March of Tech

 

 

How things change over the years. This trip to Dartmoor is dominated by digital preparations. Partly because the other elements run on well practiced lines.

The digital march has no new tech, but it does have much more extensive use of that tech. My Psion 5 carries a dozen or so Dartmoor related texts and a great many notes to improve my understanding and interpret what is being seen. It actually has ludicrous quantities of information including decades of Victorian moor archaeology.

With the best will in the world it is impossible to remember it all and it is a relief not to have too. It is all stored away digitally and at no extra weight.

The Psion also is capable of a game of backgammon or chess if need be.

I have been updating my Dartmoor gpx files and sorting out the 500 most relevant waypoints for this trip. My old Garmin Etrex, a discontinued model is showing its age now but it performs its essential task well.

Always annoying to have missed a curious stone by a few hundred yards, which happens more often than I would like. The waypoints reduce the possibility of that.

There is so much to see and seeing something in the landscape with your own eyes beats all.

Waypoints give a different perspective to a map and I confess a lot simpler to check quickly than unfurling the map.  Effectively it is my map with the things that are relevant to me on it.  Bogs being one of the things which are easier to spot on as a waypoint than on the map.

Image via Wikipedia

New SIM for the phone so I have a choice of networks, hopefully this will reduce the chance of being in a deadspot. This might not be an issue, or it might be a matter of some importance.

The phone trebles up as camera, it is quite good enough to capture my memories of Dartmoor, and mpeg4 player. The Hound of the Baskervilles travels with me in written word, spoken word, radio play and two film versions. Again overkill, but it is there if I want it and the phone weighs no more for the extra contents.

Without tech most of this would not be possible at all. The books would be possible, if I did not mind walking about with a couple of dozen.

Tech has revolutionised the way I conduct walks generally and it is an enhancer. Rather than cut me off from what I see it allows me to see and understand more of it.