Update, April 2013: Read this blog post for information about the maps I will be using during my cycle along the Eurovelo 8 in summer 2013.
The following was written in September 2012 and gives details of more mapping options:
Digital mapping moves on apace. Only this week I was emailed by a guy from the German websiteย Cycle Routes & Toursย pointing out that some of the Eurovelo routes have been mapped on his site. Iโve added the links he gave to the relevant route sections in the โOther Eurovelosโ part of CyclingEurope.org. There is even a route on the site for theย Eurovelo 8ย and the route profile is worth a look.
However, I cast my mind back to when I cycled from the UK to southern Italy in 2010 and remember how dependant I was upon the good old paper jobs that I had taken with me. They didnโt require the need for any kind of connection to the Internet,ย just a willingness to unfold them and the patience to work out how to fold them back up again once read. As I travelled south, I discarded each map ceremoniously in a local bin and even lopped off irrelevant sections of the final few maps as I neared the end of the cycle. I was left, on my final night on the road in Matera with one thin bit of map โ shown here โ that showed me the route all the way from Matera to Brindisi on the coast. My choice of scale โ 1:200,000 โ proved to be a good one happily marrying the competing qualities of sufficient detail and portability of the maps required to cover the entire length of the journey.
So, as I think ahead to summer 2013 and the journey from Athens to Cadiz, my mind once again turns to the question of maps. I will definitely take paper ones. Itโs just too risky not to. And I am happy to take the 1:200,000 maps once again for the reasons mentioned above. But whereas when I was cycling through France, Switzerland & Italy and could depend upon justย Michelin maps, cycling through Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, France and then Spain requires a bit more effort in procuring the maps. The best place to ย start isStanfordsย in London who have (perhaps) an unrivalled selection of maps but a bit of research in advance is probably needed as Michelin donโt cover the entire length of the Eurovelo 8 when it comes to maps of a scale of 1:200,000.
As already noted, the Michelin man does of course supply for France & Italy so, for the record, in France I will be needing numbers 525, 526 & 527 & in Italy numbers 352, 356 & 357.
Life is not too complicated in Spain thanks to the Spanish National Mapping agency or theย CNIG. It produces 1:200,000 maps for the whole of the country. The maps are described as โProvincial road mapsโ and are named after the provincial capital. They must be relatively small in size as eleven are required to stretch all the way from the French border to Cadiz. Is that too many to carry I wonder? While you ponder that question, hereโs a nice map of Spain indicating the sheets required:
All of that is of course towards the end of the journey. Itโs the first 1,000 miles or so from Athens to the Italian border that may pose a few more mapping issuesโฆ
The Greeks produce regional maps but canโt seem to make up their minds as to whether the maps are 1:200000 or 1:250000. But whatโs 50,000 amongst friends? Produced byย Anavasiย they cover the entire country as shown here and I would probably need R1 & R3 (perhaps also R2) but there is a worrying reference to R1 being out of print and no news on a reprint date on the Stanfordโs website.
Trust the Greeks to produce maps that arenโt quite regularโฆ
Which leaves the fragmented bit in the middle; Albania, Montenegro, Croatia and Slovenia. Well, letโs not jump to assumptions about the mapping situation of the Adriatic coast. Albania offers several maps of whichย this oneย is probably the most likely candidate but itโs worth noting that there is also a cycling map for Albania โAlbania By Bikeย โ which may be worth investigating. The scale of the former is 1:200000, the scale of the latter 1:225000 so not much between them.
Moving further north, there is a wide range of maps available for Montenegro but sticking to the 1:200000 scale, perhapsย this oneย fromย Marco Poloย that combines Croatia with its southern neighbour may be the best. Iโm not quite sure how much of the coastal area it covers and suspect that itโs a series of three maps that stretches further north towards the border with Slovenia. Being a relatively small country, Slovenia itself doesnโt appear to have a 1:200000 map available althoughย this oneย at 1:150000 will probably do the trick. I may find that the other maps for Croatia and Italy actually cover the entirety of my route through Slovenia so itโs probably worth waiting to invest in that little piece of the jigsaw until the very end of my map buying spree.
So there we have it; the Eurovelo 8 mapped. Kind of.