A few gear notes

We’re finding we geared-up appropriately for the trip. Although it’s been a pain carrying sleeping bags, they’ve come in handy more often than we thought. We had several cold nights in Israel with little or no heat. Our cheap silk sleep-sacks (eBay) work anytime a light blanket is needed. Some stuff doesn’t get used often but it’s a must have - like our long-underwear, rain gear and swim wear. Other things are in constant rotation. We’ve been wearing the same few pairs of pants, socks, etc. this whole time and they’re starting to show some signs of wear… but you can’t beat the functionality of good travel clothes. You can layer up/down for the conditions, they wash easily and they dry fast (we do “sink laundry” frequently, with our nifty travel clothesline).

They only things we’ve lost so far are a t-shirt and my Tilley hat. The hat, which I really liked, must have come off my pack getting into a cab in Tel Aviv. For the rest of Israel and Jordan I followed the example of local Arabs, who wear scarves over their heads. You can’t believe the versatility of a scarf. Rita has traveled with a pashmina for years. It transforms into a hat, a shawl, a blanket, a pillow, just about anything. So, if you see me in photos wearing a Jordanian keffiyeh (scarf) it’s not because I was being touristy… it’s just darn comfortable protection from the sun and elements. It’s definitely getting added to the regular packing list.

Another thing we brought is our Toshiba mini-notebook. It has an amazing battery life and has let us work on journaling, blogs and the internet throughout the trip. It’s also was needed to transfer the high-def photos / video from our cameras so we can review files for archive and backup to external drive. We keep the laptop and drive in separate bags, in case one gets lost/stolen. So far we’ve shipped one full hard drive home (just in case). Unfortunately, the mini doesn’t have enough power to handle high-def video like my editing bay back home. I would love to share some of the video footage, but at least we are able post a few photos.

The latest technical addition was a Skype account. Calling cards and MCI worked fine for an occasional call home but phoning ahead for country to country travel arrangements were difficult before we started using Skype. It’s easy and inexpensive.

I’m working a list of our gear with some descriptions for a future post.

Jeff