6th Photo Post
April 6, 2009 by Anil P.
Filed under Pictures and Video
Priyank, who left some of the best comments in March, tagged me in a photo posting game that has been passed around from several other travel blogs. I’m to pick the 6th picture in the 6th folder of my gallery and post the story behind it.
You can see the picture below, which I wrote about last October.
You can go through all of my posts featuring pictures I’ve taken during my travels by looking through my Pictures and Video category.
Post Highlights: [4/3/2009]
Post Highlights are a selection of the best and most popular posts from the past two weeks updated every other Saturday. Another great way to get the best of foXnoMad is to subscribe to my RSS feed (what is RSS?).
Two Cheap and Easy Ways To Get Passport Photos
There are two simple ways to get passports at a fraction of the cost and at home.
How To Make Your Meals Last On The Road
Instead of stuffing yourself after starving yourself for hours while touring around a city, make your meals last longer by adding a few small ingredients to them.
Hitchhiking The Outback: Thumbs Up Australia
Author of the book Thumbs Up Australia, Tom Parry, was kind enough to send me a copy to review on foXnoMad.
Send and Receive Postcards From Random People: Postcrossing
The free site Postcrossing lets you send and receive postcards from random people all over the world.
Send And Recieve Postcards From Random People: Postcrossing
The free site Postcrossing lets you send and recieve postcards from random people all over the world.
Sign up to the site and send out 5 postcards to other members around the world. Once those members register they’ve recieved your postcards you are eligible to start getting postcards from 5 other random ‘postcarders’ across the globe.
Postcrossing itself is free, although you’ll need to pick up stamps and postcards on your own. The more you send (with a max of 5 out at a time) the more postcards you’ll receive. You can write about yourself, city, or anything else you like on each postcard and maintain a collection at home, on Flickr, or create a customized travel map for your blog or website.
I can see Postcrossing as a great game for parents to get their children on to and encourage their budding travelers and prevent the death of the postcard if you still send them.
Hitchhiking The Outback: Thumbs Up Australia
Author of the book Thumbs Up Australia, Tom Parry, was kind enough to send me a copy to review on foXnoMad. The book about his hitchhiking adventure across Australia with his girlfriend is an inspirational read for any traveler. I’d like you to enjoy the book as well – I’ll send it to the first person to leave a comment on this post.
“Hitching teaches you to make the best of wherever you are.” – Tom Parry
Tom Parry and his French girlfriend Katia Garnaud took off on an 8,000 mile tour of the Australian outback, from Adelaide up to Darwin, Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne and back again, hitchhiking the entire way. The book, Thumbs Up Australia, is both a narrative and Parry’s travel journal.
It’s really Parry’s personal accounts, thoughts, and interactions with Katia that bring the book to life while at the same time the outback seduces your imagination. The book starts slow – it’s Parry’s second hitchhiking endeavor in Australia – and Katia is reluctant. It’s really her voice that echoes the hesitation that most of us would have of asking for rides from complete strangers, for an entire trip.
“It is essential that the hitchhiker adopt an appearance of eagerness.”
The hitchhiking process begins smoothly and seems to flow, until the sheer number of ride changes and characters Parry and Garnaud encounter force you to appreciate what an undertaking such a trip is. And getting a ride is just the part of it. Dealing with silences, or being harassed by mosquitoes while waiting in 40 degree (Celsius/104 Fahrenheit), for a ride that may not come are all part of the journey.
For every ride that stops, there are countless other drivers who whizz on by. The pair keep walking the highways until someone comes along and each ride becomes a journey within a journey. There are recounts of hitchhiker horror stories, murders and those who were never found. Rides from truckers and their thoughts on Australia’s indigenous problem and single mothers trying to shag every bloke along the way.
As their journey winds to an end and Parry and Garnaud make their way full circle there is the taste of both sadness and optimism. One more frontier conquered in a world mostly dicovered.
