By: Blonde Two
Yesterday Mr Blonde Two and I drove all of the way to Up-North for a birthday visit with Six-Foot-Blonde in Todmordon (pronounced “Tod”). I am proud to announce that 6FT had asked for new walking boots for his birthday gift. Proud and more than pleased as this gave us the perfect excuse to potter around yet another outdoor gear shop.
6FT found some Scarpas that were similar to his last pair which we bought for Ten Tors seven years ago. The last pair had to be ordered especially for his size 12 feet and then carried up onto the moor mid training session by poor old Blonde One (this is how we first met) but apparently people have bigger feet in Up-North and they had some giant boots in stock.
As soon as I arrived in Tod, I knew that, no matter what else we got up to this weekend, I had to buy an Ordnance Survey map of the area. My map addiction means that, these days, I can’t see a hill without wanting to study it from a walker’s perspective. As we drove along the valley, I found myself imagining what all of the quarries and steep slopes would look like on the map. There was an exciting looking monument – even if I didn’t get a chance to visit it on this trip, I would need a map so that I could plan how to get there another time.
Our boot buying trip gave me the perfect excuse. The map stand was just sitting there waiting for my perusal. I was gratified to see that out of the three maps out on display one of them was the fabulous OL28 (Dartmoor) – Dartmoor’s influence even extends to Up-North! I was pleased to note that OL21 (Todmordon) has a North and South sheet (extra map research potential) and whilst the blokes had a Star Wars fest, I spent a lovely evening doing some map-bimbling.
I do have another confession – despite resisting the temptation to buy a laminated copy of OL21, I couldn’t resist sneaking OL1 into the purchase as well. Well, a girl never knows when she might want to visit the Peak District …
As a child I remember looking at my dads map collection and thinking “Why on earth do you need so many maps, and why do you need 6 or 7 different maps of Dartmoor????”. Of course I now realise why. And our own map collection is rapidly expanding – now takes up an entire shelf and additional maps have to be stacked on top!!!!
I don’t know how we used to go anywhere without an OS map of the area – I feel completely lost without one, even when driving. We invested in a SatNav after coming back from France last year and getting lost on more than one occasion (the most memorable was our own version of the 24 hour Le Mans – god that place is a nightmare!!!) But I still don’t trust it and have to have my trusty OS map opened out as well.
Living in a tourist area as we do, I am always amazed at the number of times I am asked for directions to places/ holiday camps etc. People appear without even some roughly scribbled out directions to get to wherever they’re going. I just want to screa “Why don’t you buy a map like any sensible person would?” Then I remember I am quite lucky to be able to read an OS map easily and for the majority of the nation they are complete gobble-de-goop!!!
I have map envy!
I’ve still got all my Dad’s lovely maps – a whole shelf full of Bartholomew’s half-inch to the mile and OS 1 inch to the mile maps – plus my own 1 inch and metric maps. I can’t throw maps away. They are a record of lots of my walks, drawn on in ink, with dates. But my absolute favourite is “The “Contour” Road Book Of England” Western Division. It contains 500 maps and plans including routes 678 to 1000 covering the South-West and West Midlands and 1 to 100 covering Wales. The maps are all elevation plans – cross-sections of the landscape showing the gradients instead of roads, and the notes are great – e.g.
Tiverton to South Molton.
Class II. Long and steep hills for the first six miles, thereafter rather easier gradients the rest of the way; good surface throughout. The old road to South Molton by Rackenford is far more hilly, and with bad surfaces. It goes on to give details of the gradients at various points, marking several as “dangerous”. —” At 1&1/2 miles, 1 in 15 dangerous; 2&1/2 and 2&3/4 miles, 1 in 13 dangerous; “— etc.
Of course, cars found hills rather harder then, and brakes were not so good. Our old Austin 8 used to do 60 miles per hour downhill with the wind behind her, but if we did 40mph on a long journey, we were flying! Mum used to work the windscreen wipers with one hand and hold the dog’s head out of the window with the other. Happy days!
That sounds like the most fantastic collection – a family heirloom I would say and worthy of some perusal …
By all means have a peruse!