FRA Navigation Course – 23 to 25 September 2011

I attended the FRA Navigation Course in Elterwater last week and can wholeheartedly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn or brush up on their navigation skills.

The weekend was extremely well organised and was great fun from start to finish.  I had no compass skills whatsoever at the beginning of the weekend but now feel more than competent to venture out on the trails and fells on my own. The weekend involved a theory session on the Friday night, followed by group navigation on the open fells on Saturday morning/afternoon.  You are then given a short course with ten checkpoints to try to find on your own but are never far away from instructors who will make sure you don’t veer too far off course.  There is night navigation on the Saturday night which is done in pairs and then on the Sunday is the main event which is a 10k 10 checkpoint course on the open fells.

The whole weekend costs £60 for FRA members (£85 for non-members) and for that you get two nights youth hostel accommodation, breakfast on Saturday and Sunday, packed lunches on Saturday and Sunday and an evening meal on Saturday night.  Bargain!  I couldn’t recommend it enough.  There are two courses held throughout the year, the one I attended in Elterwater in September and one in Kettlewell in spring.

For more information, send an e-mail to margaretbatley@rocketmail.com.

Review by Christa

Horwich RMI member