I had map & compass Barry. I didn’t bring a Jimmy. I suspect that was where I went wrong.
Do they take photos?
You could try using them rather than just carrying them for ballast! 
Of course not. But an old phone like that gives over 2 weeks standby life, lets you spot your self and be contactable by family etc. and weighs less than a smart phone. Add a compact digital camera like my daughter’s which is 20MP and will take 150-200 photos on a single charge and you have a combo that will last for trips like these. You can pick up items like these from “popular internet market sites” cheaply and for less than a solar charger.
There are solar chargers with intergrated cells so the solar cells charge up the battery and you use the battery to charge your phone. That way the solar cells can be deployed over the top of the rucksack etc. They claim fully solar charged in 6hrs but that wont be in English sun but Southern Europe levels of sunlight. So derate by 3 is my (copious) gut feeling.
So you can take a solar charger system that pre-charged will charge your phone once and maybe on this trip would have received enough light to recharge its battery. Or dump the smartphone and switch to low energy devices that offer less convenience but will last the trip.
A deployable roll-up panel and USB charger sounds cool. The problem is the cynic in me is so used to specs of cheap Chinese sourced goods to be such complete lies that unless you get to try the items first you have no idea whether that £49.99 10W solar panel is anything like 10W ouput unless you happen to be almost touching the sun (possible if your name is Parker). Me I’d go with the trusted technology for now.
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Sounds good to me Andy.
Alternatively, if I had simply thought to take my own mains charger with me, I could have topped up my phone during both pub/meal stops. I only didn’t have enough charge to take a couple of photos on The Cloud - so that would probably do the trick.
Well done Tom and I really enjoyed reading (no pun intended!) your account, especially as l was brought up in Knutsford and taken on regular walks in the same area by my parents on a regular basis. Even the names of Cumberland Street and Hibel Road brought back memories as I attended the King’s School Macclesfield.
Best 73s
Alastair, M0TYM
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Thanks for the interesting report Tom. My back up power source for my smart phone is my hand warmer which can be used as an external charge source and is also a flash light. ISTR mine is 2400mAH. I have seen them at 4000mAH.
If you decide to go with Andy’s suggestion, I reckon you would still pack your smart phone. 
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He navigates by ESP and smell - Jimmy doesn’t need a map & compass 
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I heard of someone who could play Pinball by intuition and sense of smell! 
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Thanks for the report - it is an area I know well - I spent some time practising navigational skills before my Mountain Leader assessment around Lud’s Church - which can be a challenge if you loose concentration. Looking for a hole in the ground in fairly dense woodland on a steepish slope is a bit of challenge - probably why it was used for secret meetings! Are there still wild Wallabys there? I know they survived wild for several years in that woodland, and I’m old enough to remember when the old mill was converted to a Youth Hostel. If you don’t mind I think when I get around to activating I might do it as three short walks… 73 Paul
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Sounds like he’s a bit of a wizard :-s
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Yes I’ve heard he can sniff out a pub or curry house from 20 miles away 
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WOW!! I wish I was that fit again!
Very well done
Tony - G7OEM
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Looking at the map, I would only have one summit reachable with a 71 km walk, and most of that distance would be pavement bashing, so I think I’ll pass on that!
Two options then Brian. Either (a) devise your own route activate that summit, walking from - and back to your home QTH - or (b) come up to Cheshire and tackle the route I did.
No feasible route could avoid several miles of pavement bashing each way! I’m thinking more in terms of perhaps doing the Lyke Wake Walk again, but this time with a rig and diverting to get all of the three summits along the way. I don’t think that at my age this could be accomplished the traditional way in a single day (I’m now more than twice the age that I was when I did it before) so I am thinking about possibly a bivvy along the way.
If anyone fancies an organised walk, there is the Longmynd Hike, which passes over 4 SOTA summits (and several others). It is approx 80Km, and you have 24 hours to complete it. Very well organised, but entries closed for this year unless you want to go on the waiting list…
I put your success down to the two training walks I took you on - 22 km and 1583m of ascent (and two Munros) plus 24 km and 1155m of ascent (with two Corbetts). I believe the recovery with curry and beer did assist!
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They were classics Barry - but both nearly wiped me out!
http://tomread.co.uk/ben_macdui_es-001.htm
http://tomread.co.uk/beinn_m.htm
http://tomread.co.uk/bynanck_more_es-010.htm
http://tomread.co.uk/creag_mhor_es-017.htm
R.I.P. dr Tommy.