Travel

What was the last thing you searched for online? Why were you looking for it?

As a follow up to yesterday’s blog post the last thing that I searched for was the travel times between Nyon and Le Pont, the train time between Le Pont and Vallorbe and the driving time between Le Pont and Moléson-Sur-Gruyère and the time for a little détour to pick someone up near Vevey. If I was to have a full day tomorrow I would set off at 08:50 or so and drive for one hour to be at the Le Pont Train station by 09:58 and in Vallorbe by 10:18.

Minimalist by Plane and The Opposite by Car

When I was flying between England and Switzerland regularly I packed so that everything would fit into a bag that I could take on board. When I travel by car I pack less effectively. Today I have two tents, two different types of sleeping bag, a sleeping mat, a Bare Dry suit inner suit, a single set of via ferrata stuff, crocs, hiking shoes and trail glove 7s on my feet.

Why Would They Build This in the Middle of Nowhere

Recently someone said “I wonder why they would build the Abbey d’Oujon in the middle of nowhere and someone asked the same about Romainmôtier and the idea is an interesting one. It’s interesting because until motorways and before an extra four to six billion peoples wewre born and survived infancy the world, as a whole was much quieter. Look at photos of villages that are now towns. Look at villages where they have old buildings, and how old villas are now turned into apartment blocks instead.

The Desire for a Road Trip

Almost every time I get into the car I wish I was going on a road trip. I wish I was driving from point A to point B and that the drive would take hours, rather than minutes. As much as I hate “commuting” between point A and point B on a daily basis I love travelling from A to B as a journey. I love sitting for many hours in a car, thinking, looking at the landscape, remembering things, thinking of the future and more.

Appalachian Trail Progress Via Garmin And Walk The Distance

Recently I started the Appalachian Trail Challenge on Garmin Connect and every sstep I take counts towards the goal. The goal is to walk 3,500km, which is around 4.9 million steps. I have walked 652 km out of 3,500 so I have completed about 18 percent of the challenge. I am almost a fifth done. More Than A Year According to the pacer app I have taken 4.6 million steps in the last year, 2.

Driving in the rain

Yesterday i drove through the rain for two hours at night and it was so demanding that i stopped the audiobook to focus on driving. It was harder to see the lines, and the rain was heavy enough to impact visibility. I made it but i would think twice about driving through such rain at night on a 12hr drive for the last two hours.

A Camera Bike

In Spain I keep seeing the BKL Prolimp bikes and I like them. They’re tricycles rather than bikes but I think they could be useful. Instead of transporting a broadcast camera and tripod in a car or smart you could transport them on the back of this bike. Instead of a bin bag though I would have the tripod bag and find a way to fix the camera as well.

A Walk To Los Molinos from Javea

This walk takes you from the Port of Javea up to the lighthouse near San Antonio before continuing along the top towards Los Molinos. These are old grain mills. They used wind power to grind grain for several centuries before being taken out of action as modernisation arrived. The walk takes you along the port before you start to climb. As you walk along the port you will see a number of cats, either being lazy, or playing.

Views of the Mediterranean

With global warming the idea that we would get white Christmas, with snow, freezing weather and more is outdated. In the 21st century the opposite is true. We will probably get grey and rainy weather instead. If we stay in Switzerland. I used to love the idea of snowy Christmas, snowboarding and skiing but I don’t like the modern global warming version, of a boring cold, with no snow. That’s why it makes sense to migrate south, for a week or two and see the sun.

Solar Watches and Spain

One nuissance of most modern smart watches is that you must charge then once a day, once a week, or once a month. When you’re in Spain though, with a solar watch things change. At first you go from “26 days of battery remaining” to “36 days of battery remaining”, to “39 days remaining”. Before long the watch displays “infinity time remaining”. When you’re in watch the sun charges the batteries faster than normal use depletes the batteries.