Navigation here just got a whole lot easier!

Navigation here in East Africa just got a whole lot easier because Google has just released a new overlay in Google Earth called Tracks4Africa. I was so excited I had to blog about it! Apparently the data layer comes from 6 years of work from the fine people at Tracks4Africa, a non-profit organization dedicated to the accurate mapping of off the road tracks and destination in Africa.

Here is an example of what I've been using to plot out routes on our GPS (here, our recent trip to Hells Gate National Park, click to enlarge):


And now adding the Tracks4Africa overlay in Google earth, you get the following (click to enlarge):


It's not just the main roads that lead to the park which are overlaid, but even the secondary, off-road, and hiking tracks! On top of that there are point of interest, national park boundaries, lodges, gas stations..... it's incredible. In the picture above, Hells Gate is at the bottom left, Lake Nakuru is on the top left, and our next destination, Aberdares National Park, is just barely visible on the right.

More on Google earth here.
And more on Tracks4Africa here.