|
Obviously you will need all normal walking equipment: waterproof
outer shell, warm inner clothes, a good pair of boots, a rucksack,
a compass (or GPS - see below) and a waterproof map case. The notes which follow deal with special equipment
particularly relevant to this terrain:
Maps
Do not consider trying this walk without a set of appropriate
Ordnance Survey 1:25000 maps. They show lots of useful information like field
boundaries (allowing you to see, for example, which side of a hedge the path
officially runs) and are much more suitable for the walker than the 50000 series. These 25000 maps
used to be very expensive but all the sheets you will need are now available either as
Explorer or
(for the most popular walking areas) the Outdoor Leisure MapsYou will need the following sheets::
Outdoor Leisure 35 North Pembrokeshire (double sided)
Explorer 185 Newcastle Emlyn
Explorer 186 Llandeilo & Brechfa Forest
Explorer 187 Llandovery (double sided)
Explorer 213 Aberystwyth and Cwm Rheidol
Outdoor Leisure 23 Snowdonia: Cadair Idris Area (double sided)
Outdoor Leisure 18 Snowdonia, Harlech and Bala (double sided)
Outdoor Leisure 17 Snowdonia and Conwy Valley (double sided)
These cover the whole walk from South to North.
They may be obtained from any reputable bookshop.
A GPS
Navigation can be tricky in parts of rural Carmarthenshire where rights
of way are exceedingly indistinct; also in the
Elenydd between Llandovery and Machynlleth if you are unlucky enough to
have very low cloud. A GPS device (Global Positioning System Device)
is extremely useful. Prices are coming down all the time. (You can buy the new Garmin
eTrex on the net for about £85.00,including postage from Canada).
A GPS device can be held in the hand and uses 24 American direction-satellites
11000 miles above the surface of the earth to fix your
position to within about 5 metres. It gives an instant grid reference
for your present position and, as you walk, will show you the current direction
to any point whose grid reference has been previously keyed
in. (It will remember these points, even when switched off) If you
are a really good navigator it will probably never save your life but it will
save time and remove uncertainty in thick forest and on featureless high
ground in cloud.
For general information try Lowe's web-site
If you consider buying one, an e-mail to
Art Dalton will be helpful. His web-site, Prairie Geomatics, has pages
for the new Garmin eTrex and for the very popular and
rugged Garmin GPS12. Also comparisons between different Garmin and Magellan models.
Footbeds
If you are one of those lucky people who never get sore feet, skip this section. Otherwise seriously
consider getting a pair of superfeet footbeds. These fit inside your boots and, if custom-made (by an
amazing process involving having plastic bags fastened to your feet and all the air sucked out)
result in your body weight being divided equally on all parts of the soles of your feet. I have
personally never been so comfortable and will now never wear anything else. Unfortunately, there are not
many places in the UK where you can get the custom-fitted ones. Try the
web site of superfeet for more information or send an email
to superfeet
A Brasherstick
Brashersticks are designed to reduce the load on your knees
(and hips) and are intended to be used in pairs.
Nevertheless, a single Brasherstick, carried collapsed in your rucksack,
could prove extremely useful as a third point
of support when crossing bog and turbulent streams.
A mobile phone
Although probably unusable in the valleys of central Wales, we found a mobile phone extremely
useful. We were always able to contact friends, taxis, etc during the middle of the
day when we had achieved some height.
|
