Thanks Joy, and everyone else of course.

Your responses have given her food for thought.....she's now COMPLETELY confused!

On the basis of your replies I've downloaded Viewranger (free) on to my rather old HTC Smart(ish) phone. For the princely sum of £7.49 I also downloaded the 1:50000 OS maps that cover NW England - I'm having great fun playing with it.

JJ

I went for Viewranger (I purchased the whole of the uk in 1:50K (cost about £75)) on a smartphone. I chose my phone specifically for this and got one with replaceable batteries (a Samsung Galaxy S3). I also have a waterproof case for it.

I navigate from 1:25k printouts (from grough route). On the challenge I carry one paper copy of my route and fwa at both 1:25k and 1:50k and the phone is for backup (my map carrier might blow away or get left lying on a hill side), a fwa off a fwa (etc) or when the track you are on in a forest doesn't go where it is marked on the map and you need to know where you are.

The phone will go through a battery if I spend all day using it for navigation but it will last 3-4 days in flight mode using it for audio books in the evening and the occasional phone call. So with 2 spare batteries I feel reasonably confident.

But also I use it for navigation in the car (it makes finding your way cross country so much easier when you have OS mapping of everywhere) and it has become my only method of navigation when I go out cycling (yes, it will let me down one day and I will end up using road signs, but it hasn't happened yet).

Colin.