Nomad Challenge: Roadbooks and Maps

July 12, 2024 – USA: The Sixth Weekly Challenge of the 2024 edition of the Nomad Overland Rally examines how well teams can read rally roadbook tulip diagrams and translate the roadbook instructions onto a paper map. “Tulip” diagrams are a standard form of visual instructions that are used in many rally events to indicate the course route.

For the Roadbooks and Maps Challenge Nomad Teams had to first highlight the indicated route on the map, proving that they understood the roadbook instructions correctly. Once their route was outlined, the teams had to answer a set of questions designed to confirm their comprehension of the roadbook as well as their ability to interpret details on the paper map.

The Teams did pretty well with it overall, though a few struggled after making an error in one of the early instructions that put them completely off course. There was also notable improvement for some of the Teams that have done the Rally in previous years and have come back with noticably stronger map and navigation skills 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.