GPS worldmap Atlantic route?

[dries]

Can anybody tell me if a GPS (garmin e-trex legend) with world map is a great help on the atlantic route, or wil a normal GPS unit do just Fine?

A guy who sells GPS showed me that on a small handheld GPS (garmin e-trex legend), you could download almost the whole african continent, on that map was also the atlantic route.
Does anyone has experience with using Garmin world map in Mauretania, Mali, Burkina, Senegal?

All tips are welcome

[Sam Rutherford]

As long as your GPS tells you:

1. Where you are
2. How far and what heading to where you want to go.

It's enough (you automatically get more than that anyway).

You can pay more (and more and more) but you gain little in navigational aid (particularly with a little diddy screen).

I'm not one for messing around with PC compatability, logging waypoints every 90 seconds etc. But that's me...

Good Map, basic GPS (not the other way around!).

Sam.

[Malcolm Woodruff]

I would second that. Take a GPS and even take a spare but only use it for checking where you are on the map and what direction you need to go next. Trying to read it whilst you are travelling is not easy anyway and checking your position and heading every so often is sufficient. On our trip through Mori, Mali, Cote DIvoire to Ghana we used the GPS often once an hour, very occasionally every quarter of an hour when we had lost the track completely or it was going in a different direction to what was on the map and occasionally not at all except to record stops for posterity. You will need as good maps as you can get though. We generally used the Russian maps and they were fine although out of date and inaccurate in places. Although we could have put the maps into the computer and connected the GPS to it to get live positioning in practice it was much easier and better to just plot your position in pencil on the map every so often. Go for a basic GPS.

[ctc]

Agree with the above posts, re the Atlantic route the only navigationally tricky bits are between Nouadibou and Nouamghar when you are predominantly in-land before picking up the beach piste. I would suggest a good map, GPS and some waypoints from previous travellers and (or) a guide would be the best approach.

I you want a guide I would also suggest getting an official one from the agency in Nouadibou which will cost a little more. We made the mistake of saving a few francs and ours got lost. I was then glad of GPS and map until we picked up the piste again.