Tristan Gooley

Tristan Gooley
Gooley at Bignor Hill, West Sussex in 2020

Tristan Gooley (born 1973) is a British writer on natural navigation.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Gooley was born in 1973; his father is Sir Michael Gooley, the founder of Trailfinders, who was knighted in 2021 for services to business and charity.^[6]

Gooley has a BA in history and politics (1996) from Newcastle University.^[7][8] He climbed Mount Kilimanjaro while in his teens,^[2] and, aged 19, he spent three days lost on the slopes of Gunung Rinjani, an active volcano in Indonesia.^[9]

Gooley has walked with the Dayak in Borneo,^[10] and in 2009 studied and practiced natural navigation methods with the Tuareg in the Libyan Sahara.^[11] In 2012 he led a short-handed small boat voyage, from the Orkney Islands into the Arctic Circle, to test Viking methods and determine whether nature can help a navigator estimate their distance from land.^[12] He has walked from Glasgow to London and parachuted off a building in Australia. After years of extreme journeys, aged 36 he turned towards smaller journeys and studying nature.^[13]

In 2008, he became the second person, after Steve Fossett (1944-2007), to have both sailed solo and flown solo across the Atlantic; as of 2023^[update], he is the only living person to have done so.^[14][15]

Gooley specialises in interpreting nature's signs,^[16] and has been referred to as the "Sherlock Holmes of Nature".^[17][18]

He has identified a type of path, which has been recognised by the Royal Institute of Navigation. The "smile path" is a (smile-shaped) curve, formed when walkers avoid an obstacle or, during Covid, seek to preserve safe distance from other people.^[19][20]

Gooley has written for the New York Times, the Sunday Times, the Wall Street Journal and the BBC.^[21] He is the author of books^[22] which have been translated into 19 languages,^[23] and have been referenced by artists including David Hockney.^[24]

Gooley is a fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation and of the Royal Geographical Society.^[14]

In 2020 was awarded the Harold Spencer-Jones Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of Navigation in recognition of an outstanding contribution to navigation.^[25]

Gooley is married to Sophie and they have two sons. They live in Eartham, West Sussex.^[3]

Gooley is vice-chairman of Trailfinders, the travel agency founded in 1970 by his father.^[21]

• Gooley, Tristan (2011). The natural navigator. London: Virgin. ISBN 978-1-905264-94-0.
• Gooley, Tristan (2013). The natural explorer. London: Sceptre. ISBN 978-1-4447-2031-0.
• Gooley, Tristan (2014). The walker's guide to outdoor clues and signs : their meaning and the art of making predictions and deductions. London. ISBN 978-1-4447-8008-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Gooley, Tristan (2014). How to connect with nature. London. ISBN 978-0-230-76807-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Gooley, Tristan (2017). How to read water : clues and patterns from puddles to the sea. London. ISBN 978-1-4736-1522-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Gooley, Tristan (14 April 2022). The Secret World of Weather: how to read signs in every cloud, breeze, hill, street, plant, animal, and dewdrop. Sceptre. ISBN 978-1-5293-3958-1.
• Gooley, Tristan (2023). How to Read a Tree : clues & patterns from roots to leaves. [S.l.]: Sceptre. ISBN 978-1-5293-3959-8.

• Gooley, Tristan (March 2010). "The Natural Way of Not Getting Lost". BBC Radio 4, Today. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
• Gooley, Tristan and MacDonald, Ross (July 2010). "Navigating the Urban Jungle". New York Times. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
• Gooley, Tristan (March 2013). "Nature's Radar". Journal of Navigation. 66 (2): 161–179. doi:10.1017/S0373463312000495. S2CID 128428067.
• Gooley, Tristan (April 2008). "Double Atlantic" (PDF). Yachting Monthly. pp. 60–64. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 May 2013. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
• Gooley, Tristan (May 2019). "Walking", The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
• Gooley, Tristan (April 2023). "How to use a tree as a compass (and other tricks)" The Times. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
• Gooley, Tristan (April 2023). "A captain’s-eye view of weird, wondrous weather at sea". The Telegraph. Retrieved 5 May 2023.

• Official website