Gear
Her Packing List discusses the main travel towel contenders, including Rick Steves, PackTowl, and Sea to Summit, before ultimately leaning towards good old-fashioned Turkish towels or just sarongs and big scarves. That’s basically been my evolution too, except for the sarongs. I just pack a scarf now, which doubles as a towel from time to time.
Whenever towels come up, I think of the passage from one of the great travel novels: “A towel is just about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can carry.” It can be used to warm up, protect against fumes, signal distress, or provide psychological comfort.
I agree about the uses but it’s a scarf that does these things, not a towel. A scarf.
Meanwhile, The Professional Hobo posts comprehensively on anti-theft gear and tricks to keep you stuff safe.
And Packing Less reviews the Able Carry DayBreaker 25L: mostly positive.
Environment
Senator Tom Udall posts on The Cleanest Line proposing to protect 30 percent of undeveloped land and water by 2030. He says this ambitious goal is what is needed to combat climate change and mass extinction.
Experiences
Never Ending Voyage gives us lots of ideas for New Zealand’s North Island, whether you want to see it fast or slow.
Her Packing List features a guest post on a capsule wardrobe from a virtual lockdown trip to Italy. We’ve seen virtual trips before in this quarantine; this one comes complete with disappointing weather and the hassles of doing laundry on the road.
Nomadic Notes is staying in a bamboo room by the beach with a shared bathroom: Life’s a Beach in Bai Xep.
And Small Footprints Big Adventures has a guest post about Vienna from a local expat.
Skills
I never sharpened my knives because I was under the impression that it’s complicated and that I’d ruin my knives learning how to do it properly. Having read up a little bit, I now think that (a) it’s not complicated and (b) it’s possible to damage (or more like dull) expensive knives with a whetstone but sharpening rods and kitchen-drawer sharpeners are mostly idiot-proof. See here and here and here.