GPS units

My eTrek-H has been useful from a statistical point of view (eg average speed, distance hiked and current altitude), I haven't needed it for navigation though. It did think I was at 694m for 2km from Garden Castle car park to just before Pillar Cave, then I apparently ascended 1.3km vertically in 2 seconds and it suddenly got to the right altitude...

Thanks Ghaznavid, you seem happy with the eTrex H. I was hoping to learn something about the possible limitations of not having a usb cable.

Oh, doing too many things at once, forgot to answer that. Be prepared for sore fingers, the buttons on the side of the GPS are hard and not very sensitive. Once you get that hang of capturing co-ords it becomes easy, but until then, its not logical, the manual also doesn't describe it well (if you get it I will see if I can do a better job of explaining how to do it). Not having a cord is annoying, but it doesn't destroy the usefulness of the device. If you can afford a better model that can use the USB cable, get the better model.

A useful feature it does have is that you can ask what the sunrise, sunset, moon phase, moon rise, moon set and best hunting/fishing time (not that I hunt or fish - other than hunting for Khulu's and fishing for unnamed peaks) for any GPS co-ord and it tells you. Although I assume all Garmin devices have this feature.

Thanks again.

Hopefully I'll get some feedback on the eTrex 20 or 30, as I am more inclined towards one of these, especially for the connectivity with the cable.

It's the GPSmap 62S for me.
Techshop dot co dot za offer a good deal.

It's got more than enough of whatever you need,
Drag and drop on the computer, seamless link to map source or base camp, and all that good stuff.

I don't do the feature thing but here what it did for me...

During a recent grand traverse it:
Tracked the entire event without any hang-ups or overwriting the buffer.
It held 4 downloaded tracks of the traverse for reference, all the point of interest waypoints, all the "escape route" tracks. Provided a night time entertainment by replaying the days elevation profile, got wet, got the face dragged across a rock, and, on economy mode, only wanted fresh batteries every 2.5 days.
Only problem is that it is so reliable that one tends to forsake the other tried and trusted like, good old map reading.

Oh yes, I have the SA topo map set installed, worth it, believe me.
It also works OK doing routes on the cars dash board, but it was not made for this and if this is you sole use then get a large screen nuvi??*&^ whatever.
Happy to discuss the matter but not to debate trivia please.

Thanks for the response Geordie. I want to use a gps in a very similar way to you in the mountains only, but at this stage am still unfortunately looking at a gps less expensive than the GPSmap 62s.

I like your recommendation of the SA topo map set installation, and might ask for more info on this.

I got myself the ETrex20 this weekend , so far it seems to be perfect for what I want/need. Planning to take my brother up chainladders (his first time) and across to Ifidi on the weekend. Reading on the back of the drakensberg maps, it says the map datum must be set to Cape, I assume that's correct for getting best use out of you GPS?

I managed to find quite a lot of gps info on older threads on the forum, which has been a tremendous assistance in deciding which gps and add ons to get.

@ UnKnowN, I am also going to get a Garmin eTrex 20, and would appreciate any feedback you have after your chain ladders to Ifidi trip.

@ Unknown

Yes you are correct. If you don't set it to Cape datum you'll miss your spot with about 600m (?) in the Berg.

Have anyone ever tried the normal in-car-type GPS's in the berg?

Is there no dual purpose GPS available?

Thanks Boerkie! That's a big help, it would have been rather frustrating if I got to the top to find my gps being out by that much!!

Will definitely give report back on it.