2025 summary

Geograph Blog ::

2025 summary

As a born collector, coins, rocks, train tickets, pre-Worboys signs and photography, the Geograph map has provided the first potentially endless project as no one can get them all so there is always scope for more. I have a plan to extend my map area once a year at least, and last year completed it with a trip to Port Talbot, aiming for Swansea but being snookered by a roundabout in Port Talbot with very poor signposting crossing the only road across the river to Swansea and ended up going back the same way as there was no other route left . But the main aim was my 20th myriad SS which was completed well.

The winter months didn't stop my trips, managing frequent journeys for new squares for most of the off season, adding a new project since buying a motorbike meaning I could finally go inside the London Congestion Charge during the day so cover all the areas I could only get to otherwise on summer evenings . I also discover the odd pre-Worboys sign, which all go on Flickr but only here if on already as people tend to remove them if you give their exact locations. My 2025 project was not so specific, as my primary ambition was to create as far a distance between two points on the map as possible, which I completed when I went to Filey, albeit a couple of hours later than planned so it was already almost dark when I got there . Going further would either require a long train journey to Darlington or overnight in Devon, which to me is too much like hard work so may not ever happen. The only other reasonable myriad is SH in North Wales which I was going to get in 2020 but Wales closed its border for a year due to covid, and the upside was I used the period to get pre-Worboys signs from anywhere I could get to in the Midlands from Shropshire to Notts , which I probably wouldn't have got round to otherwise. SD is more of a train journey plus a tram as the train goes to Manchester Piccadilly and then a tram towards Whitefield to cross the border.

2025 season kicked off with a plan to fill out Newport Monmouthshire, but due to lack of sleep curtailed it to Chipping Sodbury and covered a route from Swindon to Tetbury all on new routes. The next plan was to fill in the area between SJ, SK and SE. In between I worked out an easy route to fill the east of TF in Lincs , covering all new territory from Spalding to Spilsby (and finding a pre-Worboys sign), all places I'd never have visited otherwise. Deciding the A1 was easily the best route north as it's free of obstructions unlike the A5 and its branches, I went to Newark then left on Sheffield Road all the way to Sheffield , which to my relief was almost deserted and virtually free of major junctions. I'd never been to Sheffield before and expected dark oppressive mills and was amazed to find a generally open suburban sprawl built around a swirl of parkland between the housing estates, and was far nicer than most of the other cities I've been to.

There is a possible first Geograph ahead, albeit possibly all at sea, but worth checking out. I can relax on the distance side now, and the other non-Geograph ambition was a short plane trip which should follow when the chance arises as it's a local round trip which needs booking weeks in advance. That should provide some aerial shots, my only others being of Heathrow on a trip to Israel in 1972. Otherwise I can now relax and go wherever I feel like for the remainder of the year, none of which has been planned.