In Douglas Adams's classic Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, he states that the most important object a traveler must possess is a towel.

Currently trapped here on Earth (due to the fact that space travel is only in its dawning age, our misfortune in being born so soon), most of us must focus our travels here on Earth, as you have done, Tim.

My nomination for the one most important thing a traveler here on Earth should have is a GPS receiver (let's assume our hand-held receiver also has a compass function, as most of them do, thus giving us that handy tool also). Whether at sea, on a continental glacier like Antarctica or Greenland, or deep in Africa, the GPS receiver will give us a coordinate and a direction to get us to the nearest destination. Even if you have lost your map, if you have any common sense you can remember what DIRECTION you came into the woods from (or sea, or ice, or desert, etc.) and with the GPS you can get a sense of whether to return from whence you came or push on to the safety that now lies further ahead. I cannot think of a handier thing.

My question is, can you? What is the one most handy thing any traveler should have here on Earth, no matter where you are traveling? That's my question to you, Tim, oh Master Exotic Traveler.

CPT Fred "Navigation" Kaehler
Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering
West Point Naval Academy

Tim: Dear Fred "Navigation,"

I used a GPS recently in the Sahara. No roads. We were going overland, looking for a camel salt caravan and needed to avoid certain settlements where our guides said folks engaged in banditry. Worked like a charm.

I used one in Africa, in the deep forests of the Congo Basin, where you can't see any further than 10 feet. On this trip were a number of pygmies who knew the forest, but not this particular forest, and the American scientist and I were considered almost godlike in our knowledge. We'd look at the aerial maps of the place, find a clearing where the animals were likely to be, scope out our position on the GPS, and say, "guys, let's walk 10 minutes north-northwest." And there we'd be, at the clearing.

Ten days into the trip, humidity destroyed the GPS. We were gods with feet of clay. An object of derision to our pygmy pals.

Still, we got to where we were going (maybe a week late, what the hay) by old-fashioned guesswork (which required more time in the swamp than I'd have liked).

I do not personally own a GPS.

I do ALWAYS carry a big book (or two). A lot of travel in remote places has to do with waiting. Waiting three days for a visa. Waiting for permissions or for friends to make arrangements or for an automobile part. If I don't have a book to pass the time, I get antsy.

N E X T   Q U E S T I O N