Mapping company Aqua3, who provide custom-made maps centred on a point of your choice, launched a new website last Monday, 1st October.
The front page of the new site looks a little half-baked at the moment compared to their existing site but no doubt that will change. In the meantime, on the principle of function before appearance, we had a look through to see what it could do.
Pick a map
The main addition to the new site is a map search function - type in the name of the place you want to visit and you'll automatically be told the OS map types and numbers that cover the area, whether it's an Explorer or Landranger map you're looking for.
Of course you can get this information direct from the OS site itself but the Aqua3 option is much quicker.
In practice
We tried searching for Helvellyn on the Aqua3 and Ordnance Survey sites, only to find that the search function on the home page of the OS site hasn't heard of Helvellyn, which is rather unfortunate, whereas the Aqua3 option immediately came up with the list of maps that cover its mist-riddled slopes - Ordnance Survey Landranger Map LR090 and Ordnance Survey Explorer EX005. As our past experiences of Helvellyn have not infrequently involved zero visibility, we reckon either or both would be rather handy.
So far so good. The site can search by town, village, hamlet, mountain, key word, grid reference, or postcode - but alas, not pub - which is probably the reason for the ease of use.
Avoiding the folds
The search function gives you a short-cut to finding the maps you need, but apart from that, what does the site do?
Well, there's no hiding the fact that the chief purpose is to convince you to buy an Aqua3 map - which is fair enough, as it's a commercial site - but what we want to know is whether it's useful to the average hiker too.
The answer is: yes and no. Aqua3's sales pitch is made by displaying the Ordnance Survey Explorer or Landranger map for the area you want to visit, with a mark showing the exact place you searched for, so you can check whether it falls inconveniently on the fold or nicely bang in the centre of the map.
Helvellyn looks like this on the OS Explorer map - not too much of a problem unless you're planning to hike in from the south or east, at which point life gets a little map-less ...
You then have the option of viewing the Aqua3 version centred on Helvellyn, that lets you hike in from any direction ...
Again, it's not life-changing, as you could look this information up on the OS wbesite or indeed in the pile of maps on your bookcase, but it's certainly handy if you've got the money to splash out on a customised map of your favourite walking area and you want to find out what you can fit in the parameters.
As with the map search function, it's a short-cut to the information you want, if nothing else.
And if you want to know whether or not a customised map is worth the cash - £24.99 of cash, to be precise - we reviewed an Aqua3 Evolution map not long ago to help you make up your mind.
More information from the Aqua3 website and the home of the new search function.
