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vagabandits
“A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer – always hopeful of adventure” - Charlie Chaplin
Mr Chaplin happened to be talking about himself here, but it also happens to be a perfect description of you - a Vagabandit. We love you free-wheeling, itchy-footed adventurers who are head-over-heels with the road less travelled, and we want to hear your stories. Share images, videos, or tales of adventure with us and your fellow Vagabandits.
In exchange, we do what we can to make their travels run smoother and comfier – as well as spread the beautiful perspectives that they capture.
Here's some stories from Vagabandits around the world.
why travel
"The thirst to quest is powerful and must be quenched, so we must follow the scent even if we’re not sure why, and make it happen, even if we don’t know how yet." - Isla Greenwood
I can admit that I haven’t always boarded the plane for reasons that I understood. Whilst in Japan one of the questions I was asked most often was ‘Why Nihon?’… and I’d sift through whispers of memories of moments that I thought were insignificant at the time trying to find that one that screamed EUREKA, the flash of lightning bolt that hit me right between the eyebrows and said GO…but to be honest I could never find it, and my answer varied from ‘for the colours’ to ‘BECAUSE KAWAI’… I could never really put my finger on the exact reason.
The Bolivia Bus
"The ticket sellers are hilarious though. Everywhere you hear 'Copaaa copaaaa', in a high pitched voice, 'La paaaaaaaaaazz', in a flat voice, and ‘Santa cruuuuuz', with rolling r's." - Tristan Smallbone
To the set the scene we'll start from Cochabamba, a city in the south of Bolivia to which my girlfriend, Valentina, and I had just returned. From where we returned was Toro Toro national park, a place of truly bizarre landscapes including a canyon of epic proportion, hills that turn to cliffs as if the plates of the earth had been pushed directly up from below, and dinosaur footprints.
We had to sleep in a used church dormitory that night, until 4:45am when the bus left for the city. It wouldn’t leave the night before without enough people, which sadly there weren't. But there were at 4:45am of course, so we slept in our sleeping bags until then, (that was to avoid any contact with the piss bucket or used tissues lying around). The road back was bumpy and hot for 3 hours then slightly better for 1. I didn’t get the beauty sleep I desired, but the view of the sunrise and beyond was incredible.
Escape
"Tokyo is the capital of an intricately carved and perfectly formed land of waterfalls, mountains, rivers and more." - Isla Greenwood
When the sento can’t fix you, you rent a car and get out of town. Saturday afternoon after talking to every single Nippon rent a car shop we finally found one that could take five of us up into the hills for a night and day. Driving through Tokyo was a buzz and an exhilarating farewell to the city.
We drove through the night to some old ruins of of a village left behind due to migration to the city. Rooms were filled with old TVs, fridges, magazines and graffiti from other visitors looking to summon the spirits of a forgotten place. We pitched the tent on the edge of a dam and woke up the next morning next to a glittering reservoir at the bottom of the valley. Wandering through the forest above it was dream like until we saw a baby bear and sprinted back down to safety…(turns out it was a raccoon).
“A Vagaband has been on my wrist for 79 days now. I don’t think I’ll be taking it off any time soon... with no WiFi, electricity or phone signal, this at least still works!”