The well-travelled hat

It was time. It took some coaxing; I had to promise it wouldn't shrink.  With the patina of several journeys ground into the brim, Rob's travel hat went into the sink to soak.  It came out clean of grime and many shades lighter, but thankfully the washing couldn't remove the embedded memories.

I'm pretty sure the first pictures this hat appears in were taken in the Solomon Islands in 1994. That was our first journey to equatorial regions, a part of the world where a hat is a very good thing to have.  Then in 2001, it was on to Egypt where the hat appears in a favorite pose at Giza, pyramids as backdrop. I know Rob was glad of that brim as we watched the fiery sunset advance across the valley floor at Mount Sinai. Two years later, it came in handy on the waterfront of Rhodes where the afternoon blaze off the water lit the fishermen's boats with blue, white and gold. 

Cheops looms over Rob's shoulder, Giza, Egypt

Roman ruins in Tunisia

And most recently, the travel hat was essential gear in Tunisia where the Saharan sands dazzle into mirages and climbing among the ruins in the afternoon sun can test any hat, any head.

Now washed, the well-travelled hat awaits another departure, this time to help protect against Africa sun and tropical rains and is so doing, to absorb even more memories. Essential travel gear, indeed.