Before any journey I buy a pocket worthy notebook to record information: notes, maps, travel times, diagrams, field notes, drawings, quotes, addresses, checklists, packing lists, reads and watches, and other tidbits.

While I’m abroad this notebook and the information contained therein is as valuable as my passport.

This is a notebook that I use for pre planning and also as a travel journal for thoughts on the road.

For this trip I bought a Leuchtturm 1917 A6 (3.5 by 6 inch) black notebook. I prefer blank pages over dotted, ruled, or squared. Each page is a canvas of thoughts, facts, fictions, and drawings.

Leuchtturm means “lighthouse” in Deutsch and the company is based in northern Germany. This family-owned stationary company was founded in 1917 in Aschersleben. The company’s motto is “Denken mit der Hand” which translates to “Think with your hand”.

The first and last pages are of a thicker paper and I usually do some watercolor drawings about the destination I will be traveling or some of the fauna I hoped to see.

This summer I will be traveling to Australia! And most of my watercolor drawing are of animals I hoped to see in the Land Down Under and sights I hoped to see and sketch while there.

Some of the creatures featured in my notebook, so far, are: southern cassowary (the murder bird), laughing kookaburra (“in the old gum tree”), superb fairy-wren, eastern grey kangaroo, super- crested cockatoo, and powerful owl.