This is driving me crazy!

There are many little inconveniences when one moves countries a lot, but none seem so deliberately infuriating and purposely designed to force me to tie myself in knots while trying to do something simple than DVD region coding. Man, as if it wasn't enough that I have to rip or re-buy my films if I want to watch them on my iPod, but to stop me from watching stuff on my computer just because I buy DVDs in a variety of countries that have been randomly assigned to different regions, that is just too stupid.

Of course my Mac should have a region free drive, and of course I could just wait to buy DVDs until I am back in Europe, or I could pay for a download from iTunes and then deal with the DRM on that and pay extra for the bandwidth to get the film that isn't all that much cheaper than a DVD in the first place and includes no extras, but why? How did we get to a place where I am a criminal for wanting to watch a movie? Soviet Russia much?

Grrr.

Just to give you an idea how totally ridiculous these regions are, here is a map. South Africa with Europe, why? And Australia with NZ and South America, good idea! At least Leo doesn't have this problem (as long as he stays out of the US).

Plugs of the World

I was going to write a long rant about the lack of standards related to anything from plugs to water hose connectors, to gas bottles, never mind electronics, and the annoyance factor for us travellers, but then I discovered this map and I realised that this is just another opportunity for neogeography, and that I shall map my experience of non-matching connectors in my life instead of complaining about it.

Map: Eurocom

The Route!

We spent two evenings a few days ago going through our list of places we want to visit, thinking about border crossings, working out a route with the help of the unintuitive, but reliable RoadMap. It's been a long time coming, reading travel books, becoming regular visitors to wikitravel, poring over the great many Africa travel magazines out there, collecting bits of info from friends and making notes when watching documentaries (The Long Way Down was surprisingly insightful).

So now we have a plan. It involves driving for 6 months, in the region of 15 000km across 18 countries (excluding Europe), visiting a load of human evolution sites as well as getting in as much diving as possible, some museums, temple ruins and innumerable national parks, to start in Melrose Arch and spit us out at the top of Tunisia, hopefully round about Christmas. We'll see.

Remember that Google Maps doesn't follow the actual roads in Africa, as it does in more developed parts of the world, so the length and directions are approximate. We are not planning on driving as the crow flies! If you click on the link below the map, it will open in Google Maps, where all the little flags and the actual route will be much more visible. If you have any more ideas where we can go on our Drive and Dive tour, let me know!


View The Big Trip in a larger map

Geography of a house move

View Larger Map

Until I looked at the output of the car GPS I hadn't realised how much driving I did to sort out the various bits of our exit from New Zealand. It puts me in a melancholy mood to remember my last lunches with friends, the views across the bay from the waterfront. I am equally glad that the endless disposal of superfluous bits and pieces is over. My favourite trip was the last one, to drop the car off at Van Lines for shipping. If you click on the "View Larger Map" link you can investigate the whole map on Google. Enjoy!