Maps and Compass

Electronic equipment has a habit of breaking or changing hands and for this reason we will also be taking paper maps and a compass with us.

We will be using Michelin maps 745 (North East) and 746 (Central and South). Although not as detailed as Tracks4Africa, they have comprehensive coverage of all major roads.

For the European leg of our journey and as a backup for Africa we have a Garmin Nuvi 2595, which came with maps for the whole of Western Europe. First impressions are that it is a really good product with loads of features ranging from Bluetooth with various apps such as weather when connecting to an android phone to voice commands that can even understand our lekker kiff Sarf Efrikkin eccents.

GPS

After hours on Google we’ve decided to go for the Garmin 60 csx. Thanks to ebay we managed to win (you don’t buy stuff on ebay) a second-hand one for a reasonable price.

One of the nice things about the Garmin is that we can set it up to constantly save our coordinates which we’ll then be able to upload to Google Earth. We’ll also be able to sync these coordinates with our photos.

Other useful features include a compass and altimeter, and the ability to plan routes on Google Earth beforehand and upload them to the gps. The Garmin is also waterproof and quite rugged so should be able to survive me not being able to hold something for longer than about 5 minutes without dropping it.

 

We will be using maps from Tracks for Africa.

A comprehensive review of the Garmin 60 csx can be found here.