ARS Find Their Way!

ARS members find the way!

On Tuesday evening, 15 members of Audlem Rambling Society (ARS) attended a Map Reading Course led by Andrew Down. Andrew is a very experienced and qualified Mountain Leader and has for many years been a leader of Duke of Edinburgh Award expeditions.

He ran a similar course for ARS last year that was well received and attended. The course was an opportunity to learn and refresh route finding, map reading and walk leading skills, all of which are most important if walks are to be led safely.

On Wednesday the course attendees then had an opportunity to put these skills into practice when they all went for a 10km wander around the Bickerton Hills.

They were constantly challenged by Andrew to explain where they were on the map and why- there were several occasions where mistakes were made- but it was an excellent way of learning how to avoid such errors in the future.

Navigational mistakes on a foggy, windy and freezing cold Welsh mountain can be a slightly more serious problem than on a sunny day near Peckforton Castle!!

Talking of Peckforton Castle, the photograph shows some of the ARS team attempting to gauge the age of a huge tree opposite the entrance to the castle.

Apparently you can get an indication of the age of a tree by the number of adult arm spans it takes to encompass the tree – this is according to a well known arborist – well he is a biology teacher, so that should count! 1 arm span = 100 years. It took six people to surround the tree suggesting an approximate age of 600 years.

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