A Little Vicarious Globe-Trotting on the Web

Packing for a two-month summer vacation in Australia would be a challenge for any family. But the Paget clan--Aussie native Dale, wife, Susan, and their young “ankle biters” Henri, Matilda and Presley--had to squeeze in a lot more than snorkel gear and a favorite doll when they flew from San Diego to Sydney, Australia, late last month.

They brought along two laptop computers, two digital cameras, a tape recorder and microphone and a slew of connectors and adapter plugs. Their mission: Walkabout, an interactive “cyber documentary” that invites America Online subscribers to follow the family’s Down Under journey as it unfolds (keyword: GSL or Gday).

The Pagets plan to file dispatches, including sound files and pictures, throughout their 7,500-mile-long odyssey. And unlike the stories the Pagets wrote for The Times’ Travel section during earlier journeys across the U.S. mainland and Hawaii, the family’s missives will incorporate comments and itinerary suggestions from readers. Walkabout’s “Ask an Aussie” section invites any and all queries, “as long as it’s not a question that’s going to land us in a fight, get us kicked out of a town or stuck in a jail.” The Pagets will hold regular live chat sessions from the road.

The Pagets have fielded several hundred e-mails since they arrived in Australia the last week in June. The Pagets’ real-time adventures are part of a small but growing niche in cyberspace. Yahoo’s travel directory lists about two dozen current or recently completed travelogues on the World Wide Web (https://www.yahoo.com/recreation/travel/travelogues/ongoing_ travelogues/). The biggest appeal of such sites, says Dan Phillips of the Web Surfer Travel Journal (https://edge.net/~dphillip/), is the sense of immediacy. Creators of real-time travelogues must cope with often-daunting logistics, notes Bill Schwab, a Detroit-based photojournalist.

His Web site, A Virtual Road Trip (https://www.virtualroadtrip.com), has taken more than 5,000 registered “passengers” on eight journeys since 1995. Digital cameras may have eliminated the need for makeshift darkrooms, but balky phone connections or problems connecting with online service providers can still deep-six a planned dispatch, Schwab says.

Alas, the adventures that do get through aren’t always worth waiting for. A few, like those in Microsoft’s splashy Mungo Park adventure magazine (https://www.mungopark.com), offer cutting edge, multisensory experiences that would be tough, if not impossible, to duplicate in real life. But many real-time travelogues seem directed more to indulgent family and friends than to a worldwide audience. Case in point: “Now we are in Baton Rouge, La. Now, this is a large city! Skyscrapers even. . . . This is the first time in two weeks I have not awoken up with a sinus headache and sore throat,” penned Fran Lock in a recent dispatch from Finally Retired--A Travel Diary of Our Golden Years (https://www.tppm.com/retired/).

The Pagets, meanwhile, are enjoying a journey that’s proving to be both exhausting and exhilarating. As Susan wrote in an e-mail posted from Queensland shortly before midnight: “The danger is that we’ll end up working TOO much and won’t have time to really be free-and-easy tourists.

“So we are trying to keep a balance of putting on a good show and enjoying this personally.”

Bly welcomes reader comments; her e-mail address is Laura.Bly@latimes.com. Electronic Explorer appears monthly.