Ordnance Survey Maps

3 weeks, or even 6 wk loans are not a lot of good to us as we're generally away for longer period than that. Like tda we've a huge pile of maps for all over the country, but seem to find that on each trip that there's still one needed for part of the area we're visiting. I also have the bad habit of either forgetting at least one or we change plans and head off to an area where I've not brought the map in the van. We too order ours through Dash4it.

Although I have a lot of paper OS maps, these days we go digital. I have the full country on 1:25,000 and 1:50,000. You can print them out onto A4 at any scale you want and also plot your route. These days a route on a sheet of A4 is generally far enough. I have a totally transparent A4 waterproof map holder, which means you can have two A4 sheets back to back.

Oh, I just love maps, I love to curl up with them in front of a roaring fire and recall those walks we have made over the years and those for our next ventures!

Although I have a lot of paper OS maps, these days we go digital. I have the full country on 1:25,000 and 1:50,000. You can print them out onto A4 at any scale you want and also plot your route. These days a route on a sheet of A4 is generally far enough. I have a totally transparent A4 waterproof map holder, which means you can have two A4 sheets back to back.

That's fine if you're at home and know where you're going when you set off. But I use the maps when we're away in the van, for weeks at a time, and I'm not going to carry a printer and reams of paper along with all the other stuff I've in the van.

Although I have a lot of paper OS maps, these days we go digital. I have the full country on 1:25,000 and 1:50,000. You can print them out onto A4 at any scale you want and also plot your route. These days a route on a sheet of A4 is generally far enough. I have a totally transparent A4 waterproof map holder, which means you can have two A4 sheets back to back.

That's fine if you're at home and know where you're going when you set off. But I use the maps when we're away in the van, for weeks at a time, and I'm not going to carry a printer and reams of paper along with all the other stuff I've in the van.

Just individual choice I suppose N. We don't carry some of the things that others consider essential, preferring the printer instead. One of the main uses on our longer tours, is to print of pictures of where we are visiting to send to my Mum. As we are not able to visit her and she is not very good with the phone, it maintains a link.

We have got a couple of very interesting maps produced by OS, that show Roman remains and Ancient Monuments. Being huge fans of historical sites, they have led us on some interesting walks and visits. I think they may have been re issued recently.

We've got the Ancient Britain os map too although I find the more detailed local os more useful, especially for access to these places. I use maps for nearly every van site we visit.

We just like maps and have paper versions from several series. It proved useful when OH was doing history of the village at the local primary school and could show them how the community has developed over about a century

I like maps of all kinds, ancient ones, historical ones. Are maritime charts similar? They look quite complicated to me, although to be honest, I have never had cause to look at one properly. Is there a simple way of explaining how you pinpoint your location when off shore?

If within sight of land you take a compass bearing of a couple of landmarks, a headland or prominent chimney/spire. Draw the lines in pencil on a chart and where they cross is your position. There are other techniques which would be rather lengthy to explain. 

When out of sight of land, traditionally a sextant is used, a basic explanation can be found here. Nowadays people use  GPS to obtain Lat. & Long. which is great until the kit fails. Always good to know how to do it the old-fashioned way.

 

I like maps of all kinds, ancient ones, historical ones. Are maritime charts similar? They look quite complicated to me, although to be honest, I have never had cause to look at one properly. Is there a simple way of explaining how you pinpoint your location when off shore?

If within sight of land you take a compass bearing of a couple of landmarks, a headland or prominent chimney/spire. Draw the lines in pencil on a chart and where they cross is your position. There are other techniques which would be rather lengthy to explain. 

When out of sight of land, traditionally a sextant is used, a basic explanation can be found here. Nowadays people use  GPS to obtain Lat. & Long. which is great until the kit fails. Always good to know how to do it the old-fashioned way.

Same as on land then, triangulation would give a better positioning mind! Not so easy out at sea though! Still enjoy using these skills although the sat nav is good for reassurance, particularly in mist!