So motorcycling heroes, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman have completed another adventure – this time biking the length of Africa. Like their previous jourrney though, this has been done with comprehensive back-up. This is no seat of the pants jaunt, the whole thing has been filmed by motorcycle outriders, and they had a number of support vehicles. On the news report I saw, there was even a flunky to wash dust out of their eyes.

Now this is a shame, as the whole point of a road-trip, especially a motorcycle road-trip is the freedom of the open road. Not to ride in a convoy with support.

This does throw up the problems though of filming a journey. You either have to film it yourself making it all but unwatchable due to the low production values, or take along a film crew and the attendent gear and support vehicles. I have done some filming and the endlessly repeated longshots do just ruin the spirit of a journey.

There are different ways of getting around this. Firstly you can fess up, and make the film and support crew into part of the film. This is the option taken by Jeremy Clarkson is his utterly unprincipled, yet stupendously watchable drunken drive in a 4WD to the North Pole. Alternatively you can still pretend that you are travelling virtually on your own and make out that you are the last action hero – apparantly the technique used by Bear Grylls in Born Survivor according to the Telegraph(even though Grylls is actually a columnist for the Daily Telegraph). Discovery Channel (who screen the show as Man vs Wild in the US) seem to admit that some of the scenes were faked for TV, according to the BBC.

Now I am sure that all Grylls has done is buckle to the pressure of filming good tv, but it is nice to know that there are some people out there ‘doing it for real’. Grant & Susan Johnson describe themselves as ‘Consultant Bikers’. They have a website called Horizons Unlimted which describes their 14 years of travels.

The site also has an extensive blog section for other travellers and links to other motorcycle traveller’s websites. Just dabbling through here and you will find any number of two-wheel lunatics out there living the dream, such as Sean Howman who rode a bike from Chennai in India to Charing Cross in London and Lois Pryce who has ridden the length of Africa and also the Americas. This site is truly a goldmine for adventurous travellers.

I wonder what they would all make of Ewan and Charley’s efforts!

Words & picture © Steve Davey 2007

It has been some time since I was able to post on this blog, due to the unexpectedly early arrival of my son — a new traveler to join the ranks of the wanderlust-struck, with a pedigree to keep him bouncing around the world: half pure British, a quarter Russian, and a quarter usual American mutt mix of Scots-Irish, French, and Scandinavian. Will he drink tea, and if so, how? Assam with milk like his father, or strong and black with a side of shockingly sweet jam (actually, varenye, which is like a concentrated jam) as his Russian relatives drink? Or will he be a latte- and fresh-roasted coffee addict like my Seattle-influenced mother?

But more important than his potential caffeine addiction is the effect the last week has had on my traveling thoughts: in short, the introduction of fear, or at least caution.

I won’t go into garishly personal details, but last week I was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with a condition called HELLP Syndrome, which, to be brief, is an illness related to pregnancy, whose cause is unknown and whose only cure is delivery. It is the leading cause of childbirth-related deaths in the Western world, very likely due to misdiagnosis (it easily mimics stomach bugs and gallbladder problems), and I feel more than lucky to have an obstetrician who recognized the symptoms and knew immediately what to do. (Public Health Busybody Notice: If you know someone who is pregnant, please make sure they get adequate blood work on their platelet and liver enzyme levels if they go to the doctor with an irritating stomach complaint.) She said, “So, either we deliver or your liver will fail.” Um, okay.

Travel connection, you ask? Three weeks before this event, I was with my husband and in-laws on an underpopulated Scottish island, enjoying scenery, the sea, and malt whiskey. At this moment I am looking at a doctor’s note on my desk that allows me to travel for another two days from now. What if I had taken advantage of that note? What if this had happened, say, on that little island, where the only option for urgent medical care is an hour-long airlift to Glasgow? And what about the month-long hospital stay my son is looking forward to? Would we have been able to stay in the country? Or, since HELLP can hit at any time, what if I had been in Russia a couple months ago at the writing conference that I love but had to miss out on this year? That’s not to say that these places don’t have good medical care, but one can’t help asking ‘what if.’

Thirty years of disgustingly good health have given me a nonchalant attitude toward the role of health issues and medical emergencies in my choice of traveling times and destinations. I like deserts, remote and chilly islands, and anywhere with ice. Constrictions have been due more to sheer laziness and a liking for things like regular meals than caution. Fear has never been a factor in my travel. But now it has entered. Specifically, since one of the risk factors for HELLP is if you’ve had it before, I know I won’t be traveling during a subsequent pregnancy. Nine months is a long time without a flight, but even if I were willing to risk it, my husband wouldn’t be. Generally, I wonder about my future attitude toward travel. Will I worry more, both about my health and that of my family’s? Will I not-so-subconsciously choose places likely to have good emergency medical care? Will I limit sojourns in places that previously gave me heart’s ease? Will tension permeate hiking treks far from civilization?

None of us ever want fear to limit our choices, or our options. But as I slather arnica on veins bruised by IV lines, I wonder if I will become one of the travelers constrained by worry.

You wouldn’t think that historically-rich Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia would feature a great way for kids and adults to get filthy.

To find out how you can join the fun, visit the Brickyard, one of many restored Colonial-era trades shops where you can see the 1700s brought to life in an approachable way that never feels fakey. 

In warmer months, costumed interpreters make bricks the old-fashioned way, out of clay, and visitors are invited to climb into the clay pit barefoot and stomp around to their heart’s content mixing the clay.  There is a washing area nearby for those dirty feet. 

My 7 year-old son had a blast.

Adults are told that clay-stomping has great exfoliating benefit for the feet, so I was tempted, but had to decline when I was caught up in a minor camera memory stick crisis (I was shooting photos and taking notes for an upcoming article in Automotive Traveler.)

In October, the workers fire up the kiln in what has become an annual celebratory event.

According to the Brickmaker section of the (excellent) Colonial Williamsburg Web site, “Bricks made on site at the brickyard have recently been used in [the restoration project to build] the Peyton Randolph smokehouse, dairy, and lumberhouse foundations, and the foundation and center chimney of the Randolph kitchen.”

Listen to podcasts about the various trades  (click through the “Daily Life” category to “Trades” to hear about basketmaking, saddle/harness making, tailoring, making wigs and more from the people who authentically interpret these trades every day.) 

You never know what you’ll find when you start poking around in history.

Technorati tags: travel, family travel, Colonial Williamsburg, brick

When I was researching an article about unique cooking vacations, I discovered Australia-based Morrison Polkinghorne and Robert Carmack, aka The Globetrotting Gourmet (and yes, that made me wonder if the “Galloping Gourmet” Graham Kerr is still galloping….and he is!)

Anyway, the Globetrotting Gourmet guys offer up some pretty hard-core, high-end foodie tours in Asia, including Thailand and Myanmar/Burma.  While I’m woeful in the kitchen with American food, much less Asian, I still enjoy dreaming through their email newsletter. 

A couple of their recent travel-related tidbits caught my eye: 

• “Bargain hunters should head to South Korea, where Seoul city hotels have dropped rack rates by 20% this year, and likewise removed the VAT from tourist accommodation until Jan ’09. The discounts are all part of Korea’s drive to induce 12 million tourists to visit the capital by 2010.” 
• “Singapore. We’ve stayed twice at the ultra-trendy New Majestic, and likewise chi chi The Scarlet, but fickle cognescetti now rave about Naumi, a boutique property catering to the business trade, opening in September. Located in the old Metropole Hotel near The Raffles, its location cannot be faulted. And as for only 40 rooms, we find it the perfect size… And for bargain rates, we still stay at 1929 in Chinatown.”
• They give a “tongs up” to two places in Bangkok, the tiny Arun Residence (only 4 rooms) and the Suvarnabhumi Novotel airport hotel (a possible retreat from problems you may encounter at the city’s new airport.)
• And if you’re rolling in big bucks and headed to Thailand’s Koh Samui island….”In August we visited Vatcharin Bhumichitr’s new Cinnamon hotel and restaurant on the idyllic island of Koh Samui. With some 20 rooms and bungalows facing the calm waters of the Gulf of Siam, this is a hot pick for foodies heading for sun and sand. Each room is decorated individually from Vatcharin’s personal collection of arts and antiques. Vatch’s fresh-shucked oysters with mangosteen nam prik was stellar. We’re delighted the chef is on the line up of guest presenters at next year’s Isan Food Festival in Khon Kaen, where he’ll be speaking on the origins of a humble pin-toh Isan lunch box — plus some modern picnic reinterpretations of his own!”

So, dining and cooking enthusiasts, if your lottery money is inbound or that inheritance is piling up, you know where to spend it!

Technorati tags: travel, culinary travel, Asia, cooking vacations

I’m infiltrating.  It’s time for more regular folks to attend tech conferences.

No, I’m not a tech geek, whatever that is (so many of us use technical devices and do Internet stuff that I’m not sure what “geek” means anymore.)  I do know that I enjoy the Internet community and the possibilities of online communication, and I’ll bet that you do, too, so let’s infiltrate.

One of the biggest blowouts of the year is just down the road from me in Austin, Texas:  South by Southwest (SXSW.)  It’s actually a three-parter conference of Interactive/tech, Film and Music. 

The organizers describe Interactive as a conference for “digital creatives,” including bloggers, so last year I decided to jump in and attend even though I found it laughable that I would enjoy or have much to contribute to a tech conference.

Still, I registered anyway.  Technology is changing the world too much, including the travel world, for anyone to remain intimidated by the pocket-protector crowd….and as far as I could tell at SXSW, there wasn’t a single pocket protector, just a lot of interesting people with a lot of laptops. 

I had a blast — who knew that so much of Interactive was panels about blogging, podcasting and online media?  As a writer, I was in heaven.

This year, when the call went out for submissions for panel ideas for SXSW 2008, I thought….why not propose a panel on travel blogging? 

Lots of people get started online by blogging about a trip or vacation;  maybe I could help them and anyone else interested in writing about travel.  There are also some great travel bloggers that I would kill to have on the panel with me, but I had to get through Step One.

The good news is that the SXSW organizers thought the idea had merit, so last week my panel suggestion went up for comments and votes, along with, oh, 687 other panel proposals.  The “Panel Picker” process lets future SXSW attendees indicate which panels really interest them, and that weighs heavily into whether a panel is ultimately scheduled for the conference.

Yes, this is one way that people get to speak at a conference: they ask.  Just be ready to stand up and talk if you ask and someone says, “OK!”

If you’re thinking about infiltrating SXSW (and there’s something for everyone, including pet lovers and crafters) then complete the quick/free registration process and vote for my panel:

Blog Highways: Travel Blogging for the Wanderer 

Either as a speaker or audience member, I still plan to attend and get my geek on.

(This is cross-posted on the Family Travel blog.)

Technorati tags: travel, family travel, SXSW, blogging