Nomad Challenge: Plotting on Paper Maps

July 2, 2024 – USA: The Fourth Weekly Challenge of the 2024 edition of the Nomad Overland Rally tested the Teams on how accurately they could plot GPS coordinates given in latitude and longitude on a paper map. They also had to be able to interpret the topo map and measure distances.

This was the first Weekly Challenge where the Teams had to “do” something before they could answer questions online. The competitors received a set of latitude/longitude coordinates, the associated paper map, and a set of map rulers to scale for the specific map in their “package” at the start of the Rally. Now they got to use these items.

After plotting the coordinates on the map, they had to respond to a series of questions about the locations of the points online, and measure the distances of specific routes. This Challenge checks the competitors’ precision and attention to detail, as well as their understanding of the basic mapping principles.

While the exercise is pretty straightforward, some teams struggled with the “how-to” aspect of plotting latitude and longitude. Others were intimidated by the paper maps. During the first week of the Challenge only a few teams attempted it, and by and large they were the teams that had previous experience with this kind of plotting — and they all did quite well. Most of the other teams jumped in during the second week, and scores varied — but even if they got nothing right, they were still able to earn points for simply making the effort.

It was great to see that some of the teams who had really struggled with this exercise last year had made huge progress with their plotting skills — and a few of them aced it this year.

The Weekly Challenges are one of the four pillars of the event and competitors can earn up to 100 points each week for completing the Challenge questions online. The Challenges also provide a way for all the teams to stay engaged over the whole ten weeks, even when they are not out exploring on Overland Stages. Each Week’s Challenge focuses on a different aspect of overland travel or outdoor skills — sometimes the competitors will have to do something offline in order to answer the questions and other times they just need to respond to multiple choice knowledge-checks. The teams are always free to research answers or find tutorials to help them complete the tasks prior to submitting their Challenges and once each Challenge “closes” they can consult the “correct” answers and explanations — turning it into a defacto learning opportunity.