Packing up AKA 10 k bag again
July flies by and before I know it I’m packing up getting ready to go off on vacation. I have it stuck in my mind that I want to travel with a small packsack. Ben has one that he went off to Bali with for six weeks, it seems impossibly small to me but it’s on my bucket list to do a long trip with this same packsack at least once in my life and there was a women I met in Chile last year who was travelling with only 7kg. This included her tent, sleeping mat, sleeping bag, electronics, toiletries, clothes, daybag, etc. etc.. I don’t know how she did it. I plan to travel with 10 kg.
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| My empty house... just a sleeping bag on the floor and a million dollar view. |
On the morning of the 31st of July my house is empty. I wake up, go for a quick skinny dip at my private beach (it’s a lovely early morning with the sun rising over water glinting gold and silver and the promise of a beautiful day ahead - why oh why do I feel the pull to go anywhere else?) and then lay out everything I plan to take with me for 5 months. I have tried to pare things down a lot this time; I’m not taking a laptop or even a tablet, I’m leaving my favourite yellow sailing jacket behind and taking only a small raincoat, I have no working clothes (for doing heavy cleaning on a boat) or dress clothes (for going out for supper), I’m not even taking my best hiking boots, just a pair of sturdy shoes that I got for $2 at the Whistlestop and hence would be happy to ditch. Nonetheless when I collect together everything I think I need; the bare minimum of clothes, one polar fleece, my teeny tiny camp stove, a small first aid kit… it all adds up, to, I fear, well over 10 kg. It also adds up to a huge volume. Who am I kidding? I’m not ready, yet, to travel with Ben’s pack, also I realize he didn't have camping gear, as I trek back into Ottawa and get the extra-large extra-light woman-specific pack that I had been drooling over a few days ago and managed to resist, at that time, buying. Hopefully everything will fit in. I also, by mistake, buy a good map of Mediterranean Europe and a (terribly heavy) Lonely Planet guide to Turkey. Eeek.
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| Everything I plan to take.... |
Back up the Valley I give my middle son a last hug goodbye, go out for dinner with my ex, visit my favourite beach, meet a couple of friends for coffee, or wine, stop in for a last swim at another friend’s cottage, and then it’s time to go. I get my car’s snow tires put on before I pop it into my storage locker with all the rest of my boxed up belongings and suddenly I really do feel of no-fixed-address. Akkk.
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| The inside of my storage locker looking very much like a garage once my car is in it. |
I’m terrified by this life choice of mine, heading off into the great unknown for half a year, but, also, thrilled to be going.
My pack looks huge at first glance with everything just tossed in randomly, not 'packed', however it does check in at the airport at only 10.1 kg!
NB This was my first post completed completely on my phone (it took quite a while and involved watching at least 2 youtube videos to remind myself how to transfer and copy and paste photos) and I can't even really tell how well it turned out format-wise. In other words I don't know yet if living with only a phone will hamper my blogging or not ... but I do know that my bag is full enough that there's no room for a laptop so I'll have to adapt to survive.
