Providing instructions to the start point of a walk is perhaps the most important information in the Walks Programme and this is why we usually meet at a significant landmark and provide local driving instructions on how to find it. Post-codes are always stated but are inaccurate in rural areas; grid references are accurate to within 100m or better but require an OS map which is not useful if you are driving a car.
The Notts Area website provides the most comprehensive approach and uses the grid reference provided by the Walk Leader, adjusted manually to improve accuracy, and links to a Google Map to determine a driving route to the start-point. In addition, it determines the What3Words which locates the start-point to within 3m anywhere in both rural and built-up areas.
At present on the Upcoming Walks Programme page of the blog, we provide a link to an interactive OpenStreetMap map showing the start-point and, if available, the track of a walk. This can be panned and zoomed in and out but there is no link to Google Maps. The alternative is to: download the ///What3Words app to a smartphone; locate the start-point manually using the map or input the three words into the Search box in exactly the format ///word1.word2.word3; use the Navigate and Directions tools to determine a driving route to the start.
Starting with this week's Bestwood walk therefore, the What3Words will be included in the Programme.