My day has proven to be somewhat frustrating.  I set out with one clear goal in mind.  Purchase a daypack/backpack that will carry my dSLR, Canon 30D + lenses, my 13” MacBook and have space for other odds and ends like a guide book, snacks, water bottle etc.

Now one would think that would be an easy enough chore.  I did some research on the net first and came up with three contenders.  Lowepro, Crumpler and Tamrac.

So off I went to the shops.  Other than the Lowepro CompuDaypack do you think I could find the bags I was interested in?  The computer stores suggested I go to the camera stores.  The camera stores suggested I go to the computer stores…... grrrrrrrr.

Now the CompuDaypack is just too big.  The other score against them is that I have the Lowepro Orion Trekker II.

Lowepro Orion Trekker II

So the pack at first seems great.  I can store my camera gear in the compartment at the bottom and the ‘other stuff’ at the top.  Making access and extracting my camera when I want it without everything else including the kitchen sink coming out with it.

In practice.  Well.  It took some practice.  I took the Orion on my trip to Morocco last year.  Now at first I had to sit down, put the pack down or get my travel buddy to hold my pack before I could get my camera out.  By the end of my trip I could extract my camera while walking through a market or anywhere without utilizing any of the above methods.  My biggest problem with the bag probably seems like a small issue.  Well it is, but when your traveling having somewhere you can stick the 1.5 L water bottle so you do not have to constantly carry it starts to become an issue.

That is the one area of that bag that irritated the heck out of me.  The upper compartment is too small to carry the 1.5L bottle of water + guide book and other ‘stuff’ one normally has.  Trust me for a short 4 - 6 week trip while you can and will make do… it will start to be inconvenient.  If you get this bag and you are going on a longer trip I’d suggest looking into pouches that you can clip onto your bag to carry your water bottle other wise it is going to drive you insane!

The other major issue I had, well the biggest issue I had is that the pack leaked.  Now the hole to allow the headphones for your iPod may seem like a good idea but in practice it sucks.  I was out all day on a day trek.  While it did not rain all day there was ‘drizzle’ off and on most of the day.  Though not enough to make me concerned.  That seemingly ‘convenient’ hole for the headphones allows water into the pack.  It runs down and seeps into the bottom compartment where you are carrying your very expensive dSLR….... thankfully I had a plastic bag in my pack so was able to wrap my camera in that. If you get this pack I would suggest very strongly that you get a rain jacket for those times that you will be out in the rain.  I’d hate to see what would have happened to my camera if I’d been caught out with it in a downpour rather than a drizzle.

Back to the New Pack Decision

So for me, after the Morocco trip, I’ve scratched the Lowepro not only because looking at it, well it is too big but because I’ve found the other pack irritating.

That leaves the offering from Crumpler and Tamrac.

Now I really wish I could choose the Crumpler (The Sinking Barge).  It looks great, it’s Australian (having parents that were in business I really do believe in supporting local businesses), I’m Australian… still it has one flaw that I can see (at least looking at it online) I’m going to have that same ‘water bottle’ issue.  So that rules it out, for now, which really is a shame.

The bag I’ve decided to order, sight unseen, is the Tamrac Adventure 9.  The only reason I have chosen this bag over the Sinking Barge by Crumpler is that the Adventure 9 has ‘pockets’  on the side that should be able to carry a water bottle.  That and if I am going to trial a bag without having seen it first well it is cheaper.  Now do not get me wrong.  If I do not like the Tamrac on my trip to Thailand I will buy the offering from Crumpler for my trip to Egypt next year to trial.

It’s one thing to carry a bag that irritates you for 4 - 6 weeks.

It’s another to carry it for 12 months.  So stay tuned for my take on the Tamrac Adventure 9!

My round the world (RTW) trip is finally close enough for me to start the initial planning.  All right I know it’s two years away but I’m not sure if you realise how much planning goes into a trip like this.  In reality I’ve been thinking and saying I was going to go on another year long RTW for years now.  Then last year I quite suddenly went from thinking/ saying and opened a dedicated savings account for the trip.  The account is even called RTW 2010.

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For those of you with an interest in these things Matt from Where the Hell is Matt? has released a new video.

As usual the video is very entertaining.  For those of you who haven’t seen any of Matt’s contributions I’d suggest you head over to his site and check out his videos.  Its a very simple idea that really worked well.  Its just Matt dancing in front of a video camera in places all over the world.  It may not sound like much but honestly its fun.  Go on over to his site and check it out.

Well the new site design is well underway.  The base template looks great or at least I think so.  I’m not sure how long the whole process is going to take but I’m excited about the whole process.  I know I’m excited because I keep checking to see what’s changed.  In some ways that’s like watching grass grow but every now and then you see something new.  Like yesterday the little icon in the address bar in the browser appeared.  I do not know if that happened yesterday but that is when I noticed it.

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Finally its done.  The Trails has a whole new look of its very own and some new functionality as well.

BKDesign handled the Template and Coding for me and did an amazing job.  I’ve always wanted a design that was mine from the very first moment that I set up this site so was never completely happy with my mangled efforts of creating the templates myself, imagine me shuddering right now, or the free templates available since every Tom, John and Jane on the web not so surprisingly has the same templates.  He also handled the coding for the site and fixed up a lot of things for me, including the mapping function, video page and gallery.  While I’ve had those things for awhile they were not working all that well particularly the map thing!

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