Elephant Spotting in the Okavango Delta

Posted by Peter Cresswell on Jul 17, 2012 | 2 comments

Adam, our guide here in the Okavango Delta, hears them well before he sees them. He twists his head slightly and listens to the rustling and crunching of leaves and branches. “Sounds like two, or maybe three”. The trees are thick and the sound of leaves crushing underfoot wisps along our path. Our group of 6 walk in single file, following Adam as he steps forward, stepping around pot holes and hippo poo before stopping abruptly at the edge of a small clearing. The rest of the group creeps forward to have a look. My heart takes a sudden jump as we see them for the first time, rustling and smashing tree branches with their tusks and trunk; two large bull elephants.

Dune 45 – Boring Name. Beautiful scenery

Posted by Peter Cresswell on Jul 13, 2012 | 1 comment

The truck is dusty. Very dusty. Even in the 5am darkness of the desert, you can smell the dust in the air and feel it in the darkness on every window and chair that I touch. It’s been like this for days now and judging by the roads we have seen so far, I doubt it will be letting up anytime soon. I sit back and try to breath slowly. Our tour guide truck rumbles forward in the darkness, vibrating like a 14 year old’s cellphone. African roads, as we are quickly learning, are built for many things but driving carefree along them is not one of them. South African roads are passable but the dust covered tracks which are the roads of Namibia are not.

Interview: Rolf Potts

Posted by Peter Cresswell on Jul 9, 2012 | 2 comments

If Always Twirling were to have a godfather, it would be Rolf Potts. When I spent 4 months working and traveling in India with Susana, I took along a copy of Rolf’s [amazon_link id="0812992180" target="_blank" container="" container_class="" ]Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel[/amazon_link]. In the book, Rolf explains the ethos of long term travel as he lives it; unstructured, honest and open to experience. It argues in favor of prioritizing life and the freedom of time over the needless gathering of excess money and shows it’s reader through simple tales and insights how joyful and free the life of the independent traveler can be. Little did I know how potent this literary cocktail would be.

I Don’t Think He Believes Me

Posted by Peter Cresswell on Jul 5, 2012 | 0 comments

“Your daughter, Sarah, is in Africa and needs you to transfer money to her credit card.” said Marisio in his thick Columbian accent. “She needs your help”.

At the other end, Tom, a recently retired Canadian police officer, listened to the tale with great interest. He loved to seek retribution from telemarketers for years of interrupted dinners through deep probing questions and exhausting and futile discussion. This call seemed particularly rich for punishment.

“Is this the one where I get a free toaster? I absolutely LOVE toasters.” replied Tom.

Review: Adioso is a gift to Vagabonders

Posted by Peter Cresswell on Jun 30, 2012 | 0 comments

We don’t usually know where we are going or when we are going to get there. It’s one of the joys of traveling the way we do. Unforetunately, very few people travel like this. Most people book vacations well in advance and have very specific dates. As a result, most travel websites work in this mindset and ask for very specific dates of travel when making bookings for such things as trains, hotels and flights.

We are a lot more vague in our traveling and go where inspiration takes us. But how do you book a flight for “sometime next week” or “whenever it’s cheapest” or leaving “Toronto and going anywhere”? Try asking Expedia for a flight near the “end of april from Toronto going anywhere“. It will throw up in your face with all that ambiguity. But not Adioso.