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Venture beyond where the road ends
By Robin Brown
KNOWLEDGE of where you are or even better where you want to go to offers the traveller a peace of mind second to none.
And this applies the further one is away from home turf.
Now many of us have GPS navigation devices in our cars or even carried in a pocket, which adds a secure guide as to where one is headed.
Arriving in a foreign country the first thing I normally buy is the cheapest GPS on offer as long as it has a full set of the country’s maps built in.
Recently I was fortunate enough after reading a small advertisement to secure a copy of the Book of the Road, a first edition produced by Map Studio.
Apart from being an easy to handle sized book and printed on sturdy easy to keep clean paper it also comes equipped with a CD, which I discovered is terrifically friendly and can turn any adventure into an exciting outing.
The book is packed with 75 pages of detailed maps of South Africa and 208 detailed street plans and offers information on border crossings, camp and caravan sites, dive sites, ferries, accommodation and the list goes on.
After sitting comfortably at home I browsed through the book and as a tester looked for a rather complex offroad gravel route I have often taken into the Klein and Great Karoo.
Now all I had to do was download the CD with its informative data base into my computer and GPS and then plot the same route plus check out any other side roads I may have missed on my journeys.
And this is where this book plus CD combined with other technology really stands up to the brag by Map Studio that it is the South African Motoring bible.
Over the years on most of my travels especially into the mountains or onto those real out of the way places I have bought 1:50 000 maps from the Government mapping department in Mowbray and as one can imagine have drawers full of them.
Now thanks to this book plus the excellent Google Earth as a free download onto a computer plus the free and excellent service offered by the Government mapping department situated just below the old mill in Mowbray I have a powerful package offering the ability to discover new places and then download them to friends or visitors so that they may easily follow in my footsteps.
This is how I have now set up my computer.
I firstly downloaded Google Earth, followed by downloading the CD offered with the Book of the Road.
On opening Google Earth it now offers me not only the chance to zoom into an area I would like to visit but it now has the added advantage of an overlayed grid the same as one would have if they bought the paper maps.
And each grid has its unique number.
I zoomed into the Montagu area where I intended to visit noted the grid numbers so that in future all I have to do is open Google Earth go to the menu on the side and double click on the grid number I want to view.
Once open one can then easily carry on zooming in and amazingly one begins to pick out tracks going off in all directions.
And as one passes the cursor over the paths, tracks or intersections Google highlights the waypoints.
Going even further into depth and having the software 1:50 000 maps from the Government mapping department it is easy to open the map as one has the grid reference.
And 1:50 000 maps are superbly detailed. If one wants to hike or climb in the mountains 1:50 000 maps are an essential part of the trip. Once one has the ability to read waypoints off a map or add them from the GPS onto the map it can be a lifesaver especially when the weather closes in.
On another occasion I had to attend a business meeting in the Boland and although I thought I knew the area like the back of my hand I could not place the particular address I had been given.
Again the Map of the Road came to my assistance as it had the particular farm and conference centre listed.
Again I opened Google Earth, zoomed in to the area where the centre was and soon even had a street view plus the waypoint at the front door. Thirty minutes later I was at the correct address.
The Book of the Road available at under R200 is an interesting and hugely informative guide to the roads in the country and is possibly a really hard act for any other publisher to follow.
I am positive in the coming months if not year another even more powerful updated version will appear and hopefully I am either in line to obtain one or maybe if I am really good Father Christmas will put one in my stocking.
By Robin Brown
KNOWLEDGE of where you are or even better where you want to go to offers the traveller a peace of mind second to none.
And this applies the further one is away from home turf.
Now many of us have GPS navigation devices in our cars or even carried in a pocket, which adds a secure guide as to where one is headed.
Arriving in a foreign country the first thing I normally buy is the cheapest GPS on offer as long as it has a full set of the country’s maps built in.
Recently I was fortunate enough after reading a small advertisement to secure a copy of the Book of the Road, a first edition produced by Map Studio.
Apart from being an easy to handle sized book and printed on sturdy easy to keep clean paper it also comes equipped with a CD, which I discovered is terrifically friendly and can turn any adventure into an exciting outing.
The book is packed with 75 pages of detailed maps of South Africa and 208 detailed street plans and offers information on border crossings, camp and caravan sites, dive sites, ferries, accommodation and the list goes on.
After sitting comfortably at home I browsed through the book and as a tester looked for a rather complex offroad gravel route I have often taken into the Klein and Great Karoo.
Now all I had to do was download the CD with its informative data base into my computer and GPS and then plot the same route plus check out any other side roads I may have missed on my journeys.
And this is where this book plus CD combined with other technology really stands up to the brag by Map Studio that it is the South African Motoring bible.
Over the years on most of my travels especially into the mountains or onto those real out of the way places I have bought 1:50 000 maps from the Government mapping department in Mowbray and as one can imagine have drawers full of them.
Now thanks to this book plus the excellent Google Earth as a free download onto a computer plus the free and excellent service offered by the Government mapping department situated just below the old mill in Mowbray I have a powerful package offering the ability to discover new places and then download them to friends or visitors so that they may easily follow in my footsteps.
This is how I have now set up my computer.
I firstly downloaded Google Earth, followed by downloading the CD offered with the Book of the Road.
On opening Google Earth it now offers me not only the chance to zoom into an area I would like to visit but it now has the added advantage of an overlayed grid the same as one would have if they bought the paper maps.
And each grid has its unique number.
I zoomed into the Montagu area where I intended to visit noted the grid numbers so that in future all I have to do is open Google Earth go to the menu on the side and double click on the grid number I want to view.
Once open one can then easily carry on zooming in and amazingly one begins to pick out tracks going off in all directions.
And as one passes the cursor over the paths, tracks or intersections Google highlights the waypoints.
Going even further into depth and having the software 1:50 000 maps from the Government mapping department it is easy to open the map as one has the grid reference.
And 1:50 000 maps are superbly detailed. If one wants to hike or climb in the mountains 1:50 000 maps are an essential part of the trip. Once one has the ability to read waypoints off a map or add them from the GPS onto the map it can be a lifesaver especially when the weather closes in.
On another occasion I had to attend a business meeting in the Boland and although I thought I knew the area like the back of my hand I could not place the particular address I had been given.
Again the Map of the Road came to my assistance as it had the particular farm and conference centre listed.
Again I opened Google Earth, zoomed in to the area where the centre was and soon even had a street view plus the waypoint at the front door. Thirty minutes later I was at the correct address.
The Book of the Road available at under R200 is an interesting and hugely informative guide to the roads in the country and is possibly a really hard act for any other publisher to follow.
I am positive in the coming months if not year another even more powerful updated version will appear and hopefully I am either in line to obtain one or maybe if I am really good Father Christmas will put one in my stocking.
