It all fits (what have we forgotten?)

All the gear spread around after fitting it in the kayaks

Big trial pack today! There is a surprising amount of space to spare so we must have forgotten something. Hope not!

There is 30kg added to my kayak & 34kg into Neil's plus the water which will be another 29 litres each. Sounds like a lot of water but the first 4 nights are in dry camps - later on there are more places we can get water. Dehydrating the meals saves a huge amount of space - 6 x 8L bags hold all the meals breakfast (1), lunch (2) & dinner (2 + 1 of extras), plus 3 x 4L bags of on water snacks and fruit leather. Tea & plunger coffee are essential items and are squeezed into the lunch bags. There will also be a bag of fresh food to go with lunch - tomatoes, cheese & avocadoes.

We also saved a bit of space by going with light-weight sleeping bags - it could be argued that you don't really need one in the tropics but we've had the odd cold night in the past and been glad of the single 4 season down bag - it's a bit bulky though so we'll see how these ones go. They are rated to 10 degrees.

Five more sleeps!!

Testing Gear

Raia & Maggie having a chat coming back from Altona

On Sunday we lead the monthly Williamstown club paddle, which is a relatively short trip over to Altona seemingly for the purpose of drinking coffee! The day was clear and the winds almost calm - an unusually glassy sea day for Williamstown!

It was a good opportunity to test some new gear.

We tried out the SPOT tracker in tracking mode and also a new camera mount for my kayak. With the Pentax camera we can do interval photography  - shooting pictures to the front, to one side or back at the kayaker. Finally some evidence that I am actually on an expedition - usually there are few photos of me on trips and very rarely anything close up!