Doesn‘t matter we‘re Germans, my wife and me love travel Britain. Not only by car or Morgan, also by bicycles.

Sometime we’ve got lost.

The most time:

We‘ve got lost. We realize we‘ve got lost. We put a classic paperwork map.

To survive isn‘t far away: found by local people.

But when it turns dark, out in the landscape it‘s a little different. The help is at home, we‘re out.

To read a map is a forgotten thing. Hmmm… my wife has the map and told me: I don‘t know where we are.
The end of the world isn‘t far away. So we stop. If possible.

If you‘re out in a MOG, in the dark, the end of the world isn‘t far… my hope is a map light, in the moment and the miles on (single)road again.

Without any worries

Greets René

When planning a journey be it road, air or sea I find paper maps and charts still have a place, but at home particularly when working to the three P's, preparation, preparation, preparation. Much less so in the vehicle of travel nowadays when electronic maps are readily and reliably available.

I use both maps and satnav.
The maps initially to get an overview and suggestions for routes in the satnav. AA Route Planner is one I use to get suggestions, distances, times. I can use that to set waypoints, diversions to suit in the satnav.
The satnav comes into its own when detailed instructions are needed, going through towns and the final approach to the destination.
I have been experimenting with Garmin Basecamp. Loaded onto my laptop and lets me pre-plan routes and add in waypoints, comfort stops, fuel stops, places of interest. The journey can then be transferred to the satnav.

I plan my routes from a paper atlas, and create tulip contour routes, sometimes incorporating a couple of alternatives.

Long distance travel we use the satnav as confirmation, but follow my tulip maps.

My experience of just using satnav is that it isn't smart enough. Returning from Scotland in October, and without a tulip route because we were dodging floods, heavy rain and serious congestion, the satnav took us through Bradford during evening rush hour, onto the M62 and M1, which was arguably the worst choice of route possible.

I use a map to plan and then set way-points in the Sat Nav to ensure that it follows my chosen route. It seems to work well. The traffic avoidance in the TomTom has not let us down yet but if it deviates from our chosen route, we do tend to check against a map and, if required, stop and re-think. The overview map in the TomTom shows where all the congestion is so it makes it easy to think through alternatives.

We use maps and Heather as navigator she is very good but keep the Satnav ready incase I have interjected and got us lost

Waze is handy for real time warnings of diversions etc, thank you Alistair.

If I'm going somewhere for the first time (especially by bike where I'm relying on a memorised route), I'll often use Google Streetview first, so I can get an idea of road layouts, junctions and landmarks .

Are you lost? The first time we hear it was at a bicycle journey (a Brompton and a Moulton. TSR) on „Lost Lanes“ (a Book from Jack Thurston) in the greater London area.

I think a farmer ask us. It was a y-junction in nowhere. Than a plumber stops and want to find the way. Not long later a third guy stopped.
But the town wasn‘t known. So two German tourists block a junction with a lot of British helpful people. One of the guys asks his nav. No result. The meeting has an end when a woman in BMW X3 was in hurry. Testing her hornpush and we all went our way.

Another time we‘re out on a white lane. „Road ahead closed“. Stopping so far as possible left we‘re checking the map.
A guy in a VW convertible stopps. We haven‘t got much tourists here - you‘re lost? No, not really, but looking for another route on the map.
He asks: why? We show him the roadsign. He answered: I haven‘t reallized a closed road, use it. Than the postman arrives. The guy leaves his VW, went to the postman and ask him about a closed road. The postman: no work, no closed road… don‘t worry, go on.

Two weeks ago, by brother is courier for fast medical materials Germany - England. He was on the motorway and two policecars
Pass him. And close the motorway. He leaves the motorway, but his very high quality professional satnav told him: back to the motorway.
After half an hour he takes a call to his company (at 2.00 in the morning): please track ( all cars are GPS tracked) me and give me a way by map. That works.

So preparation and gps, satnav… sometimes good old paperwork and a little inspiration helps.

No comment about the talents of my navigator.

Greets René

"ROAD AHEAD CLOSED" is the most frustrating of British road signs. It means that somewhere ahead a road is closed, not necessarily (in fact very rarely) is it the road you are actually on!

Right up there is "DIVERSION", it never tells you from where or to where.