Maps Before You Go Or On The Way?
 

Hi Guys,

Off to Africa East/West coasts next year. Better to get maps before I go and have them posted or buy them on the hoof? What are the quality of generally available maps like out there?

Richard

You´d better buy maps in advance in Europe or South Africa. You also can get GPS maps by Garmin or here Tracks4Africa - Mapping Africa, one day at a time

For Africa, make sure you get maps sorted before you go. Having gotten them on the hoof in other parts of the world we didn't, and regretted it as we ended up relying on the good will of other travellers en route to sort how we were getting to where we wanted to go! We managed to pick up maps in The Gambia, but they were more expensive then UK and less choice. For our next trip down the east coast we were hoping to obtain Asian maps and guidebooks from Sth Africa, only to have a SA friend tell me that this is not a good idea, and to get them before we go or have them posted en route.

Hope you have a fantastic trip!
Allison

I can confirm that the choice isn't great in S Africa. Or at least in Cape Town. Left buying maps until we got here rather than in Aus, you can get by with what's available but haven't been able to find a specialist map store so it's only bookshops.

Thanks for the replies guys.

I take it using a 1:2,000,000 map might push it. Might get the seperate maps at 1:600,000 instead - just its a lot extra to pack.