Looking along the route from Land's End towards distant John o'Groats
If you'd like to experience the route from Land's End to John o'Groats without leaving your armchair, then you can do just that using Google Earth (which you can download for free). I've put together a file containing details of my route that you can load into Google Earth, and fly along the route in three dimensions, zooming in on places of interest and examining every single footstep of my walk as if you were a bird. All you need to do is:
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Download Google Earth for free and install it on your computer
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Download my route file (428K) and double-click on it to load it into Google Earth
And hey presto! Google Earth loads up my route, ready for you to explore. Enjoy!
Some Basic Instructions
The route is marked with start points, end points and places of interest, each of which has a short description
For detailed instructions on using Google Earth, I refer you to the Help system that comes with the software, but here's a quick guide on using my route file in Google Earth.
When you double-click on my route file (lejog.kmz) to load it into Google Earth, the globe should rotate round and zoom in towards Britain, eventually showing the route that I've managed to digitise so far.
When the route first loads up, it shows the line of the route, but nothing else; you can switch on two sets of placemarks, one showing points of interest along the way, and the other showing the the start and end points for each day's walk, but at this point they are both switched off to prevent things getting too cluttered. See the next section for information on this.
If this is your first time using Google Earth, you might want to zoom in and out a little, pan the view up and down, and rotate the view, to get a feel for what you can see and how you can move it around. You can do this using the controls at the top right of the window (or, if you're using a version of Google Earth earlier than 4, the controls at the bottom). The best way to learn what you can do with the controls is to play with them.
Using the Places Panel
The highlands of Scotland are particularly three-dimensional, especially around Loch Ness and the Great Glen
Along the left-hand side of the application you should be able to see the Places panel. This lists all the different sets of placemarks in my route file, and by ticking and unticking the various boxes, you can hide or show various types of feature, namely the route itself, the start and end points, and points of interest along the way.
Try switching on the start and end points by ticking the box next to the 'Start and End Points' folder; a collection of placemarks should appear, showing how the route splits up into seperate day walks. If you click on a placemark, Google Earth will pop up a little information window about that place. You can, of course, hide these placemarks again by unticking the box.
You can open up folders in the 'Places' panel to access individual sections or places, so if you want to hide all the route sections except for one particular day, for example, you can do this by unticking the 'Route' folder, opening it, and ticking just the relevant 'Day' inside. You can do a similar thing with points of interest and start and end points.
Not only does this panel allow you to turn various placemarks on and off, it also lets you jump to them in the 3D view. If you double-click on an item in this panel, then Google Earth will smoothly move the display to that item. So if you want to concentrate on the route for day 4, then open up the 'Route' folder and double-click on 'Day 4: Truro to Tregolls Farm', and the display will zoom to that day's walk.
Taking a 3D Walk Along the Route
You can zoom in on some areas in great detail, as in this example that shows my route through Dovedale
If you want to follow the route in 3D, first make sure the 'Terrain' box in the Layers pane is ticked (or, for earlier versions, tick the 'Terrain' box below the main screen). This makes hilly country appear in 3D, though the flatter parts of the country will only look hilly if you zoom in very close.
Next, zoom in close to the start point (you can do this by double-clicking on the relevant point in the Places panel, as well as panning and zooming manually). Tilt the view down and rotate the view left or right until you're looking along the route, and when you're ready to set off, you can either grab and drag the 3D screen itself, or you can click on the button in the middle of the navigation control (the 'joystick' in Google parlance) and hold down the mouse button while you move your mouse. You should find you can use this to fly along above the route, and if you need to turn a corner you can let go of the joystick and rotate in a new direction, before clicking on the joystick and setting off again.
It's almost as good as being there... but without the blisters.
Notes
Here are a couple of caveats when using my Google Earth route file:
Accuracy: This route file isn't accurate enough for navigation – it's just a bit of fun. I entered the route by hand, so if you tried to follow it, you'd probably fall off the edge of the Earth, or something even more spectacular.
Deviations and Mistakes: I got lost every now and then, and the route contains a record of these random wanderings (where I could work out where I must have gone, anyway). So if I appear to deviate from long-distance paths or rights of way, that's why...
That's it – I hope you enjoy exploring the route.
