Since the driving is largely unplanned, a GPS could be of assistance. A GPS isn’t much help unless you have a paper map with LAT/LONG (most don’t) or a computer with an integrated map of the area. We are not willing to tote a laptop and digital maps of Morocco are rare and expensive. So we are left with using the waypoint functionality built into the GPS. I thought it would be easy to get a list of Moroccian waypoints but I was wrong. I came up with this process to generate waypoints of most of the cities in Morocco.
1. Using Microsoft Streets and Trips 2005, select cities in Morocco and choose Add Stop to Route. Save the map. MSS&T had 200+ cities and towns in Morocco (but no roads). Accuracy is unknown but assumed to be acceptable. The product is only marketed for US & Canada and only contains road in those countries. Here is the MSS&T .est file for Morocco with the stops.
2. Use freeware st2gpx to get the MSS&T .EST file in a more standard format (GPX). This is an XML file that can be editted with a text editor. For example, I removed the route section as it is of little use for an unplanned trip. Here is the waypoint list for Morocco (GPX).
3. Use freeware EasyGPS to send the waypoint data to the GPS. In my case, I have an Garmin eTrex that is probably about 3 years old.
A paper map is still required and the best seems to be published by Michelin.
