Sustrans Publications

The new Sustrans book  "Traffic Free Cycle Rides - 150 Great Days Out" is well worth buying (even at £15.99) and your Ranger discount will just about cover the postage costs.  It is ideal if you have a habit of wandering further afield than our local routes, as it  include routes throughout the country. It is nice to see that the "Mickleover Trail" is included, and that it leads to "the pretty village of Etwall".  Sadly I did not recognise the pedestrian gate which illustrates the text.

Along with the book you get free access to .gpx files of all the rides and these can be downloaded to become an overlay on most mapping systems such as Memory Map.  They can also be downloaded  onto a GPS and I expect a Smartphone, although I could not do the former and do not own the latter. A gpx file is simply a list of map references along the route of a ride, which appear on the map as icons in line.

Rangers will have received a copy of the latest map of the National Cycle Network, and be as disappointed as I was to see that the City of Derby is apparently "a town", and that it "does not have a railway station". Sustrans have been notified, and agreed to correct these errors for the next edition of the map.

Hurrah!