RIDE FREE

Could you navigate a long bike ride using natural clues from the sun, clouds, winds and trees alone? We explore the freedom, adventure and thrills that can be experienced with natural navigation

Mark Bailey

I’m riding through the flatlands of rural Lincolnshire. My bike computer is back at home and my phone is turned off. A cyclist could easily get lost here. However, I’m somehow navigating a 100km loop using ‘natural navigation’ – a rewarding technique, part Sherlock Holmes, part Bear Grylls, which draws on the rich clues provided by nature itself. The midday sun shows me where south is, as do the plump berries on the sunnier southern side of a hedge. Piles of dung under a tree suggest that sheep have been sheltering from the summer sun on the shaded north side. Later on, lowering clouds warn me of imminent rain. But the wind-sculpted shape of nearby trees suggests the prevailing winds here will give me a turbo-tailwind home. Even the birds, puddles,…

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Cycling Plus (Digital) - 1 Issue, January 2025

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