We Wander — Mark & Meghan’s World Travels

One of the most essential pieces of gear that any traveler must carry with them is a decent pair of sunglasses. Having the right pair provides you with much more than simply an elevated “cool” factor — good sunglasses protect your eyes from sun, wind, sand and dust while you explore beaches, mountain tops, glaciers, jungles, and more. The right pair should be comfortable, lightweight and durable. They should be as functional on a mountain bike as they are on a beach. It’s a lot to ask from a single pair.

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The decision was made to send our camping gear home. My eyes were a bit moist as we waved goodbye to the massive box at the post office in Bilbao. It will surely be missed. Mostly I think we will be grateful for not having to carry that extra weight around anymore. So far it has made life much easier in that I’m not straining any muscles trying to get my pack to close.

Fare thee well little tent and sleeping bags. Safe journey back to Canada, slowly on boats. We shall meet again one day.

We’ve been carrying a small tent and our sleeping bags around with is so far on our journey, and actually making quite good use of them. The camping hasn’t always been picturesque (see our post on Paris), but it has definitely been an affordable option for us. The last few days have been spent camping in Biarritz. Our camp ground is called Le Pavillon Royal, and it’s more like a resort than a campground. It’s right on the beach, and has a pool, fantastic hot showers, a small grocery store with fresh croissants and baguettes daily, and a bar/cafe. It’s been like a mini vacation from our bigger journey.

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Now that we’ve put in a few good weeks of travel, we’ve had a chance to evaluate the pros and cons of bringing the iPhone with us on our wanderings. I’ve had a couple of people ask me whether or not I was getting any use from it abroad, so here’s the answer! As I wrote in an earlier post, I’ve removed the sim card from the iPhone to disable its cell phone and 3G data capabilities. You don’t even want to know the rates that Fido would charge to use the iPhone normally over here. We’d be bankrupt already. I’ve also decided against jailbreaking the phone, even though this would allow us to buy a local sim card and drop it in, turning it into a local pay-as-you-go iPhone. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, it makes it a real pain any time Apple releases a new iPhone software update, as it usually requires waiting for a new jailbreak to come out as well. It also voids the warranty (a minor inconvenience, really). But finally, there’s actually something nice about not having a phone in my pocket — there’s something romantic about being unreachable when you’re out exploring new places. That being said, we have found many great uses and applications for the iPhone, and here they are.

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As we get further along in our travels, we will be posting reviews of some of the gear that we brought with us. Since putting together our packing list was one of my main obsessions before we left, I hope that these reviews will prove interesting and helpful to any future wanderers, or even to any other gear-heads out there like me!

These Holey Soles are one of the two pairs of footwear that I brought with me. They are the Canadian version of the more well-known brand Crocs. The differences between the two brands are very slight. Holey Soles seem to use a very slightly softer and more flexible foam/rubber material than Crocs, and the shoe is slightly narrower. Other than that, they are almost identical in terms of design and look. In fact, I almost always refer to them as Crocs anyways, even though that’s a disservice to the Canadian company. It’s just easier to say, and then people know what you’re talking about.

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Our gear page has been updated again. We’ve added detailed lists to several items, such as our first aid kit, clothing, and personal documents. Just click on the plus symbol (+) beside an item to expand it and view the contents.

There is also a small album posted on the photos page from my surfing weekend in Polzeath. Enjoy!

Our gear page is finally up! We spent a lot of time debating and evaluating what to bring with us. The list we put up is the final tally of everything that ended up in our bags — but I’m sure it will evolve as we go. There will be some things we missed, and we’ve probably brought a few things that we will end up shipping back home at some point. Down the road we will be posting reviews and evaluations of some of the gear we brought with us. Hopefully future wanderers will find this list helpful and interesting!

As a side note, we’ve actually got a third piece of luggage with us for the first leg. The Queen Mary II has a formal dress code for nearly all of its restaurants, and we will be attending Meg’s sister’s wedding in England when we arrive, so we’ve packed a suitcase with strictly formal attire. It’s a bit of a burden to drag around for now, but Meghan’s parents have offered to bring it home from London for us after the wedding. We decided against including its contents on the gear page, but I’m sure you will be able to deduce what was in it from the photos we’ll be posting.

Only 24 hours to go. We’ve gathered everything we are bringing into an organized pile in the middle of the floor, and done a test pack with our backpacks. The result: both bags had room to spare! Final weigh-ins have Meghan’s bag at 29 lbs and mine at 44 lbs. Admittedly they are a little heavier than we hoped, but this is the sacrifice we are making to support our blogging and photographic habits. Our camera bag and laptop combine to add nearly 12 lbs to our bags. We were debating whether or not to bring our thermarests (mainly for the African trip), but decided against it. We’ll pick up some foam sleeping pads closer to October.

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In the months leading up to our trip (only two months left!), I have had a keen interest in determining the best and most useful gear for us to bring on our journey. We are both iPhone owners, and while we would love to be able to use the iPhone in all of its glory around the world, the thought of paying $3000 a month to stay connected internationally is a bit of a deterrent. On top of that, I have to say that I have no desire to have constant access to my phone or email while I travel. I do love my iPhone—but the addiction has to stop somewhere!

Because we have made the decision to track our journey through this website, we will not be able to travel completely unhooked from our technology. With that in mind, I hope to turn the gadgets we bring with us into useful tools rather than deadweight anchors. My mission: to turn the iPhone into a pocket-sized digital swiss army knife, without personally keeping Fido in business in the process.

I should warn everyone that my inner geek is about to come out. Read on at your own risk!

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