www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Firstly let me say that I have no connection whatsoever with the organisation I am about to recommend.

Anquet is offering an excellent deal in their January sales. For £70 you can get a DVD of all the 1:50,000 OS maps of Britain. Now of course, OS maps are available online (StreetMap, Get-a-Map, etc) but they cover small areas, max 7 x 7 kms, so are a hassle to join together if you want to make a printed copy. Anquet can be zoomed in or out on screen as required.

But the really clever bit is when you print on A4 paper. It makes an approx 14 x 10 kms map at the correct 1;50,000 scale, exactly as a paper map.

I have been so impressed that I have bought my slightly map-mad sister a late Christmas / early birthday present.

The Anquet sale would appear to last until the end of January.

http://www.anquet.co.uk/ordnance-survey ... aign=DVDGB

Jack

That's really good to know, Jack. Thanks for sharing.

Sami and I intend to walk Land's End to John o' Groats this coming July (no, I don't really know why either. Even my boss says I'm crazy, and he's a nice fella!) The printable maps will undoubtably be a massive boon, especially as we can customise them to cover just our route. Certainly far preferable to cutting up dozens and dozens of expensive OS maps.

All the very best,

Gibster.

I've been using them for about 4 years now. We couldn't have completed the white-letter project without them. Just find the 10km we needed to visit and print it off and then scribble on it, mark the elm, do what you like and then if you had to return to the same 10k bring it out of the folder and all the information is still there.

You can plot heights, find high points and in the case of river valleys in upland districts the lowest points, also distances and then if you hit print screen and copy them, use the maps as a background to a powerpoint, get the white letter data then plot it with a excel scatter gram and you had all the records on the map. Can't show you one of the maps as I would need a license to publish it I think?

Brilliant - now I have a baby laptop so you just load all the maps onto the computer and take the laptop out with you and check the landscape using the OS map athough I still like the paper one.

Another use and that was brilliant this year. We had a report of a Purple Emperor at Bricket Wood. The landscape is a plateau so the high point wasn't obvious so I carefully went across the map with the mouse cursor and it picked up just some slightly higher points in the landscape just by a few metres really. We then went and looked at these points and two days later one of the high points I identified was confirmed at the territorial area
Liz

Just to say mine are Fugawi UK digital maps 1:50,000
Liz

Ah! Named after the infamous Fugawi people who were always getting lost in tall grass and who periodically jumped in the air to have a look and shouted:

"Where the Fugawi?"

Sorry guys if you'd heard it before

Jack

Jack
I use a SatMap
http://www.satmap.co.uk/
A fabulous GPS which I have loaded with the full UK O.S. at 1:50,000, and Devon, Cornwall and Somerset O.S. at 1:25000.
It is so accurate it shows which side of a fence you are on - amazing.
I can plot routes on the device itself, or use the fabulous TheHug, now hosted elsewhere - try this link -
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/maps/ -
to explore O.S. 1:25,000 maps for free, and plot and download routes to the Satmap.
You can't print, bar doing a screen dump I suppose.
But on the SatMap I can also pre mark Point of Interest (POIs), mark and save them when in the field with lots of annotation, and also "draw" on the electronic map which can later be downloaded to Googe Maps (or even Fugawi).
Also it stores a log of the days walk with altitude data which can also be downloaded to Fugawi or W.H.Y. and even mailed to friends to load onto thier own devices.
The batteries last for about 10 hours, and charge in just 2 or 3 (from a car cigarette lighter en-route).
However - I always have a map and compass in my pocket. Just in case.


The Fugawi people feed on a strange bird with 4 inch legs and 5 inch testicles - now what was that called? - Ah yes - the Oomagooly Bird.

When in England I use Route Buddy Atlas for iPhone:

http://www.routebuddy.com/

It's more expensive than the system you describe, Jack, but all Explorer and Landranger maps are available and work fantastically with the iPhone built-in GPS.

Guy

Nothing like a paper map especially when it's on an A4 bit of paper that can be screwed up and stuffed in a pocket.

I'm not into all this iPhone technology and too late now to bother to learn. Indeed, I'm a technophobe with all these handheld devices. My 18 year-old daughter despairs that I don't know (in truth, I just can't be bothered to learn) how to send a text massage. In my youth (here he goes again I hear you say) 2½ pence old money in one of those old phone boxes with its Buttons A and B was perfectly adequate. I am at a loss today to understand why young people seem to be on the phone so much. I give an example. On the Cambridge Park & Ride recently, I sat opposite a young mum with her 2 year-old who was in a push chair (dummy in mouth of course). Mum chatted non-stop on her phone and totally ignored the kid. We used to talk to ours from day one and they are all articulate in adulthood.

Jack

Nothing like a paper map especially when it's on an A4 bit of paper that can be screwed up and stuffed in a pocket.

I totally agree except mine are kept in a folder for the next visit!
Liz

Liz Goodyear wrote: mine are kept in a folder for the next visit!

Likewise!

Although, trying to cobble together printed A4 pages of the Oaken Wood complex ran to about 10 sheets.....that was a bit of a mission

Cheers

Lee

Hey Jack,
If you want to send a text massage, I think you need to get the recipient to switch their phone to vibrate and (after sellotaping it to their back somewhere between the shoulder blades) you just phone their number. "Simples!"

Trev

My phone's in me trouser pocket...... Bring it on!!

You Zonda would then be one of the “Fugzat” people (“what’s the fugzat?), allies of the Fugawi.

Jack