A new toy

The weather leading up to Christmas was dire, to say the least. We escaped storm damage and power cuts but days on hills were few. A short trip on the 29 December to an anonymous little hill above Glen Eagles gave the usual mixture of rain, snow and strong winds with a brief glimpse of blue skies as below.  With the exception of yesterday January has been little better, although we did get our traditional day out on the 1st.

Looking towards Crieff

A few moments later.  The bad weather headed our way giving brief blizzard conditions

Another miserable and very cold day

The 'view' soon disappeared and heavy rain pushed westwards

 
Yesterday was one clear skies and a bitter wind but plans for a day out from Glen Devon were thwarted by a ‘road closed’ sign shortly after the Yetts o’ Muckhart. For several days fallen trees, supported only by other trees on the opposite side of the road, and downed power lines, spanned the A823. I’d driven underneath them several times the previous week, uneasily it has to be said, hoping they’d been declared safe! Presumably trees were now being removed and power lines fixed. Our only option was a drive to Dollar to do the King’s Seat – Tarmangie – Whitewisp circuit – a pleasant little outing.

Stuc a' Chroin and Ben Vorlich

I’d prepared our route from Glen Devon on Memory-Map and downloaded it to a new toy, Satmap 10, just to see how well it all worked. Thwarted (again) by the change of plan I was able to utilise one of the features that had attracted me to Satmap in the first place -  the ability to plan a route on the device itself.  It only took minutes to do this in the car and off we went.

Now, I'm not really into 'gadgets' - I don't have a Smart phone for example [Edit: I do now!] though I've talked of buying one and the reasons against doing so for almost a year now. (Lynne says 'watch this space' because it's a dangerous sign when I talk so much about not buying something, particularly when my present basic mobile 'doesn't owe me anything' -  see Byeways for a persuasive post on the subject) - and I’ve always preferred map and compass to GPS. I did buy the Garmin 12 in 1996 or thereabouts then hardly used it; then a basic Etrex a couple of years ago which has only been used occasionally.

The Satamap 10 seemed a different proposition, or so I convinced myself, but isn’t cheap when you add in the cost of buying the maps on SD cards. Luckily I came across the ‘bundle’ version, Satmap 10 Plus which includes 1:50 000 OSGB worth £203 and LiPol battery and charger, worth £40ish all for the basic price of the GPS unit. I wouldn't have bought it otherwise. Yesterday was its first day out and initial impressions were favourable, even if we were both half-frozen to death stopping regularly to work out how to use specific features (the Online Guide is easily the worst I’ve ever used). The other slight worry is the delicate connection for the LiPol battery and AA battery cradle – one has to be removed to accommodate the other. I wouldn’t like to try and change them on a hill so for me the LiPo will only be used for day trips from home, or where I can easily charge it if away, and Lithium Energizer batteries (with adequate re-supply) on a long walk.  I'm sure I'll enjoy using the Satmap, but you still won't find me on a hill without a map and compass!

Andrew Gannel Hill from the slopes of Tarmangie

We appeared to be about the only folk in the Ochils yesterday despite a fairly busy carpark at Castle Campbell and can only surmise that most were happy to stay low and enjoy the winter sunshine rather than embrace the strong cold winds on high.

As far as future plans are concerned, we've almost finished planning our West to East walk through Scotland for next May, a week ahead of the Challenge, and while most of the route is in our heads I'm sure it will find its way onto the Satmap. Plans are also afoot for trips north with the motorvan in March and April so 2012 looks like it's off to a good start.

Have a rewarding 2012 on your hills.