It’s as easy as 1-2-3
- Grab your navigation device or a suitable app on your smartphone.
- Download a track from our page that shows the walks. *
- Open the track on your device / in your app and enjoy!
* The walks are provided for our guests only. You’ll find relevant data for each walk, such as distance and cumulative ascent. The maps can be used to study the walk in more detail before downloading it: expand to full screen, zoom and pan … If you want to know a bit more details (and our disclaimer), read on below…
Prepare
The walks should be used with a compatible navigation device for walking and biking or with a smartphone containing a suitable navigation app for walks. Well-known apps like Google Maps or Apple Maps are perfectly fine for navigating by car or with public transport in cities, but there are much better options for walking in the outdoors.
The walks are arranged in increasing distance from Le Moulin de Lande. There are easy ones and more difficult ones. A small description gives relevant details. The file may contain waypoints with instructions. To serve as many guests as possible, the files are only available in English.
The small print (disclaimer): Use the files at your own risk. By using the files you agree that Le Moulin de Lande cannot be held responsible for any changed paths, errors, other problems, accidents, injuries, deaths, etc. that might occur. Always make sure that you have good shoes, enough food and water, suitable clothing for good and bad weather, an extra phone with emergency numbers and fully-charged battery, etc. with you. Please take care when using your device/phone, watch where you are walking and be careful out there!
Install
If you already own a navigation device or already have your favourite navigation app for walks on your phone, you’re all set (skip this section, go straight to Use). If not, then you’ll need to find one in the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store: there are many options.
If you want detailed, high-quality hiking maps, take a look at VisoRando, ViewRanger, or Gaia GPS. These are purpose-made apps for hiking, hill running, mountain biking, and many other outdoor activities. These apps offer many useful functions but are therefore also a bit complex. VisoRando has an active user community in France, so you can find many more walks to download. ViewRanger gives you a 7-day free trial of the excellent French IGN maps. Gaia GPS has an efficient map that downloads quickly and automatically but isn’t quite as detailed as the others. As said, there are many more free, paid and subscription apps available, so feel free to try, delete and repeat.
If you just want a simple app that can serve reasonably well for walks and as an addition to Google/Apple Maps, then have a look at Maps.me. We like it for its simplicity, speed, easy selection of downloadable maps for offline use and easy display of waypoints. The maps are not as detailed as with some other apps but the ease of use of the app almost makes up for that. The downside is that you will have to use an online converter to transform the .gpx files into .kml files, before you can import these into Maps.me.
Use
Once you have a compatible navigation device or a good walking app, you can start using the files. Each file contains one walk. You can download the files in GPX format. If you use a navigation device, you will be familiar with uploading a track file and using it.
If you download straight onto a phone, it will typically ask which app should open the file. Pick your favourite app and the walking route should appear in your list of saved walks. If your phone wants to save the file instead of opening it with an app, it’s probably best to save it in your cloud. From there you can use a Share action (iOS) or later open it in your File Manager (Android) to use with an app at a later point in time.
Once your app displays the walk, you can have a look around. Please zoom in and out to let the app download and save parts of the map offline (wifi recommended). If your app has a dedicated menu option to download offline maps, be sure to use it. If there are waypoints, make sure that you see these and that you see instructions for each waypoint. All set? Enjoy your walk!
Help
If you have questions on how to install and use the walks, feel free to ask Theo. He will assist to the best of his abilities.