Arriving Cherbourg today (3/1/15) to ride down to Malaga then Ferry to Morocco then onwards to Capetown by western route.
The one hiccup in my preparations is that I didn't get to load Africa maps for my Zumo 660!
Does anyone know if there is a Gramin retailer en route where I could buy the maps on an SD card or give me any advise on the easiest way to get them loaded on the road - or, long shot, anyone seeking a loaded SD card that direction.
Appreciate any help as I'm a bit of an idiot with technology!
Thanks Brian

Try this website:
http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl
You can mark the areas you want and then download the maps for your garmin. The maps are up to date and precise. For West Africa to Capetown it will be around 300 MB to download. Get a Maroc Telcom card in Morocco, cost is about 12 EUR for one month and 12GB volume. Signal is really good and fast nearly all the way to Mauretania. Or find free WiFi on the way to Morocco.

Gesendet von meinem GT-P5200 mit Tapatalk

Are you intending to use the maps in conjunction with Mapsource or Basecamp in order to plan routes, or just within the Zumo?

Garmin has two map sets covering Africa: (1) Middle East/North Africa and (2) South Africa.

Garmin France is in northwest Paris but obviously closed today, so not much use. The chance of a random dealer somewhere in France/Spain having SD cards with Africa on them is rather slim.

The Garmin Worldmap might be sufficient for your needs but again I don't know where you will find this on a SD card.

Another option is OpenStreetMap but you are going to need a computer to work with this.

__________________
"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)

Hi Brian:

Generally speaking, you can't buy maps for other countries from Garmin retailers. I suspect that they don't stock them because they go out of date so fast.

Prior to visiting Morocco last spring, I downloaded a Morocco map from Garmin. It was quite expensive, about USD $100 or so. It was quite a good map, but not substantially better than the Open Street Map of Morocco that Alu referred to in his post directly above. Both the OSM and Garmin maps of Morocco have weaknesses - neither one is up to the level of detail and accuracy you will find in the European Garmin maps. But it was sufficient to let me get to where I wanted to go, and to keep me from getting lost.

If you are interested in the Garmin map, here is a direct link to the Garmin website for that map: https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/maps...prod73686.html

Once you get south of Morocco, I think that Open Street Maps will probably be your only mapping alternative, at least, until you get to South Africa, where Garmin has excellent coverage.

Michael

Whoops, last minute edit: I note that Tim, our moderator, posted a reply at the same time I did. I just read Tim's post, and I was not aware that Garmin offered regional maps of Africa. But if Tim says so, it must be so, because Tim is pretty darn knowledgeable about Morocco.

The Garmin 'Worldmap' that Tim refers to is already embedded in your Zumo 660 - they come from the factory with that map in them. But, it is pretty thin coverage, suitable for getting a visual overview of road networks and not much more than that.

Any Garmin or paper map that you buy will be out of date to some degree. I certainly wouldn't bother with either of the two Morocco mapsets that Garmin offers.

I imagine you are looking for a idea of where to head for and the ability to have this displayed on the Zumo whilst you use your eyes to actually decide which roads are best? I use this technique a lot in Morocco where I'm travelling in an uncharted area, I just set a waypoint for where I roughly want to go and put the Zumo 660 into offroad mode so it just points the general direction for me.

In which case you might do well with a smartphone and Google Maps or with other apps such as Waze, MotionX-GPS, PocketEarth, etc. There's likely to be cafes with wifi, or Internet cafes around where you can use their network. Not sure how you grab a waypoint off these in order to feed it into the Zumo but perhaps someone will come along and help. Once you have the waypoint you can use it in conjunction with the base map in the Zumo.

There's a way to save Google Maps (road view, not satellite) in a smartphone memory, see here. Even though it doesn't have a data signal in the middle of nowhere, so long as your smartphone has a GPS receiver it will be able to display your location on the saved map.

Sometimes you can't save an area of maps if there is a contractual restriction in place.

(I tried mounting my iPhone 6 Plus on the handlebars but this doesn't work in Africa as it overheats and shuts down in the direct sunlight)

Hopefully you have a laptop and smartphone with you?

__________________
"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)

Brian:

Just a follow-up about those Garmin regional maps that Tim referred to: there are several available, but it doesn't look like they cover the areas you are interested in.

The City Navigator East Africa map covers the north-east quadrant of the continent - basically, Kenya and the countries that border all around Kenya.

The City Navigator Southern Africa map covers everything south of a line drawn between the northern border of Angola and the northern border of Mozambique.

The City Navigator Middle East & North Africa is primarily a Middle East map, but it does include Morocco, Egypt, and limited coverage of Tunisia.

As far as I know, once you get south of about the middle of Morocco, Garmin doesn't offer any coverage of Western Africa until you hit Angola.

Michael

If getting an OSM map ... it may take some time ...

1stly to have the map you want created ... possibly available straight away .. possibly a day after your request...

2ndly the download it self may take an hour or two. Even if you have a fast connection .. the map provider may not have a fast connection so the speed may well be limited.

Usually you request the map .. and provide an email address .. that email address then gets 2 emails;-

1. the first one give you a tracking web site so you can see how long it may be before your map is ready. There is a rough indication on the map request web site before you request the map, but this website will be uptodate if you look again later for your individual request.
2. the second one gives you a web address where you can download your map. This address self destructs in 72 hours .. so you have to use it soon rather that leave it hanging around.

The maps files given are selectable. Download the one you want. One is a simple file that you can copy to your memory card and the GPS should take it from there. Another is an executable that will install the map files on your PC so mapsource/basecamp can use it .. I think both windows and mac versions are given .. oh and a linx variation too.

Most people do this at home before they start their trip... much less stress when you have a week to do it. Harder on the road.

As identified in the post above, obtaining OSM for loading up to external hardware can take a bit of time, although if you simply request a named country rather than selecting specific tiles then it is much speeder - the bespoke, hand-made-suit Vs the made-to-measure product analogy.
All this is discussed in the sticky thread in here about OSM downloading.

Otherwise, if you do resort to using mobile phone technology, rather than your Zumo, then there are many apps on the market nowadays that use OSM and which don't require you to do that downloading business - they do it all for you and simply present you with the map.
There are many such apps appearing on the market so perhaps worth considering (this also depends on your philosophy toward the fine art of navigation and map reading); again, there is a large thread in the stickies on this subject.

__________________
Dave

Hopefully you will have your 660 with you Brian.
Fixed it for you ☺
Don't stress amigo. Enjoy your ride down to Spain in the knowledge that I have a ready solution for you. Check your pm
No worries

Emailed you

Thanks to all for your very useful advise. Fortunately Bertrand has offered me a ready made solution and I'm in contact with him
Where would we be without The Hubb...
Appreciate it

Brian