactivated mainly as a silly thread. It will be closed now.