Wednesday 30th March

Logistics and more logistics!!!

With 9 days to go I am getting down to the really fine detail - the nitty gritty - which could make the whole trip a success or a failure.

Here is my list of things to do on or before next Saturday:
1. Phone the two hostels and make sure my food parcels have arrived. (I'm b**ggered if I find myself in the middle of the North-Western Highlands with no map, no GPS, no shop, no food and no phone reception!)


The expensive NIKWAX waterproofing system - lets hope it works!

 2. Waterproof my waterproofs using wash-in NIKWAX stuff ( at huge expense)
3. Lubricate all my zips ( on clothes, tent, rucksack etc) with silicon gel. It could be a major embuggerance factor if any zip fails when it is raining cats and dogs

A 2 litre 'source' water container

4. Sterilise my 'Source' water bottle and make sure it doesn't leak
5. Sort out my fixing kit - to contain cable ties, needle and thread, string, masking tape, etc.
6. Sort out a way of taking lots of essential creams and potions and make sure I have all the essential ones!

This stacking system contains 2 sections of aqueous hand cream, boots anti-wrinkle day cream, clarins night cream and 1% hydrocortisone cream.

7. Design and construct (I have delegated this to my husband) a light-weight trowel to dig a hole in the ground for 'toileting' purposes... I am convinced that something can be created from a bit of old drainpipe and a chisel (to serrate the edges)
8. Sharpen my knife - another job for Andrew (who has a bit of a knife fetish!)
9. Charge my camera and phone batteries
10. Fix the elastic in my gaiters, which is about to break
11. Get together about £200 of ready cash
12. Sort out a drinks kit (using old camera film cases) consisting of coffee, powdered milk, and tea-bags

13. Buy some dubbin to wax my leather boots. I have decided to revert to the system I used in the Royal Navy rather than the Nikwax waterproofing system. While Nikwax seems O.K. for occasional wet walks, I need something that will get into the minor splits in my boots and STAY there, keeping them waterproof. I have to consider that I may spend 16 days walking through bogs in the rain, and I need to be able to rely on my boots to keep my feet dry!
14. Print off a section of a map to get me from the train station at Inverchin to Rosehall, about 11 miles away by foot
15. Buy some fruit and nuts to make up some GORP (= Good Old Raisins and Peanuts)
15. Panic about all the thing I have forgotten to take!!!