News of the day, sending shock waves through the backpacking community, is that the BBC has bought Lonely Planet. The match doesn’t sit uncomfortably and I sort of figure that Lonely Planet has become so ubiquitous that it’s often joked that the trick is to find a place not covered by Lonely Planet. A list of the top 10, or even bottom 10, places that don’t yet have a guide devoted to them would be fun to compile. If this means the Wheelers can spend less time on the business and even more time travelling, so much the better. They’ve done staggering well and achieved lots. I have a shelf devoted to their books and friends have at least that if not more. I don’t have my original guide to Western Europe, or “Westen Europe” as it said on the spine, as I’d ripped out the sections I wanted rather than carrying it all. I think I left it in England finally, before returning home after my first trip. I had too much stuff and figured it needed to be jettisoned, hard though it was. I’ve since bought another and added more covering Central Europe, China, and even the Mediterranean. Currently reading one on Iceland in advance of my 2008 trip.