Some people just won't listen!

Servers them right

Local knowledge is everything Greatnan you did your best to advise them.. I hope they find their way back before dark

Oh Dear! Never go for walks you don't know really well without a map and compass you know how to use them. Even in easy lowland areas in the UK you can get very lost.
In the mountains it is really stupid.

What really makes UK mountain rescue people angry is those walking poorly equipped for the terrain and our very changeable weather and with no proper idea of the route or how to use a map and compass.

If their car is still there tomorrow morning............

It is amazing how many people, particularly young people cannot read a map. I did O and A level Geography and a question on reading and interpreting a map was mandatory at each level. We were supplied with small sections of map and had to note symbols and find things on it at O level and describe the terrain and draw conclusions at A level.

Over 15 years ago, when I left work I went to university to do a course in landscape archaeology. All my fellow students were recent archaeology graduates and I was amazed when in the first week we had a morning session on reading maps. I got to the lecture early and was chatting to the tutor and asked what we would be covering, when he explained I commented that I had done this at school and being told this was no longer on the exam syllabus. I asked how one could get a degree in archaeology without being able to read a map. He rolled his eyes heavenwards and shrugged.

I read the OP quickly and thought they had got lost having stopped for a wee!

I've done the marine version of map reading!

We started by drawing a map of our school and its surroundings and progressed to reading OS maps. I would never leave home without my local maps - but of course you need to know where you are before the map is any use
I am a map-freak - I used to pore over atlases as a child and really enjoy map reading my way on my various travels.

Greatnan me too.

I go for miles on Google maps, and take a look round all the nice villages before actually driving anywhere!
Many happy hours.

I did both O and Higher level Geography and totally loved the Maps and Mapping segments. I suppose the ability to draw/enlarge maps manually is now a redundant skill but we also learnt how to triangulate and determine intervisibility which I have found useful on occasion.

I love google maps and many have photos of sites of particular interest. I use viamichelin to plan my routes - you get both a list for the route as well as a map, times, costs, tolls, etc. I am visiting a friend in Charente next month so I am planning my trip now.

and big I am useless with geography and am one of those who turns a map upside down. My husband is horrified. Thank goodness for our wonderful Sat Nav I say. I trust it implicitly, don't often argue with it and, yes, it has got me into one or two scrapes but then, so has my map reading!

I was also taught OS map reading in Geography O level. I don't even need to turn a map around either to understand where I am going I always put North at the top of the sheet and work from there. Somehow I can keep a fairly good image of a road map in my head. I really like to see where I am going on a map as well as using a Sat Nav.

I used to follow a road map when sitting in the back of a car, as did my kids. It give you a good idea where you are going and where places are.

It amuses me to see people turning a map upside down when they want to drive South! I am amazed at how many people set out on a journey with no clear idea of the route. My brother-in-law was once driving from Manchester to Cornwall, missed the M5 junction and and reached the M25 before he realised he had gone wrong.

There's nothing wrong with turning a map round so that it is pointing in the direction in which you are travelling. Putting north at the top of a map is merely a convention; I think Chinese maps used to put east at the top and may still do so.

Except the wording will be upside down?

On the one and only occasion I asked my mum to follow the map, she did the same thing, Greatnan. We should have been on the M6 but were heading towards London. When I asked where we were, she said 'I've no idea, but it's very nice isn't it?'

I think it is very, very insensitive to laugh at those of us who have to turn the map around! Why wouldn't you??

I did 'o' level geography & passed too.. I can read an ordnance survey map when it is on a desk and tell you what it all means and find co-ordinates etc etc etc! BUT when I am out and about with a map I need it to be turned according to the direction I am travelling & I do not get lost. I am not very good with Left or Right either (except in politics)..

I am just a simple little woman me , I leave the map reading to My Big Tough Guy , he is ace !! and no that is not a you see !!

Ahh greatnan I might not know my left from my right but I can read words written upside down! Good job we are all so different in our skills! I would no more ask my DH to read a map for me than fly to the moon!

Nanaej that is where we differ , I leave all the map reading to "MY GUY" as the song goes , think it was the Supremes who sang it !

I am deeply sorry if I have offended people who like to turn the map round! I couldn't do it - I am used to the convention of North being at the top and I have a mental image of the UK with all the major towns in relation to each other which would shatter if I had to picture it the other way up.

Mary Wells, Nonu