I’m replacing the hand-made static route maps on the walk profiles with Google Maps. It’s taking me a while to encode each route but they should all be done soon. See the profile pages for

The White Cliffs of the Seven Sisters
King Beorthwulf’s Gardens (Benington Lordship)
Bodiam Castle
Fortress of the Black Swans (Leeds Castle)

as examples.

Benefits of this approach:

a) you can zoom out to see where the route is relative to London and the rest of the country
b) you can zoom in to see details of the route
c) you can switch from “Terrain” view to “Satellite” view and get a highly detailed aerial image of the route

Once I start getting the hang of the Google Maps API (Application Programming Interface), I ought to be able to add nifty new features like pop-out photos showing on-the-ground views from selected points along the route of a walk.

— DW

Design work has kept me away from English Country Walks over the past few days, so instead of a new walk report this week I’m posting a handful of HI-RES images taken on walks we’ve done in the last month.

These should be suitable for using as desktop wallpaper for your Mac or PC. Just download the file that best matches your display resolution. If you don’t know what your display resolution is, you can check it here (requires Javascript enabled).

Hope you like the photos that follow. Comments welcome. Enjoy!  –DW

White Cliffs
Seaford Head
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See more photos from this walk.

Stonehenge & Salisbury
Waterfowl on the River Avon at Amesbury
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more …

West Somerset
Evening primrose, Oenothera fruticosa
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more …

New Forest
Night train at Lymington
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more …

Tiptree
Pale tussock moth caterpillar, Dasychira pudibunda
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more …

This is kind of cool. In amongst the photos I took during last weekend’s trip to West Somerset (walk report here), I found two shots which show a piece of Dunster Castle. Quite by chance they form a stereo pair, which means you ought to be able to view this image in 3D. [read comments]

To make the 3D effect work, start with your head about 15 inches from the screen. Slowly begin to cross your eyes so that the pair of Xs in the foreground line up and overlap. Then freeze; after a few seconds your brain should recalibrate to this new way of seeing. Don’t worry if you see 3 images – ignore the outer two and just concentrate on the middle one. It helps if you shield your peripheral vision by cupping your hands around your eyes.

Once you’ve lined up the first X, the second should appear further back up the hill. Now can you see the castle in 3D? You’ll know you’ve got it when the bottom X appears to sink back into the shrubbery. The top X should float somewhere above the bushes.

With a little bit of patience and practice, and as long as you’re not wearing glasses, it should work. When it does, it’s pretty nifty! The individual leaves and tree branches jump out of the picture, giving you a sense of the image’s true depth. Hint: relax your eyes and don’t try to focus too hard. Also try varying your distance from the screen a bit.

If you want more help on how to view a stereo pair, try this page for more thorough instructions. Or watch this 3D animation I made here.

More pics from this trip here.

— DW

ps please leave a comment letting me know if you can see it or not – I’d be interested to hear what proportion of readers it’s working for

This is a short clip from our White Cliffs Walk of last Sunday. We stopped for a picnic lunch on Exceat Hill, which is a very steep, grassy hill near the Seven Sisters cliffs. After lunch, Rupert and Mattie tried to do a two-person roll down the hill, while hanging onto each other’s ankles.

23 June UPDATE: Welcome to readers coming in from external sites. If you like the video, please do leave a comment.

After the movie, take a moment to check out the rest of this site – just browse some of the “Recent entries” on the right to see pics from our latest adventures. Thanks! — DW

PS To see more pics taken on this day out, go to this post.

OK, let’s see if this will work …

I have tried saving one of the pictures from the Essex walk in different sizes so you can download the image and put it on your desktop if you so desire.

Because the camera I’m using only has around a 4-megapixel resolution, the clarity may not be that fantastic. Your comments welcome, as always.

Ed, thank you for being the unwitting model in this shot!

To try out the desktop wallpaper, you’ll need to download one of these files. First, pick the one that matches your screen resolution, and click on it to open it in your browser. Then, if you have a PC, you should be able to simply right-click on the image and choose “Set as Background” or “Set as Desktop Background”. Mac users, I’m sure it’s even easier than that.

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Next walk is to Benington Lordship gardens on Thursday. If you want to come, RSVP and be at London Moorgate station ticket counter at 8:30am Thursday morning!

— DW

PS: I’ve removed the logo from the image so it’s ad-free now.