UKC

I'm looking to practice my night nav and micro nav. I have an evening this week as was thinking of heading into the Mendips.with a friend to practice/teach.  Does anyone have a good route, features they normally use please?

Cheers 

Can't help you sadly.  I suspect with the Mendips being what they are they're either absolutely terrible for this because there isn't enough open ground or superb, for exactly the same reason.

If I were looking for somewhere suitable I'd plan a route round the hills south of Burrington Combe, in the very broken ground near Charterhouse, or in the Deerleap/Ebbor Gorge area depending on exactly what you wanted.  There would be advantages in each if you planned it well.  I'd also be very careful about possibly turning an ankle, especially round Charterhouse.

Good luck wherever you go.

T.

Charterhouse mines / Ubley Warren does have potential to get impressively disoriented on a dark night but its a small area and you'd need a large scale orienteering map to make the most of it.

Black Down and Beacon Batch is the biggest slice of open moorland, certainly enough scope for a couple of hours plot-and-bashing if you're creative. There's scrubby vegetation over the top which makes it hard going off piste but the north slopes stay relatively clear until the bracken comes up.

Paths and RoWs marked on the 1:25 OS mostly do exist on the ground but some quite vague and many are boggy. Not marked are the lines of anti-invasion hummocks marching over the plateau, or the bunker by the gate at the top of the access track from Tynings.

Lots of path junctions to set as waypoints, trig point at the top and the twin brooks for potential parallel error pitfalls. Watch out for the ponies