Route Planning

This is a tough area. I've become intimately acquainted with the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger series of maps, but route planning would have been a nightmare of multiple maps spread out across the sitting room, were it not for the kind assistance of Memory Map, one of my sponsors.

They produce the OS maps on CD-Rom in a format that allows you to mark up proposed routes and save them on your computer. This means that route-planning can be done at the click of a mouse, and that changes can be made without messing up maps.

They also offer a print-out facility with the CD. However, since I only have an A4 printer at home, it was easier for me to buy the necessary maps and mark out my route, using my computer as a guide.

I can't stress how much easier these CDs have made planning the route - instead of struggling with 10 maps and constantly checking each one to make sure it links up to the next properly, I can map out a fortnight's riding inside an hour on my computer and just mark up the maps.

It's quick, it's easy and it's simplified the planning process enormously.