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tracks4africa versus OSM? tracks4africa versus OSM?
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Photo by George Guille, It's going to be a long 300km... Bolivian Amazon

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by George Guille
It's going to be a long 300km...
Bolivian Amazon




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  #1  
Old 25 Aug 2017
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tracks4africa versus OSM?
Just wondering if someone has experience of both OSM and tracks4africa maps on a Garmin (Montana in my case) and whether the latter is really worth the money? So far the OSM looks good, with lots of waypoints etc., but some text in Arabic in Egypt for example is messed-up.

Thanks

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Old 25 Aug 2017
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If used both. I loved tracks4 africa as they new campingplaces and petrolstations etc.

OSM maps are just maps. If you want to get somewere you have to enter GPS Positions. To converte an adress into GPS Positions you need something like a Laptop with Google earth and internet connection...

Adventure experience - motorcycle trip riding across Africa
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Old 25 Aug 2017
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Maps.me uses OSM under the hood and can convert addresses to locations, all offline. I used both Maps.me and T4A back in 2015 but ended up using Maps.me most of the times.

T4A had some more camp sites at the time, I saved them as a waypoint and used Maps.me to navigate to them. iOverlander is also great to find (wild)camps. Also, T4A is mainly focused on southern Africa.

On the other hand, considering what you will probably spend on your whole trip, the T4A investment is minor.
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Old 25 Aug 2017
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I might be totally missing the point here as we don't have a Montana, apologies if so!
But there's a routable OSM. That's what we use on our inbuilt Garmin in the car, so you don't need to convert to GPS points.

We use both T4A and OSM.
In Southern Africa T4A is generally excellent. From Kenya northwards there's a lot missing and we use both for planning then whichever seems right (?!?!) when we set off.

We use iOverlander for places to sleep and if we don't like the look of those, check out 1 or 2 on T4A or OSM.
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Old 25 Aug 2017
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So could you not use T4A itself to navigate directly to a campsite? Or is navigation in maps.me better somehow? I have iOverlander and maps.me on my iPhone but I'd rather use my Garmin as my main navigation device.
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Old 25 Aug 2017
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Originally Posted by goo View Post
So could you not use T4A itself to navigate directly to a campsite?
You can on a Garmin Nüvi 255W GPS Never heared of Maps.me. Sounds interesding but i also prefere my rough 50 Euro car GPS to navigate around the world then my weeker small little smartphone. Specially in Sand, Mud and Rain...
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Old 26 Aug 2017
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I currently use a cheap 7" tablet with GPS and Maps.Me for navigation and an old Garmin as a backup, works lik a charm
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Old 26 Aug 2017
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T4A is more for the adventurous - it shows tracks that are not to be found on standard maps. Some of the "special" tracks on T4A are a result of real hard-core off-road trips by locals.

I haven't any experience with OSM maps since I only use Garmin stuff. The latter covers all normal roads and pistes in Southern Africa and offers a good coverage regarding POI's. In the remote areas of Lesotho and Namibia T4A came very useful, but as stated before, these tracks were not for "normal" travellers.

Hope this helps.
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