new to the game Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 Thought I would share this story with you all. When we arrived at the swiss border we met some motorhomers from Cumbria, they asked us if we were staying overnight in Swiss and where we were staying. We told them Luzerne and gave them the names of a couple of sites and GPS from Camper stop . They said they would probably head that way to, we headed off they stopped off for fuel, as we headed down towards a lake much later the GPS instructed us to turn right once we were on the lake road. Looking at the road and the map we realised we were heading in the wrong direction. We stopped at a garage for info, to which a young couple quickly informed us Wrong Lake. We then stuck the postcode in and about 20 mins later we arrived at site. We were sitting outside the van having a glass of wine about 4 hours later and assumed the couple had gone to the other site. As we chatted lo and behold their van arrived, we couldn't believe it. After they parked up in their bay they came over to inform us that they had followed the GPS and ended up climbing up this road which had a sign saying no cars,no bikes a woman was waving at them to stop and pointing to the sign, the chap then informed her he was not a car or a bike and kept going. When they got to the top there was a hut and a tin bath which I think they wanted to drown us in. After another 2 hours of driving round zurich they eventually got to Luzerne and found the site. This was their first motorhome holiday and what a way to start! we explained the same thing would have happened to us if we didn't query directions. They took it all in good spirit and it didn't put them off (however they did say that at one point if they ever saw us again they would stick us on their barbecue) what a smashing couple. This was the first time we had ever given GPS instructions to anyone and probably the last. I know when we first started in 2006 we got into a couple of situations with GPS, narrow roads, narrow villages etc. We use our maps as well as GPS now. However, since then we have found some of the GPS coordinations for Aires etc in camper stop do not exsist, the french aires book are usually spot on so beware. >:-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 Blimey...we will be in Lucern by Wednesday *-) One think I have learnt after ten years of sat nav ownership is, if the direction it trys to take you dont look right, ignore it and carry on! :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmaggott Posted August 1, 2010 Share Posted August 1, 2010 We entered co-ordinates for a french site and followed instructions until we were directed along a very narrow track across a ploughed field; took one look and decided to ignore the sat nav and carried on along the lane we were on. The sat nav then had a think about it and re-calculated (we have it set on 'avoid U turns') it then correctly guided us to the site. The original suggested track, we later found out, would have taken us to the back fence of the site with no entry gate and no way of turning around! Always, always, use your noddle first and foremost; sat nav second! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 Meant to add this when the string was fresh, but forgot. One reason sat navs sometimes give incorrect directions (apart from coordinate error) to locations is because the coordinates are not always given for the entrance, but for someone's actual location. Especially with campsites, if the coordinates are given from a pitch deep into the site, for example, the sat nav will simply treat this as an off-road location, and look for the shortest distance from any available road to that location, irrespective of whether there is, actually, access that way. It may guide you faultlessly to the boundary fence, to the emergency exit, or to a point at the edge of the next field!If you can check the coordinates on Google Earth (easy if you have Garmin MapSource), assuming the photography is reasonable, you can usually identify the campsite and see there the entrance actually is, and compare that with the quoted coordinates. If the two don't coincide, correct the coordinates for those of the entrance location, and your little sat nav will guide you right to the front gate on the correct road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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