Many globetrotting travellers now regularly carry a GPS (Global Positioning System) with them when they travel. These superb little handheld devices can be bought for as little as £100, though prices do go up to several hundred pounds for the most sophisticated machines. They show your position on earth in latitude, longitude and altitude, via triangulation from satellites orbiting the earth.
To those of us not blessed with a great sense of direction, especially when exploring a new city, these devices are a godsend. Just “Mark” the co-ordinate of your hotel for example, wander all day and then your little machine will guide you back home in the evening. If you know the GPS co-ordinate of the sight you want to visit, these little boxes can save you time by taking your straight there, as depending on conditions they can be as accurate as 10ft.
Though GPS's are a great piece of kit to have with you they are used in more serious applications. For example Padmassana recently went to a lecture on volcanoes and the lecturer described how GPS's are being used to monitor the height of the land in volcanic areas. The land rising if only by centimetres over a period can signify that magma is building up underneath and indicate that an eruption is more likely and hopefully give the authorities an opportunity to evacuate the area.
To those who already have a GPS, most will know about Geocaching. A global game of hide and seek using a GPS. Globie Tracey introduced Padmassana to this “sport” on a Globetrotters weekend away. On the website www.geocaching.com you type in your postal code (in countries that have this system) and you will be taken to a page showing “Caches” within a 10-mile radius. The Cache is normally hidden and usually has the form of a plastic box with some trinkets in. Most Geocachers leave something and take something. There is always a book to record your visit and sometimes a throwaway camera for you to take a picture. Once back home you can go online and record your visit, this allows the person who planted the cache to know how often it is being found or not as the case may be. Some caches are just one location, but many are a series of clues leading to a final cache. For example you may be given the co-ordinates of a church, where you have to look for a particular grave, then transpose a date of birth into another set of co-ordinates, which take you to another clue and so on.
In some cache’s you may be lucky and come across a
“Travel bug”, these are small metal dog tag beetles with a number
on. If you decide to remove this from the cache you must put it in
the book. Once you get home look up the Travel bug online and see
what its mission is, some want to reach a particular destination,
others just want to visit as many places as possible. Your mission
once you have discovered what the bug wants to do is to help it on
its way by planting it in another cache, which hopefully helps it
get nearer to its goal.
Since the first cache was “planted” near Portland Oregon in May 2000, the worldwide number of caches has increased to over 90,000 and are hidden in 199 countries. In the UK alone there are around 3000 hidden caches. In just one 7-day period in March 2004, over 64,000 caches were logged as “Found”, which goes to show what a popular pastime this has become. (Figures courtesy of www.fingertech.co.uk)
Now this is where we want all you Globetrotters out there to do your part. I am trying to put together a database of co-ordinates of famous sights and monuments, for example: Buckingham Palace in London is located at N51 30.101 W000 08.487.
We are inviting you to take part in geocaching in your area – please take two or three readings to make sure they are as accurate as possible, then e-mail the following information 1) The site 2) The address 3) Its co-ordinates 4) Your name to gps@globetrotters.co.uk Once we have begun to build a database it will be made available to all Globetrotters to enjoy.
By the way, Padmassana released a travel bug on Monday, April 05, 2004 in the UK. The mission of the travel bug is as follows: to travel far and wide, but my dream is to visit Iran. I would like to visit caches in England, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and finally Iran.
Friday – the shopping trip
to Mtwara took 5 hours whilst Esther searched all over town for
enough chickens to feed this crowd whilst the goat in question was
tethered outside the Boma bleating for a few hours. Saturday –
kitchen a hive of activity chopping, cutting, marinating and
counting bottles of water, soft drinks, plates, glasses, knives,
forks etc. Last minute panic appeared non-existent – my own
memories of the night before a major event of this importance were
very different!
The official party arrived in a flurry of dust as about 40 cars
swept into the school ground. In the background was the celebratory
sound of drums and chanting, and there were dancers that we could
hear but not see from our corner of the school ground. Because they
were so late we abandoned all attempts at ‘silver service’ and put
a couple of desks in the centre of the room as a buffet and allowed
them to help themselves. We were advised to do this so that we
could not be held responsible for delaying them and influencing how
long they took to eat!
After they had eaten the
District Commissioner invited the whole Boma team into the room,
introduced us and gave a short speech of thanks for providing such
a wonderful lunch. He acknowledged that the Boma is run by Trade
Aid and proceeded to thank Trade Aid for providing this opportunity
for employment and the development of tourism in the Mtwara Region.
The Prime Minister's photographer recorded the event and held a
photo shoot taking a number of pictures on the Trade Aid digital
camera.
After picking up
our rental car at the airport and after some looking on the map we
found Surahammar Manor. A fantastic place in the Mälar Valley with
romantic surroundings! And such a family atmosphere! The owners
themselves welcomed us and we got a high standard room facing the
parkland. All rooms are individually decorated with elegant
antique furniture. And we really enjoyed the welcome dinner with
Swedish schnapps. In the evening we went early to bed, talked about
our wedding and revelled in that pleasant tired feeling in your
body and serenity in your heart that only a great day can
bring!
but not. We
were fishing from the Manor’s park! After some hours we had got
four salmon trout and thought it was enough. In the evening we
prepared them together with the cook. Never has a dinner
tasted so good!
Sciacca is not really on the tourist trail
although it is extremely pleasant and some of the upper town is
really picturesque. There is no really cheap place to stay, though
the Paloma Bianca in Via Figuli was not really dear. The main
appeal of Sciacca for me is the fact that it is an ideal place for
an excellent bus trip to the hill village of Caltabellotta. Sicily
has so much to see [I missed the lovely west coast and most of the
interior, including a terrific Roman villa] that I suspect a lot of
people never make it to any of the smaller towns. Even though I
obviously saw them at the cost of some better known larger places,
Erice in particular, I feel that it is a pity not to sample some
and this is a beaut. From my knowledge of Sicilian hill villages I
would say that somehow they are less picturesque from a distance
but quite as good when inside them as those of the mainland. On the
ride to Caltabellotta it is going up high, rather than heading for
the village, which gives the pleasure and you need to be well up in
the village to see it at its best.
This was only my fifth night out of eleven but already lack of time
was forcing me to adjust my plans. I had meant to go right around
the island anti-clockwise and hopefully to do a trip into the Villa
Imperiale inland. I now realised this was far too much to take on
and I abandoned any notion of reaching the west coast or Segesta, a
spectacular site to the west of the island’s capital, Palermo. This
meant cutting from the south coast to the north at Palermo itself.
I decided on one further southern escapade first – a trip to the
ancient Greek settlement of Selinunte It was necessary to change at
Castelvetrano from the bus bound for Trápani to the local minibus
to Selinunte and the modern village of Marinellla which is little
more than the accommodation for those going to see Selinunte. It
turned out that the wait in this rather ordinary place
[Castelvetrano] was going to be over an hour and a half, and then
when the bus was quarter of an hour late.
The eastern temples were mainly erected in the sixth century BC and
one of them, Temple E as it rather prosaically named, was
reconstructed in the 1950s. Apparently this was and is
controversial but I feel no qualms about it as long as some are
left as they are found. Whatever, it is a magnificent building and
I am sure a full size re-construction must be the best way of
illustrating to children what these temples were like. The
Acropolis area contains another five temples and most of the
ancient living area as well as the remains of the great walls.
These walls, however, are older than the rest of the remains,
having been built after the city had been destroyed once by
Carthage in order to defend the high ground from further
destructions.
The first morning after arrival, I suggest
you climb Easter Island’s most spectacular volcano, Rano
Kau, where Orongo, a major archaeological site, sits on the
crater’s rim. But rather than marching straight up the main
road to the crater, look for the unmarked shortcut trail
off a driveway to the right just past the forestry station
south of town. It takes under two hours to cover the six km
from Hanga Roa to Orongo, but bring along a picnic lunch
and make a day of it. (If climbing a 316-meter hill sounds
daunting, you can take a taxi to the summit for around US$6
and easily walk back later in the day.) Once on top, you’ll
find hiking down into the colourful crater presents no
difficulty. It may also look easy to go right around the
crater rim, but only do so if you’re a very experienced
hiker and have a companion along as shear 250-meter cliffs
drop into the sea from the ridge.
Easter Island’s moderate climate and scant
vegetation make for easy cross country hiking, and you
won’t find yourself blocked by fences and private property
signs very often. You could also tour the island by
mountain bike, available from several locations at US$10 a
day. If you surf or scuba dive, there are many
opportunities here. A minimum of five days are needed to
see the main sights of Easter Island, and two weeks would
be far better. The variety of things to see and do will
surprise you, and you’ll be blessed with some unforgettable
memories.
I was there 2 ½ years ago or so. It was not possible to
visit the Angel Falls independently, so we had to join a
tour. The land is owned by the indigenous people, and they
run the tours. We flew from Caracas to Ciudad Bolivar and
then on to Canaima. From there, we joined about 6 others
and took a succession of curiaras, supremely uncomfortable
dug out canoes, but powered by outboard motor, up the
river. The water is an interesting brown colour – the
colour of tea with all the tannin from the land. We ended
up on Rat Island, along with 100 or so other people all in
different groups, and spent the night here (Isla Ratton
– aptly named) which consisted of about 100 hammocks
strung out in the open under a corrugated iron roof (no
sides) and very primitive bathrooms, hurricane lamps etc. A
very early start the next morning, bread and strong black
coffee, for a short walk/climb – not at all
strenuous, to a viewing point across which we saw the Angel
Falls. The entire group sat on ledges etc gazing across at
the Falls for about 30 minutes, took photos and then went
back down the mountain and returned by curiara to
Canaima.