When we head out on roadtrips, we at least try to have a rough plan on where we will be heading and when. Our Tassie trip this year really lacked that kind of plan haha - I just didn't have time to make one, and we just winged it (is that even a word?).
The things we took with us navigation wise were:
- Our Hema HX1
- The Spot Gen 3 (I have talked about this many times before)
- Google Maps (on our phones)
- Wikicamps (links to Maps for directions)
- An old school paper map
So what did we use the most on this trip?
Honestly, for general cruising around and heading from town to town, and also for 4 wheel driving tracks, the Hema was amazing. We used it every day to get us somewhere. The 4 wheel driving tracks were fairly accurate as well, which is great!
Something to note. I feel like I have written this in another blog, but just quickly saying it again haha. In Tassie, you have A, B & C roads. A and B you can guarantee is a fairly well kept, sealed road. C roads are a little bit of a free for all! They can go from sealed to gravel and back again, and might not be good quality, graded roads either. Just drive with caution!
If we wanted to go somewhere specific, though, like a camp site where we only had GPS coordinates or something, we used Maps. Hema maps just weren't accurate or updated enough. That being said, even Google struggled sometimes - missing roads, or not being sure where we are, or where we are going.
Actually, even with Spot. We have it set to drop a pin every 2 minutes so we can track our trip. But around Tassie, it would sometimes only drop a pin every 20+ minutes, and even when it did, it wasn't always accurate. We once checked in at a campsite, and it thought we were in some random person's back yard.
It was weird.
It was like Tassie is a little bit of a satellite black hole in some places.
When you're travelling around, I would definitely just use common sense when following maps - if it doesn't look or feel quite right, maybe try a different navigation device to see if you can get something more accurate.
For example - getting directions straight from Wikicamps into Maps was more accurate than going to Maps directly.
I wonder if there is actually a reason for GPS being so inconsistent and inaccurate in Tasmania? I don't know.
It didn't affect us at all, as we just roll with things as they happen. But it is certainly something to be aware of as you travel around!
Join me next Tuesday one last time for a little Tassie wrap up/summary.
Hx
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