Do you love playing around with maps and gadgets? Are you a map lover and iPhone or iPad user? Do you have topographic or specialised maps of your favourite area and would love to have them on your mobile device? Nik Sands, Bushwalk Tasmania founder and map guru, has announced the release of an upgrade to his Bit Map iPhone or iPad application.
We have never used a SPOT GPS device, but have read about them, and occasionally thought, mmm maybe , maybe we might buy one - one day.
Then there has been the nagging thought, do we really want to press a button and send a message to let significant others know we are ok? Would anyone check that we were sending a message? Would we expect anyone to take that responsibility?
What happens if it fails or we forget and a search party is dispatched because we have not “called home”?
Who cares at home if we are “geographically challenged” anyway? The kids will only notice when we have not appeared back home on …
Bit Map is an iPhone application that allows you to store and view your specialised topographic maps offline on your iPhone. Load your own maps onto your iPhone, and when you visit the outdoors while hiking, backpacking, bushwalking, cycling or trekking, you can view your own maps without cell or mobile network access.
If you have created your own specialised outdoors maps in JPEG, PNG, TIFF or GIF format you can use Bit Map to install them on your iPhone and then view your current location or navigate off your iPhone screen, using your own digital maps.
In this post we interview Nik Sands, the developer of the just released Bit Map iPhone application, and hear directly from him …
What equipment do you need for a long hiking trip?
What is the best gear for a multiday hike in Tasmania?
What gear do you need for the South Coast or Port Davey Track in Tasmania?
This is a follow up by guest poster Larry, who recently completed the Port Davey Track walking from Scotts Peak Dam to Melaleuca in the South West National Park in Tasmania.
In this post Larry makes some great suggestions about his gear selection and what modifications he made to his standard gear list for this wilderness hiking trip. It is an excellent resource for anyone planning an extended bushwalk.
Equipment notes:
I used John Chapmans notes extensively and couldn’t recommend these more highly. I’d …
Looking for GPS track or route information for some of Australia’s premium bushwalking tracks?
Need waypoints, track , campsite or huts locations or routes for?
We often get searches on “Our Hiking Blog” regarding this information, but are rarely contacted, so we decided to post and declare our willingness to share this information with anyone who takes the time to email us.
Erik Charlton trying to get a satellite on his GPS at the North Pole
