I was pleasantly surprised recently by the discovery that Google Earth has finally noticed the existence of Wales. We now have high-resolution imagery across even the darkest depths.
It has turned up a few interestingly oddball bits of information. Such as the clearly visible route of a railway line that was torn up by Beeching in the 1960s for example. You find yourself wondering where you could get a few miles of track from, and a handful of girders to replace the missing bridges.
It also cleared up a few mysteries regarding what, if anything, is in various dead spaces in town. You can see that the answer is usually either nothing, or a scruffy yard space.
I’ve probably mentioned before that Google Earth is a wonderful tool for the industrial archaeologist, as rather than risking the attention of dubious individuals in run down areas you can survey sites quite safely from home. While this is less of a problem here, many of the chunks of railway line mentioned earlier are on private land and would probably provoke a decidedly unfriendly and quite possibly armed response if you were to investigate in person.
It is never going to be an effective substitute for getting out there on the ground with a camera, but you can save yourself the trouble of spending all morning figuring out to get to a particular location only to find the site completely levelled and concreted over. I’m still figuring out if I can convert Google Earth waypoints to a more useful format, although oddly enough Google seem keen that you should pay for the Pro version of Google Earth rather than converting files. Given I’ve already bought Memory-Map this doesn’t really appeal.
Speaking of which, a good GPS is very handy. I don’t use a conventional sat nav at all. It’s easier to glance at a moving map display from time to time and you can add any data you like to it. Plus it doesn’t hector you about turning right when you’re sitting at a red traffic light. Something of a bonus I feel. It’s just like having a paper road map that’s always open on the right page and centred on your position. While it does take a bit more installation than a standard satnav I challenge any other device to hold your entire music collection and maps for the whole country in one box.
