By: Blonde One
No, not wine gums or wasps, but map cases! Whilst walking with our D of E group last week the Two Blondes walked in an area that wasn’t Dartmoor. This resulted in using a map that is not so well used and therefore not laminated. Since the weather on Saturday was hideous, I had to use those awful things that go by the name of ‘map cases’! Normally I buy a laminated map which gets a heavy battering every walking season and only usually lasts 2 years at the most. But it is easy to handle, change sides and refold as the walk progresses! Map cases however, seem to have one sole purpose: to irritate me! I find them unweildy to handle, they necessitate folding the map in unnatural places and need taking out and adjusting at frequent intervals! I also can’t bear it on a breezy day when a map case hanging round your neck spins round so much that it nearly strangles you or catches a sudden gust and you end up with a slap in the face! I know some people tie their compass to them and keep their route card dry in them but for me they are just a pain! I would much rather buy a new map every 2 years (after all, it’s good to get an updated map every now and then).
If only I had access to room 101!!!
I also hate map cases!! Hubby seems to love them, so he has his map in his and I carry my laminated map “out in the open”! Our youngest has really got into navigating recently so also has a map case (after stealing her dads one too many times!) but I tend to scan and print the section of map we need (haven’t been walking very far recently!!!!) and put that in her map case!
Anyway it doesn’t matter how you carry your map becasue you can guarantee that wherever you are it will ALWAYS somehow fall on the fold in the map and involve you needing to turn the map over at least once in your journey!!!!
I also loathe and detest map cases, I had considered trying to reinvent them in order to make them better but in all honesty with the development of laminated maps, tech and the ability to scan/print sections of maps for free I think their days are numbered anyway, I hope!
We hate them too but I killed a map this week by not using one!