Getting more familiar with my GPS in Seminyak Bali
GPS systems are said to become addictive. I agree with that assessment. Since getting one in December I love using it and am figuring out how it best suits my needs. Just like the internet, GPS amazes me. Having hi tech devices that are moving in relation to each other and still be able to stay in contact and track exact location in real time is awesome. Here’s more on how a GPS works.
On my road trip to Pura Batukaru the other day I got a bit upsidedown at times and this was due the fact that using a GPS takes a bit of practice. One of the things I discovered was the black compass needle locks onto ‘N’ of the compass dial, when I am just using the compass mode. The GPS allows me mark ‘way points’ and then back track, or go directly to a selected ‘way point’. When I do this the compass needle departs from ‘N’ and points to the way point.
My Magellan GPS also automatically tracks where I am going, drawing a dotted line. I can view this as North up, Course Up, or Track up. Sometimes when using a map its a good idea to orient the device with the map, ie. north up. At other times, let’s say if I’m just riding round in circles trying to find the main road, its better to see the course or track I am following, the tracking re-shaping itself around my course.
This morning I walked down Jl. Dhyana Pura towards the beach at Gado Gado. I then followed the beach to Jl. Oberoi (La Lucciola), passing Body Works I got to Jl. Drupadi and took that back to Jl. Seminyak and home. The GPS tracked that and allowed me to ‘Convert to route’, meaning store all the changes in direction as waypoints and name the route. I called it ‘Beach Walk’.
In future I will be able to store hikes in the boonies as separate ‘routes’, locking in on them from any direction and leading other people there. I can even give you the co-ords for your own use if you have a GPS.
Fun to play with and usefull.
By Nick | Permalink
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Comments
Yeah, what a fun project! Actually for downtown I will probably just give street names. The real value in the GPS is it allows me to mark and re-find beaches, trails, warungs, and unmarked alleys all over the island.
Hi Nick,
Remember me? My wife and I visted your fair shores in May 2003. Came back to have a bit of a poke around the site and lo and behold you’ve gotten hitched and become a dad!
Heading back on the topic of your GPS, you might be interested in two interesting things to do with a GPS.
One is called GeoCaching. It’s really a fancy word for using a GPS to do treasure hunts. The idea is that a person visits a location and buries a container with some interesting items for someone else to dig up. Once you’ve logged your “cache” other people can come along and dig it up to add their own interesting items. Checkout http://www.geocaching.com.
The other cool idea is the Degree Confluence Project (www.confluence.org). The idea of this one is for people to visit all of the round degree longitudes and latitudes the world over. Unfortunely the two confluences near Bali are in the water so you’ll either need a boat or be a strong swimmer! We are planning to visit some un-visited confluences in Queensland with some friends sometime this year.
Anyhow, just a couple of fun things to try out.
Cheers
Big Stu (Not so big anymore by the way. By about 45kg)
Brisbane, Qld, Australia
I think the route ‘Pub Crawl’ will be popular but it might take you a while to mark all the way points in that one.