To the many in my life dismissing Facebook, here's an example of why I enjoy it. When Brad was tramping the Te Araroa Trail in New Zealand I "liked" a number of the Te Araroa facebook pages to see what was being said. In the process I became friends with a few of Brad's tramping friends -- Charlie Barran, Richard Wagner and Ludovic Lemoine. I was also following Brad's adventure on his blog, doing my own parallel blog and following other trampers' blogs as well. With the delightful benefit of social media I followed along with Lude & Flore, Floppy Adventures, and more.
My computer adventure was clearly not as good as actually being in New Zealand, but quite the adventure nevertheless. I researched every mountain, river, town and track. I followed the weather and trail challenges. Each estuary waded through, beach walked, hut stayed in and swinging bridge crossed was vicariously enjoyed from home. And, the blogs, plus facebook, filled in even more details with comments, photographs and tramping friends exploits. Not quite, but almost, I feel like I've been to New Zealand. I fell in love with the kiwis, adore many of Brad's unmet friends, and am in awe of the beauty of that country. Sure beats the postcard every three weeks that my mother got.
Just yesterday I had a lovely Facebook chat experience with Charlie Barran about db's (all Brad's friends are calling him db) latest adventures on the Pacific Crest Trail, pros and cons of blogging and his photographs. Charlie put together some fabulous panoramas of the Te Araroa Trail, which I'm sharing here:
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| Photos by Charlie Barran |
My life is richer as the result of Facebook and blogging. Viva la social media!
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