Weight (or lack of it) is everything

As I said in my last post we are attempting to keep the weight we have to carry down to the minimum. Along with all the lightweight gear I mentioned before, we have been weighing everything that we intend to take, and then entering it on a spread sheet. As we add to the list I start to panic, it looks like we might need a donkey to carry everything as the total weight gets heavier and heavier.

Years ago I read a packing tip for holidays, which was to put everything you wanted to take on your trip on a bed and then half it, and then half it again. But I have never been particularly good at that, I think it is because for the first 30 years of my life I holidayed in the UK, taking my car, which had a nice big boot and an even bigger back seat, that I could fill with everything I might conceivably have need for my holiday.

So when I started flying it was a chalange to re-educate myself to take just what I needed. Thats all very well with an airline 20kg alowance, but imagaine if you were having to cary that weight on you back for three months.

So radical surgery has been required. With a ruthlessness unusual for me, every unnecessary thing which usually I would take 'just in case' has been dumped. Even so the pile still looks daunting!