Maps Aren’t maps meant to confuse?

Ultimately, time spent in becoming familiar with Ordnance Survey maps is time well spent, but the learning process can have its frustrations, especially when there is no one on hand to consult. The maps used here attempt to reduce at least some of those frustrations by including extra detail where it may help and leaving out detail where it may only confuse. Hopefully, after nine days out with these maps, you’ll be happy to take off with an OS map and to devise your own routes. There are a few major differences from regular maps: The Sections

If you enlarge the sample map here, you will see that it is divided up into four sections

You will always be walking from bottom to top - no more turning the maps in your hand whilst trying to read upside-down writing and wondering where north is. It doesn’t really matter where north is (although there is a symbol on each section to tell you), because for the most part this isn’t the kind of country that requires compass-work. You start at the beginning of section 1 (all sections begin at a numbered green arrow), walk up to the red arrow, then return to the next green arrow at the bottom of the next section and repeat. When there are no more arrows, you should be seeing your car - if you reached the start by bus, well done you but you probably won’t be getting your ride back for a week. On screen or paper, no more spinning the map around and trying to read upside- down writing. The Times At various points you will see a set of numbers (01:24:54) in orange. These are times which correspond to the slow (not  the fast) video. They may be at points where the choice of where to go next is confusing, or at natural break points (you know - coffee, snack, natural break). They are also a handy guide as to how far through the walk you are, since there are no references to distance. The Distances You may have noticed some vagueness about the length of the routes  (use of “approx” on the maps, etc.). You can get a better idea of how long/short and easy/hard they are from the times and the videos. If you want to have a number of miles/km to impress friends with, take the one on the map and add 25% - that’s what everyone else does. Tell them you ran it, backwards, wearing clogs. What? You think they might check up on you? Are those really friends? Contours There aren’t any. Assume there will be slopes - some up, some down. If and when you arrive back at the start, the two will have exactly balanced out. Tell yourself this on the steepest parts. Only the steepest parts are indicated, along with any steps. The video will tell you more. The maps contain many symbols. A key to what they represent can be downloaded as a .pdf here: Files When you download the maps, they will be in a zipped folder. Unzip this and you will have the pages (A4 size) of the map, in both .jpg and .pdf form. There is no difference other than the file type. Other Maps Having attempted to convince you that these guides give you all the necessary information in order to complete a walk, it’s still a good idea to buy the appropriate OS map. They are wonderful works produced by wonderful people which give you a much bigger picture of what’s around you than our necessarily narrow maps. They also make great fly-swatters.

There are two speeds of video and, within the slow category, two qualities. Slow These are shot at walking speed, so for a fifteen mile route, the video really does last for more than five hours. Where else can you get a five hour video where nothing happens - slowly? They come in two qualities: 384 videos are compressed at a bit rate of 384Kb/s 1.25 videos are compressed at 1.25Mb/s There is an improvement in clarity at 1.25 at the expense of a larger (3 to 4 times larger) download. Neither is by any stretch of the imagination HD quality - if you would like an attempt at an explanation as to why:

Fast These give you a view you might expect if you drove the route at something like motorway speed. They are higher quality than than their slow counterparts at a download size similar to the 384s, but last only 6-12 minutes. Because the rate and degree of change from frame to frame is so great, these can stress the graphics capabilities of some older devices, resulting in erratic playback. If this is the case, it may help to download the whole sample clip first with this button

Videos Fast and slow? There are two speeds of video And within the slow category, two qualities. Slow These are shot at walking speed, so a fifteen mile walk really does last for more than five hours. Where else can you get a five hour video in which nothing happens and takes so long to do it? They are available for download in two qualities: 1. 384 videos are compressed at a bit rate of 384Kb/s 2. 1.25 videos are compressed at 1.25Mb/s There is an improvement in quality at 1.25, at the cost of a larger (between 3 and 4 times larger) download. Neither form is by any stretch of the imagination HD.  If you want an attempt to explain why, click here. Fast These give you the view you might expect if you drove the route at something like motorway speed. They are higher quality at a download size similar to the 384_movies, but last only 6-12 minutes. Because of the rate and degree of change between frames, these can stress the graphics capabilities of some older devices and they may struggle to keep up, resulting in erratic playback. If playback isn’t smooth, try a device with more oomph, or right-click and chose “save link as….” to download the whole clip first. A Note Of Caution Data may be free and unlimited for most home broadband users nowadays, but it would be wrong not to draw your attention to the size of some of the files you might be downloading. At the extreme, the 1.25 video of a 6 hour route will be around 3 GB. Having made a purchase, you get 3 attempts at making a download of each individual file, over a period of 7 days (2 attempts and 1 day for the freebies). If it has all gone belly-up, 3 times, please CONTACT US. Alternatively, you could use the 384 version, for a smaller (but fuzzier) download, or just download the maps on their own in one bundle.

Ultimately, any time spent in becoming familiar with Ordnance Survey maps is time well spent, but the learning process can have its frustrations, especially if there is nobody on hand to consult. The maps used here are designed to overcome at least some of those frustrations by including extra detail where it may help and leaving out detail where it may only confuse. Hopefully, after nine days out with these maps, you will be confident enough to take off with an OS map and to devise new routes for yourself. There are a few major differences from regular maps. The Sections If you enlarge the map on the right, you will see that it is divided up into four sections. You will always be walking from the bottom to the top - no more turning the map in your hand trying to read upside-down writing and worrying where north is. It doesn’t really matter where north is (having said that, there is a symbol for each section to tell you where it is) because,for the most part, this isn’t the kind of country that requires compass-work.   You start at the beginning of section 1 (all sections start at the numbered green arrow), walk to the red arrow, then return to the next green arrow at the bottom of the next section and repeat. When there are no more arrows, you should be seeing your car - if you reached the start by bus, well done, but you probably won’t be getting your ride back for a week, if ever. The Times At various points along the way you will see a set of numbers (01:23:55) in orange. These are times which correspond to the slow video (not the fast video). They may be at points where the choice of where to go next is confusing, or at natural break points (you know - coffee, snack, natural break). They are also a useful guide as to how far through the walk you are, since there are no references to distance. The  Distances You may have noticed some vagueness about the length of the routes  (use of “approx” on the maps, etc.). You can get a better idea of how long/short and easy/hard they are from the times and videos. If you want to have a number of miles/km to impress friends with, take the one on the map and add 25% - that’s what everyone else does. Tell them you ran it, backwards, wearing clogs. What?  You think they might check up on you? Are those really friends? Contours There aren’t any. Assume there will be slopes - some up, some down. If and when you arrive back at the start, the two will have exactly balanced out. Tell yourself this repeatedly on the steepest parts. Only the steepest parts are indicated, along with any steps. The video will tell you more. Key The maps contain many different symbols. A key to what they represent can be downloaded (.pdf) here. Files When you download the maps, they will be in a zipped folder. Unzip this and you will have the pages (A4 size) of the map, in both .pdf and .jpg form. There is no difference other than the file type. Other Maps  Having attempted to convince you that these guides give you all the necessary information in order to complete a walk, it’s still a good idea to buy the appropriate OS map. They are wonderful works produced by wonderful people and are also great for swatting flies.

Maps

But aren’t maps meant to be confusing?