I haven't been Blogging much lately. One reason is the very long drive days on a Dragoman truck in South America these days. Whatever free computer time I did have was taken up with working on my new Freelance Travel Photography Pro-Photo Sales website: GnomePlanet.com, which, as I wrote the whole website by hand, and bearing in mind that the whole project is PHP/MySQL based and uses a database to generate content, took quite a bit of time to do! Most of the code was written whilst I was in Quito for 12 days between trips, but I have spent much time on it since, whenever there was an AC power socket available in the evenings.

The other reason I haven't been blogging is a mental one: a feeling that if I want to post a blog, its got to be a good one, with lots of well-written content and some stunning photos. Other people do post short Blog entries, with just a paragraph or two of text. Perhaps I should try this too. What do you think? You might be wondering where all the photos are, too. I've been taking a lot as usual: the main reason for coming to South America was to take more photos for my travel photo portfolio, and to submit to my photo agency: Lonely Planet Images. Examining, sorting, and preparing them takes a long time, though, and so I won't be looking through them until I get back from my next trip in Africa. For now, you'll just have to make do with a few tasters in my GnomePlanet Photo of the Month section.

Its now time for a bit of news, filling in some of the gaps since my last Blog from Lima. We lost some of our passengers and gained others there, as Lima was one of the joining and switch-over points. I finally got to travel with some great people who had been mirroring us in a truck of their own, all the way from Rio as well. The main highlights on this section for me were the towns of Banos, Cuenca, and the Rio Verde. Back to Chan Chan, but I find it had to get enthusiastic about adobe walls, no matter how old they are. More interesting was the section of Amazon jungle that we visited in Ecuador, with its lovely forests and wildlife. You can read a little about it here. Its a big, empty region out there. The trees are very beautiful.

As a traveller, I prefer the western side of South America to the east, which is generally more expensive, more 'first world', with greedier people and more violence. The last is not exclusive to the east though, as I found out when staying in Quito for two weeks, in a very pleasant hotel in the Old City area. There, the shops and restaurants are all shut by 7pm, and it is unwise to wander about after that if you have more than 10 dollars in your pocket. It is necessary to carry 10 dollars though, to give to the muggers if you are attacked! I met a few people who were attacked or threatened whilst I was there: pepper spray attack, mobile phones stolen, and even one guy who was held up by the taxi driver who's cab he was travelling in, and relieved of all his money!

I played it safe by only venturing out during the day, eating my main meal of the day at noon, and then buying picnic items to consume in my hotel room in the evenings. I found a wonderful vegetarian restaurant: Govindas, on Esmeraldas 853, not far from the Plaza Del Teatro. They do a set lunch for just USD1.80c, which changes every day, has a wonderful mix of dishes, and is always 3 courses. Very tasty, very nice, with friendly people as well. My Hotel was the Hostal Quito Cultural, Flores N.4-16 Y Chile, Centro Historico, Quito 170102. Telephone: (593)(2)2288084. I booked through the HostelBookers website. I had a lovely time there, and only paid USD13-50c per night, which included a nice breakfast of toasted cheese sandwich, omelette, juice and coffee. The hotel was clean, and the staff very friendly and helpful.

A short flight was necessary to get me to Caracas, to meet a new truck 'Carmen' with Paul and Jodie and a bunch of new passengers for the final 2 legs of the journey: Caracas to Manaus, and Manaus to Rio. The trucks used to drive through Colombia, and when I was here in 1991 I had a great trip through that country with Exodus and an old Bedford TK, but now it is considered not safe, and so the Overland trucks avoid it. I was considering this whilst reading that Caracas is the murder capital of the world, with an official tally of 130 homicides per 100,000 residents. That's even worse than Joburg, which up until now classes as the scariest place I've ever visited. Just how bad can Caracas be?! I didn't spend much time checking it out, and certainly didn't wander about with a camera - some photos are just too perilous.

The new Dragoman truck was based at the Hotel Catimar, an over-priced concrete monstrosity just 1 minute from a filthy beach, 5 minutes from the airport, and 20km from the town centre. The only vegetarian choice on the menu was spaghetti with tomato sauce (no cheese available) so I ended up catering for myself. This continued on through much of Venezuela, which is generally over-priced, but as I'd purchased one of those miniature army can openers in Quito, I was well provided for from local super-markets. I had to cater for breakfast as well, as unlike Brazil, the hotels of Venezuela rarely include it in the room price.

One of the highlights for me on the way to Rio was the journey down the Amazon and Rio Negro rivers on a local passenger + mixed cargo river-boat. As is normal, we mostly slept in hammocks on the middle deck, though we also had 2 cabins reserved by the group to keep their luggage in - this is essential where the average sleeper has no protection for his belongings. I wouldn't recommend anyone back-packing by themselves on these boats! Security apart, the journey was most interesting, and gave a good view of local life at the edge of the jungle, and at the many small ports that we stopped at along the way. Food on board was poor, with no vegetarian choice at all, but remembering the last time I had been in the area, I was well prepared with a range of small cans of black beans, sweet corn, and mixed vegetables. The weather was good for most of the time, and I was able to take some lovely photographs of the scenery and people.

The truck continued on a barge of its own, and we rejoined it, and Paul, in Porto Velho, for a journey into the Pantanal wetland area, to the capital Brasilia, and the Spanish colonial town of Ouro Preto, before finally reaching Rio de Janeiro once more, nearly 6 months and 30,000km since I'd left in February. You can see all the daily route maps for the entire journey at my GPS Blog page, where each day's journey can be overlaid on a road map or satellite image of the area. You might also like to see these two group photos taken in Ouro Preto, from my Facebook account: Group Photo 1 and Group Photo 2.

I've had a week to wander around Rio, and its amazing how expensive the city and the country have become. With the Brazil Reais at 2.73 to 1.00 GB Pound, it means that a once cheap destination is fast moving out of reach to the casual backpacker or impecunious photographer. I was pleased to see that just around the corner from my hostel was Rio's only Indian restaurant - I had been there previously in 1991, when there were only 3 Indian restaurants in the whole of the continent. I thought a curry at the RaajMahal would make a nice change from Brazilian food, so went to re-visit it, only to be stopped by the menu on the wall outside. Samosas were 21BRL per portion, and a vegetarian main course of potato curry was 52BRL. Rice was extra, of course, at 21BRL. The cheapest meal, with one drink, would not have left me much change from 35 GB pounds!!! A similar meal in India would cost less than 1 GB pound, and would, I'm sure, taste much nicer. Give me Old Delhi any day!

Am looking forward to my next visit to the UK, and a chance to see family and friends. Am flying back to London with TAM, which if the outbound flight is anything to go by, shouldn't be too bad. I've already got a window seat and a vegetarian meal arranged. By for now - I'll be back in a little while.

• Training shoes, sandals, sleeping bag liner - India
• Spectacle case - Chile
• Nail clippers and sellotape - Turkmenistan
• Rucksacks, mosquito net - England
• Cameras, lenses - Hong Kong
• Laptop, filter caps - United States of America
• Spectacle repair kit - Zimbabwe
• Towel - British Antarctic Territories
• Sleeping bag, memory card reader - Canada
• Sleepmat - donated by American woman in China
• Scarf - Morrocco
• Thimble - WW1 soldier's issue
• Heavy duty needles - Peru
• Sail maker's needle - Canadian square-rigged ship
• Alarm clock - Sudan
• Torch, rain coat - Ireland
• Padlock - Kenya
• Key clip - France
• Calculator - Bolivia
• Camera blower-brush - China
• Strong button-thread - Mongolia

This Overland journey has been one of the more hectic ones, and I haven't had as much time as I would have liked to get things done. The Blog has fallen behind as well, and many people have emailed me about this. Where does all the time go?! The answer is that the style of Overlanding in South America has changed considerably since I was last here, twenty years or so ago. The lady from Dragoman assures me that this has been done to meet market demand, but I remain to be convinced. In my opinion, if you create a particular type of product, the customers who want that will flock to buy it, whilst those who want something else will not.

So, what is the difference? How has Overlanding changed over the years? Twenty years ago, when I Overlanded on an Exodus truck for 6 months from Bogata to Bogata, the trip was not split into so many small sections. People came for a reasonable length of journey, and entered fully into the spirit of truck life. The journey was an adventure, and comprised about 60% camping, and 30% hotels, when we got to the bigger cities. As far as I can remember, we stayed in just 2 or 3 campsites during the whole 6 month journey: the rest was all 'bush-camping'. We rarely got to a camping spot after dark, and there was plenty of time to get the chores done, then gather around the camp fire to discuss the events of the day, and get to know your fellow passengers.

Nowadays, things are very different. In the 3 months so far, we have only had 2 nights of bush camping. We have stayed in a lot of very dirty, run-down campsites, and the passengers have had to pay for this privelege. On a number of occasions we have camped behind service stations, which are frequently noisy and full of dog dirt. Most of the time we stay in hostels or hotels, which seems a great waste of money as the whole point of an Overland truck is that it carries its own accomodation with it. There have been a lot of very long drive-days, with early starts and late arrivals. But the biggest change of all apllies to the kind of places that we have been visiting. An Overland Trip in South America these days consists mainly of driving between places where adventure activities are available. I have lost count of the number of chances we've had to do ice climbing, zip-lining, white water rafting, rappelling, sand boarding, mountain bike riding, kayaking, dune buggying, etc. etc. All well and good, except that all these activities can be done just as easily at home, in your local leisure park. There's nothing particularly 'South American' about any of them, and time is wasted that could have been much better spent actually exploring South America, meeting the people, and getting to know the countryside and spectacular scenery. Last time I was here, we did practically no 'activities', but we did spend a lot of time wandering around little towns, pottering around markets, exploring villages paths or city streets, and getting to know the real South America and its people. I was rather hoping to repeat the experience, but have had my work cut out to manage even a small amount of what I did last time.

Never mind. Its a different experience to what I was expecting, but I'm still seeing a variety of amazing places and have been taking plenty of photographs that I hope will one day form part of my travel photo portfolio and provide a small income for the future. I'm very pleased to now have 585 photographs accepted and online at the Lonely Planet Image Library, which should provide a good guide as to how photos sales will progress for me. I've started my own travel photography website as well, and will announce when it is ready to go online. I hope to get a lot of the preparatory work done whilst I have a 10 day break in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, at the beginning of June. There might even be some time to prepare more photographs for Lonely Planet, but I expect the majority of that work will have to be done after my next trip to Africa.

Before I continue talking about Rio, though, I might just mention my flight to get here. I flew from London's Heathrow airport to Paris 'Charles de Gaulle' with British Airways, then caught a flight from Paris to Rio with an airline called 'Tam', a company I haven't encountered before. The flight with TAM in an Airbus A330 was standard enough, and with the help of the free earplugs provided in the 'Welcome' pack, I was able to get some hours of naps ('sleep' is too strong a word in this circumstance) for a nicely timed arrival about 05:00 am, one of my favourite times to land in a new country. Before sleeping, I watched a couple of films - the entertainment on board was adequate enough, even for someone spoiled by his recent experiences with Emirates, who's system has literally 100's of movies to choose from, and 1000's of audio tracks.

My only problem with the TAM flight was related to the food provided by the French kitchens in Paris. I had ordered a Vegetarian meal, suitable for someone on a 'Vegetarian/Milk/Eggs' diet. The meal arrived, labelled as stated, so imagine my surprise, then, to receive for a main meal a portion of boiled carrots, green beans, and coarsely chopped marrow, accompanied by a small salad and a bread roll with margarine. Breakfast was even stranger: a small portion of orange segments, followed by a large and piping hot dish of melon pieces in syrup. I know the French traditionally try to deny the existence of the vegetarian diet, and refrain from including in their restaurants any menu items suitable for vegetarians beyond the tired old standby 'omelet aux fine herbs', but in this day and age, catering for an international travelling public, I feel they could do a bit better than the above. I must remind myself NOT to transit via Paris in future!

The arrival at Rio was a rather protracted affair, with a long wait for my bags to make their way to the conveyor belt. This was ameliorated somewhat by the voice of the lady used to make the flight announcements on the public address system. To say that her voice was sexy would be a complete understatement. Her low, slow, lilting delivery coupled with her smooth Brazilian accent made an announcement of the departure for a flight to Sao Paulo and Cuiaba sound like an invitation to a night of impossibly exotic passion. Has anyone made a recording of her? Or got her email address, perhaps?

My delayed baggage meant that I exited the airport just as the night rates for taxis ended, and I found no queues at all for a radio cab that took me across town to the Bandeirantes Hotel on Rua Barata Ribeiro, a short walk from Copacabana beach. I had to wait a while for a room to be found, but was compensated when the room arrived by a wonderful 'monsoon' shower that soon blasted the accumulated dust of the flying experience back down the plug hole, where it belongs. I'd rate the shower as one of the best ever, and deserving of the top place on my personal list of the worlds most refreshing shower experiences; a position previously held, somewhat surprisingly, by a campsite in Botswana.

One disadvantage with today's electronic items is their insistence on taking note of every little detail in life. My iPod, my cameras, my GPS receiver and my watch all need to know the time zone I am in, rather than just wanting to know the time. At the back of my mind, I remembered that Brazil was 3 hours behind GMT, yet the clocks here all showed only 2 hours difference from the time in London. How could this be? My camera solved the problem, by wondering if DST (daylight saving time) should be on or off. 'OFF' of course - February is winter, isn't it? But no, I'd forgotten that I'm now in the southern hemisphere, in the middle of their summer, so of course DST should be on! The various electrical items are all correctly set now, and needn't change until I get to Chile at the beginning of April. The current time difference from wintry England is only 2 hours, so jet lag is easier to deal with than usual.

After a long sleep and a buffet breakfast of fruit, yoghurt, and some delightful local tiny hot cheese rolls, I went for a walk to see the ocean, a paddle in the waves, and a wander along the world famous beaches of Copacabana, Ipanema, and Leblon. What a difference from Kovalam, south India, where I've just spent the last 4 months: the water here is icy cold, despite an air temperature in the mid 30's. Its quite a shock after Kovalam's bath-tub temperature bathing, I can tell you. No mention of this in the guidebook - well they wouldn't, would they? Even at 08:00am the beach was crowded, as locals and tourists alike set up chairs and umbrellas on the golden yellow sands and prepare for a day of serious sun tanning.

One big change from 20 years ago noted this morning is that nowadays the bikinis on Copacabana beach seem to contain more material and are more modest than they used to be. Gone are the 'dental floss' variety, so popular in the past, and named because the width of fabric was very little more than the tooth-cleaning cord of the same name. I remember once being on a bus somewhere in central Brazil, and sitting opposite a woman who's top consisted of 2 vertical strips of fabric just 1 inch wide. They modestly covered her nipples, but very little else. I didn't know where to look!

The bikinis may be larger these days, but the residents still wear them to their best advantage. Its easy to spot the difference between local women and foreign tourists on the beach. When the tourists come out of the water, they carefully check the rear of their bikini bottoms to make sure the material is still covering their buttocks, whilst the local Rio women perform the same check to make sure that it is not, delicately tucking as much material as possible 'out of sight' between the cheeks.

And with that mental picture to keep in your mind as you go about the rest of your day, I'll say 'Cheerio' for now from Rio de Janeiro, and hope you'll all join me again when my Blog next has an entry, here in cyberspace.

Solar Eclipse at Kovalam Beach

The general background light didn't go as dark as on some eclipses I have witnessed in the past, but it was still quite gloomy, and the birds of the area certainly noticed the change, increasing their calling and trilling. At the exact moment of crossover, a large flock of crows took to the air from the coconut palms that surround the buildings along Lighthouse Beach. I was hoping that one might cross the sun whilst I was photographing it, but unfortunately that didn't happen. I tried for a palm frond in the shot, to add some atmosphere, but missed that, too. Still, at the right moment, some wispy clouds appeared, which provided a nice background to the shot - there's a limit to how interesting a white ring can be, even with the best efforts that PhotoShop can throw at it!

Solar Eclipse at Kovalam Beach

For the technically minded, these photos were taken with a Nikon D300 and a 200mm DX lens (equivalent to 200 x 1.6 = 320mm) at f5.6 and 125/s. A bigger lens would have been better, of course. I used 2 neutral polarising filters at maximum exclusion to bring the light down to a manageable level. Even at the moment of full eclipse, it was not possible to look at the sun with the naked eye, should anybody have been foolish enough to try such a thing. The extra rings you can see in the photos are reflections off the filter and lens surface.

Solar Eclipse at Kovalam Beach

Christmas Greetings from Kovalam Beach

I hope you are all tucked up and warm: the news from the BBC World Service this morning as received on my crackly short-wave radio tells of monster storms across the American east-coast, and record freezing temperatures over most of Europe as well. No doubt people waking up in their warm beds, loath to leave them for a frosty house with the heating not yet turned on will have had some sympathy for the Euro tunnel trains which, apparently, were just as reluctant to leave a nice warm tunnel after their frosty journey across France. Here in Kovalam, most people have never ever seen snow and ice, or felt the need to purchase an overcoat. The temperature currently is a balmy 32 degrees Celsius with light breezes off the Arabian Sea. At night it drops to a chilly 25 degrees Celsius, and in the absence of pyjamas, I may have to cover myself with a thin sheet during the coldest part of the night, some time around 2 a.m.

View of Kovalam Beach from the lighthouse

Pyjamas have never been a great part of my lifestyle, and it occurs to me that I haven't owned any since the British government issued me with two pairs, (stripy, with draw-string) for my sojourn in the Antarctic, back in 1982. They were used briefly during that period, then kept in the back of a drawer in case I ever had to go to hospital. Of course, when I did have to go to hospital in Ireland, I couldn't find them, so ended up wearing Pakistani shalwar kameez, which astonished the resident Pakistani surgeons, but that's another story. I was thinking about my time spent in the Antarctic the other day, and remembering another relic from that period, one that has finally reached the end of its usefulness, and has been replaced. My trusty sleeping-bag liner, as supplied by the British Antarctic Survey, has put in sterling service over the years and seen more use than its designers could reasonably have expected. Rough camping on five continents has finally taken its toll, but still, after 27 years I feel I've had my money's worth! Over the last two years, the medium-weight cotton had finally begun to disintegrate, and despite my endeavours with needle and thread, it is now becoming more patch than original.

Kovalam lighthouse and coconut palm trees

Two young Indian daytrippers watch the sunset

A new one is needed, but replacing it is not so easy. You can't just walk into a shop and buy a new sleeping bag liner, or at least not one that would suit my requirements. Something that can stand another 27 years of service needs to be well made, durable, and designed for the task in hand. Normally I would have taken on the job of making a new one myself, but with my sewing machine stored at the back of a shed in deepest rural Ireland that was not an option. Kovalam, however, has a wealth of sewing machines that belong to the many tailors that inhabit the alleys and paths that run along the coconut groves, just behind the beach. They are here to produce garments for the tourists, who spend lots of time shopping for hippy-style garments that provide a cool alternative to the designer tee shirts they brought from home. The tailors make trousers, shirts, dresses, and a variety of other garments; all colourful and fun to wear in the strong tropical sun.

Christmas tree - Kovalam style

Christmas Crib at the Sumangali Guesthouse

My hotel room, actually the hotel's only room (it is a very small hotel!) is situated on the first floor of a recently constructed building, a little way back from Lighthouse Beach. I have the first floor to myself, and just outside the bedroom windows I have a balcony with chair and table, suitably shaded from the strong midday sun. Below me, on the ground floor, is a small barber's shop, and next door, a tee shirt emporium. Next to them is a tailor's shop, who's sewing machine provide an all-day accompaniment as I type away upstairs on my laptop. Indian tradition and manners dictates that one should patronise the shops in one's immediate vicinity, so I have already bought a thin white cotton short-sleeved shirt, and a red tee shirt from the tee shirt emporium (200Rs each), and had two shaves (30Rs) from the barbers: each a necessity when my designer stubble reaches the point of being too annoying to put up with any more. From the tailor I've purchased a pair of cream three-quarter length trousers (200Rs) that are ideal for wandering along the beach in the evening. The quality of his work is excellent, so the idea occurred to me that this might be the opportunity to replace my ageing sleeping bag-liner. With two major Overland journeys planned for next year: South America for 6 months, and Africa for 10 months, a replacement was desperately needed, and now was the ideal time.

Sunset at Kovalam beach

A journey to Thiruvananathapuram, Kerala's state capital, had been on the cards for some time, and last Wednesday I combined a visit to my dentist Dr K.O. Varghese M.D.S., with the chance to pick up some material for the sleeping bag liner project. The appointment at the dentist didn't take long - a check up with X-rays, and a de-scaling - all OK (700Rs), and suitable for another year of travelling. Wandering a little further, I found the 'Grand Handloom and Readymades Store', near the East Fort bus-stand, where a large range of materials stocked was sufficient for even the most pernickety and fastidious consumer. I soon found what I was looking for amongst his large range of 'sheetings', and bought ten metres of the best quality white cotton, which I estimated would be sufficient for two sleeping bag liners. The material is thin, without being too thin, and strong, without being too strong. At 48RS per metre, including Kerala Value-added Tax, it is also cheap, without being too cheap. An excellent product, and suitable for the rigours of the road, one hopes.

Dawn breaks over Kovalam beach

I had already worked out my design for the sleeping bag liner, having learnt from observations made on the road during past Overland journeys. A good sleeping bag liner needs to be strong throughout, with double seams on both sides. It needs an integrated pillow cover, that can be stuffed with clothes to provide something to lay ones head on at night, and a useful place to keep trousers and their pocket contents safe. It needs a flap to go over the lip of your sleeping bag to keep that bit clean too, with maybe some Velcro to hold it in place. It needs two additional gussets at the neck, where it has a tendency to rip. It might also have a small pocket near the top, where you can keep a torch, iPod, cigarettes, or condoms, depending what your normally nightly requirements are.

Lifeguard watches bathers at Kovalam beach

The tailor, though eager to be helpful, has a limited command of English, so in order to avoid misunderstanding, I made a paper mock-up of what I required. Quickly grasping the concept, the tailor made a small model of the project as he saw it, which was just as well as I was thus able to stop him turning the flap into a second pillow case. The job took two days, and at the end of that time, my two sleeping bag liners were just as ordered. Let's hope they last as long as the previous one: watch this space, and my future Blogs through South America, Africa, and who knows where else to see their, and my, continuing story.

Fishermen struggle to launch their boat

Kovalam lighthouse at sunset

Other news, and I'll keep it brief. Despite what it looks like in the photos, I have been slaving away over a hot computer for most of my time here, working on the photographs taken whilst travelling last year. Selection and processing take a long time, but all is going well, and I have sent a number of DVDs to my agency, 'Lonely Planet Images', in recent weeks. More DVDs are waiting to be sent in the New Year. I did plan to visit Bangalore whilst I am here, but may put that off to a future India visit if I haven't finished my photo backlog first. I am expecting my nephew Michael Monaghan to visit here mid-January, which will be great fun. I have a flight booked to England in February, then a week later will fly to Rio de Janeiro just in time for the end of the carnival. I'm planning to be in South America for 6 months on a Dragoman Overland truck, revisiting old haunts and collecting new photos for my portfolio. It will be my first visit back to South America since 1991, so I'm expecting some changes! For now, it only remains to bring this Blog to an end, and wish you, as another Tim, tinier than me, once said: a very Happy Christmas, Everyone !!

Christmas Party poster

Lighthouse Beach, Kovalam

The Kovalam lighthouse

It didn't take long to choose to chose where this might happen: India, my favourite country, and one that I am very familiar with, having visited here 8 times before. The weather is great, the people are great, the price is right, and the local food is superb. I usually travel around when I come to India, exploring the many wonders that the country has to share with the traveller, but this time I was looking for a base, and where better than the beach resort of Kovalam. There are plenty of places to stay at the right price, a selection of things to eat, and a steady stream of other travellers to chat to. The sea is nice and warm, the waves are fun, the weather is nice, there are girls in bikinis on the beach - quite why there aren't more people here, I just don't know!

Indian families enjoying the seaside

A bamboo whistle seller

I have been very lucky with my hotel room in Kovalam. Planning to stay for a while, I was in no hurry to look for a place, and spent the first couple of nights in Thiruvananathapuram, where the airport is. Once the jetlag was a little easier to live with, I paid the 9Rs fare to catch the 30 minute bus from the East Fort bus-stand to Kovalam, about 15Km away. Once there, I was able to wander around slowly, without a backpack to hinder me, and see what hotel rooms were on offer these days. The season has not started quite yet, so prices are lower, and as I wanted to stay for a couple of months initially, I could use this extended period when bargaining for a good rate. A long stay like that can often get 30% off the normal price, as the hotels are pleased to have their room guaranteed for a long period. Some hotels I remembered from before, whilst others were new. I checked out quite a few places, not finding anything I particularly liked, then was approached by a guy offering a room next door to his own house. I went to have a look. Situated above a barbers and a teeshirt shop, the room was very well done, tiled throughout, clean and modern, with a nice bathroom and hot shower. There were two fans, a small private balcony, and the proprietor promised to get me a desk that I could work at. We settled on a daily rate of 250Rs, which is about 3.50p in UK money. With prices like this, you can live on a very modest budget.

Fishing from the beach

Pulling in the nets of fish

It really is quite quiet here this year. A lot of the package tours have stayed away, and the restaurants and hotels are struggling. Still, there's just enough to keep them going, and all are looking forward to mid-November, when the numbers should pick up. After being here for 3 weeks, I start to notice the regulars, and those just passing through. A small group of English pensioners have taken over the Rock Cafe, and listen to the 70s pop music that plays most of the time. Its a good deal - the pension gets paid into their UK bank account, and they spend the winter here, enjoying the sunshine, letting someone else do the cooking, the cleaning, and the washing up for a change. What better place to forget about snow, sleet and heating bills? Most people here have never seen snow or sleet, and certainly have no heating bills. The weather, at the beginning of November, is a sunny 33 degrees, and unlikely to get much colder, anytime soon.

Sorting the catch of fish

Fish caught at Kovalam Beach

Another group of regulars are the surfers, who come from all over the world, and find the waves here at Kovalam just to their liking. They must be keen, to travel with a 6 foot long surfboard. I prefer just to watch the surf during the day, or let it gently lull me to sleep at night, but these guys and gals are out at all times of the day, catching the rip and riding the waves to the shore. There are still backpackers a plenty, but not so many as there used to be in the 80's and 90's. Their place has been largely superseded by the package tourist, and the hotels and restaurants have adjusted accordingly. No more topless sunbathing on the beach - a huge draw for Indian males, who used to come by bus every weekend just to glimpse such 'forbidden fruit'. The restaurants used to be mainly tents on the beach, where a meal was always a protracted affair, and could often take 2 hours from order to delivery. Nobody used to mind - there are worse ways of passing ones time than watching the waves gently drift in from the Indian Ocean, whilst sipping a lemon soda.

Old man climbing his coconut palm

Restaurants are a bit of a mine-field, as you don't like to upset the ones that give you good service, but if you go there a lot, they expect you to keep visiting all the time, and seem crest-fallen when you take a break. Kovalam has a lot of restaurants, covering a full range of price and quality. Expensive doesn't always mean better, though. My personal favourite, serving the best South Indian food here, is a small, un-pretentious place. Very few westerners bother to stop there, as there is no menu, and a limited choice of what is available, but the meals are always varied, tasty and nutritious, and at 40 rupees, or about 0.55p in UK money, they are very good value as well. For breakfast I often go to the Swiss Cafe, which does real coffee in big mugs, and an excellent muesli with fruit and nuts mixed in. For a change, I'll visit the Leo restaurant, which does a nice omelet, toast and jam.

Sorting the catch of fish

A temporary storage solution for fish

India revolves around bargainers. If you pay the price first quoted, people look at you very strangely, and lose some their respect. Only a fool pays the price asked, and there is always a little leeway built into any price. Indians like to stick with the stores and shops they are familiar with, and a regular customer becomes a respected customer, to be greeted on arrival, and helped with their shopping. Advice when the best bananas are ready is given, and once they get to know you, its no surprise when the price comes down the more that I shop there.

Palm tree at sunset

Shoe repair lady mending my sandals

It is always nice to have a newspaper, and at a price of just 4RS, its not going to break the budget! My paper is delivered by the hotel guy, or if he's away, it will be brought by the man from the next guesthouse. Indian newspapers have plenty of news in them, and its soon hard to not become interested in the latest fodder scam, Bollywood scandal, or rail hijacking attempt. Some foreign news is there, trawled from the news wires around the world. Just what is selected depends on the newspaper itself. Generally, items of a jokey nature are chosen, or those with celebrity appeal, though the major stories are covered as well. There's usually a cartoon section, though few local offerings. It is interesting to guess how the average Keralite sees the typically northern English humour of 'Andy Capp', or interests himself in the essentially north American lifestyle of 'Peanuts' or 'Calvin and Hobbes'.

Fisherman at Kovalam mending his nets

Lighthouse Beach, Kovalam

Fishing nets drying in the sun

Sunset bathing in the Indian Ocean

Enough of Blogging for now - I had better get back to my photographs!

As mentioned in my previous Blog, my trusty 2GB SanDisk Cruzer has been subjected to countless virus attacks, so it never pays to let one's guard down when using it in an unknown computer. After writing the last Blog, I knew that it wouldn't be long before I was subjected to another attack, and this turned out to be exactly the case just recently, so I thought I would add an update Blog in the hope that others will learn from my observations.

I am currently staying in Kovalam, in the beautiful state of Kerala, south India, and generally visit an internet cafe every 2 or 3 days. Most of the internet cafes have Anti Virus software installed, but is it up to date, or even working at all? I visited one internet cafe which shall remain nameless, and requested a computer with USB facilities as I needed to save some files on to my USB Flash Drive. The computer was running Windows XP, and had AVG Anti Virus installed, but the moment I plugged in my USB Flash Drive, I knew there was trouble in store...

1/ My USB Flash Drive has a light on the end, which flashes when file-access is taking place. Normally, when it is plugged in, the light might flash once or twice, then stay steady. This time, it kept on flashing for about 15 seconds, indicating a lot of unusual activity was taking place.

2/ When a new device is discovered by Windows 'Plug and Play' software, a message appears on the task bar letting you know that your device has been recognised, and then telling you that it has been installed and is ready for use. What should NOT happen is a message saying that in order for the device to work properly, you will now need to restart your computer. If you see such a message, it indicates that the virus needs to get the autorun.inf file to execute, and that when restarting your computer, this is what will happen. Ignore the message, then, and DON'T restart your computer.

3/ To access the files on my USB Flash Drive, I needed some way of seeing what was there. There are no shortcuts on the desktop to the programs and folders on my USB Flash Drive, so I need to use the standard 'Windows Explorer' or 'My Computer' programs. I thus started the Windows Explorer program, and clicked straight away on 'Tools >> Folder Options >> View' to make sure extensions and files were not being hidden. It came as no surprise, then, to find that there was no Folder Options available at all!! Something was hiding that facility, and without it, I had no way of telling what was happening on my drive. I therefore pulled the USB Flash Drive out of the computer, and told the manager about the virus on his machine. "But Sir, that computer has AVG installed!", he complained. I suggested that he might do a full system scan, and took my business elsewhere.

3 Virus Threats Found

4/ I went straightaway to another internet cafe that I knew in advance had Avast antivirus installed. Plugging in my USB Flash Drive to the new computer, I quickly cancelled the Autorun window when it popped up, just in case the virus tried to run itself, but I needn't have worried, as the anti-virus software got there first, and quickly discovered 3 viruses in the root folder, including the Autorun.inf file that the virus was hoping the system would automatically execute. I took some screen shots whilst all this was going on, so that I could show my readers what to expect.

Tiles-View of Viruses

Notice these 4 folders when viewed in Windows Explorer's 'Tiles-View', the standard on many people's computers. Do they look like viruses to you? Would you click on them to see what is inside? Doing that would start the dormant virus, and cause all kinds of havoc on your computer.

Details-View of Viruses with Extensions Hidden

I've now changed to Windows Explorer's 'Details-View', which is my preferred method of viewing a folder's contents. The folders still look like all my other folders, but two things are different, though. I had clicked on the 'Type' column header in Windows Explorer, to sort the page by 'Types of files', and these 4 folders are no longer with the other folders, but are mixed in with the programs - an instant warning. The other clue that all is not correct is shown on the right of the image - a normal folder has 'Type' set to 'File Folder', not 'Application'. File Folders don't normally show their size, either!

Turning on the 'Extensions' view in Windows Explorer's 'Tools >> Folder Options >> View' now shows them for what they really are: 4 other executable programs. After taking these screen shots, I let the computer's anti-virus software delete them for me.

Back to my hotel, and time to scan my USB Flash Drive properly. I used Avast Anti virus to do a full scan, and it discovered and deleted 67 other new viruses - yes, that's right: SIXTY SEVEN other viruses, not counting the seven already dealt with!! - on the drive, all of which were the Win32:Sohanad-DD [Worm] type. All of these viruses had created an imitation folder within an existing one, so I make no excuse of warning you, my readers, again to NEVER store a program in a folder that has the same name as the folder, or a virus will over-write it. If, for example, you have downloaded a program called 'Neatprog.exe', you should NEVER store it in a folder called 'Neatprog'. My suggestion is to rename the program with its version number - something like 'Neatprog_v2.1.5.exe'. If you then open the 'Neatprog' folder and find a file called 'Neatprog.exe' in it, you should quickly scan the program with your anti-virus software. Don't forget: you can rename any program and it will still run correctly as long as the suffix - the '.exe' bit - is left alone.

If you have any more tips on using USB Flash Drives that you would like to share, or other comments about this page generally, please contact me: the email address is on the Contact page.

As a busy traveller who is a constant visitor to internet cafes around the world, I carry a USB Flash Drive to save my important data and to store files that I wish to transfer to and from my laptop. Flash Drives have many uses, but care must be taken if the USB Flash Drive is to remain a useful part of your travel equipment, and not a threat. This article discusses ways to use a Flash Drive, warns of some of the problems, and advises on techniques to secure your data against loss and theft.

The USB Flash Drive, also known as a USB Memory Key, Memory Pen, or Memory Stick, is a highly portable computer storage device that can be carried in a pocket, purse, or wallet. Typically the size of 2 cigarettes, they are a very convenient way to carry files and documents between computers, and are especially useful to travellers who spend much time away from their home computer. Many leading brands are available, including Sandisk, Kingston, Lexar, Swissbit, and Toshiba. A range of capacities are there to suit all needs, and the costs for the smaller sizes are cheap enough for any budget. On Windows XP and above, the Flash Drive is 'Plug and Play', meaning that it can be plugged into any USB socket without the need to install driver programs on that computer. Windows will recognise what it is, and install it straight away. It can then be accessed using the usual 'My Computer' or 'Windows Explorer' links. Further technical information on the USB Flash Drive can be found on this WikiPedia page.

The USB Flash Drive has transformed the way travellers carry their data about, and how they work on the internet whilst travelling the world. Not so very long ago, we all carried floppy discs. Remember them? A tiny 1.4MB capacity. Easily damaged by heat, humidity, sunlight, moisture, magnetic fields - they were a traveller's worse nightmare, no matter how indispensable we all thought they were. The USB Flash Drive has changed all of that. Capacities are increasing all the time. Once 2GB was thought impressive. Now, 16Gb is quite common, 256GB is available now (at a price!) and no doubt this will increase still further as technologies advance. With this kind of storage in something so light and compact, the traveller has a great resource open to them. Most of the average traveller's data storage needs have been solved. However, use of a USB Flash Drive carries some problems as well. It may get lost or stolen, leaving you without vital information or making your data vulnerable to abuse. More likely is the constant threat from Viruses that are resident on the computers you plug into at the Internet Cafe. These can cause loss of data on your Flash Drive, and can even introduce Viruses to your laptop back at your hotel, causing further damage. We will start by looking at some of the problems related to USB Flash Drives, then carry on to their more helpful aspects.

The small size of a USB Flash Drive makes them very easy to carry in a pocket or purse, but that same small size makes them easy to lose, too. It can happen by accident, when it falls out of your pocket, when a zipper is left open, or when you forget to remove it from that internet cafe computer after your session is finished. How can people identify it to return to you? There are two ways: some information on the case, or some information stored inside.

I prefer the first method, as it has the advantage that anyone finding it can return it to you - they do not need a computer to find who it belongs to. You can write your name and address on a small adhesive label that you stick to the case of your USB Flash Drive. You might want to include a small message as well, such as 'REWARD OFFERED IF YOU RETURN THIS TO THE ADDRESS BELOW'. In order to make sure that the label remains legible, I use a small piece of clear plastic, of the type used when protecting a book jacket. The piece I have on my current Flash Drive has been there for 6 years, and is still in good condition despite being in my pocket for quite a bit of that time. I guess Sellotape or Scotch Tape would also work, though may not be so durable.

The second method depends on the finder of your USB Flash Drive understanding what it is, and then having a computer with USB port that he can insert it in, to see what it contains. It also assumes he speaks your language, and knows what 'README.txt' means. We are making a LOT of assumptions here. In a third-world country, where the local language is more dominant than yours, it may be unlikely that any of the above conditions will be met. However, if you feel confident that someone will understand what to do, then store a text file in your USB Flash Drive's root directory (the one you see when you first load it) called something like 'IMPORTANT-README.txt' or 'REWARD_IF_YOU_READ_THIS.txt'. The file should contain your name and snail-mail address, and your phone number, and email address too. A message promising a reward if the finder returns the Flash Drive to you will be helpful. Better still if you mention the value of the reward. An amount such as '100 US Dollars' is recommended. If you think that sounds a lot, and are tempted to mention a smaller amount, don't forget that the reward is there to tempt the finder to spend HIS OWN money first in mailing it to you, in the hope that you will pay the amount specified. If you mention just 10 or 20 dollars, he may not think that it is worth the effort. Would you?

If your USB Flash Drive is stolen, and stolen by a human, not a monkey, you can be reasonably sure that the thief knows what it is, and how to access it. It is important to anticipate this happening, and thus ensure that the thief will not find anything of value, or information that could be used to access online accounts, card pin numbers, or sufficient details to take over your online identity. This happens a lot: make sure it doesn't happen to you.

There are 3 ways to deal with data theft:

1. Disguise the data
2. Encrypt the data
3. Delete surplus data

However, whilst it is easy enough to hide a pin number in an address list, the same cannot be said of a Word document, a pdf file, or a large list of passwords. Another technique is needed: it is called 'Steganography'. This is the method of hiding data in seemingly innocuous items, such as a picture or an .mp3 file. Read more about this here, where you will also find links to online resources and downloadable programs that will do this for you.

A more straight forward method of safe-guarding files is by encrypting the data stored on your USB Flash Drive. However, this method is not without its disadvantages: If a thief is examining your files and finds that one folder is encrypted, he will be reasonably sure that it contains something of value, and will therefore go to great lengths to try and discover the contents. It is therefore necessary to have some method of securely encrypting these files, and hoping that the encryption is sufficient to stop a determined hacker, or at least make him fed up with the quest and give up. Please bear in mind that practically any encryption can be broken eventually, given enough time and resources, so if you are trying to hide information from the CIA, you will probably need better tools that are available for free download on the web! If, however, you are just trying to save your list of online passwords (which the CIA probably know already!) then an internet search for 'file encrypt software' will turn up a variety of programs that may be useful to you. My last USB Flash Drive even had such a program installed already. Whatever program you use, PLEASE read the comments about virus file-renaming and over-writing below, and make sure you have another method of decrypting your documents if the first method gets deleted.

One aspect of sensitive data is often over-looked by the computer user: the question of deleted data. The important file on your USB Flash Drive that you have just deleted has not been wiped when you press the Delete key, it has just been removed from the list of accessible files. I am assuming that everyone empties their Recycle Bin of important files, or deletes them using Shift-Delete, which bypasses the Recycle Bin completely. The data is still there, though, even if your computer doesn't know how to access it, and there are a variety of file-recovery programs that can recover deleted data. This may be quite useful if you have accidentally erased all the pictures on your photo-card, but not so useful in the hands of a thief who is examining your stolen USB stick! It is therefore essential when you have finished with an important file on your USB stick that you not only delete it, but erase it in such a manner that it cannot be recovered in the future. The way to do this is to use a program that over-writes the location of your file with random data. A variety of programs are available, though I prefer 'Eraser', which you can find more about here. It is also available in a 'Portable' version, so that it can be run from your USB Flash Drive without installing on the host computer - this is especially useful for the traveller visiting Internet Cafes. More about Portable Applications below.

Although I use an Anti-Virus program on my computer, the same can't be said for many of the internet cafes that I visit. Maybe they do have Anti-Virus software, but it is not the latest version of the program, or the updates are not current. In many cases, the 'Automatic Updates' feature of the program is turned off, and the virus database that is there is many months out of date. A traveller using these computers just can't rely on the Anti-Virus software provided, and needs to take his own measures to keep his data safe and secure, and avoid carrying new viruses from the internet cafe back to his laptop.

My USB Flash Drive has been infected many times, with viruses. Sometimes I need an anti-virus program to clean it again, and other times I can do this myself. To deal with viruses, it is useful to understand the kind of action they might take, and then to prepare your USB Flash Drive to spot and prevent their presence before anything bad happens.

My first method is to be aware of when my USB stick becomes infected. The following method applies to Windows XP, but will be similar for 'Vista' users. Plug your USB stick in a convenient USB socket on your computer, then start 'My Computer', or 'Programs >> Accessories >> Windows Explorer'. Click on the drive letter corresponding to your USB stick. If the 'Folders' panel is not visible on the left, click 'View >> Explorer Bar >> Folders' to turn it on. Next, you need to make sure that you are seeing all the files on the stick, including the hidden ones and the system ones. Many viruses will attempt to disguise themselves as system files, or use confusing icons such as Folders (Directories). Click 'Tools >> Folder Options >> View' to show the 'Advanced Settings'. Check the radio button 'Show hidden files and folders'. Clear the boxes for 'Hide extensions for known file types' and 'Hide protected operating system files'. The second one will ask if you are sure - answer 'Yes'. Check the radio button for Managing pairs of Web pages: 'Show both parts and manage them individually'. Click 'OK'. Note that by making these changes, you haven't effected the way the computer works in any way, you have simply made it more transparent to you, and made it harder for viruses to hide themselves.

Next, click the column-header marked 'Type'. This will sort your files by the type of file they are. Folders at the top, and other types below. If you see a folder below all the other folders, this could be a common type of virus picked up on Flash Drives. It will look like a folder, but note that its name is suffixed '.exe' indicating that it is a program. If you had the option 'Hide extensions for known file types' checked, as most people do, you would click on it to see what the 'folder' contains, and instead start the virus installing itself.

One very common trick played by viruses on your Flash Drive is to create a virus, with a folder icon, INSIDE another, existing folder. for instance, if you have a folder called 'Photos', the virus will create a file in that folder called 'Photos.exe', with a folder as its icon. This has happened to me more times than I care to remember, and is very annoying. It goes without saying that you shouldn't click on this file. You can easily delete it before it causes any harm, but the problem comes when you realise that any existing files with the same name will have been over-written by this virus. Perhaps you keep some programs on your USB stick, such as the Portable Apps mentioned below. They are very useful, as they can be run on the Internet Cafe computer without having to install them. You might, for instance, have a browser program named 'firefox.exe'. But, if you keep this program in a folder that is also named 'firefox', then the virus will overwrite your browser program with a virus.

This happened to me whilst travelling in Africa, but what happened then was that the program I used to encrypt sensitive files was over-written, with the result that I couldn't access any private files, passwords, or contact details! I emailed the company for a new program, and they sent me a version that didn't work with my files. With infrequent internet access in Africa, it took me nearly a month before I could view my data again! Don't let this happen to you. Its easy to prevent this happening, by renaming either the program or the folder so that each have slightly different names. For the browser example, I'd leave the program as it is, and rename its folder 'Firefox Browser'.

To be extra sure that a vital program, such as my file encrypter program, is always there when I need it, I would suggest making a copy of the '.exe' file, and then renaming its suffix. For instance, I would copy my program 'encrypter.exe' to another folder on the USB stick, and then rename that copy to 'encrypter.doc'. A virus will not overwrite such a file, and if I ever need to use it, I simply rename the file back to 'encrypter.exe' again, and it becomes a fully working program. Just remember not to try and open 'encrypter.doc' with your Word Processor program!

Lets now create a strategy to deal with hidden items on your Flash Drive. Click 'File >> New >> Folder' to create a new folder, and name it 'HIDDEN FOLDER'. Right click the folder, choose 'Properties', check the box 'Hidden', and click OK. As long as you can still see this folder at all times, you will know that hidden items on your computer are on show. If, one day, you don't see this folder, its an indication that something, probably a virus, has changed settings without your knowledge.

When a USB stick is inserted into a computer with a virus, one common action is to copy one or more viruses to the stick. But how do the viruses actually start running when the stick is brought back to your own laptop? A typical way is by using the 'Auto-Run' feature on Windows. When the stick is inserted, Windows looks for a file called 'autorun.inf'. If it is there, Windows will follow the command stored in it. This file is used quite legitimately by other programs, so don't think that it is always a threat. Looking at my own USB hard drive, I see one there. To look at what it contains, right-click on the file, choose 'Open With' (NOT 'Open'), and from the list of programs, choose 'Notepad'. The file on my own USB hard drive has the following contents:

[autorun]
icon = .\Maxtor_Portable.ico

This innocuous command merely associates an icon with the drive. However, if there are commands that command a program file (suffixed .exe, .com, or .bat) to execute, and especially if you are not sure what that program does, you should be very wary of your 'autorun.inf' file. Personally, I prefer not to have any such files on my USB stick. If I want a program to operate, it is easy enough to click on it as usual, or use a shortcut. If you are not sure about your own file, re-name it to 'autorun.inf.old'. Windows will not run it automatically, and you have cut another possible avenue for viruses to take over your laptop. I always keep an eye on my USB Flash Drive's root (home) directory, and see if a new 'autorun.inf' file appears unexpectedly. If it does, I can be sure that a new virus is trying to take control.

It should go without saying that your laptop should have Anti Virus software installed, and that the virus definitions should be kept up to date. This is not always easy to do on the road, but you should try and update whenever possible. There are many Anti Virus programs about, and everyone has their favourites. Over many years of computer ownership, I have tried most of the more famous ones, with varying results. I have yet to find one that I am completely happy with, that works the way I want it to, and doesn't take over my computer in the process. Currently, I am using the 'Home' edition of Avast Anti Virus, which you can download free for non-commercial usage from http://www.avast.com/. One feature I especially like about 'Avast' is that it will do a start-up scan of your computer, when it first turns on. This catches many new virus installations that other programs miss, and is especially useful for a traveller's laptop.

Now you've read all about the problems of USB Flash Drive usage, lets turn to the positive side of things. What can a USB stick be used for, and how useful is it for the traveller or backpacker? In a word, VERY. You can start by storing your password lists, important documents, your flight details, address book, passport copies. How about a spread sheet so you can keep track of your budget? Some extra .mp3 music files for you iPod. Copies of all your photographs taken so far, plus photos of friends and family back home, to show to new friends along the way. Your internet bookmarks and favourites. Drivers for some of the other electronic items you have with you. Some eBooks you keep meaning to read. A movie or two. Lonely Planet even sells .pdf versions of their guidebooks these days.

Its no good, however, having all this data, without a way to view or manipulate it. Most Internet Cafe computers have few if any applications installed on them, so how can you view, create, or amend those files on your USB stick without them? With painfully slow connections in many parts of the world, its just not worth downloading a software suite, and often the Internet Cafe computers are locked anyway, and don't permit the installation of new software without Administrator status.

The answer, as you have probably guessed, is to keep the programs that you will need for your travels on your USB stick. Not the original, full programs, that have to be installed on the computer before they will work, but so-called 'Portable Applications', or 'Portable Apps' for short. These are thinned-down versions of the original programs, often with full functionality, that run from your USB Flash Drive without installation. They can therefore be used despite the locks and security policies in place at the Internet Cafe. Lots of different applications are already available, and more are being added all the time.

Your first port of call for Portable Applications should be the website of http://portableapps.com/. Here you can find a platform for a selection of portable apps that include internet browsers, email clients, anti-virus, instant messaging, image editors, pdf readers, password managers, audio players, even a complete office suite! You can develop new websites, play portable games, watch movies, zip and unzip files, backup your data, and try a new operating system. And lets not forget the portable Planetarium, for all those nights Overlanding in the desert...

Here's how the PortableApps people sum it up:

Should that not be enough for you, try an internet search for 'portable applications'. Many sites show up, including Portable Freeware who have over 1300 applications, and a Wikipedia list of currently converted applications.

One common problem with USB Flash Drive users is the loss of the plastic cap that covers the USB connector. Some Flash Drives have retractable covers, whilst other types have the cover fixed to the body. Some manufacturers supply spare covers, recognising that they are frequently misplaced. My Flash Drive is like this, so I drilled a small hole in the cover and tied it to the body with a short length of button-thread. This has lasted very well over the last few years, and is an easy and useful modification to make.

One program that everyone wants on their USB Flash Drive, but for which the manufacturers have so far not obliged, is the internet telephone package 'Skype'. However, a bit of searching has revealed 2 pages that tell you how to do this: Making Skype portable on a USB stick - U3 Drive and Making Skype portable on a USB stick - non-U3 Drive.

If your computer runs a little slow, you might try 'Defragmenting the hard disc, which basically groups all pieces of a program or data file together, speeding the file system up considerably. You might therefore think that a USB Flash Drive that has been in use for a while should be defragmented as well, but this is not advisable. Flash Drives can be defragmented, but this brings little advantage as there is no mechanical head slowed down by having to move from fragment to fragment. Flash Drives often have very large internal sector size, so defragmenting means accessing fewer sectors anyway, when, for example, erasing a file. More importantly, defragmenting SHORTENS THE LIFE OF THE DRIVE by making many unnecessary writes.

If you have any more tips on using USB Flash Drives that you would like to share, or other comments about this page generally, please contact me: the email address is on the Contact page.

The barque Europa under full sail

The images that follow are some taken during the last few weeks on board the 'Picton Castle'. We are currently on a 6 hours on, 6 hours off watch system; so not a lot of time to compose Blogs, but I thought you might like to see these latest pictures from my life aboard a square-rigged tallship. More later - keep watching this space!

Courtesy ride on the Liberty tugboat

Tugboat bridge with some Picton Castle crew

Evening function on the Picton Castle

Maggie the Purser entertains guests in Boston

Sailing in Boston harbor

Signal flags on the Bluenose II

Quarterdeck and the early morning Boston skyline

Picton Castle moored at Charlestown wharf

St Francis in his garden

Paul Revere on horseback

Ships in Boston harbor

Ships - old and new

Russian cadets cleaning the Kruzenshtern

Mainmast and yards of the Kruzenshtern

Cadets of the Kruzenshtern enjoying a break

Boston policeman

Navigation cadet from the Kruzenshtern

Bracing winches of the Kruzenshtern

Kruzenshtern mooring line with tracer

My homemade canvas sheath for marlin-spike and knife

Sailing in Boston harbor

Boston daysail - Mike the Mate

Picton Castle under sail

Frank on lookout duty

Antoine and the Sagres

Sagres and Antoine

Midships on the Picton Castle

Clouds and sky

Focsle head

On lookout duty

Under sail - 1

Under sail - 2

Alex on the helm

Buddy in the port breezeway

Blocks and rope

Under sail on the Picton Castle

Evening light at sea - 1

Evening light at sea - 2

Evening light at sea - 3

Buddy sail-making on the quarterdeck

John sail-making on the quarterdeck

Sails on the foremast

Peter on lookout duty

Chibley, ships cat

Ben the Bosun

Randy and Jackie play the bagpipes

In case you are wondering why everyone is wearing red, it was for our Canada Day party, which also happened to be Ben's birthday too. The sun came out right on cue, which was a very welcome surprise.

Ratlines and rescue boat

Donald, our ships cook

David at the wheel

This is all a very new experience for me, and a lot of hard, physical work, but I'm enjoying it very much. Thanks to my time on Charlotte's farm beforehand, I'm a lot fitter than I might have been. That's improving all the time, too. When my hands are as tough as my shoes, I'll know that I've really got there.

Ships Dory made in Lunenberg

Ropes on the pin rail

We had a great time in Gloucester at the 'Sail Gloucester' event, and were made to feel very welcome by everyone there. There was even free food for the crew at Jalapeno's Mexican Restaurant - thanks so much, guys, it was wonderful. We also had a special breakfast at the Yacht Club, and were treated royally.

Ships wheel in early morning sun

Ships boat and reflection

Ships cannon - not fired yet

Breakfast blood-oranges

The 'Picton Castle' was the only tall-ship at the event, so we were given pride of place, and received many visitors whom we were pleased to show around the ship. New friends made, and thanks to Randy, the skirl of the bagpipes echoing out over the docks brought others to enjoy his impromptu performance.

Water through hawse hole

Ratlines and yard

Chibley, ships cat

US stars and stripes for the 4th of July

Manila rope

Paul, 2nd mate, in foul weather gear

The weather across was very foggy, with two lookouts on alert for much of the time, and the gentle blast of the foghorn to lull us to sleep at night. I'm currently on the 8-12 watch, which means that I work from 0800-1200, and 2000-0000. Sleep comes hurriedly after that!

Crew amidships

Sarah, deckhand

Julie and David, handling ropes

Peter, sail trainee

Sunset behind the wheel

Life at sea has its very special moments. Great views over the ocean, long chats with new friends, new skills acquired, and a lot of ropes to pull. The food is good, the bunks roomy, and despite what it says in the packing list, there's plenty of storage space for everyone.

Approaching Boston

Sailing past the Tall Ships

We got to Boston safely - more about that another time. I'm currently in Halifax, Nova Scotia, using a wireless connection with compliments of the very nice people at the Marriot Hotel here. Love to all, from Travelling Tim.

Picton Castle docked in Boston

Looking across the Meadow

This is another of my HDR (High Dynamic Range) images, and captures very well the type of views that there are across the 'Horse and Garden' farm. I've enjoyed my WWOOFing time here, and have been able to contribute quite a bit to the farm, buildings and garden. I'm also feeling a lot fitter than when I got here, so hopefully will be ready to tackle some of the tasks on the 'Picton Castle' in the weeks to come. I'd recommend the WWOOFing experience to anyone - its a lot more fun than being a hamster on a treadmill in the Gym.

Horse and Garden - main house

Around the Bonfire - Visiting Friends

I've met quite a few of Charlotte's friends and relations, and have been made to feel very welcome by everyone I've encountered. Canadians are noted for their friendliness and hospitality - this has certainly turned out to be true for me.

Travelling Tim with a Nova Scotia tan

Daisies in the Meadow

Without transport, Nova Scotia is very difficult for the visitor to get around, so most of the time here was spent on the farm. I've taken quite a few images in the area, including this photo of daisies in the meadow behind our mini-home. Occasionally we would visit the local town of Windsor, where there is a small but useful range of shops and services, including an excellent second-hand bookstore. In the centre of town is an interesting wooden statue, commemorating the world's largest pumpkin variety: 'Dills Atlantic Giant', and its originator/creator, Howard Dill, of Windsor, Nova Scotia.

Dills Atlantic Giant and its creator Howard Dill of Windsor N.S.

Map of our road trip around central Nova Scotia

On Wednesday last, we all took a day off from the farm-work, and set off, with sandwiches, for a road trip around central Nova Scotia. You can see a map of our route above, which was plotted from data captured on my GPS receiver. I also use this to geo-reference the photos I took that day. You can see the location of most of the photos on this page by clicking on them - a new browser will open, showing the route superimposed on a Google satellite map. Isn't technology wonderful !!

Mahone Bay - Ladies in the Information Office

Picton Castle - Port Side View

Heading south-west from Windsor, we visited first the small and exclusive town of Chester, where the rich folks live. It was raining at the time, so no photos to share with you here. On to Mahone Bay, and a chat with the friendly ladies of the Mahone Bay Tourist Information Office. We left with armfulls (not really!) of maps, guides, and useful leaflets that would help our exploration of the area. Still raining there, but it stopped by the time we got to the coastal town of Lunenberg, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and very picturesque.

Picton Castle - Crew working on Deck

Picton Castle - Rigging

The main reason for coming here was not to see the town however, but to get my first sight of the 'Picton Castle', the 3-masted barque that I am due to join next Saturday. There she was, moored to a private wharf near to the schooner 'Bluenose II'. Some work was going on board, so I didn't like to bother the crew just then, but spent a while looking over the ship I had come so far to sail on.

Rommy and Tom on the schooner Bluenose II

Captain of the schooner Bluenose II

The Picton Castle moored at the Lunenberg wharf

What a lot of ropes - will I ever memorise the names and uses of them all? I've been working on the sail plan recently, trying to learn them at least, and practising the knots required of all trainees: bowline, reef knot, sheet bend, round turn and two half hitches, clove hitch, and the figure of eight knot. We had sandwiches on the dock at Lunenberg, then walked around the town looking at all of the fine and interesting buildings. A little shopping too, for some last minutes items needed on board.

Bladderwrack Seaweed - isn't it beautiful

Cyril and Tom waiting for the West Lahave Ferry

The Horse and Garden Team - Tom, Charlotte, Rommy, Cyril

Bottles in Lahave antique shop window

Leaving Lunenberg (for a few days, at least), we drove south to see more of the coastline, taking the ferry at Lahave, with its lovely artisan-bakery and a most interesting and cared for antique shop. Turning inland to Bridgewater, we stopped for coffee and cake, and a wander through the town and along the riverside, with its small but pleasant park.

Birch Trees in Bridgewater Park

Vehicles on Nova Scotia Highway 103

Back on the road again, and a major highway this time, the I103 which passes through forest and lakeland to take us to St Margaret's Bay. At the head of this inlet is the famous 'Peggy's Cove' lighthouse, so being tourists for the day, we felt we ought to go and see it. Rather dilapidated at the moment, the lighthouse has been in the news recently as needing a coat of paint which the local authorities decided they couldn't afford this year. A public outcry helped them change their minds, so these photos may be some of the last before it gets spruced up.

Peggys Cove Lighthouse and Visitors

Peggys Cove Lighthouse

Peggys Cove - Wildlife Photography

Peggys Cove - Taking a Photograph

Sea and Rocks at Peggys Cove

Rommy and Tom at Peggys Cove Lighthouse

Not far from the lighthouse is the farm of Charlotte's friends, Jean and Alan Frederick, and a more friendly couple you couldn't hope to meet. We chatted over tea and freshly made bread, inspected the wood saw and garden, then walked down to the shoreline to see a last view of the ocean before returning back to Windsor, at the end of a grand day out.

Face on a Barn Shingle Wall

Jean and Alan Frederick

Thunderhead Sunset

Another HDR photo, of the sunset seen from just next to our Mini-Home. Please note that all images, and many more like them, are available for commercial licensing in a range of sizes - contact me with your detailed requirements for further details.

Sunset at the Mini-Home

The Soviet Union, in contrast, kept a number of their nuclear missile systems mobile, and were thus much less easy to locate and destroy. This Blog, in 2 parts, brings you some photos of two different mobile Soviet nuclear weapon systems that I photographed on my recent trip to Russia: the 'RT-2PM Topol', and the 'RT-23 Molodets'.

The 'RT-2PM Topol', known to NATO by the name 'SS-25 Sickle', is a land-based missile system. This three stage solid propellant rocket, with an operational range of 10,500 km (6,500 miles), became the first Soviet mobile ICBM to be successfully deployed. It is mounted on the MAZ-7917, a 14x12 artillery truck designed and developed by MAZ, Minsk automobile plant, in what is now the country of Belarus. Accompanying the missile when it is deployed in the countryside are two other vehicles: a 4x4 Mobile command post that carries the required support facilities, and a Communications Relay Station that uses Troposheric communications antennas mounted on an extendable lattice mast.

View of Missile Launch Vehicle through fence

Its not everyday that one chances upon land-based nuclear weapon systems, so I was more than surprised to see a full RT-2PM Topol detachment when rounding a corner in down-town St Petersburg. The first glimpse I had was through a thick fence, topped with barbed wire. A sentry box stood close by, but was un-occupied at the time. Was it safe to stand and look? Was I breaking a whole bunch of military regulations by just being there? On my last visit to the Soviet Union in 1981, I had unwittingly photographed the notorious Lubyanka Prison, headquarters of the KGB, but apart from a brief and mysterious arrest and interrogation by the authorities in Leningrad, nothing more occured. Things are a bit more relaxed in Russia in these post-Soviet days, but was it safe to chance a photo or two? I was about to find out.

Tropospheric Relay Station, Mobile command post, and Transporter Erector Launcher behind fence

Making my way along the fence, I cast furtive glances at the impressive RT-2PM Topol missile and its huge 7-axle multi-terrain transport vehicle. Parked alongside were the Communications truck, with its tropospheric dishes deployed, and the large Command and control truck. All was quiet, no guards were in the vicinity...

RT-2PM Topol mounted on its MAZ-7917 14x12 artillery truck

I then noticed that other members of the public were walking by without a second glance. Was it a daily occurence for a nuclear launch facility to be parked there? Were they keeping their eyes averted for a reason? Then a party of school children ran by, swung on the railings, rounded another corner, and started climbing on a range of other military vehicles parked in a group. A ticket office stood nearby, and the explanation dawned at last - I was looking into the grounds of the Saint Petersburg Museum of Artillery, Engineers and Signals!

Tropospheric Relay Station, Mobile command post, and Transporter Erector Launcher. Note the guard-dog kennel on the left!

Once I realised that all was OK, I wasted no time in getting my camera out and taking some shots of these impressive vehicles. I hope you enjoy taking a look too. Please note that all images are available for commercial licensing, in a range of sizes - contact me with your detailed requirements for further details.

RT-2PM Topol mounted on its MAZ-7917 14x12 artillery truck

RT-2PM Topol mounted on its MAZ-7917 14x12 artillery truck - diagonal view

RT-2PM Topol mounted on its MAZ-7917 14x12 artillery truck - side view

RT-2PM Topol mounted on its MAZ-7917 14x12 artillery truck - side view

Missile Launch Vehicle - closeup of front

Missile Launch Vehicle - closeup of centre

MAZ-7917 14x12 artillery truck - front view

Mobile command post - diagonal view

Mobile command post - side view

Mobile command post - side view

Front of Mobile command post

Mobile command post: note the armored turret with machine gun at the rear

Mobile command post - detail of front side

Tropospheric Relay Station - diagonal view

Tropospheric Relay Station - closer view

Tropospheric Relay Station - side view

Tropospheric Relay Station - detail of dishes and extending lattice-mast

Tropospheric Relay Station - side view

Tropospheric Relay Station - diagonal view

Tropospheric Relay Station - front view

Tropospheric Relay Station - diagonal view

Tropospheric Relay Station, Mobile command post, and Transporter Erector Launcher. Note the guard-dog kennel on the left!

Please visit the second part of this Blog to see photos of another ex-Soviet nuclear weapon system, the 'RT-23 Molodets', known to NATO by the name 'SS-24 Scalpel'.

Fletcher the dog - the original woofer!

The 'Horse and Garden' organic farm is owned and organised by Charlotte Harper. The farm is still in its 'startup phase', so there's a lot to do! When I arrived, there were four other WWOOFers: two from France and two from Canada, but now the French couple have left, so there's just four people on the farm. Two horses, as you might expect from the farm's name, also two black cats, and last but very definitely not least there's Fletcher the dog, who likes nothing better than to chase and retrieve sticks. I think that he even prefers this to eating!

The Minihome - where all the WWOOFers live

The WWOOFers all live in the Minihome, a short walk from the main farm house. We have all the usual modern conveniences, with the exception of a TV, so we can all get a lot of reading and computering done in the evenings. We make our own breakfasts and evening meals, and have a communal lunch provided by Charlotte at the main farmhouse.

View from the Minihome

Sunset from the Minihome - an HDR image

When I first got here, the weather was rather cold and wet, so I was able to get a number of indoor tasks done: panelling out the cellar, erecting steel shelving, and organising the workshop. Once that was done, I made a rather useful 8-door wall-mounted cupboard, mainly from floorboards. Its fixed on the wall now, and provides a lot of vital storage space.

The main house, and some raised vegetable beds

Lately, the weather has improved a lot, and the daytime temperatures have been in the upper 20's. I've been making raised vegetable beds, doing a lot of digging, and planting about 150 feet of onion set beds. My sun tan, which had faded somewhat since India, is now back again, and during the day I have to wear a sun hat.

Rear of the main house

Rear of the main house

I have been practising driving on the wrong side of the road. Not just that, but in a left-hand drive car too, with the gear-shift (wow, I'm talking Canadian!) on the right hand side. It was all very confusing to start with, so I stuck to the smallest of back roads until I got the hang of it. Even then it was confusing, especially the road junctions, which have different road markings and different road signs. It took me a while to decide just who has priority at some junctions, so the cars following would start beeping at me! Pedestrians have priority to vehicles here - wow imagine if they tried that in India ha ha.

Timothy grass, photographed by Timothy

The Gypsum Cliffs, on the edge of the St Croix River

I spent one day in the state capital of Halifax, organising a US tourist visa. Wow is that a complicated process! In all my years of travelling, I think this must be the worst. Harder than Libya, even! Payments must be made beforehand, interviews booked beforehand, and the photographs have to been dimensionally correct to within the nearest 1/8th inch. The visa form is quite thorough, too, with questions such as 'Do you seek to enter the United States to engage in export control violations, subversive or terrorist activities, or any other unlawful purpose? Are you a member or representative of a terrorist organization as currently designated by the U.S. Secretary of State? Have you ever participated in persecutions directed by the Nazi government of Germany; or have you ever participated in genocide?'. I answered 'No' to each of those.

Another view of the Minihome, taken in the morning

Main House - view from the front

We made a small expedition to nearby Wolfsville, where the bigger kind of supermarkets and chain stores are. Its very interesting to see what the stock is like compared to stores (look, I'm talking Canadian again!) back in England or Ireland. Generally, I would say that the stock is more extensive, but with much less ethnic food available. In one supermarket that we visited, there were hardly any of the spices that I normally cook with in stock. No tins of mushy peas, either.

Main House - view from the front

One exception to this, though, is a no-frills, no-packaging bulk food retailer: Bulk Barn. They have a huge range of dried goods sold from big bins with perspex lids on - you serve yourself with the quantity you need into a bag. Unlike similar establishments in the UK, they are not aimed exclusively at the poorest of the poor. All the usual things are there, plus spices (or most of them, at least) and some quite astonishing products such as Falafel mix (very useful for thickening things) and, amazingly, Teff, which I can't remember seeing outside of its major consumption area, Ethiopia. I'd love to know just who eats this in the Windsor area, and what they do with it. I can't believe they make Injera - a flat bread that resembles cow stomach, tastes of vinegar, and is something that most travellers to Ethiopia would be glad never to see, or taste, again!

Fletcher the dog, with his usual stick

Well, that's all the news from Nova Scotia for now. Best wishes to all family and friends. Hoping to hear from you all later...

Tractor with disc-harrow

Bootham School York, and the Class of 1968 - 1973: What happened to everyone?

I went to Bootham School, a Quaker boarding school in the city of York, in the north of England, from the age of 11. That was 1968. I stayed there until the end of 'Upper Senior', in 1973, when I left to go to the Hull College of Technology, to study electronics and radio communication systems for Marine Radio.

Since then, I have lost touch completely with my former class mates. Recently, in 2009, thanks to the Friends Reunited website, one of them got in touch with me: George Baines. We corresponded via email for a while, then during a short visit to England last April, I was able to travel up to Manchester and spend a couple of days with George and his lovely wife and children.

As might be expected, we had a lot to talk about, especially our time together at Bootham. This led to wondering if we could remember the names of everyone in our yeargroup, and then further speculation about what might have happened to them all. Was there a way to contact everyone, and find out what had happened to them in the past 35 years?

The result is this web page: an attempt to make a searchable list of all class members in the hope that one by one they might search for their names online, and find them here. If they did make it this far, then they might be interested in a Yahoo Group set up for the 'Class of 1968 - 1973' members of Bootham School York, where they can catch up with old friends and colleagues, exchange news and information, post details of events past and present,  share photo online, leak a bit of gossip, and initiate or comment on stories of life at Bootham in the 60s and 70s.

Still with me? then please visit the Yahoo Group for Bootham School class of 1968-1975 and join in the conversation.

Where are they now?

As mentioned above, George and I tried to remember the names of everyone in our class group, from the one class as it first started, to the 2 classes it became when more people joined in the third year: 'Upper Schoolroom'.

Here is the list as best we can remember it, but some errors still exist. If you have any added details or corrections, please Contact Me directly, or post a message on the Yahoo Group. I'd also love to hear from anyone who can scan and email me any of our yearly class photos.

Scan of Tim's jaw - 1

To some people, India might not be the first place they consider when needing dental work, but for me it makes a lot of sense. I've been using the same dentist in Delhi for a number of years - actually a family of four dentists, mostly trained in England, and offering a variety of services, an excellent track record, and great attention to detail. They have 2 surgeries in Delhi, and the one at Connaught Place is just a short walk from where I stay in Pahar Ganj, near New Delhi railway station. The prices are between a third or a quarter of the cost in England or Ireland, and the quality of work much much better, with long appointments and great care taken.

Scan of Tim's jaw - 2

I've chosen to go for an implant + tooth, and a bridge of three teeth. The implant needs to stabilise before the tooth can be added - this takes about 3 months, so after that initial treatment, I've been exploring Rajasthan, and taking some of the photos recently added to my Photo Blog. During that time, I lost a filling, so decided that the best course of action was to return to Delhi and get it replaced by the dentists I was already using. After an examination, it was determined that infection had set in, and the best course of action was a root canal treatment and a crown. This increases my new teeth by one, to a total of 5: plenty to chew on there!

When not confined to the dentist's chair, or waiting for the next appointment, I have been visiting a variety of places in North and Central India. My plan has been to build up a small library of digital photographs, and this trip it has been themed in two areas: the forts and palaces of Rajasthan, and the Buddhist sites of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

Nur Mahal Palace, Amber, Rajasthan

In Rajasthan, after re-visiting some of the more famous cities: Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Udaipur, Mount Abu; I headed to the deserts around Jaisalmer, and spent a very wonderful 4 days exploring some of the big dunes on the back of a camel. I also visited Pushkar, Alwar, and the ancient town of Bharatpur.

The Lake at Jaisalmer, Rajasthan

After another journey to Delhi, I headed east to Bihar, and the place of the Buddha's enlightenment at Bodh Gaya. I also visited the Buddhist caves at Gaya and Rajgir, the ancient Buddhist university at Nalanda, the site of the Buddha's first sermon at Sarnath, and the site of the his death at Kushinagar, near Gorakhpur.

The Meherangarh Fort, Jodhpur

The Lake at Mount Abu, Rajasthan

There was also time to revisit the ancient Hindu city of Varanasi, and spend a bit of time exploring it slowly. How lovely it was to wander along the banks of the holy Ganges river, to watch the pilgrims, the bathers and the boatmen; and to experience the life in microcosm that reflects the greater wonder of India.

The Mahabodi Temple by night

The Bhutan Temple at Bodh Gaya

This trip to India is nearly over, and I will be heading back to the UK on April 15th. After that, I've decided to venture to new fields, and have a change from the areas I've been travelling in over the last few years. I'm heading to Canada for the summer, and hope to be there for about 5 months. Part of that time will be spent WWOOFing - in other words, voluntary work on Organic farms or homesteading projects. You can read more about it at the WWOOF - Canada website.

Then, at the end of June, I head for the coastal town of Lunenberg, to join the tall ship 'Picton Castle' for a summer voyage along the Canadian coast, down to the States, and across to St Pierre and Miquelon. I've wanted to sail on a square-rigged ship for many years, but the closest I ever got to one was when I took up the hobby of putting ships in bottles, when I was working in the Antarctic. At last I have the chance to experience the full size version, and am very pleased to have been accepted as a member of the crew for the summer.