Thanks to Key Retirement for including a tip of mine in their recent piece on recreational walking. There were some great ideas from my fellow contributors, but I particularly liked Pete Hill's advice on not getting lost. The solution is to use your phone.
Apparently 72 per cent of people in the UK own a smartphone all of which come equipped with a GPS. However, based on a small sample (my walking buddies), hardly any of them (just me) know how to use it. Even a tiny learning curve is too much for the people I associate with and they remain stuck in the world of paper maps.
My 'app' of choice is Viewranger. It's easy to use and fun. You can plan the route before you go - either by plotting it yourself and using someone else's route - and then follow it out in the field. I'm rarely on a walk where there is absolutely no evidence on the ground about the route so only use the app to check a turning. Typically I'll record the 'track' as I go along and then publish it to my own page in the Viewranger track/route library making it available for other people to use. Believe me people do download each others routes and currently 8 kind souls have favorited me as an author.
As well as being easy to use, Viewranger has access, via its map store, to a huge range of premium and free maps. The premium maps - for instance Ordnance Survey maps - can be purchased at a fraction of the cost of their paper equivalents and are available for a growing range of countries from around the world (including Spain where I spend a lot of time). The free maps are Open Maps and although less informative will help if have an accurate route.
Apparently 72 per cent of people in the UK own a smartphone all of which come equipped with a GPS. However, based on a small sample (my walking buddies), hardly any of them (just me) know how to use it. Even a tiny learning curve is too much for the people I associate with and they remain stuck in the world of paper maps.
My 'app' of choice is Viewranger. It's easy to use and fun. You can plan the route before you go - either by plotting it yourself and using someone else's route - and then follow it out in the field. I'm rarely on a walk where there is absolutely no evidence on the ground about the route so only use the app to check a turning. Typically I'll record the 'track' as I go along and then publish it to my own page in the Viewranger track/route library making it available for other people to use. Believe me people do download each others routes and currently 8 kind souls have As well as being easy to use, Viewranger has access, via its map store, to a huge range of premium and free maps. The premium maps - for instance Ordnance Survey maps - can be purchased at a fraction of the cost of their paper equivalents and are available for a growing range of countries from around the world (including Spain where I spend a lot of time). The free maps are Open Maps and although less informative will help if have an accurate route.
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