Thursday, January 18, 2024

Read FIRST - How to see my blogs?

NB – Many of my blogs are not yet indexed...
If you want to discover my trip, you need to rewind time/my blogs.

                           South America...
     August - November 2023 - Argentina, Southern Chile
    July 2023 - Paraguay   ... Are under construction
                                
    May - June 2023 - Northern Chile is here and Bolivia is here
    March - April 2023 - Islands of the Pacific Ocean are here
October 2022 - Timor-Leste is here
March 2022 to March 2023  - Back in Australia is here
July 2021 - Greece in a camper-van is here
April 2020 - Coronavirus strikes is here
March 2020 - New Zealand is here
February 2020 - Shipping my Land Roamer to Australia is here
December 2019 - Short trip to Sri Lanka is here
November 2019 - Indonesia 2 (Lombok, Bali, Java) is here
Sept - Oct 2019 - Indonesia 1 (Sulawesi, Flores, Sumbawa) is here
July-August 2019 - Borneo is here
June 2019 - Cambodia is here
May 2019 - Vietnam is here
March 2019 - Singapore is here
February 2019 - Malaysia Peninsular is here
December 2018 - Thailand is here
November 2018 - Laos is here
October 2018 - China is here
September 2018 - Mongolia is here 
August 2018 - Kazakhstan and Russian Federation are here
July 2018 – Pamir highway 2 (Kyrgyzstan) is here
July 2018 – Pamir highway 1 (Tajikistan) is here
July 2018 – Tajikistan is here 
June 2018 – Turkmenistan is here and Uzbekistan is here
May 2108 - Iran (second trip) is here 
April 2018 - UAE is here and Oman is here 
March 2018 - Iran (first trip) is here
February 2018 - Departure, Eastern Europe & Turkey is here

Enjoy without moderation!

NB – My blogs are memories of my trip, I do not use much text, I would like the pictures to “tell the story of what I have seen and lived”. 

They are mainly in chronological order of my travels; they often include places where I slept with the Land Roamer or in a “backpacker’s hostel”. 

Some photos are not “fantastic” but show something interesting or are there because I wanted to highlight a point. 

Take your time, as there are many images, do not rush through them; enjoy to the max the beauty of Planet Earth and the Great People that I meet along the way.

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Welcome to the Land Roamer's blog!

I created this blog to keep my family and friends informed about the Land Roamer’s 
preparation, planning for the trip and later to keep in touch during my overland adventures.
Some of the pictures are NOT award winning, 
but they illustrate what I saw and are memories of my trip.

Having had both a Land Rover and a Land Cruiser, I decided that I would call my 
4x4 camper-truck, a Brimont Brutt (more info here) "Land Roamer".

To roam: "To travel purposefully unhindered through a wide area. It suggests wandering freely
 and often far afield."  Etymology: Middle English, 14th century, Merriam-Webster.  


"Live for the JOURNEY, not the Destination!"

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Bernard Salzmann - World traveller on the McKay Interview

... The English language stole the German word Wanderlust. There wasn't - and still isn't - a better word for it. The French call it esprit d'aventure (if I am correct). My first guest of 2024 on #themckayinterview is Bernard Salzmann, who most certainly has the Wanderlust, having embarked on a round-the-world drive - yes, I said drive! - on his own! 

          * A Swiss born in #Madagascar…72 years ago
          * Lived 35 years in #Africa
          * With an insatiable appetite for travel and meeting people,
                from #Mongolia to #Uluru (#AyersRock) to #Ushuia
          * To date, he’s driven through 42 countries and crossed 62
.                  borders…and is still only half way around his global
.                  circumnavigation!
          * In a turbo-charged, 32 year old French 4x4 "Land Roamer"
.                  vehicle with  custom-built living accommodation.


Listen here to Bernard Salzmann's story! It's uplifting! 

Saturday, July 1, 2023

Bolivia

 From 7 to 30 June 2023 - 4'143 km

Driving from the border crossing of Ollagüe, my first destination was Uyuni!

The Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat, or playa, at over 10,000 square kilometres in area, near the crest of the Andes at an elevation of 3,656 m above sea level.

The Salar was formed because of transformations between several prehistoric lakes that existed around forty thousand years ago but had all evaporated over time. It is now covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness with the average elevation variations within one meter over the entire area of the Salar. The crust serves as a source of salt and covers a pool of brine, which is exceptionally rich in lithium. The large area, clear skies, and exceptional flatness of the surface make the Salar ideal for calibrating the altimeters of Earth observation satellites. Following rain, a thin layer of dead calm water transforms the flat into the world's largest mirror, 129 km across.

The Salar serves as the major transport route across the Bolivian Altiplano and is a prime breeding ground for several species of flamingos. Salar de Uyuni is also a climatological transitional zone since the towering tropical cumulus congestus and cumulonimbus incus clouds that form in the eastern part of the salt flat during the summer cannot permeate beyond its drier western edges, near the Chilean border and the Atacama Desert.

Not wanting the salt to corode my Land Roamer, I elected to join an organized tour for 3 days with an English speaking guide. This trip was made in a comfortable and reliable Toyota Land Cruiser.

My travel partners were from Canada, Germany and Lebanon we had a great time together!











Isla Incahuasi, Inkawasi or Inka Wasi (Spanish Isla island, Quechua Inka, Inca wasi house, "Inca house") is a hilly and rocky outcrop of land situated in the middle of Salar de Uyuni.

Incahuasi hosts gigantic cacti (Trichocereus pasacana) and a tourist center. There are unusual and fragile coral-like structures and deposits that often consist of fossils and algae. The place is the top of the remains of an ancient volcano, which was submerged when the area was part of a giant prehistoric lake, roughly 40,000 years ago.












































Having seen pictures of my trip in this magnificent part of Bolivia,
 you need to decide what your next destination is going to be:


Click => here if you want to see the road to Potosi and visit the historical town of Sucre


Click => here if you want to visit La Paz, the highest capital city in the world


Click => here if you want to go to lake Titicaca


Click => here if you want to ride a bicycle down the "Death Road"


Click => here if you want to visit the renovated "Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos"


Curious ? Do you have a few more minutes ??

Click => here if you want to see my personal memories of my trip through Bolivia...




Or, do you want to visit my next destination?

Click => here to discover Paraguay...