Our means of navigation
The most beautiful cycle route is useless if you can't find it. Good means of navigation save a lot of time and nerves on the road. On the handlebar we use a GPS device with button operation (Garmin GPSMAP 66s). The latter ensures that the device can still be operated well with thick gloves and in heavy rain, which is why we would not use a device with a touchscreen. The display of the GPS device is always on when the brightness is low (which is also completely sufficient in direct sunlight). With a good NiMH battery (2500 mAh, low self-discharge), the runtime with our settings is around 15 hours. The batteries can of course be exchanged for fresh ones at any time. By now it should be clear why we still use a separate GPS device and not the smartphone for navigating ;) In the course of the trip, it also turned out that smartphones cannot easily cope with great heat and solar radiation (automatic switch-off). The GPS device remained completely unimpressed by these conditions (up to 42 °C). Another tip for the GPS unit: the display surface is rather soft, which is why we recommend using a screen protector.
[Since Bangkok I have been traveling with a Garmin Edge 1040 Solar because my GPSMAP 66 was confiscated by the Indian authorities and unfortunately a comparable device was not available in Thailand. The Edge is very comfortable to use, but unfortunately has a touchscreen. Therefore, it cannot be used in winter or when it rains heavily.]
We use the maps from VeloMap (Felix Hartmann) based on the OpenStreetMap project (OSM) as map material. OSM maps often contain a lot of details, which are of particular interest to people who move on land or water under their own power. Such details are often not relevant for commercial map providers. The VeloMap project optimizes the OSM maps in terms of display for cycling and also highlights important regional and national cycling routes - highly recommended! If available, we either download the tracks that serve as orientation (in practice we often deviate from this) either directly as GPX files from the relevant publishers (e.g. tourist authorities or cycling associations) or create them ourselves using komoot (By the way, we also upload the routes we have cycled there, see “Links”).