Wednesday 1 April 2015

Camping Apps

This month I'll be taking a look at apps that can help you with your camping holiday. For iPad users the Campee by Mud Map is a free community based app that provides information about campsites and caravan parks around Australia. WikiCamps Australia is a similar app that will run on both Android and iPad devices, but it costs $4.99. Another handy free app is First Aid by the Red Cross. This has a guide to the basic first aid procedures, useful if you are stuck somewhere remote and need to apply first aid.

It is also useful to know what the weather will be doing when you are camping and there a number of weather apps available for this. The bureau of meteorology now have a mobile friendly website at m.bom.gov.au. This shows forecasts and weather radars in an easily accessible mobile format. Another popular weather app is weatherzone. While this is free is it is ad supported, but it does provide a lot of information with a slick looking interface.

Lastly, camping would not be complete without appreciating the beauty of the night sky. Now you can use your mobile device to tell you which planet is visible and what the constellations are. Planets by Q Continuum is free and has lots of features on the iPad. It can also be used on Android, but has less features. Sky Map is a free alternative on Android devices. These apps provide an augmented reality view where you can point the device at the sky and it will tell you what is in that location.

So wherever you go over the holidays, hopefully these apps can make your camping experience a better one. Happy travels.