'Twas a beautiful November morning when four seasoned GoodGymmers (Jer, Art, Emily & Meyrick and one more than welcome Newbie (Laura) met beneath Sham Castle. We were trying something new today...

Under the always magnificent leadership of Jer 'The Compass' Boon, we set out to learn some new hiking skills to guide us safely around part of the Bath Skyline route.

Jer kindly provided is with Ordnance Survey Maps, some even laminated, and for those of us without a compass, there's an app for that. To begin with we learnt how to configure our compasses in line with our route. This allowed us be sure that as long as the next section was straight, and we knew the distance, we would be sure of which direction to head.

This is a lovely hike by the way, the setting is just wonderful. On the way we passed through the tallest of trees and the darkest of caves, "To the Bat Cave!!" Jer cried as we passed. Terrain was muddy at times, and there was a little more rainfall than we were expecting. Where's a reliable meteorologist when you need one?

We even bumped into a cow along the way. "To the Cow!!" no one cried. Talking about landmarks though Jer took us aside to highlight how local points of interest can be used to help pinpoint where you are on a map. Furthering our education even more, we learned how to take a bearing from a landmark in conjunction with our maps and compasses to help us decide which path to take when we we befuddled by a fork in the way.

Under Jer's tutelage we made out way home safely, so we must have been doing something right.

Hiked it? Liked it? Loved it!!