Several important developments have taken place on my trip. It pains me to even write it, but let’s get the worst out of the way first. The most unfortunate news is this: my beloved camera is dead. Like an angry god the Atlantic ocean in its utter cruelty has decided to devour it. On the idyllic island of La Gomera in the Canary archipelago a treacherous wave sneaked on me from behind. Some drops of water got onto my camera. But salty water, as I now know all too well, is deadly for electronic microchips. And so several seconds later the life of my camera was over. Trying to dry it did not help. I sent it to the repairs shop and the verdict has already been pronounced to me. Cheaper to buy a used body than to salvage this one with uncertain results. Ah my wonderful 5D Mark II, I will love you forever.
It was a strange coincidence that when our small plane was landing in La Gomera, I had this distinct feeling that my trip is nearing its end. La Gomera is so remote and so rugged that it really does feel like the end of the world. Little did I know that this little island really would spell the end of something I so treasured.
The catastrophe happened on 12 October. By then I had already been in Spain for some time, and since then I have moved from Spain back to Eastern Europe. My base here has been Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
An unexpected consequence of losing the camera was that suddenly the whole equilibrium of my luggage distribution has shifted. Since it’s no longer imperative to carry the camera (and its charger), it has become superfluous to always bring the big luggage with me. And so in recent weeks I did a number of extended trips from my base with just the rucksack. Of course it meant that I would leave my laptop in the main bag and so I could not update this blog with any regularity. Now I am WELL AND TRULY behind in terms of updating it. Sorry, blog!
On the other hand I spontaneously decoupled my Facebook feed from the order of posts on the blog (in the past I always mirrored each post here with a Facebook photo and link). Now the Facebook timeline is up to date, whereas the blog is behind the events. I will continue publishing the posts on the blog in the chronological order though. Too many fantastic experiences still to describe and beautiful photos still to process! Well, after La Gomera the photo quality will obviously decrease.
The reflection in La Gomera though was not that far off. I do feel like the round-the-world trip in its active phase is indeed coming to an end. But I will truly declare it over when I reach Brussels, the place where it all started over 500 days ago. We will see if it happens soon. And we will see what comes after.
As for now – hello from Cluj!