Many of the lessons we learnt (or re-learnt) on this trip are applicable to a wide variety of trips, so I have included all of those in this entry. A smaller set of tips, applicable primarily for polar excursions, will be included in the next post.
1. Motion sickness patch can cause motion sickness: The prescription patch for motion sickness is becoming extremely popular with travelers, since it provides excellent relief of symptoms without having to remember to take pills on a regular schedule. There are a couple of important things to be aware of, however, when using this medication. The first is that you may still experience some symptoms of sea sickness if the seas are particularly rough. This is not unexpected. The second is that if you wear the patch for more than three days, then suddenly remove the patch at the end of the voyage, you may end up feeling the symptoms of motion sickness (nausea, dizziness, etc.) a day or two after the patch has been removed while your body adjusts to the sudden removal of the drugs. This is a noted side effect of the medicine, but can still catch you by surprise – for example, if you are flying out a day or two after your voyage. Plan ahead, and adjust your medications appropriately.
2. Give yourself plenty of time before and after the trip to get where you need to go. Travel in general, and adventure travel in particular, does not run on a tight schedule. Flights, including charter flights, are often delayed; disembarking a ship can take more time than expected; bad weather can interrupt plans; and luggage can be temporarily misplaced. If you provide a little extra time at the start and end of your trip, these disruptions are less likely to impact you and you will be able to remain relaxed instead of stressing out. Even simply over-nighting at your departure and arrival locations may give you the time that you need. For example, on this trip, the charter company responsible for returning us to Toronto changed, causing a change in arrival time. Because we were spending the night in Toronto before continuing on to our final destinations, we didn’t have to worry about exactly what time of day we got into Toronto. Some of those who had booked connecting flights had to reschedule them, because we arrived several hours later than initially expected, and they still had to clear customs and check in to their connections before moving on. In cases like these, the connecting airlines take no responsibility for the cost of rebooking the flights, since the arriving flight was a charter, not part of the connecting airlines’ service. Any additional expenses were borne by the travelers, and almost certainly exceeded the $100 cost of a hotel room for the night.
3. Work with local experts and experienced guides whenever possible. Do research before booking your trip to make sure that the people you are travelling with are not just familiar with travelling in general, but with the area that you are heading to in particular. In adventure travel, the agenda must adapt in response to a variety of conditions, including weather. This means that flexibility is important. The more your guides know about the area, the more options you have and the better you will be able to respond to the unexpected. On this trip, each day’s agenda was posted the night before based on the guides’ best estimate of what we would encounter, and we still had numerous changes during the day. However, because our expedition lead had been to the area over 40 times, and the captain had made hundreds of cruises in the area, they were able to identify alternatives that made us feel like we weren’t missing anything. Less experienced guides would not have been able to respond as effectively, and we would have ended up with cancelled activities.
4. Always bring spare socks when hiking. Of course, on longer hikes, you likely already know that you should change socks every chance you get just to keep your feet dry and prevent blistering. However, even when a hike is supposed to be easy you should still bring a spare pair along. There is always the chance for something to happen – for example, stepping in a puddle or needing to rock-hop across a stream. If you have a spare pair of socks, you can easily change out of a suddenly wet pair into a dry one, preventing blisters and keeping your feet happy. If you don’t, then you have to suffer with wet feet for the remainder of the hike.
5. Mosquito netting is your friend. Surprisingly, to me at least, mosquitoes not only live but thrive above the Arctic Circle. While bug dope (aka repellent) will work, the bugs still swarm your face, sit on your hat or glasses, and generally try to find an unprotected area to attack you. Having netting available keeps them away from your face and decreases the distractions while you are hiking. Given the small cost and weight, it is definitely worth packing netting even if you don’t think you will use it. Of course, you should still bring bug spray for those areas not covered by your netting. And, very importantly, keep both the netting and the spray with you whenever you are on an excursion. It does you no good at all if it is sitting in your room while you are providing a feast for the local wildlife.
6. Bring external backup devices. I have previously written about our use of a Hyperdrive external hard drive to back up our flash memory cards. This is a good, single-purpose device which can copy files from a variety of different types of cards. However, it can freeze up when things are done out of order and it does not support filtering of images because the screen size is too small and the images cannot be categorized. On this trip, I noticed several people using an iPad instead of a full-blown laptop for accessing their photos. This has the advantage that the tablet is much smaller and easier to transport than a laptop, while still providing the essential capabilities that one would want on a trip (e.g. reading eBooks and sending email). It is also well designed for performing an initial filtering of the photos, since it has a large screen, can easily move between hundreds of photos, and allows directories to be created and populated based on content. Unfortunately, the current version of the iPad does not natively support an external USB drive (this has been hacked around by some), so this limits the usefulness of the device as a backup for long trips where you will have many more pictures to store / access than can fit on its relatively small internal drive . With tablet computers becoming more popular, however, I would expect this limitation to be overcome in the near future.
7. Walkie-talkies keep people in touch. It can be really handy to be able to talk to others in your group from a distance. This allows you to find each other when you have become separated and can reduce trips back to the cabin for forgotten items. For example, if a polar bear is sighted, one person may rush out on deck to see where it is, while someone else rushes to the cabin to get a camera – but then finding each other can become challenging. In many places, such as ski areas, cell phones have been allowing people to connect remotely for years (e.g. to coordinate lunch between black diamond and green bunny-hill skiers). Unfortunately, cell phones don’t work in many places – and even if they do work, they can be expensive for these types of quick calls. Instead of cell phones, for international and adventure travel, I suggest taking a hint from your guides and using a set of walkie-talkies. They work anywhere, use rechargeable batteries, and can provide an effective link to others in your group over moderate distances. Even a fairly basic set will provide a level of connectivity that will save you several laps around the deck looking for people.
8. Bring ski goggles. If you wear corrective lenses, you know that one of the downsides of wearing glasses instead of contacts is that rain, snow, fog and other weather events can severely affect your vision. On this trip, the rain was so bad one day that I simply took my glasses off since I couldn’t see anything through them. It was during this downpour that I noticed our more experienced guides were wearing ski goggles, which protected their eyes and gave them a reasonable view of their surroundings. Even over glasses, these provide an enhanced weather block and are much easier to keep clean while hiking.
9. Always use your lens shade. While the nominal purpose of a camera’s lens shade is to keep the sun off of the lens’ front element and let you take a better picture sans lens flare, while on an outdoor shoot you should always keep your shade on. In addition to protecting from the sun, it also helps to block rain, sleet, and snow from hitting your lens. This not only increases the chances of getting good pictures but reduces the time that you need to spend cleaning your gear. It is not a bad idea to keep the shade on during indoor shoots, too. The shade can help protect the lens against damage from ungraceful moments. (How many of you have ever accidentally hit your camera against a chair back while walking past?)
Terence
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