>>213478>>213483Hate to break it to you, but the stars and the sun don't always shine, moss doesn't grow on the north side of trees in most forests, and not everybody has the directional instincts of a goose.
Granted, I think I would have trouble getting lost in big, open country like in pic related. Even if I didn't have a map, the water geography is going to be easy enough to make sense of, and there are lots of prominent mountains overhead with distinctive shapes.
However, a closed, lowland forest like in the OP pic presents serious difficulties to someone who navigates by "feel," particularly if following a trail, which may twist and turn enough to disrupt any intuitive sense of direction. Likewise, if following a map and hiking off-trail, hills and streams may easily be mistaken for one another.
>I just can't fathom how you could get more than 3 days walk...and not remember the general locations you were in.Really? 3 days? I hiked 50+ miles over a 3 day stretch one time through lowland forests with no prominent landmarks, and I don't think I would have been able to mind every twist and bend of the trail enough to keep my sense of direction had I not been following a map closely.
>>213486Ever gone more than a couple days without food - I mean any food whatsoever? Didn't think so. Try to imagine, if you can, going without while engaging in physical activity, and having to make rational decisions. I hate people who cite this "hurr you can go 4-5 weeks without food" bullshit. Those numbers come from extreme cases of monks going on hunger strikes, ending up in a hospital bed, and by the end, they're thin as skeletons, blacking out at random, and weak as a newborn.
>>214205>But 19 fucking day? Unless you live really far in the north you will find a road if you walk 50km in a straight line.You're assuming the people who were lost for that long had enough supplies/skills to sustain them for a 50 km off-trail hike. Key word being off-trail.