James, thanks for the reccomendation to try Google Chrome, I'll be doing that tommorrow and trying it out.
With only a few short months before the start of my season, pre-season prep for navigational purposes is what I'm currently attending to and all of the advice and assistance provided in this thread has come, at least for me, at a very convenient time.
For those of you interested in this thread I'll try and explain the procedure that I use.
Each year I use a combination of knowledge gained of certain areas in previous seasons, combine that with Google Earth and topo maps to generate co-ordinates that can be transfered to a hand-held g.p.s. unit which can then be later utilised whilst on the ground in the effort to locate specific places of interest.
Personally, I have found using U.T.M (Universal Transverse Mercator) to be far and away more accurate and reliable system of co-ords than the standard lat & long co-ords.
For those unfamiliar, U.T.M is a mathematical equation which allows for the differential in measurement when a sphere (the shape of the surface of the Earth) is transposed onto a flat surface (the page of a map).
U.T.M is designated in decimals of a Kilometer so that when you get accustomed to using it you can look at the co-ords read-out on your hand-held unit and compare it in meters to either where you've been or where your going with a simple and quick mental calculation without even changing function on your g.p.s.
Also, when generating co-ords off a map you simply need a good scale ruler and as long as you are careful in reading that scale you will find you can get the accuracy of proposed waypoints down to an incredible level of accuracy.
Jerome, my requirements from a satelite search site are not to navigate to a certain point via c-ords but to be able to generate the co-ords of a certain place when that place is chosen and found.
As a business centered around the hunting of Asiatic buffalo, watering points are the obvious points of interest to me but so to is the natural configuration of the land as this sometimes dictates the type of ground cover that particular area will grow, (and represent areas of potential feed sites) and, ofcourse in the case of both Google and Flash, the presence and pattern , and visibility, of game trails allows me to establish a level of animal activity and hunting credibility of a certain area. This is important in our region where a simple trip of several kilometers may require a serious investment in terms of time spent cutting tracks and potential damage inflicted on vehicles when pushing those tracks through.
Previous experience has shown that some of the most isolated and remote, lone water-holes are both the most productive in terms of results gained and expensive to achieve in terms of effort expended.
When i find a likely looking spot on Google, I then use Flash (much better visual clarity) to re-confirm my find, then back to Google where I can use the navigational instruments provided to generate a U.T.M co-ordinate for the location.
That U.T.M is then entered into my handheld g.p.s. with a generic name place desription which is also backed up in a small note book with any specific details relevant to that site. That site is also noted on the topo maps I carry in my vehicle to reference proximity to other places.
I can gather, even as i type this out, that to the uninitiated this must seem to be a lot of work, but when you familiarise yourself with a system it becomes, well at least to me, second nature.
My hunting concession is about 90 km's east to west and about 70 km's north to south of pure, unadulterated and undeveloped wilderness.
We have, as far as established/permanently visible "roads" or tracks;
**the main road which runs east/west, roughly through the middle of the area,
** and approximately 6 other usable and relocatable (each season) tracks meandering through various parts.
That's it.
The rest is bush bashing, to known, previously located hunting hot spots and walking into points.
I certainly don't find it to be a chore, rather I look forward to navigating my way into new locale's each season and the potential rewards that await me and my hunters.
As someone who operates in a wilderness environment, I've found the use of these satelite web sites to be an incredibly useful tool in finding and then, later on, breaking in new and unchartered country.
And for something different, this year for the first time, I'll also be doing it from the water whilst based from a boat as i explore some of the many kilometers of unhunted coastline that forms a part of my hunting area.
Who knows whats around that next corner ?????
And how many of us as hunters can resist the temptation to look ?????
