10th March 2016
We have been exploring all the mapping possibilities for how to show where we are up to in the blog
I am amazed how many different plugins there are for WordPress to insert google maps amd OSM into a blog. So much to learn about creating a working site
So far google maps itself seems the best to show our rout as a gpx track but Map Press is easy to use to just have a marker for where we are- will try that for now
10th March 2016
Cycling may seem a long way from technology and the digital world
In fact we aim to have access to the web as we go along , we need to look for campsites for the next night, update this blog and keep in touch with family and friends . We also use GPS technology for navigation and need to be able to plan changes to the route as we go along.
Martin has had a Garmin Edge 800 for about 5 years and it is still going strong. The interface is not immediately intuitive and even now I find new features but it has been stable and reliable. Gayle has a Garmin 810, an updated version of the 800, it has some new features such as Bluetooth link to a phone but in fact we haven’t used these. It has been a bit less stable with some system crashes when following a route.
Both devices can upload routes created on Garmin’s own Connect website but we tend to use an alternative site BikeHike and manually load a gpx file onto the device.
BikeHike website ( free and uses Ordnance Survey as well as google maps)
In recent years we have stopped using paper maps and moved to using a 7 inch tablet that can sit comfortably on the front bar bag in a map case- on long tours in France it allows you to have detailed street level mapping for offline use in something the same size as a single OS map. The fantastic open source OpenStreetMap provides all of this for free although we did pay a small amount for the OsmAnd android app (a free version is also available if you only want a couple of countries). Our planned route can be added onto the map.
Example of OSM mapping- you can zoom out for a wider view as well
This is the first time that we have made a blog so we will need to update this as we go along- so far it appears that the tablet is up to this but we have invested in a bluetooth keyboard to make it easier (£11 off amazon and weighs less than 100g)