Morocco

[darksky]

   Stunning photos, the sky is so blue and clear and the views look awsome mate !

[snowslider]

It's an interesting place to visit, both Arab and North African. The photo's are reasonable but they can't capture the sounds and smells which are a total sensory overload at times. I'm already planning the return

[darksky]

good for you mate !  just out of interest how much does the whole trip cost plus spending money ?

[snowslider]

good for you mate !  just out of interest how much does the whole trip cost plus spending money ?

no idea it was professional development and reconnaissance to add the route for a trekking company.

not a lot though, you can fly in on EasyJet and it's hard to spend money in the desert As an indication though, even in Marrakech a good meal is around 60 dirhan which is around 5 quid and hotel rooms can be had for a couple of hundred dirhan a night at the budget end.

[titaniumdude]

What's the 'position format' and 'map datum' for Morocco (Toubkal).  Our chief navigator is not making it and I'd like to be able to use my GPS as well as the crummy looking map I'm now ordering.

Cheers. TD

[snowslider]

What's the 'position format' and 'map datum' for Morocco (Toubkal).  Our chief navigator is not making it and I'd like to be able to use my GPS as well as the crummy looking map I'm now ordering.

Cheers. TD

does it matter?  is someone going to give you grid references? I just set mine to use latitude and longtitude

[titaniumdude]

does it matter?  is someone going to give you grid references? I just set mine to use latitude and longtitude

Errrrr.  Yes of course it matters.  Depending on the map of course.  Managed to answer this one myself mind.  The position format for the map I ordered is 'Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system' (UTM) and the datum is 'WGS84'.  When using UTM it becomes essential that the correct datum is set on the GPS or you'll be miles off.  I am quite pleased with this news as I much prefer using utm to DMS when navigating.  Bonus is that the map actually has the grid drawn over it rather than just a series of ticks at the margins (ticks are a sensible 1 second interval as well).  So to answer your query, nobody is going to give me grid references, but I will be navigating using my own UTM grid references.  This was just about the best map I could find.

http://nomadicmorocco.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-map-of-toubkal.html

[snowslider]

Errrrr.  Yes of course it matters.  Depending on the map of course. 

funnily enough, I'd no prior knowledge of what map you were going to buy  but, if you're just using the GPS one it really won't make much difference, it'll only come into play if you need to relocate yourself using the GPS and the map in which case it will be handy. In that case, the answer was the standard one, it's the datum written on your map.

In answer to your question, there is no datum for Morocco as there's no national mapping. By and large maps are at 1:4,000,000 scale, with the exception of the popular Toubkal area, and produced by the French or Russians some years ago. In a lot of areas given the low cost it makes sense to employ local guides, there's no particular virtue in wandering around the desert navigating with a road map.

[titaniumdude]

Funnily enough that's more like the reply I was expecting .  Having never been to Morocco I rather wondered (hopefully) if there was a nationally adopted datum, or position system (other African countries have them).  I was quite pleased to have found a map that someone had gone to the trouble of producing with a UTM grid.  Makes life so much easier.  You can b buy sets of 1:100,000 maps for anywhere in Morocoo, produced by the Russian military, so I'd guess that they would probably use UTM or a similar system as well (military folks seem to like their grids).  Not massively available and seem to be quite expensive.  So yes I know it would be the one on the Map (duh!) , but that's still in the post and the place I bought it didn't give this information.  Guess I'm either impatient or curious.  Your second answer would've been more useful if it were the first answer, but I guess I didn't word my query perfectly

It will be handy for folks who are reading this thread and travelling to the Toubkal area to know that this map is readily available.  Not brilliant, but better than most of what's on offer.

Cheers