The Maiden Voyage

This is the story of the first 76.4 miles water journey paddling and sailing our new Long Haul Mark II Commando folding kayak in the beautiful and quite challenging Everglades National Park. Enjoy!

The Maiden Voyage from Doi Nomazi (TraveloTherapy) on Vimeo.

or the slideshow

Driving Botswana

This is the story of the 3,658 Km long journey from Windhoek, Namibia, to Chobe National Park, in Botswana, Victoria Falls, in Zimbabwe, Nxai Pan and Drotsky's Cave, in Botswana and back to Windhoek.

Although, the journey started on the wrong foot because of a transit visa and ended up being affected by Hurricane Irene, it provided beautiful moments in the wilderness of the Ngamiland-Kalahari, Moremi and Chobe.

There were also joyful moments while bunjee jumping (28:16) at Victoria Falls and whitewater rafting (33:19) on the mighty Zambezi.

A stop at the Boma, in Victoria Falls, and Joe's Beerhouse, in Windhoek, brought quite a bit of fun to the trip..:)

Enjoy!

Driving Botswana from TraveloTherapy on Vimeo.

perpetuum mobile, the video diary

perpetuum mobile, the video diary

feeling like a parcel...

We've done it both ways. We enjoyed the freedom of being independent of any pre-arranged booking, other than the flights, and we tried the ordeal of being treated like a parcel by an organized tour...

In spite of the convenience and arguably peace of mind offered by having all the details scheduled and confirmed, the true sense of freedom is replaced by a constricting feeling of regimentation. Time becomes money to be made by the tour operator and the staff, driver, guide, cook, porter, guard, dive master, etc. They all seem on the clock while I am trying desperately to feel liberated and out of time...

travelotherapy... quite a mouthfull

I submit a new word to you... travelotherapy. A word behind a concept...:)

Travelotherapy refers to the positive impact traveling can have on one's psychic. Remember the excitement, the anticipation, all the planning before the actual trip starts...

First we pick a destination. How do we decide where to go next? It could be a show on Discovery or National Geographic, it could be a picture, or a blog, that you stumbled upon somewhere on the internet, it could be the news, or it could be that old fascinating book that stirred your imagination some years ago...

I could tell you about 'White Fang' and the mesmerizing call of the far north. I could tell you how one day I followed with my eyes on a map an imaginary line between NYC and Prudhoe Bay in Alaska. And I could tell you how I drove my Jeep from NYC to Prudhoe Bay and back for some 12,582 miles.

Oh, yes, that was, above all, a healthy dose of 'travelotherapy'...:)

Alyeska (Alaska) from Why Travel on Vimeo.

Some day I must return to Alaska...

For more info and images from the trip, please, check the "driving to Alaska..." section of the blog's photo gallery. Enjoy.

Up until a few minutes ago I laughed at the idea of having a 'blog'. What good can one more silly blog do to a world already saturated with bloggers? Almost everybody I know has a blog, or rather 'blogs', as I like to refer to the activity itself... Yes, with a smirk.

I blog, you blog, he blogs, she blogs, we blog, they blog, every living soul with access to the internet blogs. And less and less people seem to actually do things. They'd rather write about things than do them. They'd rather, it seems, use words to build entire new parallel dimensions to reality...
And too many words without a breathe of fresh air from some distant breeze can suffocate.

I want to feel, to see, to hear, to touch, to smell and taste, not just to read, or write, about the world. Perhaps you should stop reading this 'blog' and try that too. Let's step away from so many words. Should I stop adding words?...:)

I wish you told me now, before I pollute the internet with my own words because, I must admit it, the humble birth of this silly blog started to fuel an unbearable temptation. More and more words bubble up into sentences, flipping like wings without a body in what appears to be an attempt to create an ephemerreal bridge between this 'blog' and its readers.

But what good are the wings without the breeze to carry them?

All right, I will solve my dilemma by reaching a deal. This 'blog' can be about the perpetual breeze that calls us all to travel... or, it can be about dressing in olive drab to melt into the landscape...

Can the road that leads to the horizon line really fit into words and blogs? Can it fit into images and sounds? We'll try to find out together, only if you, the reader of this blog, promise to let me know when my words fail...

So, this new blog opens motivated by our ever present desire to travel and document our trips in the photo album...

Where would you like to travel first? How would you dress? Do you have a favorite shirt you like to wear on your trips?