The personal map

My top 12: Number 10

I’ve already praised Ordnance Survey’s exemplary Explorer maps in a post, but will do it again. It’s virtually impossible to get lost using these maps. Every centimetre equals 250 meters, so every house you pass is on the map. This doesn’t quite apply to every tree, but with a little attention, you’ll always find your way.

That’s not all. In addition to the 469 maps of Great Britain (Ordnance Survey doesn’t cover Northern Ireland) you can also order a personalised map. For us, that was very useful. We live on the edge of map OS Explorer 135 ‘Ashdown Forest’. This means that you need two maps for a short walk and sometimes four for a longer walk.

For my birthday, over ten years ago now, I was given one of the personalised maps. Our house sits right in the middle of the map. I go beyond the map’s range only if I walk longer than four hours, starting and ending at home. And I don’t take such long walks.

I know it works, because during the first weeks of the COVID-19 curfew, I took a brisk walk through the countryside every few days. It was a glorious spring, and England was more beautiful, more peaceful, than ever. I made loops of about four hours of walking, slightly shifting my path counterclockwise each time. I can still see which routes I took because I “coloured” them on my map.

After the Covid period, the long walks were over. It seems like I don’t have time for them under normal circumstances. That’s nonsense, of course. Walking can even be a form of work. After all, they’re ideal for “writing” longer stories in my head. Calmly thinking through the logical structure of a story is actually the most important part of my work. The physical “writing” is a piece of cake after that.

For this post, I looked back at the coloured circles on my map. There are still a few uncoloured routes. I’ll try them out - as soon as the days get longer and it stops raining. Naturally, I don’t fancy slipping on muddy paths.

Discovering new routes also means I will need to take my map with me again. I don’t need it for the well-beaten paths I regularly walk. On an unfamiliar route, I may need to know exactly how many houses I’ll have to pass before reaching the next turn. For that, my personal Explorer Ordnance Survey map comes in very handy.