Owner: thelostglobe URL:www.thelostglobe.com Join Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2007 18:37:44 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Travel, reviews, advice, philosophy, planning, tips for the big trip. Site statistics:Click here
Globe Roamer TV 2007-05-28 01:58:12 Who would have thunk it? On Friday I read this post by Nina on justwandering and after the initial trepidation I felt I sent off an email to Eric (the boss) introducing myself. Having watched some of the latest Big Brother in Australia I was feeling like the only personalities shown on TV were apparently loud people with big personalities, watching though I decided that there is nothing appealing about watching a bunch of big personalities, generally they seem to cancel each other out and end up all appearing to be pretty boring. BB might actually be interesting if only they put in more than one type of person. I thought not being your typical personality you see on TV I suited that bill but I’m not really one for BB.
So knowing that if I was simply honest about what I am like I felt that I would come across as a unique person, something different for once. As it turns out I am and GRTV was looking for someone like that. It looks like the team will be a good mix of different pers Read more:Globe
A Map For Staurday - Review 2007-06-03 21:48:14 A few days ago (my birthday) I got home from work and found A Map For Saturday had arrived I was very happy (very fast shipping) and launched it right into the DVD player.
Brook Silva-Braga decided to leave his job and travel around the world for 11 months, with him he took 30lbs of video equipment to shoot his experiences and discover more about the people who take the time for long term travel. The result is a solid and original documentary. It gives an insight that might help prepare future world travelers and impart a little understanding for protective parents or those who just don’t get it.
For a one man show (except for the odd hand from fellow travelers) you could be forgiven for thinking that Brook didn’t do this alone and the fact that he did is a feat in itself. Contrary to the cliches he has also shown that the travelers he meets at least are more intelligent than most give them credit for. The film has a bit of Morgan Spurlock feel about it but I can’t qu
10 Kilos of Cash: June Update 2007-06-03 03:32:30 I’ve been quite busy the last week so this is a little late but all the same the current weight is 8.6 Kilos, a 0.6 Kilo increase so not far off the 0.8 increase last month. I think the lower number can be explained by me not paying with cash so much this month.
I’ve been reading a book called Money Karma which is really good, I’m finding useful because I can relate to the ideas and philosophy even if I can’t with many of the figures. Today I bought an organiser, budgeting book and some other stationary to write down my goals and log and plan a better budget. I’m going back to paying in cash again as I seem to spend less and it means more will go into the money tin as I’ll be given change.
I’m guessing I have less than $1000 left to pay off my car loan now so it should be gone by the end of this month, I really need to go to the bank this week and find out exactly how much is left. I’m hoping I will be saving before September when it will Read more:Update
Web Travels - 12 June 2007 2007-06-11 21:20:57 Tripbase is a cool little web application that matches destinations to how much you want to experience certain things like, nightlife, nature and food. Maybe not comprehensive but it is still in alpha, something to play with for a bit of fun and maybe even for finding some inspiration.
Rick Steves Interview with Rolf Potts was featured on their respective sites a few weeks ago now and it is definitely worth listening to. It’s always good to put a voice to a name/face.
The word on Earth Bound is spreading and we have the main site up now, there is also a forum where you can talk with us and MySpace and Facebook groups to join to help you keep up to date with what is happening. We will be launching a comp soon for bands to have their music featured on the show so if you know any up and comers or have friend in a band point them in our direction.
I finally went into the bank and checked my loan account balance and I had about $780 left to pay off, I’ve since payed some more an Read more:Travels
Why So Many Don’t Realise Their Dream To Travel 2007-06-24 21:57:52 Most of us want to travel so why is it that so few of us actually do?
Let’s look at some of the reasons so many travel plans never take flight.
Ideas in your head are great fun and they are an important part of being inspired to travel and maintaining that motivation but ideas only get you so far. To many people are content to dream of travel and just wait for a good time to come along. The reality is those opportunities a few and far between and even when they do come your probably not really going to be prepared to take advantage of them. For the most part travel takes planning but before starting that open a savings account just for travel and begin depositing a set amount out of each pay packet this is a very important first step. Next plan destinations, budget and time frames. Subscribe to my RSS feed to get my upcoming posts on planning a trip from an idea to boarding the plane.
Our early plans are often grand and often too grand. We need to be realistic, you simply can&rs Read more:Dream
, Travel
Going Overland in December 2007-07-02 20:02:07 I booked our day to start the Overland
Track last night, 27th December
. The booking system only opened on the 1st July and I found that January already had a few days with only a few spots left in the 3 days the system had been open. The cost was $300 for two, steep really. Plus we need to renew out parks pass in December. Earlier in the year the minister announced the fee would increase from $100 to $150, citing that it brought the cost in line with similar popular walks in New Zealand (Eg, Milford and Kepler Tracks), what she didn’t mention is how much better managed those track
s are and how you get your value for money. The huts on the NZ walks are of a much higher quality and in bad weather you even get choppered to the next hut, the tracks themselves are also apparently in better condition. The track is also apparently in danger of being “loved to death” and so a new walk of similar length is being planned on the Tasman Peninsula called the Three Capes Track, th Read more:Going
Not So Lonely Planet 2007-07-01 21:50:21 The journal Science has published an report on the domestication of the planet. It was reported that as of 1995 only 17% of the world land area was still “truly wild” ie; no human populations, crops, road access or night-time light detectable by satellite. The Discovery Channel’s article on the report described some disturbing details.
Half of the world’s surface area is used for crops or grazing.
More than half of the world’s forests have been lost to land conversion.
The largest land animals on several continents have become or are near extinction.
In Europe 22,000 kilometers of coastline have been paved.
The 17% number is debatable, the researchers included many national parks in their domesticated areas as they consider them to be managed in a similar way farms are, although they may be wild it is because it has been decided that they will be. Regardless of definitions the report shows that humans do truly have a massive impact on the planet. It pose Read more:Lonely
, Lonely Planet
10 Kilos of Cash: July Update 2007-07-04 20:32:37 Another 0.6 increase this month which got me up to 9.2kg. So we are getting pretty close to the goal weight now.
I payed off the last of my car loan last week and my battery then died, $80 for a new one. But this week I’ll be putting in my tax return and on the first run through it looks like I will get a pretty good one. I’m tempted to buy a second hand kayak but it will go straight into savings for the Earth Bound trip.
Just quietly I’m slowly redesigning the site from the ground up with a completely original theme, don’t expect anything soon though. Creativity takes me more time than most and learning the skills creates further delays. When it comes to my own work like this I’m a bit of a perfectionist. Read more:Update
The New Seven Wonders 2007-07-08 19:36:19 The results are in and since it’s been the talk of the town for the last day or so I’m not going to bore you by regurgitating them here. However how an anyone let this go by without taking out their soapbox.
I’m hearing there were 100 million votes or was it 100 thousand, either way it not really all that many considering the world population I think a lot more are needed, at least a billion. Even so nationalism would probably become more of a problem with either a small or large number of votes and I think something like that did happen.
The Pyramids of Giza should have been on the list of 7 by default not just an honorary number 8 as it seems to be, it is an original wonder so with that there should be 6 places remaining not 7.
With the pyramids included I don’t really think there is room for Chichén Itzá.
Christ the Redeemer, maybe it’s supposed to be the new Colossus of Rhodes but I think the truth is that we can make pretty much anything out of a fe Read more:Seven
, Wonders
Tour de France 2007-07-15 18:50:34 I’ve never really followed the Tour de France
but this year I’m a bit more interested. I knew Europe was beautiful but wow, every single town seems to have it’s own story to tell and the architecture in so many is just what you hope it would be.
The last 2 stages have been in the Alps and it seriously looks like you could just happen upon Hedi frolicking on a mountainside if it wasn’t for that guy chasing the riders in a Borat mankini.
It’s been a few late nights for me as the tour is televised at 10.30pm here and I don’t think I can keep it up for 2 more weeks, I think I’ll have to just tune in for the highlights from now on.
I wonder how many people tour France by bike, it looks like it is an excellent way to see the country. I imagine there are quite a few who do, I know I would love to do it.
A Better Blog? 2007-07-12 18:33:10 I’ve been thinking of expanding and doing something new, I’ve been reading blogs such as Problogger, kentonwhitman, EcoGeek, The Thinking Blog, Get Rich Slowly, Change Your Thoughts, Lifehacker, Pick The Brain, Zen Habits, Web Design Book and Brave New Traveler for some time now.
It got me thinking about a super blog with the best bits from all these type of blogs. I know many of these blogs tell you to target a niche but I think this could work, why? The reason I’m subscribed to these is because they interest me and because most of them have been recommended by authors of the other blogs. The reality is a lot of like minded people read these blogs and wherever I go in this small selection someone is talking about one of the others. Is there a niche for people who read from these niches? I think from what I’m seeing there definitely is.
So what do you think.
Would you read something like that?
Do you think I should do it here or build a new blog?
Facebook for Travelers 2007-07-15 22:56:44 Facebook has really taken off, given it’s unique platform and the benefits over other social networking sites like MySpace it’s not really a surprise nor is it that it is quickly becoming a favorite of travelers. Almost everyone wants to keep in touch with the people they meet while traveling and while there are a number of travel specific social networking sites Facebook has a lot to offer.
Although many have complained about it, it is the applications you can add to your Facebook profile that make it so fun and useful beyond just adding your friends.
Facebook is yet another designed to connect friends although unlike the MySpace popularity contest Facebook prefers that you actually know your friends. When you add a friend it will ask you how you know the person, are they related, a schoolmate, co worker, teammate, partner? Or for travelers, did you travel together and if so where to?
And like the others you enter the standard stuff to be shown in your profile like, age, r Read more:Facebook
, Travelers
Web Travels - 24 July 2007 2007-07-23 19:53:57 A few excellent articles have fallen into my Google Reader today.
The Information Diet, Mike at Vagabondish tells us how we can find more hours in the day and put them to use for something better.
5 Ways To Develop Independent Thought, comes from John Wesley at Pick The Brain and shows you don’t need to be a genius or even an intellectual to think independantly.
Things I wish I’d Know When I was Younger, is that a typo in the headline? Lifehack gives us a list. What do you think? This is something I’d like to write about sometime and hear what others think. Hopefully those links work for you, although I can read this one in Google Reader I can’t currently access the Lifehack site. Read more:Travels
Do You Speak English? 2007-07-25 21:34:00 In the world of the Interwebs a few of us have to decide if we will do something we’ve forever been told not to… speak American. Us non American English
speakers have learned the prejudices of our parents and teachers… do not barstadise the English language by speaking American.
But on the Interwebs we ask ourselves should we give into the Google and drag our tongues in the dirt in hope of better SEO?
It feels wrong when I spell Travelling/ Traveling but maybe these Americanisations/ Americanizations are better for my blog? I must admit though I do insist on spelling gaol/jail so I’m still a barstadiser to many.
What do you think? Should true English speakers chase the page views or start a revolution?
10 Kilos of Cash: August Update 2007-07-31 19:36:35 Not much to say this month, although I’ve been adding at about the same amount as before the scales read the same as last month 9.3Kg. I guess that is digital scales for you, they tend to jump around regardless of if they are weighing something light or heavy. So I’ll just keep popping in the pennies this month and see if we start moving up again.
I cashed out most of my Emailcash money yesterday, I won’t actually get it for at least a month but that is another $100 I could do with. Especially after I spent nearly $250 on an iPod and Nike+ on the weekend, more on that later.
And as a side note the redesign is coming along well, almost there. Read more:August
, Update
Nike+ iPod = Fitness & Motivation 2007-08-06 19:23:52 I’ve been a member of a gym for over a year now and to say the least my attendance has been dismal. A couple of weeks ago I started taking my dog for a run at a nearby trail and I found it much easier to motivate myself to do that but I still had the odd day where I just couldn’t be bothered.
Last week I was looking through Yahoo Widgets and came across a Nike+ widget that sparked my interest. I had heard of the Nike+ thing a while ago but I wasn’t interested back then, this time I checked around a bit. If you haven’t seen the Nike+ site check it out, there are a number of movies and other bits that explain what this neat little piece of tech does.
I had been looking for an MP3 player for a while to take with me exercising and when I start travelling next year. The Nike+ system requires an iPod
Nano, I’ve long been anti-iPod but now I can see that it was through ignorance. Looking at the specs the Nano doesn’t quite measure up to others I was conside
Do You Like Green? 2007-08-06 18:49:59 All good things are green, green symbolizes nature, life, wealth and balance. No wonder it is my favorite colour and features in this awesome theme by Rob Goodlatte.
This theme change called for something a little more than just visual changes although the theme itself has managed to achieve some of the things I was aiming for there have been a few other small changes that I think make a big difference in the end.
By using someone else’s theme I can now reserve the one I am building myself for it’s own new blog and has allowed me to reinvent this one sooner rather than later. Two of the main things I wanted to achieve here was to Simplify and add Character.
Ads are gone, at least for now, any in the future will be less prominent.
There is more Whitespace.
Downshifted to a single simplified sidebar.
Removed pages that were not being updated or had become redundant.
Pruned categories and hopefully made them more relevant and useful.
Categories are now sorted alphabetically Read more:Green
The Overland Track - Getting Started 2007-08-14 20:03:02 The OverlandTrack
is Tasmania’s and possibly Australia’s premier hiking experience, starting at the world renowned Cradle Mountain it snakes through Cradle Mountain and Lake St Claire National Park in Tasmania’s central highlands. The track is about 80km long (Depending on start/finish points and sidetracks). It is open all year round but in the walking season (1 November to 30 April) a booking is required which includes a $150 fee and the requirement to walk North to South.
Assuming you already have the gear required for a 5-8 Day walk and transportation (To Tasmania at least) arranged and are planning to walk during the walking season I will outline the planning and preparation required from there.
Before leaving anywhere you need to book for the day you will begin the walk, you can do this at http://www.overlandtrack.com.au, by phone on (03 6233 6047) or in person at the Cradle, Lake St Clair, Freycinet or Mt Field visitor centers. From November 1 2007 the booki
Old Geyser To Rise Again 2007-08-26 18:03:44 Back in June a landslide occurred in Kamchatka a mountainous region of Russia, the slide effected a valley known as Geyser Valley or Valley of Geysers. Reports indicated that this little known and sparsely visited part of the world had been destroyed by the landslide.
A month after the fact a group of scientists were sent to the valley to evaluate the damage, what they found was that two of the more than twenty geysers had been buried and the slide had created a natural dam which they believe will be naturally eroded and washed away to reveal the two buried geysers. The scientists were also surprised to find a new large geyser with a 5 meter jet.
It appears that the initial fears of a natural wonder lost were incorrect I guess that is the nature of these type of events in remote regions. Check out the report on the regions website, Scientists evaluate Geyser Valley landslide. Read more:Again
10 Kilos of Cash: September Update 2007-09-02 23:44:16 9.8Kg, so close. As soon as I hit 10Kg I’ll count it. I received my $100 cheque from Emailcash but I still haven’t cashed it, I hate cheques. This month also marks 1 year from the planned departure of Earth Bound, all things going well. I’m fairly well on track with the money for that, although I have a bit on my “to buy” list at the moment. I scratched new running shoes off that this weekend but there is still jeans, walking pants, headlamp and other bits to buy. I think my gym membership ends this week too so that will be another $33 a month in my pocket and I’m running more often than I ever went to the gym anyway (Thanks Nike+).
If you are saving like me check out this post from a while back How to Get The $$$ For The Trip Of A Lifetime Read more:September
, Update
10 Kilos of Cash - Complete 2007-10-01 20:46:45 I’ve finally done it. After a few long hours of counting we reached the grand total of $339.95.
Now all I have to do is finish bagging it and getting the amounts in each bag right and then endure the embarrassment of walking into the bank and handing an armful of money to the poor bank teller. Oh well it can’t be much worse than the last one having to help me deposit a cheque, but what do you expect I’m 23 the last time I saw a cheque was years ago. I’ll update with some photos later.
Burma 2007-10-04 19:10:16
It seems the protests in Burma
are over for now. It’s really frustrating to see the “Coalition of the willing” sit by and do nothing when a country’s people scream for democracy, while they invade others which are at best reluctant. It’s even harder to see China sticking with it’s “non interference” policy, although they are happy to interfere when someone else wants to. With a human rights record like China’s it’s no surprise really, that country’s government dumbfounds me. Regardless of the frustration there in reality these two powers are not really the ones best to target for action. One thing is for sure, although everyone seems to blame someone else in one way or another, but no one doing the blaming can say their hands are clean on the issue.
Tim Paterson at Brave New Traveler posted a list of stories related to Burma the best of which I think was The Ghost Road by Mark Jenkins which gives a very interesting loo
Earth Bound Over? 2007-10-28 22:28:23 It looks like EarthBound
may have missed it’s takeoff slot. Some may have noticed the website has been down for some time now. I’ve personally had no contact with Eric (Producer) for a couple of months now and contact between him and the rest of the team has been minimal. Recent developments have not filled the team with confidence and Miguel (Director) has given notice of his intention to abandon ship if the is no news with the next couple of days. We hope that if this finds Eric he will let us know what the situation is. If Miguel has to leave it will be a huge setback and if it to cause delays I know others including myself will have to reconsider their spot on the team.
As much as a disappointment it would be to see the end of Earth Bound I have prepared myself for it and I am once again becoming excited at the prospect of possibly going it alone, so for me at least I see a silver lining in the ominous clouds above the project.
I think just knowing regardless of whethe
Crayons and Travel Plans 2007-11-09 00:42:30 Back in March I vaguely outlined my travel plans, since then a bit has changed. All going to plan with work September ‘08 will be the month I leave. I’ve created a map giving a general idea of the parts of the world I want to travel to and how much but I don’t have much more to go on. I’m adding in Eastern Australia, probably from Brisbane up to Cairns, I think that will get me into the swing of things and if my GF decides to come however far with me it will help that along a bit too.
So here is the map, I know it looks a bit like a kid has attacked it with a bunch of crayons but I never said I had L337 PhotoShop skillz. Please remember this is pretty rough and indicates where I would like to travel during my lifetime, not just for this trip. I’ve probably forgotten some places and accidentally coloured some areas that aren’t all that appealing but I think it still gives a good idea. Key? Red: is Must See, Orange: is Don’t Want to Miss, Green: Read more:Travel
Cultural Etiquette in Australia 2007-11-06 18:19:14 If learning that it is not a good idea to handle food or shake with your left hand in Asia, or that in Australia
the ‘thumbs up’ gesture is considered obscene is a good sign of an interested traveller then it might be interesting to find that in Australia at least you’d be wrong about the thumbs up.
A couple of places that come up as good sources for info on local customs are Wikipedia and eDiplomat but there is misinformation in both of those articles, like…
The “V” sign (made with index and middle fingers, palm facing inward) is a very vulgar gesture. The “thumbs up” gesture is also considered obscene. - The thumbs up part is wrong, it’s used the same way it is commonly in other western countries, meaning Good or OK.
Do not say “I’m stuffed” after a meal. This means you are pregnant. - Well I’d take that to mean you are full and I’ve never heard a pre Read more:Cultural
, Etiquette
I’m Out - Earth Bound 2007-11-05 18:29:40 Still no contact from Eric. Everything seems to suggest that our attempts to contact him are being ignored rather than them not reaching him. As far as I am concerned Eric has abandoned the project without so much as a single word of his intention to do so. Personally I feel that some of the members deserve compensation but the way things have been handled so far I doubt that will happen very much, also apparently a number of sponsors may have handed over money, I sincerely hope that Eric has not cashed any cheques and there will be no monetary loss for them. Needless to say those of us involved are unhappy with Eric’s conduct. I think now even if he came out of the woodwork there would not be many still willing to work with him on this.
In other news this blog is now 1 year old, I’ve been terribly slack lately, tired and very busy at work but I’m hoping to up the number of posts back to at least weekly or better. Read more:Earth
, Bound
Review - Raichle Mt Peak 2007-11-12 23:12:43 I’ve had my Mt Peaks for about a year now so I think I can give a fair review of them.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get the XT GTX version which I think would have been better simply because of the different leather used.
My Mt Peaks were comfortable even brand new not that it took all that long to break them in anyway, when I tried them on in the store I had a rather large blister at the time and I could not feel it at all. The leather is well waterproofed and dries surprisingly quickly, although I haven’t used them in too much wet weather the gusseted tongue does and excellent job of keeping the water out while the lining also does a good job of keeping your sweaty feet dry. They give excellent support tight or loosely worn and have already saved my weak ankles countless times. They are built tough and even on the hardest terrain I’ve put them to test on (large collapsed dolerite columns), they came out of the bashing they received with hardly a scratch. I
Making It Happen - A Travel Plan 2007-11-18 18:52:28 I’m working on a more detailed and useful plan now, if it looks familiar it’s probably because I blatantly ripped it off from Dave, why? Well the layout was simple enough and very easy and useful to follow, so planning and keeping track of things is just much easier. Obviously it is a work in progress and although it may not appear that way I don’t want to have a day by day itinerary, days in each country are just rough estimates for now and even when I make the more specific later I’m planning on leaving enough time up my sleeve to be able to spend an extra week here and there as I decide on the road. My main travel plan is that nothing should be set in stone, if I want to change how long I spend in a country, go somewhere else or something like that hopefully I’ll have set my plans so they allow that.
After saying more than once that I would and filling out the forms 3-4 times, I’ve finally had my passport photos done and have them with my applicat Read more:Travel
Update Woes 2007-11-29 17:01:18 I installed the latest updates for Wordpress and Coppermine the other day. Unfortunately this time it hasn’t gone all smoothly. It appears my Feedburner feed is now broken and Coppermine isn’t able to access the SQL database anymore so none of the pics I’ve hosted are appearing. I am working on it, hopefully it will be sorted soon.
Oh great, as I type a new error appeared. Fun for me
Update
: Feeds seem to be working again, I’ve updated the Feedpress plugin. I’ve disabled the Coppermine plugin for now so the Gallery is gone and the error at the top of the page. That should have things under control for now, let me know if you see anything wrong.
1 Month from Overland Track 2007-11-27 20:13:03 I went to book the bus from Lake St Claire to Cradle Mountain today and found that there is no bus service on the day we need it. We could charter but the standard fees were 4 times more expensive and might have been even worse considering we need it on a public holiday. So it looks like we will be doing a 2 car shuffle unless we can think of some other solution or find someone who is looking to share a charter. That means driving two cars up to Lake St Claire, leaving one there, driving the rest of the way to Cradle and leaving one there. Then at the end of the walk driving back to Cradle to pick up the car from there and then driving back home in two cars again. Ain’t that going to be fun!
With a bit of luck we’ll at least get some good accommodation up there for the night before we start.
I’ve been putting a route idea into Google MapsEarth which I’ll have up soon, it will give a better idea of my plans as they are in my head. I’ve found this to be a p Read more:Month
, Overland
, Track
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