Consuming Interest
A Guide to Mapland
.ADRIAN
By LESLIE WORKING on the prin- ciple that tourists prefer countries that go up and down to those that just go on and on. the Danes_ are determined, like a girl trying to fill her first bikini, to make as much as they can out of very little. At least, I cannot think of any other reason for publishing an ord- nance survey map so intensively contoured that five square miles of the flattest country in Europe looks like a section of Switzerland. Drawn on the enormous scale of 1 :20,000 (about quarter-mile to the inch), there is a contour line for every seven and a half feet and spot heights at thirteen metres. Following this to its logical conclusion the Dutch could make the Zuider Zee look like the Isle of Skye.
It is a mistake for the walker to assume, as I used to do, that the larger the scale of a map, the more useful it will be to him. The Germans had a fine ordnance survey series before the war in the convenient scale of 1:50,000 (three- quarter-mile to the inch). Unfortunately the plates were destroyed during the bombing and the scale of the new maps, based on a post-war survey, has been doubled. These fully detailed charts look magnificent spread out on the living- room floor, but for field use they are too bulky and apt to be confusing. Anyone planning a fortnight's energetic walking tour would have to carry half a hundredweight of expensive paper in his rucksack—he would always be walking off the edge of the sheets. For mountaineers such a large scale is essential; but I am not a mountaineer.
It is the various walkers' organisations in Germany, such as the Friends of the Black Forest, who produce the kind of maps one would expect from the country of the Wandervogel- clear, attractive to the eye and detailed to the point of reproducing the vvaymarks on the paths. These club maps are based on the national survey, but reduced to the sensible scale of I : 50,000. Before buying maps for a walking holi- day in Germany, it is worth finding out if any such club maps exist for the area you are plan- ning to visit. For instance, the Bavarian Alps and the volcanic hills between Luxembourg and the Rhine both have 'friends.' Barmerlea Book Sales Ltd. (10 Bayley Street, WC1) specialise in climbers' and walkers' maps for Germany as well as Austria, where a new 1 :50,000 survey is slowly being completed.
For areas still untouched by the new Austrian survey there are the Freytag and Berndt maps (1 :100,000). These are widely available and the
waymarked footpaths make them easy to use in spite of the rather small scale. The same series covers the Julian Alps. No other large-scale maps of Tito country are to be had.
The most useful hiking maps of Italy are published by the Italian Touring Club. Unfor- tunately these 1 : 50,000 maps cover only the Dolomites, part of the Italian Alps and, for some peculiarly Italian reason, the Bay of Naples. The alternative is the Italian ordnance survey—either a poor monochrome map (1 :25,000) or a clearer version on a quarter of the scale.
The first prize for map-making goes to Switzerland. The fine rock drawing is almost a Swiss monopoly and their walkers' naps (1: 50,000) are an object-lesson in the combina- tion of clarity and detail. The Luxembourg maps are nearly as good, and their special dis- tinction is the emphasis on long-distance foot- paths.
Ironically these excellent Luxembourg maps were done under contract by the French National Survey, which has not yet got around to doing its own country thoroughly. The only large-scale maps for two-thirds of France, in- cluding the Auvergne and the Massif Central, is a pathetic black and white version of an 1884 survey. It has woolly caterpillar mountain ranges and an eye-blurring jumble of roads, foot- paths and rivers. A new series, based on a recent survey, is gradually appearing and the map- makers are grinding laboriously westwards, ex- cept for a few sporadic leaps forward into the Pyrenees. An old private enterprise set, known as the Schrader maps, covers this corner of France in half a dozen sheets. These would be useful to a Pyrenean walker who Wanders off one of the new ordnance survey sheets.
Over the Pyrenees the Spanish are inclined to regard maps as dangerous. At least, that is the conclusion I draw from being told by both the efficient Youth Hostels Association map shop (29 John Adam Street, WC2) and Sifton Praed, the famous map house at 67 St. James's Street, that walking maps for Spain are a closely guarded military secret. The Spanish National Tourist Office say that such maps can be bought locally, but had no samples. However, unknown to the Tourist Office, Edward Stanford (12 Long Acre, WC2), doyen of mapsellers, are the official agents for maps of. Spain and keep a complete index set. Given two or three weeks' notice they can get any sheet needed.
The map shops mentioned here (except for Sifton Praed) will supply catalogues on request. If a series that interests you is not included in the list, ask for it all the same. It can probably be got for you. But don't leave map buying until the last moment. Very long notice may be needed for certain sheets. Italian maps, for instance, may take as long as six-weeks to arrive.
A legal friend hastbeen discussing my statement last week that a house agent who bumps down the buying price of a house, causes a friend to buy it cheap, sell it dear and split the difference, is act- ing—just—within the law. He thinks that if all the stages could be proved to the hilt, one might be able to sue successfully. The original advice, however, stands : not to put yourself into the hands of any sole agent in the first place.
Previous page
