GEOTAGGING | to tag or not to tag?

Hi everyone, I am with Caddy and we are on a little walk here. This is actually my plan B route because as I was driving to my plan A route it was busier than I had planned. I was going to go down the Llanberis Pass but when I was driving I realised it was busier than I thought it was going to be and I also forgot it's back holiday weekend so I've just come to a quieter area near Bad Gallat and I'm going to go for a walk and explore some of these paths around here. Yeah, it's a lovely day. It looks warmer than it is. It's really chilly. Yeah, my hands are frozen as always. So over the last year or so I've had a few people messaging me on Instagram asking me where a certain location is and in some circumstances even demanding the location or the coordinates specifically. I've tried to avoid geo-tagging and geo-tagging is basically where you tag your location on social media. Other people can see where a certain picture was taken. Trying now, well I've been trying for the last six to twelve months just to put like a general location so for instance I normally just use Snowdonia or obviously if it's an obvious place like Trevan or somewhere down the Ogwen Valley or Snowdon then I'll tag and say where I am. Quite often these secret spots turn into party locations. They end up getting ruined and the environment suffers and the wildlife as well around it suffers because of the impacts of the massive footfall that are visiting these places. I'm a big advocate of going out and exploring places like today I've just looked at a map, found a path and thought I'm gonna go and explore that path. It's good to think about the people who live in these small communities, think about it from their point of view and if you were living in these areas that don't get massive amounts of footfall and don't have the infrastructure to cope with so many people then just be aware if you are one of those people that asks for locations that this is quite often the reason why we don't share them. Not because we're trying to hide them or keep them to ourselves or we're being rude, it's because we're trying to protect these places from becoming another trashed beauty spot. When I discover these places, I discover them organically for the first time. I just come across them. I don't ask somebody where they've been and then just go straight to that place. I do hours and hours and hours of exploring before I find somewhere that I think, wow this is really magical. So for me to just give out locations, it takes all the fun out of you exploring it, all of the hard work that you'd put in. There is a strong need to protect these places and to encourage people to go out and explore for themselves because at the end of the day why else would you come to Snowdonia into the mountains? You come to explore not to just go straight to one spot for a picture. There's a really good National Geographic article that I will link below because that explains it probably a lot more coherently than I could. Please please don't think I'm being rude if I don't give out locations or if you ask me for them and I tell you to go out and explore them for yourselves because I'm not doing it in a selfish way and if you think that I am selfish or rude then so be it but I won't be giving out locations apart from obviously the places that are well known and I'll happily give locations of places that can have the infrastructure to deal with a mass footfall and parking and places like that. Obviously those places go for it but it's the places where I know the little villages and the local people would not be very happy if I did give out the locations. So yeah that's my little bit about geotagging. I hope I didn't piss too many people off. Like I said I'll give you locations of popular places and routes and well-known spots but if I've not freely given the location then just don't ask for it. When you come to Snowdonia and you don't know where to go and you're not necessarily confident with a map then there are people that can guide you. Mountain leaders who are experienced and have a good knowledge of the area to guide you on routes and paths that you wouldn't necessarily be confident to go on by yourself. Let me know if you want a list of guides and mountain leaders that I'd recommend and if you're really confident with a map and you know how to use it and you've got the skills and knowledge of mountain walking then by all means pick up a map, find somewhere on a map a path that you wouldn't normally go to and go on it and see if there is any little secret places because there are plenty here in Snowdonia. There's not just one or two there's hundreds so go out and explore them for yourselves. We are going to head back down so thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one.