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sub-Saharan Africa Topics specific to sub-Saharan Africa. (Includes all countries South of 17 degrees latitude)
Photo by Hendi Kaf, in Cambodia

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Photo by Hendi Kaf,
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  #1  
Old 21 Sep 2008
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Best Paper maps for Africa
Planning a lap of the dark Continent from Djibouti down to SA and then up the west coast to Morroco.

I guess Stanfords is the place to shop??? But which are the most reliable publishers... you know the ones the are not full of fairytale roads.

Thx Chaps

Tim Dr650
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  #2  
Old 21 Sep 2008
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The Michelin series are good; IGN are hit & miss dependant on the country ...

I have both Michelin & IGN for Cote d'Ivoire; the IGN is appalling, whilst the Michelin is very good but in comparison my IGN for Guinea is excellent (I don't have the Michelin one for Guinea but the IGN is as good as the Michelin for CI)

The NW Africa one is good, not as detailed obviously but I use it a lot ... and is worth having for a general overview!

As for buying them, I don't know where I'd get them in the UK, mine have been bought here in France in various shops & online (amazon.fr).

Kira
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  #3  
Old 21 Sep 2008
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I've had a good experience with reise-know-how maps in morocco (don't know about the rest of africa). They have almost all african counties. (Landkarten für die ganze Welt vom Reise Know-How Verlag online) The only downside is they are in german

regarding,

Henk Jan
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  #4  
Old 21 Sep 2008
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The Map Shop in Upton upon Severn is not too far from you. They have a web site Upton upon Severn. Very helpful people. (I have no links with them other than being a customer). Have fun, John.
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  #5  
Old 22 Sep 2008
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Best Paper maps for Africa
I found the Michelin maps extremely good through most of West Africa. I'm traveling down to Cape Town from Nigeria in November and have not used the Central and South Africa map yet but expect it's quality will be as good as that of the North and West Africa map. You can get them from Amazon very easily.

It's also a very good idea to bring a GPS with the smelly biker maps (www.smellybiker.com). They've got a lot of bush roads, villages and trails which don't appear on the Michelin maps. On the GPS itself the detail is almost overkill.

Cheers
Keith
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  #6  
Old 22 Sep 2008
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Hi,

Just thought I would say, Stanfords is excellent for maps, and have an excellent mail order service. I dealt with Claudio.

Dan
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Cheers Dan
gettinglostagain.com
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  #7  
Old 22 Sep 2008
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The maps for SA and NAM I'd rather buy in the country. You'll find them at petrol stations and book shops. The South African map from the Reise Know-how Verlag which Henk Jan mentioned is not detailed enough.

Hans
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  #8  
Old 24 Oct 2008
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Mapsmapsmaps
The Michelins are good and have been good for decades in the big scale.
Also very nice to get a second set after the trip, fit the three maps together onto a big piece of chipboard, mark your trip and hang up in your lounge, shop or office.
Here in South Africa get the Map Studio road Atlas South Africa 1:1250 000, A4, just short of 100 pages, cheap at 70 Rand and very accurate and useful as it's the only map reliably discerning between desirable and delightful dirt and boring tarmac.

Map Studio also does a very good looking Southern Africa road atlas (All the way to the great lakes afair), I am not sure if the quality is the same as for the South Africa version.

MapStudio is the major producer and distributor of maps in Africa

For Namibia esp. the Kunene region it's the Shell maps and nothing else available from every Shell station in NAM.
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