I’ve raved here so many times about a place in Chile called Torres del Paine, that I’m just going to put a link here to some of my earlier posts. The Towers of Paine, located in the far south of Chile in the region known as Patagonia are part of a national park that ranks, IMHO, as one of the best in the world. And while I don’t understand the French that makes up the caption here, this photo, by Bajy, does a wonderful job conveying the majesty and scale of this excellent place.
Man vs. Wild
I’m just not sure we need another man v nature show. Handsome, strapping dudes with rippled abs heading out in to the wilderness to test their mettle against nature. The Amazing Race, the Croc Hunter (RIP), Survivor…even if this one has a vibe of authenticity, there’s just something about all this that reeks of artificiality, of marketing and showmanship. In the upcoming program Man vs. Wild, “seasoned adventurer” Bear Grylls (really? His name is bear?) strands himself in places that tourists sometimes go and where danger lurks around every…um…Burger King. And then, Herr Bear finds clever McGuiverian ways to escape. For example, we learn from the show’s site that he will escape quicksand in the Moab desert, he’ll navigate dangerous river currents in Costa Rica, and build a snow shelter in the Alps. We also learn that Bear: “is a Karate black belt, served three years with the Special Air Service, a special forces unit of the British Army, during which time he broke his back in three places while parachuting over Southern Africa“.
I could be wrong, this new show could be great, but to me, the only way I would really be interested is if he could REALLY REALLY die. I mean, why go to all the trouble and pretense if we all know that he’s probably never going to hurt himself. Yes, yes I know that Steve Irwin took one for the team recently and that helps make the case that these guys really do put themselves in danger, but I’m guessing that won’t be the case with this show. I’m guessing that most everything will be preplanned and made as safe as can be. Yes, yes, that’s fine. I mean, I don’t WANT to see someone get hurt. It’s just that when these shows market the notion to you that everything really is dangerous when we know it’s really not, well, it just has the whiff of fast food.
Verge Magazine
Writing a travel blog can sometimes be a daunting task. The reason is that there are so many kinds of travel. On the one hand, there is luxury travel, where folks ho aboard a pristine ocean liner and drop into ports of call where the main activity is being led off like a herd of sheep, perhaps dining in a restaurant and more or less having your whole experience orchestrated by some tour group.
I generally look at this kind of travel with a measure of revulsion. It might be OK when you’re 70 and are less, shall we say, mobile than you used to be, but it seems to me that this kind of travel is rather sterile. Then there’s the whole backpacking adventure, which is much more appealing to most of the folks that read Gadling. But yet another kind of travel involves real commitment…you might even call it work…and that is the volunteer vacation. We’ve posted about volunteer vacations numerous times, and usually we’re quite bullish about the concept.
Our good friend Josh Berman did this and talked about the experience at some length in the podcast we did a while back. But I just recently stumbled upon a whole magazine that’s largely dedicated to the subject, and I figured it was worth mentioning.
Verge Magazine comes out of Canada, and is geared, as you might have guessed, towards Canucks (wait, is that the right use of thee term? Oh, well). It’s got articles galore on the volunteer vacation concept with other fine pieces about conservation, science and profiles of folks who make travel a part of their occupation. The online pickings are actually rather slim, so I’d love to actually get my hands on a bona fide copy, but the site has some pieces online that make it worth a visit. But one section worth checking out is the resources area where you can find links to organizations who offer vacations for activits types and adventureres with a leftie bent.
Portable Solar Charger for all your Gadgets
As more and more tech-heads venture into the wilderness with phones, PDAs, and iPods, they are all discovering the same problem: there is no where to recharge their batteries. A $400 GPS gadget with no juice might as well be skipped across a lake like just another worthless rock.
But now there is a solution.
The Solio is a portable solar charger that measures in at just 4.7 x 2.4 inches. The beauty of its design is that it unfolds like a fan into a much larger shape to better capture the sun’s rays.
When fully charged it can power an iPod or cell phone for up to two hours. Not too bad for free energy. It’s also compatible with most handheld electronic devises, eliminating the need to carry three or four different chargers wherever you go.
Now, about all those cloudy days that pop up when I camp…
Utah Red Rock Video
Not that you needed a reason to go to Utah to experience it’s jaw-gaping beauty. Most Americans, ad certainly most gadling readers, are aware that Utah is probably the best place in the country, and perhaps on earth, to go mountain biking and skiing. Nothing I’ve ever experienced beats Utah powder. But take a look as this finely done (albeit a little muddy, thanks to the Google codec) video from America’s Redrock Wilderness. The color of stone there, shot during the golden hour, of course, is out of this world, almost as if it was shot on Mars. It was shot in wide screen and narrated by Robert Redford, so pull the corner of your browser out a bit and enjoy.