I’ve recently added a Gallery to the Wild Vista blog. There are three collections of photos available initially — images from Scotland, New Zealand and Antarctica. I’ll continue to add my favourite pics in time, and hope that they provide some inspiration for your own trips, treks and travels.

To see the Gallery, you can use this link, or the Gallery item on the menu above. Comments on the collections or individual photos are welcome. To comment on a specific photo, you’ll need to click Show Details once you’ve selected the photo.

Enjoy!

The new Gallery on Wild Vista.

Google 'Street View' logo.

I’d previously alluded to being a little underwhelmed at Street View’s coverage — however, the recent massive upgrade, which includes rural as well as urban roads, immediately offers interesting new use cases for outdoorsie types.

So, here are a few ideas for where the upgraded Street View may be useful. Each section below includes a “live” Street View applet: you can click on each image and start navigating your way around without leaving this page.

1. Can I park?

Although public transport in rural areas can often be used to get to the start of a walk, many days on the hill start with finding somewhere to park the car. If you already know of an official car park, fair enough, but for those occasions where you’re looking for ad-hoc parking at the side of the road, Street View can be really handy.

Let’s say I fancy a a bimble in the eastern Peak District, and have identified a suitable starting point on the map, just west of Ringinglow village, where a couple of footpaths leave the road:

Using Street View, it’s easy to see whether there’s any parking here:

View Larger Map

Yep, that looks good! Room for a good few cars, and well off the road. Now, with high enough resolution, we could possibly have spotted this lay-by using the standard aerial photography available on Google Maps, but Street View gets us much closer. The detail available in Street View is also good enough to be able to pick out signs that might pertain to parking (or ticket machines!), though may not always be clear enough to be able to read the wording.

2. Is that footpath/bridleway really there?

Occasionally you may want to check out the lie of the land, and see whether a given right of way is extant on the ground. Obviously, Street View can only help where rights of way intersect with public roads, but that’s often where access problems begin.

In this example, I’ve chosen a bridleway in Pembrokeshire. On the 1:50 000 OS map, this right of way is shown crossing a disused airfield, and I thought it worth seeing whether it’s visible and signed from the road. Here’s the OS map extract:

And here’s the same area on Street View:

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So, we can see a gap in the hedgerow, a gate, and a bridleway sign. Looking good then! As a bonus, pan around to the right, and there’s clearly space for parking a couple of cars just off the road here too, should we wish to start from here.

3. Is it easy to cross the road here?

Much as I prefer to avoid busy roads when planning a walk, sometimes it just isn’t possible. And often, where rights of way cross dual carriageways or other major routes, difficulties can ensue. With Street View, you can get a heads-up on how easy a crossing is likely to be, and indeed, whether it’s physically possible. This can be particularly useful if you’re leading a group, and haven’t had time to recce the route beforehand.

This example from the North Downs in Surrey shows a footpath and bridleway intersecting a dual carriageway (in this case, the A31 at the Hog’s Back near Puttenham).

Judicious use of Street View makes it clear that there is a break in the central reservation between the two carriageways, but that this isn’t lined up with the entry and exit points of the rights of way. If you interact with the Street View window below, you’ll also see that separate imagery is available for each side of the carriageway.

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4. How does the route on the hill look?

This one only really works if the route you’ve planned is in plain sight from a public road — the North Ridge of Tryfan being a classic example, rising as it does within full view of the A5 trunk road. That said, I reckon there’s still plenty of opportunity for scoping out routes, or parts of routes, using Street View.

View Larger Map

Now, although similar 3–dimensional views of hills can be created using Google Earth (and other mapping software) by overlaying satellite imagery with relief data, the results with Street View can be much richer. What you lose in terms of flexibility (e.g., panning and zooming into and around a peak), is well made up for by far greater realism and fine relief. As well it should be, given that we’re looking at real images, rather than satellite overlays onto a relatively coarse relief model.

View Larger Map

5. Is this a good spot for a picnic, or for some roadside landscape photography?

Ok, so you’ll often be wanting to get where you’re going, lace up your boots and hit the hill as quickly as possible. Sometimes however, perhaps to break up a long drive or when travelling with the family, you’ll be actively seeking out picnic spots, or particularly scenic roadside stops. Street View can take out some of the guesswork if you don’t already know an area. Just find some likely looking locations on a map, then check them out in Street View:

The “Panorama” symbol on this 1:50 000 map extract (from the Bealach na Ba on the Applecross peninsula) suggests it’ll be a decent place to stop, but with Street View, you can check out the parking (and the view!) in advance. Guaranteeing the good weather may be a little trickier…

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6. What’s that campsite like?

Again, for facilities close to a road, in this case a campsite, Street View can give you a lot of extra information. You may already have retrieved details of pricing, and a description of the facilities, from a web page for a campsite, but seeing it “in the flesh” (from several angles) complements this rather prosaic data with a feeling for the ambience of the site, the slope of the ground, the overall layout, etc.

The example here shows a campsite (again, adjacent to the A5) near Capel Curig in Snowdonia.

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7. Is there a bus shelter here?

A pretty specific question, but one that can be surprisingly difficult to get an answer to if you don’t know an area.

This is the bus stop (and shelter!) on the A82 near the Corran Ferry, southbound to Ballachulish.

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More ideas

A few more things that Street View could be helpful with:

• Checking out the location and condition of accommodation (bunkhouses, hostels, B&Bs, etc.)
• Locating shops, tea shops, pubs etc. Are there tables outside for a sunny day? Is there a decent beer garden?
• Is there a pavement along that busy road for the nocturnal walk between the campsite and the pub? What about streetlighting?
• Where’s the best spot for hitch-hiking near a given location?

Some gotchas and caveats

• The static nature of Street View images can limit its usefulness — images can be several years old, and an awful lot can change in that time.
• Coverage isn’t 100%. Users can also request that certain imagery is removed from the system to protect privacy.
• The system’s still a little buggy. Sudden jumps or gaps in the imagery are not uncommon.

Final thoughts

We’ve all managed just fine in planning trips without Street View, but in certain circumstances, the additional information Street View provides could be very useful. When you are short of time, or perhaps are responsible for organising a weekend away or for leading a group, the new, improved Street View could well be very useful. As they say, forewarned is forearmed…

[Update (19/04/10): Just come across this excellent article by Tim Parkin on "Still Developing": Using the Internet to Scout a Location. This relates to landscape photography rather then walking per se, but is full of in depth research for finding out more about a location before your visit.

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So, for your viewing pleasure(?), here are a bunch. To invest this post with a little more utility, I’ve geotagged the location each image was taken from in a Picasa Web Album. So, if you fancy taking in the same view yourself (supine position optional), you’ll know where to go!

On the Padjelanta Trail ('Padjelantaleden'), Swedish Arctic.

Sgorr Dhonuill from Sgorr Dhearg, Beinn a' Bheithir, Scottish Highlands.

Near An Cliseam (Clisham), Harris, Outer Hebrides.

Lake Castalia, Wilkin North Branch, Aspiring, New Zealand.

Lake Crucible, Siberia Valley, Aspiring, New Zealand.

A distant Puig Campana, Alicante Region, Spain.

Clear blue skies and moderate temperatures compared to those we’ve had of late — possibly even pushing double figures — augured well for a riverside stroll along the Cam. I suppose I slightly underestimated exactly how far it was; including a mile-and-a-bit from my house out to the river, and a bit of faffing in town to get to the bank, over 10½ miles there and back.

River Cam near Milton (from Flickr user hchalkley, CC by-nc-nd 2.0)

The Cam’s running high at the moment. Indeed, passing under Victoria Avenue, shortly after the Fort St. George, the river was a good foot in depth over the footpath. Not that that deterred the locals and a couple of posties on their rounds. I just hope their panniers are waterproof…

Not as high as yesterday though. The river’s clearly dropping rapidly following the recent heavy rains, evidenced by the caretaker at one of the University boathouses at work with a hosepipe, sluicing away the silt deposited by the river, high up the slipways.

With a move back up to the Midlands planned, it’s nice to have some time over the next week or so to revisit the countryside on my doorstep. But, before the move, my eyes are on the forecasts and hill conditions up in Badenoch. I’m heading for Newtonmore next weekend, and am pleased to see that nothing like last week’s deluge of the white stuff is forecast at present. Being able to get there is quite important!

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Heading out towards Knoydart, near the eastern dam on Loch Quoich.

Good on ‘em. Though an impressive application, using Street View to virtually browse the High Streets of “Anytown, UK” was always going to pale pretty quickly. About as interesting as today’s news that Cheryl Cole has separated from some footballer or other. Cheryl who? (A story which, incidentally, is currently occupying third position in the BBC News website headlines — five places above the news of a car bomb in Newry, NI. WTF?)

Anyway — have you not been able to get up into the Highlands for a bit? No probs. Here’s an embedded Street View window. Just click once in the window below, then keep hitting the “up arrow” key for a grand tour of one of the finest stretches of road in the UK. You might also want to click that icon top-right for some full-screen goodness.

View Larger Map

So, what next for the Street View team. Baggers’ paths?

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So, to that weather forecast:

Mmmm — grey cloud.

Looks as though the Met Office are plumping for “grey cloud” then.

It could be far worse, of course. I’ve just been spoilt by the recent wonderfully cold, crisp, icy conditions, that are now a distant memory. An awful lot of folk were whinging about the snow and ice too. Granted, if you have to drive, or are unsteady on your pins, it can’t be much fun. But we seem to get so little “proper” winter weather these days, in the south at least. I just relished every minute of negative Celsius. A hundred times better than this mild, damp, overcast rubbish. It’s like living in a Tupperware box.

The invariance in the weather tomorrow calls to mind a game I play occasionally with the BBC weather website. It’s a simple game — choose a city, any city, anywhere in the world, and bring up the 5-day forecast. The aim is to try and find a 5-day forecast for which every aspect of the forecast weather is identical over all five days.

Lima’s generally a good starting point. Having spent a week there myself a few years back, I can confirm (with zero statistical significance), that the weather here really is immensely dull. Check out that Garúa Fog next time you’re there.

Hmmm, doing well with the temperatures in Lima, but then it all falls apart...

I’ve not found a matching set in five years of trying, but I will, dammit.

And yes, I am that sad.

I wonder who’ll complete the first ascent (externally, that is — using the lifts or stairs wouldn’t seem to be in the right spirit)? My money’s on Alain Robert…

Burj Khalifa on 23 November 2009 (from Wikimedia Commons, author Poco a poco, CC-BY-SA license.

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Well, gee — I am male and 37. How on earth did they work that out? And how lucky that my age and gender entitles me to a FREE Blackberry Storm2 if I apply today!

I’m well aware that certain information associated with my Facebook account is made available to advertisers, allowing them to target their adverts effectively. That’s how Facebook makes money.

However, by using the data this clumsily, the advertiser is essentially saying: “click this, and confirm to us that your mental faculties are comparable to those of a lobotomised chimp”.

It’d be interesting to know just how many such ad impressions do result in a click through. Presumably, enough to make this cynical strategy worthwhile…
</rant>

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