I'm interested in developing dowsing skills too. I've had some rather unorthodox tasks that I've used dowsing rods for, mainly to find lost objects. The first times I've had success with dowsing was when I was looking for lost items inside my house. I got successful directions when asked which rooms the objects might be located in, and then when I entered these rooms (on different occasions) I was directed to which quadrant of the room to search futher in.

The other times I've tried dowsing was in search of gravestones of relatives in large cemeteries. This was a little closer to the type of experience you describe when searching for something outdoors. A little more time consuming than when I searched inside my home, and also it took more focus and concentration because there are so many variants to be aware of when searching thru such a large landscape.

Good article, thanks for sharing!