Swaziland, Day 1 – Planning your road trip with a GPS
Written on March 15, 2010
We’re on the road again, out in the field with the Project: Exposure program and this month it’s my turn.
This trip is set to involve a good deal of driving over long distances, and my geographic knowledge of South Africa is limited. I enjoy looking at maps and plotting a route but for this trip using a GPS sounded like a great idea.
On the road from Johannesburg to Swaziland
Why use a GPS?
It’s not just the navigational assistance that comes with a GPS but a greater predictability of time and distance, which leads to a far more relaxed and enjoyable drive. You know exactly how long you have left until you reach your destination, how far it is until you have to make a turn and where there’s a petrol station along your route.
Pre-trip planning
My method was to download the South Africa map onto my TomTom device before leaving home and spend an hour using Google Earth to find the coordinates of all my planned destinations. I input these into the Favourites section of my GPS so that it would be easy to set the device to navigate me to them once I’m on the road in South Africa.
It is possible to hire a TomTom from car rental or phone companies for about ZAR 50-100/day, but if you have your own it makes it much easier to get organized before leaving home.
Driving Johannesburg to Swaziland
It wasn’t long after arriving that I was sat at the exit of the airport carpark in a rental car waiting for the GPS to get a signal and show us the way to Swaziland.
It’s about a 4 hour drive from Johannesburg, and it’s only when you start to get close to Swaziland that the scenery becomes slightly more interesting than the flat farming land around Johannesburg. Rolling hills with rocky escarpments and boulder strewn slopes guide you into the kingdom.
At the border a modest set of immigration buildings on the South Africa side and officials behind glass are followed by a vastly more colourful and relaxed face-to-face affair on the Swaziland side.
The GPS got a bit confused by a new bypass at one point after leaving the border at but generally it was a huge help to the journey.
Evening in Swaziland
We spent that evening eating and drinking at Quartermains in the Ezulwini valley with Swazi Trails as they carried out the timekeeping for their weekly 20km mountain bike race.
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Swaziland, Day 1 – Planning your road trip with a GPS
We’re on the road again, out in the field with the Project: Exposure program and this month it’s my turn.
This trip is set to involve a good deal of driving over long distances, and my geographic knowledge of South Africa is limited. I enjoy looking at maps and plotting a route but for this trip using a GPS sounded like a great idea.
On the road from Johannesburg to Swaziland
Why use a GPS?
It’s not just the navigational assistance that comes with a GPS but a greater predictability of time and distance, which leads to a far more relaxed and enjoyable drive. You know exactly how long you have left until you reach your destination, how far it is until you have to make a turn and where there’s a petrol station along your route.
Pre-trip planning
My method was to download the South Africa map onto my TomTom device before leaving home and spend an hour using Google Earth to find the coordinates of all my planned destinations. I input these into the Favourites section of my GPS so that it would be easy to set the device to navigate me to them once I’m on the road in South Africa.
It is possible to hire a TomTom from car rental or phone companies for about ZAR 50-100/day, but if you have your own it makes it much easier to get organized before leaving home.
Driving Johannesburg to Swaziland
It wasn’t long after arriving that I was sat at the exit of the airport carpark in a rental car waiting for the GPS to get a signal and show us the way to Swaziland.
It’s about a 4 hour drive from Johannesburg, and it’s only when you start to get close to Swaziland that the scenery becomes slightly more interesting than the flat farming land around Johannesburg. Rolling hills with rocky escarpments and boulder strewn slopes guide you into the kingdom.
At the border a modest set of immigration buildings on the South Africa side and officials behind glass are followed by a vastly more colourful and relaxed face-to-face affair on the Swaziland side.
The GPS got a bit confused by a new bypass at one point after leaving the border at but generally it was a huge help to the journey.
Evening in Swaziland
We spent that evening eating and drinking at Quartermains in the Ezulwini valley with Swazi Trails as they carried out the timekeeping for their weekly 20km mountain bike race.
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