osmsiberiano

I orient outdoors quite easily if I have a map and some features on the ground, like a curve of a road or a curve of a forest. Usually, 3 reference points are enough (like 2 curves of a road and another feature). I won a city mountain bike orienteering competition once.

I see many people have troubles remembering places and orienteering even with a map and want to know what's the difference in our perception and what does one see the others don't?

So, if you are one of those, or know someone, tell me, with examples, how do you orient?

I remember I searched the place in this video and knowing the city and seeing the two curves of the road it was clear what place it was: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_OYxWDUaI8

the street (the orange one going west to east): http://openstreetmap.ru/#layer=M&zoom=16&lat=53.38924&lon=58.97112

On the other hand, we went by bikes with a friend to a house in a village, which stood next to a bridge and was visible from it, but on the parallel street. We had only to cross the bridge, ride down the street and then turn 90 degrees twice, returning to the river. He instead turned 90 only once and led to another part of the village, making me think he meant another place. After searching and talking it was clear and I led him back to the right place.

I wonder what you should miss to make such mistakes. (I know there are disorders when your perception is affected. Is that a disorder or a normality?)