birding-aus

Not getting lost

To: "birding-aus" <>
Subject: Not getting lost
From: "Reg Clark" <>
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 14:04:20 +1000
Hello all

Syd Curtis wrote:

"the position of the sun is critical.  Certainly it is for me.
And therefore if I am in northern latitudes I have to consciously work out
what direction I should be going instead of just subconsciously sensing it,
as Denise obviously was doing when she wrote "and I haven't the foggiest how
I did it".  On the couple of occasions that I have experienced this, it has
taken about six weeks for my innate sense of direction to adjust to having
the sun in the south instead of the north."

This was brought home to me once in Switzerland. Following a late-evening
arrival at Basel and a night drive (bus) across the country to Interlaken ,
I awoke the next morning, bleary- eyed, to find that I was looking from my
hotel window over a valley up to a craggy range of snow-covered mountains
(The Monk, The Eiger and the Jungfrau) sparkling in the morning light from
the sun which had risen somewhere to  my right. I can only think that it was
the sheer spectacle which upset my already well established relationship
with the northern hemisphere summer sun,but during my entire stay of about
two weeks in Switzerland I could not accept the fact that beyond this range
lay Italy and it always seemed to me that the two railway stations ,
Interlaken East and Interlaken West ,were on the wrong sides of town. It
gave a strange "other world" feeling to my stay.I have not experienced
anything like it before or since and apart from
this one instance  I have always been able to rely upon the sun for general
orientation with a compass for specific direction.Because of this episode I
can sympathise with the feelings of those folk who tell me that they do not
have a directional sense. It must make life very difficult.I am looking
forward to the day when we may get a Family Radio Service here it seems to
be very popular in the US and Canada'

Best wishes
Reg


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