Hard Mile On The Net

The Age

Saturday June 14, 2003

LIZA POWER

You don't always have to learn your travel lessons the hard way. Sometimes you can chance upon a clever traveller and some choice tips can be bought over several rounds of duty-free vodka and a loan of your shampoo bottle.

These days it is not difficult to track down "on the road" tips via the internet. Be wary though - some of this advice can be fluffy, useless and written by someone who has never left his computer desk.

But good advice, when you find it, can spare you a great deal of expense, discomfort and wasted time. Here are a few places to hunt down some good advice.

National Geographic's online adventurer's handbook (nationalgeographic.com/pathtoadventure/handbook) is divided into three sections: survival basics, outdoor tips and expedition tips. Survival tips kicks off with "how to" instructions on start a fire (flint and steel), find water, build shelter, gather food, signal for help and pack a survival bag.

Outdoor tips range from how to beach a kayak and bike up steep trails to how to hike lighter, keep warm on frigid hikes, leave no trace, make tastier grub, paddle with power, put on your skis, run off-road, see more fish when diving, stick to the rock when climbing, ski faster, swim rapids, take better photos, telemark for real and "endo" or wipe out on a bike (falling without snapping limbs).

Expedition tips include how to survive an avalanche, build a fire when it is wet, cross a river on foot, fight altitude sickness, find your way, fix gear in the field, haggle for anything, melt snow for drinking water, predict the weather, slip a bribe and swing a machete.

Paddy Pallin (www.paddypallin.com.au) also has a useful travel tips section. "Gear freaking" covers new and interesting products at Paddy Pallin stores and "equipment care" provides buyers with instructions on how to look after their gear and get the best (and longest life) out of their boots, tent and other equipment.

The technical information provides useful explanations of how a GPS works, how fabric can be waterproof and breathable, how to choose socks, a day pack, sleeping bag and tent and which torches, head torches or lanterns will most effectively light your travels.

For travellers looking for up-to-date advice on hostels, visas and the fastest and cheapest way to get to Evora from Monsanto, both STA Travel and Lonely Planet have online advice forums. Solo travellers can track down adventure companions on both sites.

The STA advice forum (www.statravel.com.au/advice/forums) kicks off with advice to live by, written by STA Travel staff who share hints and tips for life on the road, "don't get caught with your pants down" tips and a "state of the world" section.

Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree (thorntree.lonelyplanet.com), named after the acacia tree at the Thorn Tree cafe in Nairobi where travellers pin messages and advice, was launched in 1995. The site has more than 90,000 registered users with an average of more than 7000 messages posted each day.

The Thorn Tree is broken into four sections. "Departure Lounge" covers travel advice; "The Lobby" looks at travel-related issues such as living and working abroad, travel health, gay and lesbian travel and traversing the world by bike; "News Stand" looks at travel issues such as responsible travel and talking politics; and "Tree House" is a posterboard for sport, culture vultures, camera tips and exotic recipes.

More for armchair reading than anything else, Robert Young Pelton's World's Most Dangerous Places website (comebackalive.com) is comical, very American and an interesting insight into the minds of people who seem to derive pleasure from the prospect of putting their lives at risk.

Pelton kicked of his adventure career at the tender age of 10 (according to the site), after he became the youngest student ever to attend a Canadian survival school in Selkirk, Manitoba (it was later closed after the death of several students).

Despite Pelton's many careers - he has been a lumberjack, boundary cutter, tunneller, driller, blaster's assistant, business strategist and marketing expert - dangerous travel has always been his passion, taking him to more than 60 "remote and exotic" countries.

Some of his more colourful expeditions are detailed on the site. These include breaking United States citizens out of jail in Colombia, living with the Dogon people in the Sahel in Africa, hitchhiking through Central America and setting up "the world's first video interview of the never-before photographed Taliban leaders in Afghanistan". That's just for starters.

Pelton's adventure guide includes a "Nuts and Bolts" section, which lists weird things no adventurer should be without. They include a travel clock calculator, a utility vest, good maps, a shortwave radio, caribiners (to snap your pack to a bus rail or bike frame, hold items on your belt, hang things from trees and rescue people), yellow and black danger zone tape (to mark luggage, tape rips, pack boxes and fix runners), razor blades (for field surgery), hydrogen peroxide (to clean out cuts), zip-lock freezer bags (waterproofs everything from passports to cameras), Tupperware, bubblegum (to amuse natives) and a Polaroid camera.

The "Dangerous Things" section of the site looks at diseases, bribery, drugs, guns, getting arrested, kidnapping, land mines, terrorism, dangerous jobs and military and paramilitary groups. Pelton clearly enjoys writing about his death-defying feats and it makes for compelling reading. Go-getters inspired by his tales can then log on to the site's Black Flag Cafe and cyberchat to like-minded adventurers.

© 2003 The Age

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