I have a love-hate relationship with the packing part of any expedition.

I love sitting down with a cup of tea to write the list of things I intend to take.

I love gathering all the kit from various parts of the house and assembling them all in one room (chosen room this time = the dining room as it has a large floor space).

I love fixing up old bits of kit to last that “one more trip” whether with needle & thread or that trusty gaffa tape.

I love sorting it all out into definiates, maybes (those luxury if-there-is-room items) & not required this time.

I hate not being able to find things I knew I’d seen recently and had put “there” as I will need it for the exped, but now can’t figure out where “there” was.

I hate the detail of packing everything down small into waterproof bags and being anal about labelling each bag with its contents.

I hate the tedium of balancing the saddle bags, kit in, kit out, move it around, re-weigh, kit back in and repeat.

Re the hates though… I do know that time spent doing this now, will save me a huge amount of faff on the trip.  When you have a pack horse as tall as Swift is (or as wide as Yogi is -sorry bud but you will be thinner by the end of the trip), you don’t want to be spending ages on your tip toes rooting through the bags trying to find where you’d put something.  Nor do you want to be ages trying to find something you may need in an emergency.

Sigh… cup of tea I think to rejuvenate,  then back to the scales!