![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Three daydream adventures
Jul. 26th, 2004 10:28 pmI find it fun to daydream about grand hiking expeditions, maybe from all those ancestors who crossed the country by foot, or from tales of the Victorian explorers, or from living in the Pacific Northwest, where backpacking seems to be considered a higher plane of existence. Or from fantasy novels, for that matter. At any rate, although I like to walk, I can't seriously imagine committing myself to a major trek, because I'm not that hardy and I like the "creature comforts" too much. So I really appreciate it when others share their experiences so that I can enjoy and imagine. Here are three sites I like.
Asiaphoto, a German backpacker's photo journal of his adventures in Southeast Asia. I discovered this one last year when my usual on-line friends had gone off to Ithaca (NY), and between the writing and pictures, I had a wonderful and vivid experience (without tropical heat or insects). Not only that, but it started to rain very hard here, just as the author was describing a rainstorm in the mountains of Cambodia or Laos, and our newly cleaned gutters were plinking in a way I'd never heard before, and it was disorienting in a rather thrilling way that's hard to describe. I went out in the dark, warm night and stared up at the rain gutters while feeling that I was also in Indochina, yet comfortable, and at home as well.
Herman's Way, a collection of letters home from a recent Dutch pilgrim on the trail to Santiago de Compostela. Hundreds of people follow the old pilgrim routes every year, crossing the Pyrenees and walking to the northwest corner of Spain, staying in special hostels along the way. In contrast to the one evening in which I completely indulged in Asiaphoto, I read just one or two days of Herman's Way at a time, to better share the sense of travelling slowly by foot for a long distance.
The Great Glen Way is a new 73-mile trail across Scotland, from Fort William on the west coast to Inverness on the east coast, and here are pictures of the whole path, which runs alongside lochs and canals and through forests and historic sites. This one is bookmarked for my next armchair "adventure."
Asiaphoto, a German backpacker's photo journal of his adventures in Southeast Asia. I discovered this one last year when my usual on-line friends had gone off to Ithaca (NY), and between the writing and pictures, I had a wonderful and vivid experience (without tropical heat or insects). Not only that, but it started to rain very hard here, just as the author was describing a rainstorm in the mountains of Cambodia or Laos, and our newly cleaned gutters were plinking in a way I'd never heard before, and it was disorienting in a rather thrilling way that's hard to describe. I went out in the dark, warm night and stared up at the rain gutters while feeling that I was also in Indochina, yet comfortable, and at home as well.
Herman's Way, a collection of letters home from a recent Dutch pilgrim on the trail to Santiago de Compostela. Hundreds of people follow the old pilgrim routes every year, crossing the Pyrenees and walking to the northwest corner of Spain, staying in special hostels along the way. In contrast to the one evening in which I completely indulged in Asiaphoto, I read just one or two days of Herman's Way at a time, to better share the sense of travelling slowly by foot for a long distance.
The Great Glen Way is a new 73-mile trail across Scotland, from Fort William on the west coast to Inverness on the east coast, and here are pictures of the whole path, which runs alongside lochs and canals and through forests and historic sites. This one is bookmarked for my next armchair "adventure."