Tracks4Africa and SAS T&R

[SimonB]

I thought I'd just add my 2c worth for everyone on something regarding Tracks4Africa and Southern Africa Streetmaps.

Now everyone knows of SA Streetmaps and continually compare it to T4A, often knocking Garmap. Everyone knows I am a huge advocate for using the two together, but some stuff I have done recently has led me to the conclusion that T4A is not always (take note of the emphasis) God's gift to offroading. I believe a lot of people forget (or don't know) about SAS Topo and Recreation and just how good it is. EDIT: Just to clarify - SAS Topo and Recreation is exactly the same as the standard Southern Africa Streetmaps, just with the additional topo information.

I have posted 4 pictures below to illustrate my point. This is a place near Tulbagh (La Bruyere) where swambo and I are going to chill for the weekend next week, doing some fishing, biking, and, and, and .... ok lets not go there

• Pic 1 is T4A - not a hellova lot of detail, and in fact the road from Tulbagh to Wolseley (Van der Stel drive, before the T-junction) is marked as gravel - which is clearly wrong (my T4A is 6 months old so might have changed). Additional zoom won't reveal any more detail.
• Pic 2 - SAS T&R nicely detailed
• Pic 3 - SAS T&R zoomed in a little showing "other road" between the two waypoints I have created. Nice details around dams etc
• Pic 4 - I tried to autoroute between the two points. Now, if you understand the way routing works in Garmin software, you will see what's happened here. A portion of the "other road" is autoroutable - the end closest to the tar road. Where it stops being autoroutable is where there is a straight line between the road and the other waypoint.

Take note of some other points:

• T4A emphasises offroad routes and trails, many of which DO in fact appear on SAS T&R, but more often they are don't.
• T4A will have many points of interest (camping sites etc) that are not on SAS T&R.
• SAS T&R is very underrated as far as exploration is concerned - because it is based on AP and Survey maps, there are many things which don't appear on T4A (Dams, fences, forestry areas, smallholdings etc etc etc). Topographical information in SAS T&R is vastly superior in all respects to T4A.
• This exercise hasn't highlighted where T4A is superior to SAS T&R, but I think that is a given (I will do that when I have a little extra time to waste )

Please remember, there are definately other products that CAN do the same job, like madmappers (which I use) etc, but when all is said and done, SAS T&R and T4A, for general purpose city use, offroading, and beating about the bundu on a bike or in boots, is just the ticket... now add a couple of satellite images transferred to your GPS and correctly georeferenced (which I also use) - now you're talking.

My point is, that when selecting mapping products you need to take a balanced view on what you need the maps for, and how much you are prepared to pay. My personal opinion is that SAS T&R and T4A are the best combination of products that there is. The other GPS brands and mapping products simply don't come close to these two together. Every cent spent on the two together is just so worth it. Fiddling around with TomTom, Handimaps. JNC Navig8 etc are IMO just not worth the effort and (cheaper) money for mapping which covers every angle of what we as 4x4 enthusiasts do!