BIG Breath - especially with diving into a thread such as this that to me, at the moment, seems like a foreign language (as does Spanish after 5 lessons....).

Long story short, bike is being shipped from New Zealand to Los Angeles, we then plan to take 11 months riding South through Central and South America from June. I have the Gamin maps for North and South America. Maps for CA is my confusion.

So;
first step to loading CA maps onto my Garmin is to buy an SD card, correct?

I have SD cards for my camera but they seem a lot bigger than what will fit in the Zumo XT (Zumo has microSD cards). I see that the Garmin maps I have purchased you can remove a small card out of the SD card that they have. Second question - are they a special SD card as my camera SD cards don't seem to have that?

Third question, if I need to buy an SD card to download CS maps what size card to I need (I have 1, 2 and 8 GB cards)?

Those are my questions for now :-)

Thank you
Kiwi Mike

Hi Mike, sorry no one's answered your questions yet.

Installing maps into Garmins can be mind boggling but post Montana series is a lot easier than it used to be.

You Garmin will run a miniSD card - like you stamp-sized camera card but size of a fingernail or a phone SIM.
As you have found you can get big-sized holder/adapters into which a miniSD will slot.
That holder/mini combo could be used in your camera or other big card devices, if need be. It's the same tech afaik.

Go big. Even 8GB seems small.
And go fast too. The other month I updated my old mini SD - class 3? - to a class 10. Much faster response, even if Garmins aren't known for that.

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Morocco Overland 4 (2025) • Trans Morocco Trail

Have we had this one yet?
Who knows but recommended by an Africa pro.
Africa OSM Topo Routable | GMapTool

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Morocco Overland 4 (2025) • Trans Morocco Trail

Yes, I think I posted about these sometime ago.

I've been using the North Africa Topo for 5-6 years now. The latest update isnt very good on screen via basecamp but works well enough on the device.

Another option are the Open Topo Maps but the way they rendered the map males using it on a Montana almost impossible as the contour lines are thicker than the pistes

Hi Chris
Did you use these maps for your recent Algerian trip? If not whatdid you use?
Thanks
Chris Davies

Hi Chris. This time I used GaiaGPS' Topo plus Sat layer maps - both offline (sub needed) on a cheap Samsung tablet.
Plus of course, a lot of annotating beforehand.
GaiaGPS' rendition of OSM data on the Topo layer is bafflingly good (same in Morocco). I don't know how but they somehow know where to draw the [right] line when it comes to splattering a map with tracks and other detail – a common flaw which ruins the clarity of OSM-derived maps for nav purposes, IMO. I'm not sure the (OSM) North Africa Topo would have been as good in Alg which gets little user input these days.
Plus I experienced the novelty of live sat nav across the landscape – the holy grail of desert nav people were trying 20 years ago.

But some mornings GaiaGPS would take 20 mins to connect with itself, and for recording tracks and wpts, it was unreliable, or perhaps the slightest touch of the screen stopped recording. A fixed mount as opposed to sat on my lap may have avoided this.
If my 650 Montana had a brighter, bigger screen but didn't cost £700 to upgrade to 700, I'd use that (as I do on a moto).

Southern Algeria being what it is and me and the driver knowing it well/up for trying new routes, we could pretty much navigate by landmarks (distinctive isolated mountains or passes) and find the best way between them.

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Morocco Overland 4 (2025) • Trans Morocco Trail