Single Map Adventures

[mudsticks]

I came across an interesting post today by Alistair Humphreys that chimes with some of the thoughts that have been running through my head of late. He basically posits that in our globally warming, pandemic ridden world, should be still thinking about adventures in far flung lands, or should we be reining in our carbon hungry adventures, all for the catchet of gaining a selfie in in some far flung land?

He proposes instead that we should be looking no further than our front doors and exploring our immediate neighbourhoods with more inquisitive and adventurous eyes. He's embarked on an experiment to just explore one map in detail and to that end he has ordered a custom made map from Ordnance Survey, with his house in the middle. He has several blog posts setting out some of the adventures that he's already had and it's certainly an interesting and thought provoking article.

For my own part, my gravel bike has certainly opened up lots of exploring potential for me in my own neighbourhood and I've already discovered a number of bivi spots that I'd like to try out. As well as shorter rides exploring my immediate neighbourhood, I've also planned a 350km off-road tour of the Heide, based on the new Orbit 360 gravel bike race, but starting from my own front door.

Certainly, for those of us who have busy lives, but a strong thirst for exploration, this is probably a good incentive to really look at our own backyards and explore them in detail, rather than constantly striving for far flung adventures.

I love far(ish) flung adventures on foot and by bike, big mountains preferably.
With a side helping of local culture.
But the forrin ones I always access by train or boat.

I gave up flying in1994 for all those strange tree hugging greenery reasons.

Welcome to my world.
Lets keep it livable shall we?

I have resided in the same green valley for over thirty years now, but still need a map if I'm walking say more than ten miles away from home.

There's such a network if footpaths.

Not if cycling so much though, I think I've got most of the lanes and tracks covered - or at least a decent mental map of my patch.

@HobbesOnTour I was thinking about your tour when I was reading the blog. Too be honest, I thought Alistair's comments were more aimed at folk like me, that are much more time poor, so will look to undertake just one or two big trips a year and as such will fly or travel big distances to get to our intended destination and in doing so create a large amount of carbon.

Not only did you take a cargo ship across the pond, but you have been living over there. Longer term trips like yours are different in the way they impact the planet and I really don't think they have the same negative impact that Alistair was talking about.

It's funny you should mention the dumb tourist schtick, It's certainly something I've relied on in the past myself a few times here in Germany! In our pandemic times though, there's sadly precious few tourists around, so it doesn't tend to work so well at the moment.

Yes finding the time off from work to go further, and for longer, is the hardest part.

That's next years ambition, definitely.

Best crack on with all that I guess.

 

[Dirtyhanz2]

I came across an interesting post today by Alistair Humphreys that chimes with some of the thoughts that have been running through my head of late. He basically posits that in our globally warming, pandemic ridden world, should be still thinking about adventures in far flung lands, or should we be reining in our carbon hungry adventures, all for the catchet of gaining a selfie in in some far flung land?

He proposes instead that we should be looking no further than our front doors and exploring our immediate neighbourhoods with more inquisitive and adventurous eyes. He's embarked on an experiment to just explore one map in detail and to that end he has ordered a custom made map from Ordnance Survey, with his house in the middle. He has several blog posts setting out some of the adventures that he's already had and it's certainly an interesting and thought provoking article.

For my own part, my gravel bike has certainly opened up lots of exploring potential for me in my own neighbourhood and I've already discovered a number of bivi spots that I'd like to try out. As well as shorter rides exploring my immediate neighbourhood, I've also planned a 350km off-road tour of the Heide, based on the new Orbit 360 gravel bike race, but starting from my own front door.

Certainly, for those of us who have busy lives, but a strong thirst for exploration, this is probably a good incentive to really look at our own backyards and explore them in detail, rather than constantly striving for far flung adventures.

Just ordered my personal map
Thank you so much for sharing this link

 

[PapaZita]

A good tip, if ordering a map with your house in the middle, is to centre the map on a point close to where you live. Otherwise, your house will be at the intersection of two folds, and very soon you'll have a map of everywhere except your house.

 

[sheddy]

^ Is this what they mean by living Off Grid ?

 

[Willd]

I'm currently visiting (by bike) every hamlet, village and town on OS Explorer 222 (1:25,000 Rugby, Daventry, Southam and Lutterworth). Handily enough our house is only 1 1/4 miles from the centre of the map. Still a few left to cover and I'll report back with a full list once I've done it.

My local Landranger map (1:50,000 Leicester and Coventry) is that old (1980) that it doesn't even have our house on it, but I reckon it's only 2.6 miles before I fall off the edge, so, I've ordered one centred on our postcode and will do this next

 

[Dirtyhanz2]

Mine came yesterday
They are brilliant so excited to go out with my boys and explore new places close to home
A big thank you to the OP

 

[chriswoody]

View attachment 565070

Mine came yesterday
They are brilliant so excited to go out with my boys and explore new places close to home
A big thank you to the OP

How cool is that. We have nothing like that in Germany sadly, the maps here are no where near the standard of OS maps and I do miss it.

I generally use open street maps online, a good way of exploring but nothing as tactile or interesting as a paper map, especially a personalised one like that.

 

[chris-suffolk]

Disappointed that he drove to his first grid square. The map is 20x20km centred on his house. So no square is more than 6 miles away as the crow flies. Yet he drove there. This sounds like the perfect sized area to traverse on bike and on foot.

How do you work that out, I make it 8.8 miles as the max distance from the house (using 5 miles = 8 km)??

 

[bagpuss]

Landranger 128 for me last summer . I covered a lot of miles within its area . Found all sorts of interesting places and things to see on each and every ride . Flask and sarnies packed, all makes for a grand day out on two wheels.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

How do you work that out, I make it 8.8 miles as the max distance from the house (using 5 miles = 8 km)??

Because his house is 10km from the edge of map, in Imperial that is 6.2 miles. All the info to work it out, was in my post.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Because his house is 10km from the edge of map, in Imperial that is 6.2 miles. All the info to work it out, was in my post.

How far to the corners of the map?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

How far to the corners of the map?

That is not the nearest point of the grid square 😗

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

That is not the nearest point of the grid square 😗

Correct, I make it more like 7.9 miles to the nearest point of the furthest grid square.

I agree with your point that it's an excellent distance for exploring by bike though.

 

[Willd]

Explorer 222 (Rugby, Daventry, Southam and Lutterworth), now explored . I have visited (as far as I can work out) every named town (part of town), village and hamlet in 241 sq. miles. Plus a couple of new ones which weren't there in 1980 when my version of the map was published.

Now moving on to my personalised Landranger (625 sq. miles) centred on our post-code I have already covered quite a bit of it, however, the tricky bit is it now that it includes all of Coventry (61 sq. miles), some of which I'll need to pass through quite quickly

Ansty	Coton	Long Itchington (Cuttle, Model Village)	Stretton under Fosse
Ashby Parva	Crick	Long Lawford	Swinford
Ashby St Ledgers	Cross in Hand	Lower Shuckburgh	Thurlaston
Barby (Barby Nortoft)	Daventry	Lutterworth	Toft
Bascote	DIRFT	Magna Park	Tomlow
Binley Woods	Draycote	Marton	Tripontivm
Birdingbury	Dunchurch	Misterton	Ullesthorpe
Bitteswell	Easenhall	Monks Kirby (Bond End, Brockhurst)	Upper Shuckburgh
Bourton on Dunsmore	Flecknoe	Napton on the Hill (Chapel Green)	Walcote
Bramcote	Frankton	Nethercote	Walton
Brandon	Gibbet Hill	Newbold on Avon	Welton
Braunston (Little Braunston)	Gilmorton	Newbold Revel	Wibtoft
Bretford	Grandborough	Newnham Paddox	Wigston Parva
Brinklow	Grandborough Fields	Newton	Willey
Broadwell	Harborough Magna	Onley Park	Willoughby
Burton Hastings	Harborough Parva	Pailton	Withybrook
Cathiron	High Cross (Venonis)	Peatling Parva	Wolfhampcote
Catthorpe	Hill	Princethorpe	Wolston (Marston)
Cawston	Hopsford	Rugby (Bilton, Brownsover, Hillmorton, Houlton, New Bilton, Old Brownsover, Overslade)	Wolvey
Church Lawford	Kilsby	Sawbridge	Wolvey Heath
Churchover	Kimcote	Shawell	Woolscott
Clay Coton	King's Newnham	Shelford	Yelvertoft
Claybrooke Magna	Kites Hardwick	Shilton
Claybrooke Parva	Knightlow Hill	Smockington
Clifton upon Dunsmore (Dunsmore)	Lawford Heath	Southam (Southam Holt)
Combe Fields	Leamington Hastings	Stanford on Avon
Copston Magna	Leire	Staverton
Cosford	Lilbourne	Stockton
Cotebach	Little Lawford	Street Ashton
Cotes-de-val	Little Walton	Stretton on Dunsmore (Dunsmore Heath)