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The Journey - Other kit My sunglasses are Smith Mainlines, with three sets of interchangeable lenses for different conditions. I've got them on a Croakies leash, partly so I can take them on and off easily while on the bike, but mainly because I've lost at least two pairs of Smith glasses, and don't want to lose a third. Off the bike, I've got a pair of Teva sandals. They're great and only once let me down when walking through a stream off the Pacuare River in Costa Rica. I slipped on a rock that was underwater and almost bounced my head off another boulder. Our guide Javier shrugged and said, 'You wearing Tevas? They're great in the dry, but the worst in the wet'. He was wearing Chacos - the brand beloved of whitewater rafting guides the world over. But this time I figure I'll be fine if I'm careful walking back from the showers to the tent. The techno weenie side of me was satisfied by the Suunto Advizor watch I've got (a present from my colleagues when I left San Francisco). Suunto, a cool Finnish company, would be horrified to hear it called a watch, however - apparently, it's a 'wrist-top computer'. Either way, it tells the time in very big figures, but it's also an altimeter, a compass, a barometer (good for information on changing weather conditions), a temperature gauge and a heart-rate monitor. It also doubles on sax. I used the compass daily, and the altimeter was handy in the mountains. The thermometer kept me amused when I was at the extremes, and I left the heart-rate belt at home so I wouldn't frighten myself going up the mountains. To preserve my sanity and keep in touch with events I had a tiny Sony ICF-SW100 radio (or 'worldband receiver', as they call it). The shortwave meant I could listen to the BBC World Service in a tent in Liechtenstein. The pictures were taken using a Canon Powershot S10 camera. The metal body put up with some abuse and the 2.1 megapixel resolution was as much as I could afford at the time. The pictures were saved on a 340MB IBM Microdrive which wasn't cheap but worked perfectly and stopped me worrying about storing all the images or sending them home. Finally, to talk to the outside world, I used an Ericsson R310 mobile phone - it's waterproof, ruggedized and is most impressively sturdy. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if they're available any more, but it performed brilliantly.
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ISBN: 0340832282
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