Legal notice & transparency
This site does not track you.
No cookies. No advertising. No Facebook pixel. No Google tracker. I do count visits, but nothing here can identify you.
This site does not try to work out who you are. No cookie, no profile, no identifier, and nothing is passed on to anyone. Three things are counted or noted somewhere, though, so let me tell you about them.
That is all. I look at these figures to see which routes are used most, and whether a download is broken. Not to follow you.
No external tool watches your visits. The site itself is a static site built with Astro (plain pages, no database watching you), and the maps are drawn in your browser by the Leaflet library (open source).
There is one point I want to be honest about: showing a map means fetching images from whoever makes them. Depending on the background you pick, your browser requests those tiles from one of these three providers:
So these providers do see your request for tiles. That is how every online map works, here as anywhere else, and I pass nothing else on to them — but you have a right to know. If you would rather stay in Europe, choose the IGN or Map background from the selector at the top left of each map.
Everything else — water points, fire watch, weather alerts, air quality — is prepared in advance on my server in France and served from there. For that, your browser contacts nobody else.
The water points, fountains, toilets and cemeteries displayed come from OpenStreetMap. This data is free, but it can be incomplete or inaccurate on the ground. Always check that water is drinkable before drinking, especially in rural areas.
If you spot a missing or incorrect point, you can report it via the "Report a problem" button on each marker popup. You can also contribute directly to OpenStreetMap — it's open to everyone.
The heat zones flagged along each route come from NASA FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System), using the VIIRS instruments aboard the S-NPP, NOAA-20 and NOAA-21 satellites. Thank you to NASA for making this data available to everyone.
Be careful about what a detection means: it is a place where satellites saw heat. Most often a vegetation fire, sometimes a factory, a gas flare or agricultural burning. Conversely, a real fire can go unseen — cloud, smoke, or simply the gap between two passes. NASA advises against inferring a burnt area from it. It is a signal to pay attention, never a verdict. If you are in danger, call the emergency services (112 across Europe). Terms of use and full disclaimer.
The fire danger level (Météo des Forêts) and the vigilance alerts on French routes are produced by Météo-France.
The daily air quality index shown on the French routes comes from Atmo France and the AASQA, the accredited regional air quality monitoring bodies. Source: Atmo France / AASQA. To work out which town a route passes through, I use geo.api.gouv.fr, a free French public service.
This information is fetched every three hours by a script on my server, then served from France. Your browser contacts neither NASA, nor Météo-France, nor Atmo France.
The files you download contain the GPS track of the route and its water points. You can load them into your favourite hiking app (OsmAnd, OpenRunner, Komoot, Garmin, etc.) to use the map offline on the trail.
The "Report a problem" button opens a pre-filled email to mahdiducamino@gmail.com. This email is read by Mahdi only. No message is ever shared with a third party.
Site hosted on an OVH server (OVH SAS, 2 rue Kellermann, 59100 Roubaix, France). The domain name is also managed by OVH. Hosting and domain 100 % French: no data produced by this site leaves France. Only the map tiles may come from elsewhere, depending on the background you choose (see above).
GR®, GRP® (GR® de Pays) and PR®, together with the corresponding waymarking signs (white/red, yellow/red and yellow), are registered trademarks of the Fédération Française de la Randonnée Pédestre (FFRandonnée). These names are used on this site solely to designate the routes concerned, for information purposes. No waymarking sign is reproduced on this site. La Magie en Chemin is not affiliated with the FFRandonnée.
Mahdi du Camino, a pilgrim since 2001 and a lover of the Trails. This site is a gift, made to help walkers find water during heatwaves. Data collected, checked and presented on a volunteer basis.
To contact me: mahdiducamino@gmail.com
This site is free and will stay that way. No advertising, no tracker, nothing to pay to browse the map, download a track or use offline mode.
I am also building WAOW!, a paid mobile app that uses the same data and that this site links to. I won't hide it: I hope it will become my living. But everything here will remain available without it.
This site makes almost nothing of its own. It gathers the work of others and lays it out along the trails. Here is who we owe it to.
Site code written by Mahdi du Camino, with the help of AI and a certain Python. All rights reserved. 🐍
A good walk starts with knowing where to drink. Water, I mean! 🤣
I wish you Bon Chemin!
Mahdi du Camino
This page is a courtesy translation; in case of any discrepancy, the French version prevails.