HOME/TRIP ENGINE

The Trip Engine: feed it your dates.

Free, account-free and browser-local. Tell it where you’re starting, how long you’ve got and who’s aboard, and it ranks all twenty-two files against your actual week — then shows its working: why each one won, why the others didn’t, and how any two compare side by side. Load one and the dashboard fills in: route, fuel at your own mpg, off-grid endurance for your battery, daylight, spring and neap tides, what the ground usually does that month, and the Nature Matrix filtered to your dates. Save it to the Hangar; nothing ever leaves your device.

01 / HOW IT WORKS

The archive, pointed at your calendar.

Every expedition file on this site carries the same structured data: route shape, verified campsite spine, terrain character, seasonal notes, crossings, membership value and booking priorities. The Engine scores all of it against your answers, recommends the best fits, trims a file to your dates where that's honest, and runs the numbers — miles, fuel, energy, payload — using the same methods as the calculators. As the archive grows, so does the Engine: new journey files join the deck automatically.

02 / YOUR BRIEFING

Five questions. More if you want precision.

The deck below updates live as you answer. The advanced panel is optional — it sharpens the scoring but never blocks it.

ADVANCED BRIEFING — OPTIONAL
WHAT PULLS YOU?
Tick any. Ties break toward your interests.
MEMBERSHIPS YOU ALREADY HOLD
The Engine highlights routes that cash the cards you own.
MY VAN — EDITABLE PROFILE (SAVED IN THIS BROWSER)
Saved once in this browser only — the whole Engine then computes for your van: fuel, endurance, payload margin and the length limits written into the files.

03 / RECOMMENDATION DECK

Best fits from the archive.

Ranked live against your briefing. Blue notes mean the Engine has trimmed a file to your dates — the two-night rhythm survives; the transit days compress.

WHY NOT THE OTHERS — ONE LINE EACH

This engine plans Britain — all twenty-two files, and nothing else. Europe has its own engine and its own archive, kept deliberately separate so a continental route never crowds a British one.

04 / TRIP HIGHLIGHTS

The moments the deck is selling.

Pulled live from the three recommended files — the pitch, the view and the set-piece that earn each one its rank. Every line links back to its full journey file.

05 / ROUTE PLANNER

The route, stop by stop.

The loaded expedition unrolled as a chain of bases, crossings and waypoints — each stop deep-links to its day in the journey file and to the map for local points of interest around it.

06 / THE NATURE MATRIX

The species index for your window.

The loaded file’s full living checklist — every species card with its peak months lit, your travel window ringed on the timeline, and gold for the rare ones. Species outside your window are folded away behind a button — the collection you’re not collecting this time, one tap from view when you want to plan a return. “Might” remains the honest word throughout.

Showing your trip window

06B / THE SEASON AROUND YOU

Backdrop conditions.

06C / TIDE WINDOW

Springs, neaps and the shore they uncover.

Tidal range follows the moon, so it can be worked out years ahead without a forecast: biggest a day or two after new and full moon, smallest at the quarters. Range is what decides whether a causeway opens, a ledge uncovers or a harbour empties — but it is not a timetable. Always take actual high and low water from an official table for the port you are standing on.

06D / CLIMATE WINDOW

What this ground usually does in this month.

Long-term character, not a forecast — useful months out, when no forecast exists. The week you travel, the Met Office and MWIS are the captains.

06E / THE SKY OVER THE TRIP

Sun, moon and the calendar above.

07 / TRIP DASHBOARD

Load a recommendation to run the numbers.

The same methods as the calculators — miles, fuel, energy and payload — pre-filled from the selected file and your briefing, every figure editable. Estimates for planning, not promises; fuel prices and appetites are yours to set.

07B / PAYLOAD QUICK CHECK

Will it carry?

08 / SAVED TRIPS

The hangar.

Plans save in this browser only — nothing leaves your device, exactly like the calculators. Load one to restore the whole briefing and dashboard.

08B / TAKE IT WITH YOU

Portable in three formats.

Everything below works from the plan currently loaded above — no account, nothing leaves your device until you choose to send it. The PRINT button in the top bar produces a one-page departure brief of the same plan.

FOUND THIS USEFUL?

Buy the crew a coffee, if you’d be so kind.

Everything in the free archive today - the expedition files, the Nature Matrix, the seven calculators and the Trip Engine - is free forever. In future, we may offer paid expansions for people who want more. They will add to the free archive, never take anything away from it.

But if a file saved you a wasted weekend, or the Matrix put a puffin in front of your children, you are very welcome to stand us a coffee. It goes on diesel, ferries and the next expedition — which comes back up here, free, for you.

Fuel for the Nebuchadnezzar£10 · ONE PAYMENT →

Entirely optional. One payment, never a subscription — and you can set any number up to ten at the checkout if you are feeling especially kind. No perks, no supporter tier, and absolutely no hard feelings either way.