Can you use the Tracks4Africa Online Trip Planner to build a mega route? What are the advantages of travelling with the Tracks4Africa Guide App? And why is it worth getting paper maps if you have digital navigation tools? After a 5-month trip through Southern Africa, American travellers Steve and Nicole Charnon have some answers. They reveal which mapping solutions worked best for them during the planning stages and on the ground.

The 5-month trip that Steve and Nicole took through South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe in 2024 was their first visit to Africa. Back home they love taking trips of many months to areas of natural beauty. “Overlanding appeals to us because of the  ability to explore remote areas in relative comfort – emphasis on relative,” they say.

So when friends invited them along on a walking safari in South Luangwa National Park, they decided the time was right for a fully fledged African adventure. They ordered Tracks4Africa paper maps and books to the countries they wanted to visit and set about planning their trip. But they were equally keen to use the digital options: the Tracks4Africa Online Trip Planner and Guide App. 

Tracks4Africa chatted to them about what other overlanders can learn from their 5-month trip.

How did you build your itinerary?

We knew we wanted to see as many parks and reserves in Southern Africa as possible. So we got recommendations from friends who had travelled in Africa as well as two guides based in the region. We also always wanted to visit Cape Town, so we elected to start and finish in that city. From there we checked the various roads/tracks on the Tracks4Africa maps and loosely stitched together a bunch of protected areas. We generally like to go to places where we can get away from crowds, places that perhaps provide a bit more of a challenge. This led us to a few more off-the-beaten-path parks such as Khaudum, North Luangwa, Luambe and the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR).

Having done some overlanding in North America, we knew we wanted to set realistic driving limits for ourselves. We therefore determined which campsites would best match our wish not to spend the whole day travelling. The Tracks4Africa maps and Trip Planner were very helpful in this campsite selection process. 

We provided our daily itinerary to a booking agent (coordinated through Bushlore, from which we rented a long-term camper vehicle). As a result, 99% of our campsites and lodging was pre-booked – invaluable. Though we wouldn’t normally travel on such a rigid itinerary for such a long trip, it was necessary because we wanted to camp within protected areas.

Which of the mapping solutions worked best for trip planning?

A combination of Tracks4Africa’s paper maps and online Trip Planner worked for us. An advantage of the Tracks4Africa paper maps is that they offer you the big picture view of what you are trying to achieve and then allow you to pick and choose your desired route. But paper maps are a snapshot in time: they are limited by their printing dates. They are also limited by the map scale, of which every scale has advantages and disadvantages. It would be difficult and costly to obtain maps that provide the range of scale that the Tracks4Africa Trip Planner provides.

The Trip Planner has a lot of good information all in one place so you can research travel distances and times along with details of campsites/lodging, grocery options, fuel stations, etc. When we were planning our adventure, the Trip Planner had just been released in beta form (in December 2023). Johann Groenewald of Tracks4Africa warned us that the routing/time/distance algorithms were still being smoothed out and information might not be accurate. We did find some glitches in a few areas but when that happened, we cross-checked the Trip Planner with Garmin Base Camp.  We’re sure the Trip Planner is smoothed out now, but double checking and confirming your route on multiple sources is always good practice.

A disadvantage of the Trip Planner and Guide App is that your map view is limited by your screen size, which could limit your situational/location awareness when you are new to an area. [A 10” tablet screen is useful if you want to get more of an overview when using the Guide App on the road. – T4A] It was very nice to be able to lay out the giant T4A maps and get a big picture understanding of our place in a particular country.

How did you prepare for navigating on the ground?

All of our planning centered around knowing that this was our first time in Africa and we would be travelling solo. In order to mitigate risks and reduce unknowns, we elected to come up with a detailed plan. We fully support Tracks4Africa’s mantra of “travelling informed.” 

Therefore, we prepared by:

• Uploading our routes to Garmin Base Camp loaded with Tracks4Africa digital maps – this allowed us to check the route created on the Trip Planner. We planned to load the GPX file onto a Garmin GPS for turn-by-turn navigation. [You can also export a GPX file from the Trip Planner.)
• Studying our routes on Tracks4Africa paper maps
• Syncing the trip plotted on the T4A Trip Planner to the T4A Guide App

In addition to the route, which specified locations, distance and time, we produced an itinerary in notes format. This listed each day, our planned camp/lodge location, fuelling and grocery options, pertinent border crossing info, points of interest, and the distance and expected time to our daily destination. There were a few areas where we expected to have to precisely manage our fuel and water (e.g. Kaokoland, Khaudum and CKGR). The written itinerary notes contained the specific planning details for these areas.  

The pre-planning and notes served us well while travelling as we already knew what we needed for resupply. We didn’t have to waste time trying to figure out how much fuel, water and food we needed or whether we would have enough fuel to game drive while in remote parks. This allowed us to focus on enjoying Africa and the journey and not figuring details out on the fly.  

Which navigation tools did you use on the road?

During the planning phase of the trip, we expected to use the Garmin GPS for daily navigation. However, we found that the T4A Guide App was much easier to use for tracking our position (within a few metres). 

Being former aviators, we LOVE maps. For navigation, the paper map gave us the big picture and the Guide App allowed us to confirm our location and zoom in for precise navigation. The ability to zoom in was impressive; even on small remote tracks the Guide App detail would include track intersections and areas with a lot of track pollution. It was a rare occurrence when we found a track that wasn’t depicted on the Guide App. It would be near impossible to find and carry numerous maps of such a large scale to cover a trip this length versus simply zooming in on the Guide App.

On driving days, we would review the route on the paper map, which would be folded to easily follow along throughout the day. While driving we used the T4A Guide App to compare our location with what we had planned to confirm we were on track. We enjoyed using the T4A Guide App because it was much easier than the GPS we had available. We used the app daily for navigation, finding gas stations and grocery stores, as well as getting some information on local points of interest. We even ended up relying on the T4A Guide App for city navigation with the Garmin GPS as a backup.

What advice do you have for other overlanders about using the Guide App?

• Don’t turn on multiple search categories (e.g.  camping, attractions, places, fuel, etc.). Using camping and lodging at the same time is fine, but we recommend only using the category of the item you are looking for. This will help streamline results.
• If you are looking for the “closest” thing (campground, restaurant, grocery, medical facility, etc.), make sure you have “Sort By Distance from Centre” selected on the filter.
• Recognise and accept that the search capabilities aren’t those of a mainstream search engine: correct spelling is essential, word order may effect results. This is okay – Tracks4Africa is not a billion dollar company. It’s fine to not have every piece of information immediately available, it’s part of the adventure.  
• When planning travel on remote tracks, you really need to zoom in and research your route (this goes for the Trip Planner too). A cursory route review while zoomed way out may not reveal that a track will dead end or not connect with other desired tracks/roads.
• If you have multiple devices, as a backup we recommend having separate T4A accounts with the Guide App and your route loaded on each device. Phones break or get lost, apps crash, etc. Having the backup device preloaded avoids potential navigational woes.

What were the “surprise hits” from your trip?

We had an incredible journey and loved ALL of it. We had no idea how stunning a backdrop the Namibian desert provides for the people and wild animals that grace the land. The desert elephants of the Hoanib River and Elephant Song Community Camp were just jaw-dropping. Seeing the Himba tribes in the Kaokoland put us in disbelief that people could eke out a life in such conditions. Though we wouldn’t want to exchange places with them, we were left in awe of their ability to live in such a harsh place.  

We absolutely loved the Central Kalahari Game Reserve for its remoteness and solitude. We were also rather shocked and stoked to have a leopard visit us at our campsite during dinner. She was beautiful and a sight we will never forget.

Speaking of sightings… the animal density of South Luangwa did not disappoint, especially along the Luangwa River. The density of elephants, lions, leopards, giraffes, zebras, etc. was exactly what we had hoped for. But it also came at a cost… The density of safari goers at some of the sightings was rather off-putting, but such is life in a popular park. 

Luambe National Park had just repaired its main road when we visited and the driving was actually rather easy. The animals there seemed to be happy to avoid humans. So we felt fortunate to have chance encounters with the elephants, hippos and giraffes we spotted.  

Like Luambe, North Luangwa and Khaudum national parks were places where you felt you earned your animal sightings. We were also alone in these places, which made it even more exciting.

Last but not least, the N12 road from Karoo National Park to Garden Route National Park blew our minds. We did not have any expectations and were amazed at how scenic that drive was.