Do you have an "internal" compass?

What might seem to some as my having an 'internal compass, is really the result of my being in the woods for some 55+ years.
You learn stuff................
 
The men in my family are legendarily bad at having a sense of direction. A car GPS is the best invention since fire, so far as I'm concerned. And when I hike, I refer to my external compass at least once every half hour just because I'm paranoid. If I'm where I can't see the horizon (dense pine forest, for example), I'll go so far as to hike with a compass in my hand.
 
pict said:
Several posters have alluded to what I was trying to get at earlier. I don't think that the brain itself has a natural direction finder as much as the brain picks up on directional clues that are coming in from the senses such as sun position, direction of shadows, landmarks etc.
Mac
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I've been browsing a book that says this very thing. That nature provides us with plenty of clues to determine our direction and location. That might imply that those thinking they have an internal compass may actually be subconsciously picking up on these signals.

I did however just hear a story that they have discovered a certain iron content in salmon which may be the secret to their homing abilities.
 
Once I moved to Brazil that innate sense of direction still works great but it is flipped 180 degrees. My north and south are reversed and after spending a total of 13 years here it hasn't corrected. When I go back to PA everything seems normal again.

My theory is that I orient by the sun position knowing by instinct that the sun rises in the east, sets in the west, and travels through the southern sky at mid-day. Here the sun travels through the northern sky at mid-day which reverses all the shadows, flips me 180 degrees, and no amount of rational thought seems to be able to reprogram my brain on a subconscious level.
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same for me first time i was here from australia. I spent lotta time in the bush there without needing compass. A couple trips into back country here and mostly just returning to the car to find it about ninety degrees off where i expected to see it , thought maybe coriolis effect on middle ear perhaps
 
I have a very good internal compass. Given enough time and distance, it always takes me in a nice circle.
 
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