When I get lost

It’s well known among my family and friends that geography is not my strong point – almost certainly an understatement.  I can read a map absolutely fine, and Google Maps / GPS navigation has helped me no end, but when it comes to knowing where places are in relation to each other I’m pretty clueless.  I was thinking about what happens mentally when a I get lost and thought others might find it interesting (or perhaps just weird). 

How I navigate  

Aside from using a map, I pretty much navigate by landmarks.  Apparently that’s a typically female trait, but I’m not worried about that.  When out and about, especially if I’m doing a journey I’ll have to repeat, I take notice of the surroundings and note things like odd buildings, signs, trees and nature.  Obviously I can’t rely on those observations exclusively, as things change, but it’s useful to me to remember I “turned left at the big tree” last time. 

How I see routes 

This is a big problem for me, and has meant I’ve given people incorrect or incomplete directions in the past (sorry!!). When I think of a route between two points I can’t actually picture the whole route.  I’ll be able to imagine key bits, but junctions I don’t use could be completely absent from my memory (hence sending someone down the wrong street – I couldn’t picture that it was there). 

Bizarrely this problem can happen even for journeys that I’ve done countless times or when I’ve lived somewhere for years.  I also may not realise I’ve made the error until I happen to do the same route again myself. 

Cycling vs driving 

This has become less of a problem over the years, but certainly at points I’d plan to take the car along a route that would fail due to bollards.  Having been a cyclist most of my life, I suppose that’s not hugely surprising. 

GPS issues 

A challenge with Google Maps though is that it often thinks I’m travelling backwards.  I suspect this is due to my magnetic field or something, but the same used to be true when my wife and I used to go geocaching with a Garmin GPS unit.  The closer we got to the target, the worse it would get, until the map on screen was just spinning.  Handing the unit over tended to solve the problem.  What can I say?  I’m weird! 

Getting completely lost 

I guess this is the most common type of getting lost, and it’s when I don’t know where I am or how to get back.  If I’ve travelled somewhere new, particularly in a large town or city, this can happen.  Nothing special there I’m sure, and Google Maps often comes to my rescue. 

Lost near my own home 

This is what the banner image for this post relates to, and it’s probably the more scary scenario for me.  I was out walking a route I’d travelled many times over years, not a complex route at all, and easy enough to follow.  I got to the place shown in the photo and completely locked up.  I felt lost.  Ahead of me I could see where I needed to go, that I knew well, and it wasn’t obstructed.  Behind me was where I had come from, and could return to if necessary – I could literally have turned round, reversed my route, and been fine. 

But stood where I was I was lost. 

The homeowner saw me, someone I met while walking this route during lockdown (he in his house,  me outdoors).  After a brief pause he said “I changed the windows.  In the summer, the floor to ceiling windows meant this was too hot and like a greenhouse.  This is much cooler”. 

That explained everything. I was lost because his house was a key landmark for me and it had changed.  The feelings of dread and confusion were gone and I could carry on. 

So, that’s what happens when I get lost 😂. 

Banner image: Cropped photo I took when I managed to get the feeling of being lost in somewhere I've walked for decades.