3 days to go!

Three days to the departure and I got a cold. Paul said it was a nature's way of protecting all the people around me from having to experience my over-excitement at going on holiday! :-) I just hope it disappears by Thursday night!

Everything seems to be sorted now, we will be able to swap our pre-2003 dollar notes at the Birmingham airport on Friday, Paul is finally getting his Malarone tablets - we need to take our first one on Thursday already!! -, I've visited all possible doctors I could (the dentist today) so everything is coming together :-) Apart from my runny nose and sore throat. At least it distracted me from my hip problem (does it by any chance look like I am falling apart :-D?) which is getting better, I hope.

Soooo... going to get some quality sleep time and sip Lemsip with honey and whiskey and hopefully sweat the cold out as next Tuesday I will be sweating from totally different reasons!

Good night :)

Packing!

Sunday 12th September 2010 @ 11:35am

It's Sunday but more importantly it's a Sunday before our immediate departure next Friday which means... it's a packing Sunday! This week we have sorted out our travel money and I have just found out that some of our dollar bills are old and wouldn't be accepted in Tanzania. Just when we thought everything was sorted, another little issue comes up. But back to packing.

I wonder why there is a little tension in my stomach when I only think about the packing... I know I've tried to fit the stuff into the rucksack before and it went more or less well but since then more stuff was bought and I've also realised another thing. It's not just packing of clothing and medicines and toiletries into a rucksack - it's packing of all the time we spent preparing for this trip and all the experience we have gained. The hours we walked and talked and discussed, the time we spent researching and of course the money we spent. We're now packing all the bits and bobs that got us here from spring last year when we started to plan this holiday adventure.

So here we go. I don't know where to start so I remove all boxed items like bandages (tubegrips), batteries, medicines and similar from their paper boxes and put them into a sealed plastic bags. While doing this I am developing (in my head) strategy as how to fit everything in and still be within 20kgs. I am fully in control of the situation :-) but what I need first is... a tea!

12:20pm

Two teas later. All little bits are now safely in plastic bags so I am ready for any rain that could sneak upon us. Having said that I have just re-checked that my rucksack has a big rain cover (as advertised) so all the stuff inside it should be safe anyway. Time for the big items. It's not just taking the clothing out of the drawers and stuff them into the rucksack. It's important to decide what should be in the hand luggage, what will I wear and what needs to be in the rucksack. For that purpose I have a colourful spreadsheet showing all items I am taking and which location I have appointed to them (rucksack or Camelbak). Sounds like stocktaking! :-D

Does it look like I am still in control?

13:30

Most of the clothing is in, some space is left, didn't have time to worry about the weight yet. Need a break. Tea and a bagel.

I checked the KLM website to find out that the allowance is up to 23kg. For hand luggage we are allowed 12kgs, however my Camelbak doesn't fit the maximum hand luggage restrictions so this is going to be interesting. It's only a few cms (1.6 to be precise), hopefully they won't notice. Although it's great that KLM allows generous luggage allowance we shouldn't forget that our porters are only allowed to carry 15kgs and the same we can take with us to Zanzibar. The more I take the more I will have to carry myself then. Who said packing for holidays was fun??

14:17

Ugh. Almost done. Space-wise ok. Weight-wise not sure. Going to put all the stuff I marked for hand luggage to the Camelbak.

14:35

Camelbak was easy, plenty of space left and currently only has 5 kgs. I shouldn't forget that with the full bladder it's going to be 8kgs though!!! Still am starting to be more positive about all this luggage thing. Also starting to appreciate porters' job! I have tried to put the rucksack on my back and lift it and boy what a struggle it was not to fall backwards! So that's packing for now, I need to call home and probably leave this until Tuesday/Wednesday evening. There is still some washing to do, I still need some strong(er) painkillers for my potential hip problem, oh and I need to prepare and pre-pack mixture of nuts & dried fruits!

One more picture showing a voodoo doll of a Traveller which I got from my dear cousin Iva for good luck on our travels!!!

Diamox part 2, Malvern Hills & will all this fit into my rucksack?

This week we have decided to try "the other" Diamox, meaning the tablets I got as opposed to the bright orange capsules Paul did. After that w

e went for a trek in Malvern Hills. The day started fairly bright with an occasional light shower. We didn't encounter any rain on the hills but the wind was very, very strong and on several places I saw myself flying away towards Hereford, it was so difficult to stand on the ground.

The trek was approximately ten to eleven miles, very hilly (as you'd expect :)) but pleasant. We started in the car park under the North Hill and then went through the Worcestershire Beacon to the British Camp and then back. We didn't do the full walk over all the hills purely because of the fact there isn't any direct transport back to Great Malvern.

We tried our Buffs, which are a multipurpose headware - you can use it as a bandana, beanie, scarf, balaclava etc. etc. (more information: http://www.buffwear.co.uk/pages/product-info/ways-to-wear.php) Seems very useful although you can end up looking very silly:

And one more picture from the area:

This week there were also a few more parcels for me. I now have all my batteries, all energy bars & gels, contact lenses and a running headband, specially shaped to cover ears. We are also recommended to have some reading materials as there will be plenty of resting time (during the first few days); for this occasion I have purchased a book called "Competitive runner's handbook" which has almost 700 pages and will help me falling asleep fast during the long evenings :-)

So now I've got most of the stuff, I thought - let's try to fit it all in the rucksack. I laid out all the clothing & toiletries & other bits and bobs on the bed and it looked like this:

Lots of stuff but it's a three week trip covering various climates and any possible weather conditions. Then I tried to pack it all in my red rucksack. It did go quite well although when I was trying to put it on my back and carry around afterwards, I have almost fallen backwards... I am glad my Camelbak Commander (daypack) is quite roomy and I will be able to accommodate some more stuff there. I just need to check what luggage weight allowances we actually have for the flights!!!

Another good news is that I am (after all) getting my (swine) flu jab! I got a call from the nurse earlier this week asking me if I still wanted the jab and if so, could I please come in on Tuesday morning? :-) Wonderful. It will cost me ten quid - I guess they realised they could at least earn a few quid as these will be soon discontinued anyway...

Less than three weeks to go!

Diamox party anyone? How about a nice 10-mile walk?

Time for partying? Not yet. But my GP recommended to try one of the Diamox (Acetazolamide) tablets (that are used to prevent the altitude sickness) to see if I have any bad reactions to it. The list of side effects is quite impressive (in a bad way) so we both (Paul and me, not the GP) thought it would be quite a good idea to try one and see how it goes.

Paul got his prescription sooner than me (also his GP prescribed him 28 pcs, mine only 10. Are the GPs in West Bromwich just more generous?) so we tried one capsule (apparently Diamox comes in different shapes and textures too) each on Monday evening. And then we went to play squash... I regret that there wasn't anybody to take a video of us :). Paul claimed his fingers tingled (which is one of the side effects) and my throat had a weird metallic taste (another side effect) but we were not sure if we were just making these up (just a plain common paranoia) or if they were real. In any case our game was a bit of a comic tragedy starring a giggling five-year old (me), dizzy cows running around the field (both of us) and one very crappy performer (you see, Paul is usually very good in squash so he had to blame the bad game on something :-P). What a show though! Still giggling just thinking about it.

In summary we didn't experience any bad reactions which is a good thing as Diamox could be the trick up our sleeve to win the battle with altitude.

As a part of training we went for a nice ten mile walk this Friday. First we drove to Worcester where we left the car and took a train (had to wait for it for three quarters of an hour!!!) to Droitwich Spa. Our goal was then - yes, you got it right - to walk back to Worcester. We were following the canal walk (once we found the canal, you wouldn't believe how difficult it could be :)) which was not very physically demanding and a little bit dull (I do have this feeling that when we face the dullness of the higher stages of Kili, we will be happily recalling the memories of the neverending grass and lines of water plants though) but the weather was foul which was great. I mean, it was raining and normal average person would describe the weather as foul, but we were happy to be able to try our kit! Btw. I now know I am definitely not a rain stopper :-D.

The walk along the canal was a long drag, interesting at times, boring at others, then we left the route and hopped across some fields to join Northwick heritage walk along the river Severn. This eventually led us to Worcester, although the directions were not quite clear and at times not very useful either. I mean, what would you imagine under the term "elegant pump house"? And that's only if you actually know what a pump house is? The ugly building we eventually came across wasn't elegant at all and if there wasn't a big sign saying it was the pump house we wouldn't know anyway.

So after something like four, four and half hours, lost and found on several occasions, confused (both), tired (me a lot, Paul slightly), with a sore hip (me) but otherwise happy and ok, we got back to Shrub Hill train station in Worcester, got into the car and drove back home :)) Great experience and our kits are waterproof - tried and tested, yay! My hip is recovered too and I managed to walk three miles to War Memorial Park this morning, run 3 miles there and then walk another 3 back home without any big pains or problems! 27 days to go!!!

Am I a rain stopper?

Last week while reviewing the shopping list for Kili I realised I've never had a real chance to try how waterproof all the waterproof clothing I bought so far actually is. I mean, it did rain since December last year when I bought my jacket and boots, but either I was at home/at work/other indoors at that time or the rain wasn't hard enough to test the properties of my kit properly. So I told myself to actively look for an opportunity to get outside when there is a real proper rain.

The first chance presented itself just the next day. After I woke up from my afternoon nap on Saturday, I've noticed it was raining outside and it wasn't just a drizzle. Not a heavy shower either but acceptable for my purpose. And I needed to go to the supermarket anyway. So I dressed up into my jeans and put the waterproof overtrousers on them, put on my hiking boots and covered myself in the waterproof jacket. Ready to go, out of the house, two steps and... it had stopped raining. Nevermind I thought, the clouds were still there, it would rain again. Unfortunately after a few more steps I realised I wouldn't be able to go on in the overtrousers which were just too hot to wear with jeans. I had to return home and left them there. That didn't matter at all as there wasn't any more rain for Saturday...

Since then similar scenario had repeated itself during the week several times including this morning. I was preparing to go to War Memorial Park for my every Saturday's park run and I was actually happy about the rain because not only I could test the waterproofness but I would also do a six mile walk to and from the park in my hiking boots! No need to say that it stopped raining in just about a minute after my set off. Fortunately it was fairly cold so the overtrousers and the jacket were wearable (and bearable) and keeping me warm. There wasn't any rain during the three hours I was out although it did start again after my return home...

Makes me think - am I a rain stopper?

Funnily enough, just yesterday I bought another waterproof jacket - lightweight one - as we both agreed that our North Face jacket (although three season type) is just too warm for anything above 15 degrees Celsius. If my rain stopping ability is real, we will hopefully not need it :-D

Some more physical shopping has been done yesterday - wide brim hat, spare laces, high SPF lip balm, the already mentioned jacket, more socks, fleece etc. etc. - and some more online shopping too - couldn't resist to by a swimming suit named "O Beach Zanzibar" (on sale too, so not a very difficult buying decision) :-) All this shopping was a great excuse to do a little stocktake so I pulled all my stuff out of the drawers and had a good look at what I have. Surprisingly I have found out I could use some of my running stuff as base layers so that ticked more stuff off the list too! With only five weeks to the departure it was just about the time to get the list shrinking!