OpenStreetMap

Crid's Diary

Recent diary entries

Betteshanger, Tilmanstone and Studdal

Posted by Crid on 1 March 2009 in English.

Two visits over the weekend, both walking from the start point. About 9.7 miles in all on a mixture of bridleways and footpaths. I even found a bridleway that runs alongside the A256 that isn't marked on the Ordnance Survey map (and judging by how faded the fingerposts are, it's clearly been there for some time - probably since the dual carriageway was built).

I also managed to do some mapping in the car to and from the start points. Did most of the roads in Tilmanstone (which had been entered as "Tidmanstone" - now corrected) and the residential streets in Eythorne.

On Sunday's walk I also discovered a road that hadn't been mapped (not sure why I didn't spot that beforehand). So that was tracked on the way back.

Perfect walking weather on both days. Let's hope we get more of that in the spring.

Location: Northbourne, Dover, Kent, England, United Kingdom

Back roads between Charing and Faversham

Posted by Crid on 14 November 2008 in English.

There was a fairly big gap in the map in this area. So far I've had three fairly long trips (about 30 miles each) mapping the back roads between Charing and Faversham. Most of the mapping was done in the dark, which has both good and bad points.

I was using two GPSr units hung on the dashboard next to each other. One GPSr was loaded with OSM maps (converted using MKGMAP) and the other was loaded with City Navigator maps. Both units were tracking (with "lock to road" turned off) so I got two tracks for the price of one.

The benefit of using two GPSr units like this is that I can see what roads have been mapped AND what roads should be there (assuming the CN maps are correct, of course). In unfamiliar areas (like this one) I can get a feel for where roads are going to go before I head off down them (and I can see which roads are dead-ends too). Both units were in north-up orientation so I didn't end up getting totally disoriented (since I was looping back fairly often).

One small downside of two concurrent GPS tracks is that they get joined together if you upload both tracks under the same userid. So instead of two separate tracks you end up with one track that's constantly bouncing between points on the two tracks. It makes for an interesting ladder design.

There are still plenty more back roads to map in the area, so I will be making more visits to the area.

Location: Stalisfield, Borough of Swale, Kent, England, United Kingdom