Train Ride Through Mauritania

by Adrienne Wilson on

Joanne Lane is a brave woman; snapping shots of Mauritania’s Iron Ore Express as people jump off and on. Getting lost in the scramble of things she gets pushed up on the train by a husband helping his wife board and ends up sharing snacks with the lady and her child. Passengers ride for free on the Iron Ore Express, but they share limited space with iron ore. Moving at 31 mph the train gathers sand as it chugs along making way to the Sahara on the 419 mile single track railway line. She says it’s one of the longest trains in the world and I believe her – 1.5 miles long. The ride is far from luxury, considerably rough and off-the-beaten path for many a traveler. I tried putting myself in her shoes, wandering how I would do in such conditions – in the shuffle.

If Mauritania is on your radar and you don’t mind a little sand it’s worth it to look at her report featured in the latest Go World Travel. Even if the African country is far from your radar I suggest giving it a glance. Just do it and take a virtual ride, man.

GADLING’S TAKE FIVE: Week of July 9

by Adrienne Wilson on

Time for us to showcase some of our favorite blurbs of the week in case you missed them. I’m guessing most of you dear and loyal readers, haven’t and I completely don’t understand if you did, but here’s another chance to review five.

5. Saving Belizean Music:
Thanks to Neil, Belizean music is remembered this week. In this short blog he points us to a LA Times piece on the sounds of local music in Belize. On top of that he also provides you with a link to get your own fill of these Central American tunes.

4. Saving Pics:
Everyone’s got their own method to saving their precious travel memories. Some will back them up three times on CD, on five different computers or you name it so long as they are protected. A few of us who are a little more trusting in modern technology can probably do without caring too much equipment in the name of protection and that is why I point you to this (oh-so) simple gear piece from Erik. The skinny – Flashtrax XT. Another cool compact option for photo storage on the road.

3. Machu Picchu Helicopter:
To climb or fly? That is the question in this chopper over Machu Picchu piece, where Neil invites readers to share their feelings on whether or not taking the ride up to the ruins is better than hiking. In short, we want to know if it’s cool or lame?

2. Road Trip USA Podcasts:
Here’s a good one if you’re planning a last minute road trip for the summer – Road Trip USA podcasts by Jaime Jensen. While the gas along the way may be high you needn’t worry about the podcasts costing you a thing, because if what Erik says is true, then they’re free. Go get some audio for the road to help you along the way!

1. Self-Erecting Tent:
Some claim it’s spankin’ new and other say it’s a thing of years past, but I’ve never heard of it so for me it’s on the spankin’ side. What am I speaking of? The self-erecting tent by Quechua is making pitching your cozy campsite digs a breeze. All you do is toss it in the air and by the time it lands your home-sweet-tent is all ready to go. Thank Neil for pointing to this fine piece of gear.

Urban Exploration

by Erik Olsen on

When I was a kid I used to explore my town as if it was some exotic land. The places to go were always the places I wasn’t supposed to go: people’s backyards, the basements under stores and restaurants, any kind of tunnel whatsoever, the darkened classrooms and offices of the school at night. We were what are now more formally called urban explorers. Well, OK, sub-urban explorers, because we lived outside of the downtown area of Los Angeles. But no matter, the point is that some people, and this included many if not most of my friends, were really into checking out the world around them, “discovering” places that we’d never seen and going places we knew we weren’t supposed to go.

I’d like to say those days are gone, that I’m a grownup now, but the fact is, I still spend a LOT of my free time just walking around NYC and exploring. No, I don’t break into buildings anymore, but if I see a dark alleyway that looks interesting, or a way to get under a bridge to see a new view of the river, I’ll do it. Urban exploration is still in my blood. But that said, there are some folks for whom the urban exploration idea gets taken to the extreme. They live and die for this stuff. Go over to this site called Infiltration.org, for example, and see some of the stuff they do and the places they go. They offer strategems and tips, all part of an actual book/zine they put out. This is hard core, but still very cool.

Travel for Your Mind: Radio Lab

by Erik Olsen on

I think that travelers are naturally curious people. After all, what’s the point of going through all the agony of making plans, slogging to the airport, enduring a 5 or 12 hour flight, and arriving in a completely foreign place where you know no one, if the whole experience didn’t somehow stimulate some high-level cortex?

Well, this isn’t exactly a travel-related post, not in the sense that I am offering you insight into some far off distant land…it is not a travel post geographically-speaking. But it is a travel piece in the sense that I am offering a trip for your mind, a place your head can go when you are caught in the throes of tedium, boredom or perhaps just in traffic.

I have long been a big fan of the work of journalist Robert Krulwich. He is, in my opinion, one of the most thoughtful, relevant and creative journalists out there today. Never mind that he typically covers one of my favorite topics — science — and so that makes it easier to appeal to my sensibilities. Even if he farm subsidies or the Fed, I’m sure he’d find a way to make the subject interesting (I actually think he did cover these topics in the early years). Krulwich has got a relatively new gig on the radio now over at public radio called Radio Lab, and if you have not heard it, you should drop everything now (wait, not you…not the guy holding the precious Ming Dynasty vase….oh damn) and go listen. Radio Lab is a feast for both hemispheres of the brain. Your logical cortex will dine on delicious explanations of complex topics like emergence and identity, while your creative cortex will savor the funny, off-beat and unusual way that the pieces are architected and edited. This is fulfilling science journalism, and right now, nothing I’ve experienced on radio or TV touches it.

I also have to mention and give equal billing to the show’s producer and co-host, Jad Abumrad, who brings style, intelligence and obviously an immense amount of creative energy to the work here.

Excellent. You’d have a hard time finding better stuff to put on your iPod.

Learn to Be a Travel Writer

by Erik Olsen on

The talented and quite funny Jen Leo ….about whom we just posted, why, just yesterday…has got a great post over at her site that is worth checking out. Here, she posts 10 tips to consider should you decide to be a travel writer yourself. Like the folks at Worldhum, I think one of her best suggestions is an obvious one, but one over-looked by too many people hoping to break into the biz. Her number four suggestion: “Read Read Read.” No kidding. I mean, how can you WANT to be a travel writer, anyway, if you don’t read travel writing? Kind of like wanting to be a doctor and not being interested in science.