Last Minute Hassles

We start paddling on Monday and inevitably, there are a series of minor last minute panics.

We're videoing the trip but the tiny bullet-cam recorder has only just arrived, requires a PC to install software (I have a Mac), and I'm not certain all the connectors, err connect. The manual runs to 90 pages. It might get left behind.

Liz has a sore back and my shoulder is playing up.

I was fighting a bank to transfer some money (our damn money!) before tomorrow to make some payments. I failed and have to find another way.

I realised the car needs an MOT in the next six weeks while we're on the water.

None are obstacles, just niggles of varying dimensions. Back in 2002 we hit the Pacific Crest Trail, not for six weeks but for six months. Then we just put our small number of possessions into a storage unit, padlocked the door and headed off to the Mexican border. Simple. Now we seem to have acquired more 'stuff' (mortgages, car etc.) which only add to the complications.

That's why spending time in wild places is so important and renewing. It has a way of sifting the important from the trivial.

Mentally, I'm already half there. So I don't intend to worry about any of this.