In the days before sat nav!

Orionaut

Orionaut

Orionaut

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Recently found an item of 65 year old motoring memorabilia.

It is route itinerary prepared for my Parents by the RAC Club back in 1957.

The route is for directions from Le Touquet Airport (My parents used to talk about using a Car Air ferry to cross the channel back when they were young, I guess this was one of the occasions that they did so. I cant be certain of this, but since that is where the directions start from, I dare say it is a reasonable guess)

With the destination being Teheran, a total journey listed as 4690 miles.

It is actually very like a modern printout that you might get from an on line route planner.

There are details of which roads to take, distance between waypoints/junctions. Maps of the more significant towns and cities, and descriptions of the state of the roads and landmarks to look out for on your journey.

The route takes in places like Paris, Lyon, Monte Carlo, Genoa, Venice, Trieste, Zagreb, Salonica, Istanbul, Ankara, Aleppo, Baghdad and finally Teheran.

The Road descriptions vary from, at the beginning, "A undulating road with no scenery of particular interest" (Le Touquet to Abbeville, 38 miles) to the perhaps euphemistic "A fairly well defined road running across lonely stretches of the Syrian Desert" (Aleppo to Damascus, 236 1/2 miles)

It must have been a fantastic trip! I am very jealous! :p

If the world was a different place I would try to repeat the journey but really, today it would be completely out of the question. :(

I will have to scan it in before the paper rots (Though it is currently in very good condition. Must have been high quality paper at the time)
 
Ah the fun of going a few hundred miles on your own with nothing but a map and sign posts. You'd write it all out and try your best not to get lost, if you did you had a real struggle to get back on route. Oh and your destination was always on the fold of a map or between pages :D

Now you don't even think about it, just stick it in the sat nav and off you go.
 
Some people don’t know how to read or carry maps. I have come across a few people on the mountains looking lost. Their phone or satnav has run out of battery.
 
Nasher said:
Do kids even get taught how to read maps anymore?
Click to expand...
Yes. I make damn sure of it!
Phone batteries don't last very long anyway, but especially if you're running location services and SatNav and OS Maps and whatever else, in addition to the usual plethora of Farcebook and Instragram, while Twatting photos of yourself every five minutes.
 
I'm only 37 and I remember noting down directions on notepad and perhaps saving a map from the AA route planner website then printing them before setting off.

I was even an early adopter in mobile technology, so had that sat nav before it really took off.

Shows how quickly things have changed.
 
I’ve still got my AA UK road atlas somewhere, came across it a few years ago and had to explain to my kids what and how it was used.
 
Tee Hee Johnson said:
I'm only 37 and I remember noting down directions on notepad and perhaps saving a map from the AA route planner website then printing them before setting off.

I was even an early adopter in mobile technology, so had that sat nav before it really took off.

Shows how quickly things have changed.
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Heck I’m 33 and I used Multimap directions to get around for a while after I passed my test in 2004.
 
I used to keep a road atlas in the pocket behind the passenger seat when I started driving in the in the 90s.

My technique was to get the bulk of the main points of the journey in my head such as motorway junctions and main roads, then once in the vicinity of my destination get the atlas out again for the final leg.

Of course I don't bother now, Google maps is fantastic, but I'm glad I learned how to get around using a paper map.
 
We went on holiday in France every year via a Michelin map and eve it year we got lost. Dad just shouted at French people in a mixture of bad French and English until we found where we were supposed to be going.

Then all I can remember is complete and utter happiness. Oh and falling in love with French girls when i was a lad- Oh my actual god.
 
Tee Hee Johnson said:
I'm only 37 and I remember noting down directions on notepad and perhaps saving a map from the AA route planner website then printing them before setting off.

I was even an early adopter in mobile technology, so had that sat nav before it really took off.

Shows how quickly things have changed.
Click to expand...
I'm 38, started driving at 17 and have never NOT had a Sat Nav, or more precisely when I first started driving... a Medion Pocket PC with GPS :p

I was also born without a sense of direction so it was pretty much a necessity :o
 
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