Since the great navigators started charting the world, a map on a wall conjures up all sorts of stirrings in a person, inviting them to explore the furthest reaches on their own voyages of discovery.
For our trip of 12 months, we have used various maps and software to ensure we know exactly where we are - and if indeed it will get us where we want to go.
Planning Tool - Small Scale
A map is a wonderful tool for planning - and we chose a large wall map for roughly planning and tracking our journey. Thankfully a bit of double sided tape has seen it stuck inside one of our canopy doors for ready access. The kids love seeing where we are and where we have been as I mark every few days where we are.
This map was also handy for the rough planning of our journey. We decided that we would spend a month or so in Tasmania at the start of our journey. The plan was then to head across the bottom during late summer / autumn. By 1st May we wanted to be in Carnarvon WA in order to cross the Top End in the dry season and be back in Cairns by October... it mostly worked out that way!
Short term planning - next six weeks or so
We would try to come up with a more detailed plan for the next six weeks or so. For this planning we used the free State Maps from NRMA (free for members), a collection of tourist maps from Information Centres and of course advice from fellow travellers. This plan was still pretty flexible - we would allocate around half a week or so to most attractions give or take. We would have some idea from this plan how much travelling was ahead of us, and if we could do it in a single day of travel or if overnight stops were required.
On the road itself - where exactly are we!
Installed in Rocky is an after market head unit, that replaced the standard radio/cd player with a far more sophisticated unit.
We opted for a Zenec branded head unit that does simply everything. It plays CDs and DVDs, allows Bluetooth hands free and music, you can plug the iPhone in for full iPod functionality, it came with a reverse camera (and a switch so I can flick between Matilda's reverse camera too), it also occasionally plays the radio.
It also has a GPS unit, and whilst the turn by turn directions on the street navigation mode are pretty good, we found it struggled with directions to a few places like Birdsville for instance. The state border confused it completely, but overall it was pretty good at getting you to an address in most towns - even if it couldn't find our home address either.
The solution was some magic software tricks and a SD card with a suite of Hema Maps. A simple selection allows you to choose between normal street navigation or the Hema Maps. Hema pride themselves on the most comprehensive 4WD maps in Australia, and we have found them to be excellent.
Jo loves the fact the unit retains the factory look of the dashboard (albeit a little dusty now), leaving the windscreen uncluttered.
It takes but a few seconds to load, but before you know it you are loaded with either the best scale map available, or the last scale you chose.
Loading - you know you have the right stuff
We have found the maps to be excellent. The largest scale in most areas is 1:250 000, but in some popular national parks, there are special maps at even better scales. Hema also produce special touring maps, and these are easily selected for areas such as the Kimberley or Cape York.
We also have a copy of another product called Mud Maps installed on the iPad. The iPad is mounted on a bracket built into the Amarok dashboard, meaning no nasty holes are drilled into the fascia. The ability to display both maps side by side has occasionally created confusion, particularly when we are on a track that isn't on either map, however generally the Hema maps seem to have better detail when on minor tracks.
When you get back on the highway, you can zoom out the mapping. In most open areas, the best scale seems to be the Hema 1:1 000 000 which covers all of Australia. It works well for allowing us to see what rest areas are ahead and where would be a good meal break or leg stretch.
On the open road again - with rest areas and towns clearly marked
The best part is that we can still have our music playing whilst the mapping software is running. This is yet another example where technology is making travel into the great unknown safer and more enjoyable for all of us. We have always known how far we have until our next fuel stop, where the next town is and most importantly which roads we need to take in order to get there!
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