Paraguay

The Paraguay photo-diary/slideshow is online now. Had a very interesting & fun time there: cheap electronics shopping in Ciudad del Este, very friendly people, hardly any tourists, quite a hot ride on the Trans-Chaco Highway, some wildlife and an interesting encounter with some motorcycle-crazy Mennonites in the Chaco :) Leave a comment

Photo-Diary: the new Blog Format

Dear all,

For the 2nd part of this round-the-world trip (South America) I've decided to change the blog-format from a 'normal' blog to a more casual photo-diary, which you can find here.
I often found myself way behind with blog-writing, whilst spending far too much time behind my laptop, trying to come up with somewhat interesting blog-writing.
The photo-diary allows for more regular updates – and I'd like to hope that it's also a little more interesting for you.

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Home Improvements

517 days on the road – 52500 km.

Time for some home improvements:

• Thanks very much to my mum and my cousin, who helped downsize my camping gear volume. My mum made a little "handle-bar spice-rack" which I'll strap in between the mirrors. And my cousin Jürgen helped to come up with a small-sized cooking solution for my MSR DragonFly.

• Thanks to Danielle, I now got a maskot & second passenger, which will look after me on these so-called 'roads': Mr Sockmonkey.

• Touratech did a free out-of-warranty repair on my tank-bag's zipper, so I can finally close the t

• Icebreaker Australia kindly extended their sponsorship with some more merino wool tops – including a nice '340' series vest which should keep me warm enough in the Southern parts of Patagonia. (I think it just doesn't get any better than merino wool. It worked a treat in Turkmenistan's Karakum desert (50 degrees +) as well as the rather chilly high-altitude plateau the Pamir Mountains / Tajikistan).

• Exped Australia did a warranty replacement on the SynMat I've been using during camping: I had made the mistake of leaving the mat inside my tent during a hot day & one of the seams broke when the air inside the mat expanded.

• Steve from the Camerahospital gave me an fantastic service (with an incredibly quick 1-day turnaround) on my camera gear: a good clean-up on the camera (and replacing around 10 screws that had vibrated loose during the past 18 months of 'gravel-travel') and a repair on my main lens (24-105).

• And finally, I also upgraded & downsized my "electronics bag" and finally found a new cable for my Kensington Power Adapter – the old one had a loose connection since India. (More on that in my FlickR Gallery).

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Transit via Europe

Strangely enough, the cheapest flights from Australia to South America were via Europe.

So I took this as an excuse & opportunity to visit family and friends in Germany and the UK.

It felt good to see some familiar faces – even if it was only for a short while. And the two weeks of 'Hotel Mama' & delicious food put new energy into my tired "traveller's battery" – Thanks a lot for everything, Mum & Dad!!

Then one short week in London, and I was off to Buenos Aires / Argentina on the 4th of November, to take a few weeks of Spanish classes before the motorcycle arrives.

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