Filling the bags.
I arrived home with a car full of gear.
It was now time to get everything packed for three months on the road into two bags. This is no small task. It’s the tent, sleeping bag, 5 pairs of running shoes. Cold weather gear. Smaller running bags, the running gear, all the electronic stuff I need and medical kit. The pile was massive. I looked at this and the two bags and knew from the outset it was an impossible task.
Jade my youngest daughter has helped me over the years with this task, so the two of us began with the sorting into levels of importance. There was the ‘must-have’, ‘definitely need to have,’ ‘want to have’ and ‘should have.’
Basically, I needed everything.
My wife was prowling on the edges looking at duplication of gear that she could quietly sneak away without us noticing, but we had become accustomed to this trick of hers. (The big problem was that I was only allowed two bags of 22kg. The tent was 3kg, shoes 2.3 kg, sleeping bag 1.8kg, the very important coffee percolator 1.2 kg with 1 kg of coffee.
The weight slowly began to add up. In the items went and out came others. Every now and then when things got a bit tense from my side, because I was not coping with the situation, Jade would look up at me and say, “Daddy, I think you need to take a break, let’s just sit and think again, you have been there before, do you really need this?”
Sanity prevails, and we begin again. Slowly bit by bit we carefully pieced the puzzle together. Then my phone rings. It’s Hamish, calling to wish me luck on the journey, he was with me for a portion of the last Great Wall run. I was explaining my predicament and quickly he gave me some logical advice.
“David, what is in is in and if it’s not too bad you won’t miss it, secondly you can get whatever you need at half the price in China anyway.”
Problem solved.
We zipped closed the bags and pushed the excess under the table, out of site that I would not be tempted to try and repack and squeeze it in.
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