Category Archives: Gear

Digital Photography Meta Data Overview

Posted ago by Douglas Hackney

Introduction Winston Churchill’s immortal description of 1939 Russia as “A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” is equally true of the current state of digital photography meta data. Most casual digital photographers never come face to face with …

Bigfoot Camper Berth Condensation

Posted ago by Douglas Hackney

On 1 May 2008 we discovered major condensation in the berth area of our camper. Click here for the story of diagnosing and fixing the problem: www.hackneystravel.com/docs/berthcondensation.pdf

Propane Systems for Expedition Vehicles

Posted ago by Douglas Hackney

Perhaps no other system on an expedition vehicle is as wrapped in mystery or inspires as much outright fear as the propane system. With its inherently explosive nature and its bewildering variety of connectors, it is easy to understand why …

Field Fix: Garmin MapSource Registry Error

Posted ago by Douglas Hackney

  Background:   Garmin MapSource (GMS) is software provided by Garmin with some of its map products. GMS is used to create, edit and manipulate waypoints, routes and tracks. GMS is also used to upload and download GPS data to …

How To Create Route Maps

Posted ago by Douglas Hackney

Garmin GPS to Google Earth For this task I use GPSBabel, a great little donateware utility, to generate the Google Earth KML files from GPX files created by Garmin Mapsource. The procedure for creating the GPX files from Mapsource is …

The Operator

Posted ago by Douglas Hackney

  If my foulies could talk, I’m sure they’d have expressed mixed feelings. Sure, they were grateful for finally breathing fresh air again after being packed away since sailing across the north Atlantic, but this was fresh water running off …

Narrow Passages 2

Posted ago by Douglas Hackney

More recent narrow passages…

Best New Photo Gear

Posted ago by Douglas Hackney

For this trip I left my trusty Manfrotto carbon fiber tripod at home. I wanted to get a tripod that was better designed for low shots, but I wanted to stay within the Manfrotto family so I could continue to …

The Gas Man

Posted ago by Douglas Hackney

  One of the challenges of world travel is procuring fuel. Generally gasoline and diesel are not a problem unless you are in an area of spot shortages such as Patagonia, where we are now. Propane, however, can be a …

South American Waypoints

Posted ago by Douglas Hackney

    I created a Garmin GPS data file containing South American waypoints from five sources. If you know of any other web sources of overlander’s SA waypoints, please email me and I will add them to this master file. The …