Asia Waypoints
 

I am collating GPS waypoints for Northern Asia (Primarily Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia) .... making them available to adventure travellers in the form of a Garmin GDB file.

The file is primarily for essential information such as valid international border crossings, useful embassies and consulates, fuel availability and conveniences such as places to eat in the middle of a remote area, or hotels, so anyone arriving in a storm or late at night can go straight to convenient recommended accommodation. There is also other useful information such as the waypoints for spectacular photograph locations and campsites in areas otherwise hard to find campsites.

If anyone has a bunch of waypoints (primarily fuel, accommodation or useful food reference points) I would be grateful to receive them at wcolebatch (att) gmail (ddot) com.

I will maintain this post by updating it with the latest version of the files so that the file below is always the most recent.

Note, older generation GPS units (or Zumos / Nuvis) can only take 500 or 1000 waypoints (new ones such as the Montanas are capable of 2000 and over). The file now contains over 2000 waypts. That means the waypoints may (if you have an older GPS) need to edited by each user to delete the waypoints not required for their specific journey. This is easily done graphically highlighting areas of waypoints in a basecamp or mapsource map, then hitting the delete button.

Another way to deal with the volume of waypoints is to take them all with you on a laptop, and transfer different sections to your GPS unit as you need them, as your trip progresses.

I have myself trimmed a lot of waypoints out. Things like camping locations in Mongolia have been deleted .... because anywhere in Mongolia is a great camping location. Similarly, fuel stations along major highways ... I have deleted a lot of them ... there is no need to show 8 fuel stations within a 100 km (60 mile) stretch ... one or two is sufficient to show that fuel range is not critical on certain sections.

Use these in conjunction with the file of the Border Zones and Closed Zones thread for more risk free planning.

For anyone who wants to download the Latest Full Version (as of 14.Sep.2021) of the waypoints, here they are:

I know, I will be forever grateful, when my time comes in 2012 and I can draw on that resource. Thanx for your effort of collecting and putting it up :thumbup:.

I've been following your RR's with great interest over at ADV :yes:

I make this thread a "sticky" as it should be an ongoing topic.
So everyone, send in those waypoints of cafes with the prettiest waitresses!!

Thanks Chris ... no takers yet.

But plenty of people go that way ... around half with a GPS ... most of them with a Garmin GPS.

I have given out waypoint collections about a dozen times in recent months ... but there are plenty of roads and thousands of restaurants and hotels and fuel depots I havent been to in Northern Asia ... its time to make a big file with them all on

PS, if the waitresses are pretty can we put a note on the waypoint ;)

Walter, I will make sure to get you the waypoints I have been collecting and I will try to make an effort of collecting more as I go along. Any desires on how to make your life easier in collating all of this information in terms of naming conventions, comments, categories or whatever?

KP

Excellent question.

I dont think you need to go into too much detail.

The main categories I have on my waypoints so far are:

Fuel
Accommodation
Cafes
General Stores
Bike shops / service / repair places
Water Crossings
Places where the road is closed, impassible or needs special permission to venture beyond
I also have a category for photo opportunities, but use this one sparingly ... its for things like the giant genghis khan on a horse statue out in the mongolian wilderness and things like that that it would be useful for people to navigate t,o rather than for every place its worth taking a foto of.

I think if anything is particularly good value or good food, or to be avoided at all costs, or you have contact phone numbers, then that can go in comments. but my waypoints on have comments on exceptional items, rather than comments on every waypoint.

Sorry to see this surprsing lack of response. Don't understand it. I hope it is because people are on the road, but even then a short message to this thread would be encouraging. . As you know I am collecting a pile of local waypoints in Urgench Uzbekistan. If anybody needs to know where every car parts place / electrician / post office / customs office / internet cafe / airport etc is in thisw town I have got them. Kidding aside, as soon as I get things sorted out I will go over the tracks. Not nearly as many as I had hoped for.

This is a great idea, Colebatch!

This trip across the Stans, for me, is planned for 2011 but I'm sure it'll be a huge help to me.


Thanks with one year in advance! :thumbup1:



Nick

its a great idea, thanks so much for putting it together.
Im sure I will want it for my next trip across russia.
I have crossed it twice, the 1st w/o gps, last year I borrowed a gps from a friend in moscow, as my gps doesnt do cyrillic.
So I unfortunately have nothing to share

Im heading to georgia/armenia/azerbijan soon, you interested in anything from that area?

I'm a gps idiot tho, & will have to figure out how to save waypoints
hahahaha

Doug

Hi Walter -

a while ago I posted some way points through Russia -

you can get Google Earth files here

Index of /~earmb/Google_Earth_Files

and garmin files here.

Index of /~earmb/Garmin_Files

To translate between formats I suggest you try gpsbabel it's a great bit of software for gps translation.

The files contain our tracks, way points, fuel stops and some other bits.

Nice one!

Thanks Doug
 

For the 3rd party waypoints you sent thru. Am amalgamating them into my system ... but looking good. It covers a route thru Mongolia that I hadnt covered.

Thanks Mr Bart ... I have taken most of those waypoints you donated.

Am now up to well over 1000 waypoints ... including 350 fuel stations and a similar amount of cafes and hotels / camping spots .. and thats just from my waypoints plus Doug's and Mark Bart's.

As soon as I can work out how to host this now, I will put a link up.

I can tell you its looking like it can become the ultimate guide book free resource :) ... very comprehensive.

Am hoping after this year there will be a lot more coming in, but anyone who has waypoints at home of Eurasia, please send them in.

wcolebatch@gmail.com

CHeers

Yes Doug ... got me the TransCaucasian countries too please mate

And learn how to save waypoints before you go :)

hi Colebatch - sounds liek you know a lot about Russia- can I ask if I can get those poinst too? am planning east to west to UlaanB and back- many thanks

sure you can have them ... Just PM me your email and I can email to you.

When I get back to UK I will try harder to find a way to store the file online. Then clicking on a link should deliver the latest file and maybe the latest OSM maps too