Arnoud Quanjer Wildlife Photography

As soon as you move of the well traveled paths in Africa one of the most important things is have a dependable means of finding your way. One of the nice gadgets that can help you navigate is a Global Positioning System (GPS). A GPS uses satelites to determine your position on the earth to within a couple of meters. There are two kinds of GPS devices; basic GPS devices that just give you the latitude and longitude of your position and mapping capable GPS devices that show your position on a map. If you have a mapping capable GPS then you in theory don't need to carry any paper maps as you'll be able to see your position on a map accurate to within a couple of meters. I'd recommend to always carry a paper map though as you'll be in serious trouble if your GPS malfunctions while you don't have a paper map. If you have a basic GPS device then you need a paper map with longitude and latitude indication to determine your position.

Mapping GPS

If you have a mapping capable GPS device then you have a reliable way to determine your position on a map, but you still need a good reliable up-to-date map. I guess that 99% of all available GPS maps are meant for routing. Routing means getting you from A to B via the shortest possible route. Routing is a great way to find your way through busy cities but it is pretty useless in places like Luangwa National Park or Northern Mozambique. In places like that you just want a reliable map that not only shows the major highways but also the 4x4 tracks that go through the parks. Routing is utterly useless in places like that because the shortest route might want to take you through a river that is flooded in the wet season. In wild places you need a map that shows you all the roads and tracks and additional information about those roads. At the time of writting there isn't a commercial company that offers reliable maps of remote areas of Africa. There are excellent maps of Africa available through through a community called Tracks4Africa. Read more about Tracks4Africa in the following paragraph.

Tracks4Africa community

To map remote Africa accurately, reliably and ecologically correct cannot be done by conventional mapping means (tracings from official maps and satellite imagery). It requires extensive GPS field mapping projects which are uneconomical. Given that Africa is constantly changing, with every rainy season and with every new local political order it will require mapping and re-mapping. To construct an eco-map is a ground zero mission and at best the job can only be done by experienced eco-travelers, people with a passion for Africa and its preservation.

There is only one way to map Africa accurately, reliably and environmentally correctly: to put the land surveying in the hands of experienced and responsible eco-travelers who know conditions at ground zero. Common hand-held GPS units offer the functionality to store both WAYPOINTS and TRACKS. The latter is an electronic recording of the actual ‘spoor’ or ’breadcrumbs’, showing the precise roads and tracks that were traversed by the user. What is needed is an electronic VECTOR map that comprises only/strictly of GPS recorded/confirmed data. More important is to have access to a continuous stream of fresh GPS recorded data to update this map, because Africa constantly changes. There are enough GPS receivers out there and enough IT skills accompanying the many leisure trips to remote Africa to make community mapping work. Everybody that records tracks in Africa can submit these tracks to the Tracks4Africa (http://www.tracks4africa.co.za/) community. This Tracks4Africa (T4A) community stores these tracks in a data repositiory called the "T4A vault". The content of this vault has been turned into a map which has been made available via a product called T4A Maps Pro. The T4A Map is NOT a city navigator and it is NOT an auto-routable map. The T4A Map is also NOT an "atlas of roads". In fact, it may not even cover 5% of all navigable road/tracks in its coverage area BUT it covers 95% of the roads travelled and that's what counts if you travel in remote areas.

I've used the T4A Maps Pro on numerous trips to Southern Africa and they have proven to be extremely reliable. While travelling through some of the remotest areas in Botswana almost all of the tiniest roads were included on the map. If you plan to travel to Africa and need a reliable GPS map then this product is what you are looking for. The maps are very affordable, if not cheap, as T4A is not a commercial company and thus doesn't need to make money. T4A Maps Pro is designed modular (14 regional maps of Africa). You don't have to buy the complete set. You buy what you need when you need it. T4A Maps Pro is upgraded 3 times per year. (Feb, Jun and Oct) if you buy T4A Maps Pro (or any combination thereof) the next following update release will be posted to you automatically.

With selected maps it's possible to plan a route from point A to B. Tracks4Africa is currently working on making all the maps routable. Check the Tracks4Africa website for up-to-date information on what maps have been made routable.

Visit the Tracks4Africa website at http://www.tracks4africa.co.za/ for more information about the T4A community and information on how to purchase maps. If you use the T4A maps and encounter roads, or for instance petrol stations, that are not on the map then please do your part for the T4A community and record those roads or points of interest and submit them to the community.

Test drive one of the Tracks4Africa maps

To give you an idea of how detailed and accurate Tracks4Africa’s maps are, you can download a free demo map from the Tracks4Africa website. You cannot stream this map to your GPS, it serves only to show what Tracks4Africa GPS Maps is all about. It shows detailed mapping at only 12 or so of the 847 eco-destinations on T4A GPS Maps. Before installing the map, please take a look at theHardware/software requirements. Also note that T4A Maps Demo and the T4A GPS Maps viewer utilityuses the same Windows registries. If you install T4A Maps Viewer it will replace T4A Maps Demo and vice versa. You can find the download and installation instructions for the demo map here.

Demo map for the Kruger National Park: Download T4A demo map

Tracks4Africa map example