We are just one walk away from finalising the Walk2012 route. Here is the route as it currently stands, complete with a very early view of stopovers:
View Walk2012 – the Games Way in a larger map
After this weekend’s walk we should know for sure the route from Corfe Castle and into the New Forest. The route above does not take into account the opportunity to stay at Foxlease made available to us thanks to Girlguiding UK. With luck we’ll be able to figure that this weekend.
I’m a bit anxious about this weekend to be honest – I am going to be wearing my magic new insoles in my boots so am anticipating one of three outcomes:
- Insoles work like a dream and I skip around the New Forest like a little foal (ok, like a shire horse).
- Insoles stop aching feet but replace them with huge new blisters on my arches. Soaking arches (and liver) in gin to recover.
- Insoles make no difference and boots end up in bin at train station some distance short of our intended end point.
Fingers and toes crossed that everything goes well, in which case I will be getting everybody insoles for Christmas (yes kids that means you too!)
Felix loves me for my romantic gifts.
Google Maps v OS Getamap
I *really* want to use the OS Getamap service because I can plot the route on the OS Leisure maps, which show all the pblic footpaths.
However, after many attempts, many hours of solitary clicking, attempts with different browsers, different “saving” strategies – I have concluded that it just isn’t up to the job! Unfortunately the damn thing cannot save my route and let me go back in and add things later.
If anybody has figured out how to use it effectively please let me know.
Google Maps works like a dream – the only real issue is that it doesn’t show public footpaths, so I have had to make rough guesses in several places. It’s ok for now, but it’s going to be a heck of a job producing an accurate route on it for the Walk2012 guide.
All suggestions welcome!
good luck with the insoles! I find myself vicariously excited at the thought of your walk this weekend, with its pleasing ‘Nuts in May’ associations. (“Wraaay, can Keith and I borrow your Corfe Castle guide?” &c). Tom has suggested this mapping service (good for pedestrian route mapping as well as cycling) which seems to give a slightly better sense of terrain than googlemaps – (though I can’t seem to access the the OS maps through it)
http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/
Hey I am so excited for you reaching this stage of the planning
It looks very ‘real’ on googlemaps!
Regarding the foot thingies – have you tried ‘compeed’ – I am sure you must have done, our lads always have them around for ski boot imprecisions… And of course, rubbing with surgical spirit is supposed to make them (feet) tougher – but I am sure you know all this already …. Good luck with it all xxx
Have you tried MapMyWalk? It might not have the functionality you need, and might require users to register. It does appear to show footpaths in the “open street” map option, but using its own notation to which I can’t find a key, and it doesn’t name trails. All in all this may not be a very helpful suggestion! The URL is http://www.mapmywalk.com/ though.
Looking forward to seeing the final route! If you can find some way of creating a gpx route (perhaps using Viewranger), I can plug it into Social Hiking to give you an OS map you can share on this site!
Wow thanks everybody! I will follow up on all the suggestions – I don’t think I’m alone in having this problem to solve so will post my findings.