If you're an undergrad Geology student, chances are you've been hearing people banging on about your Independent Mapping Project from the moment you downloaded the course prospectus.

Now that you're in the last semester of your second year and you're finally staring it in the face, it's time to start preparing for what will undoubtedly be one of the toughest challenges you've ever faced.

Don't listen to students in the year above you who tell you how awesome it was and all of their clutch-your-sides-from-laughing stories. They're lying to you. The same way women who've had children tell first time mums that you forget all the pain once you hold your baby for the first time. That's a tactful way of saying that labour and birth really does hurt like a motherfucker, it's just worth it in the end.

Same with mapping. It is HARD (although probably not quite as hard as childbirth but you get my point). But you too will survive it and become one of those asshole third years who regale innocent second years with hilarious stories and conveniently miss out how the daily grind can wear you down.

So here are my tips to make sure you're well prepared!

1. Start your prep early

By that I mean do not leave it until you only have a few weeks to go to start making arrangements. Ideally you need to start 6 months before you leave.

Probably one of the few days where it wasn't raining :D

2. Consider your choice of mapping partner carefully

In my opinion this can be the most critical decision you make. You will spend eight hours a day with them for 6 weeks. Just the two of you alone. Chances are you will probably be living with them too and you are quite likely to be sharing a room together too. My mapping partner and I even had to share a double bed for 6 weeks. Plus we had four fabulous days cooped up in a car together traveling to Scotland and back. Luckily we managed it all without a cross word.

How did we do this? We mapped together before and we were good friends. We approached our mapping as a partnership and we were a team. The project itself might be 'independent' but you and your mapping partner MUST be on board. You have to make lots of little decisions together daily.

Where are we going today? Whats our plan? What are we trying to achieve? Try and pick someone with a similar level of physical ability to yourself. My mapping partner was fitter than I was and I had to push myself to keep up with her pace but overall we were reasonably equally matched. Especially by the end of the trip. If you have different attitudes about wanting to scramble up vertical cliff faces to reach an interesting outcrop or climb an actual mountain daily then you might be in for a conflict filled 6 weeks.

Plus you will need to take days off. Nobody can map for 30 days straight without going insane. So you need to be able to have a laugh together when you're not working.

My top tips? Pick someone who is a good friend, understands you, has a similar work ethic and fitness level and try to map together beforehand as a practice run.

Better to find out halfway through a week long field trip they're driving you nuts than when you're on day 10 in the pissing rain and you're contemplating pushing them in a river.

Our holiday cottage that we rented, complete with hot tub ;)

3. Book your accommodation asap

As soon as you know where you are going and how many of you are going, book your accommodation STRAIGHT AWAY. Chances are you will be mapping during the summer holidays, which is peak tourist season for just about everywhere you could possibly go.

As a result, accommodation gets booked up fast. Especially when you want to book it out for 6 weeks at a time.

Try and negotiate a lower price as you will be staying for a lengthy period as high summer tends to command peak prices. If you are mapping somewhere popular like I did (the Isle of Skye has been the training ground for generations of geologists), then you may find that lots of cottage owners are very used to geology students.

The owners of the cottage we stayed in rent to geologists for the majority of the summer. As soon as one group leaves, the next one arrives. One of the best places for a recommendation is to ask the students who went the year before you and see if they can put you in touch with someone.

You will be stuck behind a campervan 98% of the time

4. Make your travel arrangements

Think seriously about how you are going to get to your mapping area. And I don't just mean from where you go to uni to whatever far flung location the uni have chosen for you to map in, but also how you will get from your accommodation to your mapping area.  

For some groups from my uni this was simple as everything was walking distance. Not so for us. My mapping partner and I had a 45 min commute each way along terrifying single track, sheep filled highland roads. A car was 100% essential for us in Skye. Taking a car can have it's pros and cons. It cost us an absolute fortune in fuel, but it became our safe haven. Sitting in it shivering with the heating on full blast and watching the rain lash down is one of my fondest memories of Skye.

So think about your travel arrangements and get planning them as soon as you know where you are staying.

5. Create and print your field slips well in advance

If your uni wants you to do this yourself then do it well ahead of time. Do not leave it to two days before departure like I did. It took me a whole day to make them and it was incredibly stressful.

Get ahead of the game and do this when you have lots of time to tackle it calmly. The finished result will be better too.

6. Make copies

Print off at least one spare copy of your field slips and leave them at your accommodation. If a gust of wind happens to catch your field slip and send it off somewhere irretrievable you will be incredibly grateful you had the foresight to make a spare.

Everyone's boots drying by the fire. My Brashers on the right stuffed with newspaper and away from the heat because I was stupid enough to put my foot in a bog that day

7. Seriously consider some new walking boots

My lecturer said she would recommend we all bought a pair of full grain leather boots to take to Skye with us and to avoid anything with Goretex as they don't keep your feet dry for long.

I listened to her and splashed out on a new pair of Brasher full leather walking boots as my current pair at the time were a pair of Regatta ones I fished out of a bargain bin at an outdoor discount store and paid £5.99 for. They had lasted me well but were starting to fall apart and they were made of goretex.

This was the best piece of advice I ever listened to. Unless I actually submerged my foot in a bog (which I did do several times) my feet were dry throughout the trip. I still have the boots and they're still fantastic. Everyone else on the trip had very good quality boots but they weren't full leather and they all had wet feet at the end of each day. Quite a few peoples boots were ruined by the end of it and they ended up replacing them anyway.  

If you are going mapping anywhere in the UK I suggest you do the same. You will be forever grateful. The few days I did have wet feet were utterly miserable and this is avoidable (as long as you watch where you are putting your feet). Make sure they are thoroughly worn in before you go.

Although Brasher don't seem to still sell the pair I have these ones looks quite similar. 

People aren't exaggerating when they say the midges can be really bad in Skye

8.  Purchase any additional kit you need

What you need exactly will be specific to where you are going but if you are mapping in Skye get yourself a decent midge hat, midge repellent, good quality waterproof trousers and a proper coat. A weather writer is an absolute must if you don't already have one.

If you are going somewhere hot you will obviously need different kit. Chat to your lecturer who is running the trip and the students who went the year before. They will tell you what will be helpful.

9. Check your existing kit

Check you have it all, it still works and replace anything if needed. Make sure you have enough notebooks.

If you are mapping in the UK you must be prepared for all weathers. We had a three day heatwave (that lasted three weeks back home) and we both got completely sun burnt as we were caught off guard. 

Pack sun cream, even if you're going to the Hebrides. You just don't know what the weather will do!

10. Check if there is a BGS map available

Or the local equivalent if you are off abroad. The BGS maps aren't done in the same scale but they are a valuable resource that can be used.

Bear in mind that they are also just someone's interpretation and may not be completely accurate...

11. Photo copy and laminate useful reference material

If there is some useful info you think might help you in the field (log keys, relevant section of the BGS map, rock descriptions etc) then photocopy them and laminate them. Keep them in the back of your weather writer.

They can be extremely useful in the field when you just want to check something for reference as chances are you won't have any phone reception.

12. Order any prescriptions you need well in advance

It's no good running out while you're out there. You could be mapping somewhere extremely rural or even in a different country, which could make getting your medication extremely difficult. Try to make sure you have enough to last you.

Ladies, if you are taking a contraceptive pill I would recommend taking it back to back while you map to avoid the hassle and aggravation of being on your period. Chances are there is nowhere to even have a wee in comfort let alone change a tampon. It is completely fine to take more than one strip back to back too. Ask your doctor if you're not sure.

13. Try to do some reading around the subject

Find some books and reference material to read before you go. If you find anything useful print it off and take it with you. 

14. Chat to the students in the year above

They will be your greatest resource for help. This is particularly true once you get back and you're struggling to interpret your results.

They've been there and done it before so don't be afraid to ask them for advice. Just take all anecdotes with a pinch of salt, as 30 days of staring at rocks is enough to make anyone a little bit loopy.

What is this mapping I keep going on about?

Mapping in San Jose, Spain

As my readers will probably know my blog is still very new. Before I started writing it, I undertook a huge personal challenge back in the Summer of 2014. I’ve mentioned this a fair bit on this blog but never really explained what exactly it was I was doing or why it was such a monumental task. I thought I would start by explaining what on Earth I was actually doing there in the first place as most people (myself included not that long ago) have no idea what I am on about when I say “I went mapping”.

As undergrad geology students we spend a lot of our uni breaks on field trips. I realise to the outside eye this sounds like we get to go on elaborate holidays to exotic places, but this isn’t really true. While we definitely do have fun on our field trips they are HARD WORK. Like really hard work and they are absolutely not a holiday. We spend our days outside in all weathers with long hours. There is a huge amount of walking involved over tough terrain. We don't get days off and we spend most of our evenings working. If you decide to go out drinking you will seriously suffer for it the next day. Chances are we are staying in some broom cupboard in a dodgy hostel sharing a room with 6 people. Its challenging both emotionally and physically in a way you cannot truly understand unless you have done it yourself.

Field work isn't really my thing and I would prefer to be sat in a warm dry classroom pretending to listen to the lecturer. So to be honest I haven’t really enjoyed the field trips much and I really hated doing the work at the time (in case you can't tell). Looking back I remember them fondly but I think this is more to do with the camaraderie with my fellow course mates and the sense of achievement gained from completing them.

'What the fuck is this rock?' Wales

I do love to be outdoors and my degree has given me the opportunity to travel to some exceptionally beautiful parts of the world. I always find though the actual work gets in the way of properly making the most of the opportunity. We are too busy doing what we are there for to take advantage of the chance to explore wherever we happen to be.

Geologists however (particularly lecturers) are mad and think nothing of a brisk 10km walk at nearly 3km altitude carrying a heavy rucksack or doing a death defying scramble down a near vertical cliff just to look at an ‘interesting outcrop’. I personally do not care enough to think the physical effort is worthwhile but maybe that’s just me.


Anyway, back to explaining the point of this post. Instead of a traditional dissertation geologists undertake an Independent Mapping Project and a Mapping report. This replaces doing extensive research and then writing a dissertation. The mapping project is where you do your own research and then you write about what you find in the report.

Geological mapping is not as simple as it sounds. The idea is to try and build up a complete geological history of the area you are studying by recording all the observed rock outcrops. This is done by wandering (seemingly aimlessly) around your area and writing detailed notes on everything you find. The location of every outcrop is recorded on a map. You then apply your extensive geological knowledge to try and make sense of what you observe. While this sounds straightforward it really isn’t as you will only be tasked with mapping somewhere where there has been extensive deformation to make everything nice and suitably complex.

Climbing a volcano in Spain

For your Independent Mapping Project you spend 30 days mapping a large area (16km square in my case!) so there is an extensive amount of walking involved. The more days off you have the longer you will have to stay there so most people opt for one day off a week making a total of 5 weeks spent mapping. That one day off becomes all that you are living for as you do not have to stand outside in the pouring rain that day. I had done a lot of field work before I went on my Independent mapping but not a huge amount of geological mapping (9 days in total).

A lot of our field trips resemble something you probably experienced during GCSE Geography where you get dragged to Lulworth Cove and are forced to make a sketch of Durdle Door (I am not joking about this, I have been on 2 field trips there) and listen to the teacher explain things. I had never done any field work without instruction and the longest trip I had ever been on was 12 days long. Nothing prepares you for the sheer horror of having to do this amount of work with no help.

Bloody Health and Safety, Ingleton, Yorkshire

While it is called an ‘Independent’ project most unis generally expect their students to map in pairs for safety reasons. Unfortunately, you have to actually do your own work and your partner really is there just to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre or CPR or whatever. In fact they are so serious about this safety thing that Southampton uni makes us do a compulsory first aid course. My experience of this was hilarious as my mapping partner and I were ridiculously hungover at ours and thought we were going to vom on the CPR dummy. Somehow we passed but it was a good thing neither of us injured ourselves! Talking of mapping partners deciding WHO you are going to map with is probably more important than WHERE you go mapping.

This person will be your only companionship day in day out. It is absolutely essential that you like them and that they like you. There is no backing out once you get out there and they start to piss you off. It is a huge commitment to make and a big test of your friendship. Spending 5 weeks with one other person is probably more intense than the average marriage so you had best make sure you choose wisely. If you survive the experience though, the two of you will share a completely unique bond that no other person will come close to understanding. You will have scary weird in jokes and little anecdotes that nobody else finds funny. You know how close you both were to going completely insane but because you are friends you keep it to yourselves.

Once the torture of the field work is over and you are finally home it’s time to start writing it all up. Except you won’t cos you just wasted nearly 6 weeks of your life worrying about rocks and you are going to enjoy the small amount of the summer you still have left. You'll leave it all til much later in the term. Even then you won't start it until you have began lying awake at night stressing that you haven't started it.

Somewhere in Wales, who knows.

The other sneaky thing the uni make you do is digitise the map you spent the whole summer making, colouring in and protecting from the elements as though it was your firstborn child. This is called the Interpretive Map and creating it is a long, labour intensive process as the software likes to crash frequently. It also costs over £500 to buy so you either

a) pirate it (but Corel Draw is a sneaky bitch and works out that you illegally stole it)

b) use the free 30 day trial (all very well and good but the clock is a ticking)

or

c) give in and only do your work in the library.

All in all making the Interpretive Map is just as painful as making the paper copy. Only there is a strong sense of déjà vu because, oh wait, YOU’VE DRAWN ALL OF THIS BEFORE.

The most frustrating part of this is you cannot even pretend you aren’t doing your interpretive map because you are just so busy writing the report (ie. burying your head in the sand). This is because you pretty much need to have the interpretive map complete in order to write your report. FFS.

The report itself is 8000 words of pain as you try to rewrite your rain smeared notes you made in the field into something coherent. Preferably something that also sounds intelligent and feasible. THIS IS YOUR DISSERTATION AFTER ALL.

#SIRENS 4EVA

Eventually after hours of stress crying and contemplating dropping out your novel is complete and ready to be handed in. Complete with the Interpretive Map, Field Map and Notebooks. They all get shoved into an envelope bound into the back of the report and you can hand it in and forget about it.

In conclusion, this is the bare bones of the task but the experience is different for everyone. Come back next time for what I thought about my experience of mapping in the Isle of Skye!