Thanks for all your help on this. At the moment, my ideal product does not exist :-(

I really want a robust handhled unit that I can hike with that does not support mapping (making it cheaper) but does support bluetooth (wireless) so that I can use a PDA as the mapping part to plan routes and track progress. PDA's have much better res screens, and larger, and the mapping software looks good in that you can calibrate and scan in your own maps which you then view on the PDA / PC and can be used for route planning and tracking etc.

Given that I am taking a PDA anyway in preference to a laptop, it makes sense to use it's capabilities for mapping. None of the GPS that support mapping allow you to download other peoples maps and their own software doesn't support Pocket PC / Palm. This would be ok if they could supply topo maps of much of the world but they don't.

The PDA GPS sleeves simply don't look robust enough to me and I don't want the reliability of the GPS to be linked to the reliability of the PDA anyway.

If I was happy with a cable connecting the GPS and PDA then I could easily do this. It would be ok on the bike but a pain when hiking. Roll on the next range of bluetooth enabled handheld GPS units! There is one on the market made by a company called Fortuna (I think) but it looks more of a business focused GPS rather than one that's designed to be sunk / kicked / trodden on.

Hopefully someone from Garmin or Magellan will read this plea.

Cheers Andy.