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Snowy River adventure: the final countdown

9/3/2017

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The countdown to adventure is almost over! It's been a month or so since I first made a silly online counter and started counting down the days on our whiteboard at work . . . and this weekend we're off to Australia to attempt to get down the Snowy River (mainly) on foot.
Blue sky, blue sea, blue estuary, green trees
The Snowy River near Marlo. "Snowy River Estuary" (cc) Dan.
I'm ready to go. We've been preparing for a while now (see this and this and this). We've bought all our bits and pieces over here, we've practiced pitching the tent (sorry for being so bossy, Dan!), done a few walks ("We'll get fit on the trail," we keep telling ourselves) and I've pored over the maps to commit emergency exits to memory.
Maps and computer
Comparing our maps to Google Earth.
person looking out of tent
Practice pitch of our tent - it started snowing!
We couldn't have got this far without a bunch of support from people in Australia. Kate has made us a selection of home-made dehydrated meals and Emily has bought a stash of noodles and porridge and boxed it all up into various food drops. I bet you nerds would like to see a satisfying, 26 second time-lapse video of the packing process, wouldn't you?! Here's one Emily made while talking to me on Skype!

Packing food for an adventure from In Which I on Vimeo.

We don't really know how we're going to fit all the food in our bags, but I'm sure we'll manage somehow! My parents have bought and registered a PLB and I've uploaded our itinerary to the PLB website. I've printed out all my notes. I had a leg massage earlier this week. I still don't know if it will be possible for the two of us to do this thing - but there's only one way for us to find out: try.
bags of stuff
Batteries, notebooks, water treatment drops . . .
freezer bags of food
Goodies by Kate. I love her notes/comments: "Yum!"
Tub of food packets
Shop-bought food, purchased in Australia by our wonderful friend Emily. Not shown: the other 278499 packets of noodles.
I'm looking forward to hearing magpies and kookaburras calling in the day, seeing the Southern Cross and the Milky Way tilt across the night sky, spending time among trees and hills and rocks, watching the landscape change as we move downstream, learning the smells and rhythms of the river, hanging out with Dan all day every day (hopefully we both feel the same about this after a few weeks on the go!), seeing wildlife, hearing birds, walking hard, getting dirty and exhausted, swimming myself clean, having some time away from the work desk, being super excited about fresh food and company when we meet people for our food drops, exploring the places I've read so much about, learning more about the river I grew up beside, about its ecosystems, about its natural and cultural histories.
water and clouds with bright sunset colours
Sunset over Lake Jindabyne. "Lake Jindabyne" (cc) matt brand.
I probably won't update this blog while we're away. We don't have a spot tracker, so you can't follow us online. We don't have any sponsors or funders, so there's nobody we're obliged to report to. I might tweet occasionally (here and/or here) - more so in the first and last week - but for the most part I doubt we'll have much mobile signal and we'll be conserving phone battery for necessities and emergencies. But don't worry: I am sure I'll have plenty to write about when we get back! I've got notebooks and my camera and a digital recorder, so you might even get some delightful film or audio pieces at some point.
maps
A few people have asked if we're taking collections for a charity (or for ourselves). We're not - although we are very grateful for the assistance of friends and family with transport, accommodation and other logistics. If you are inspired by our journey to give a donation to an organisation of your choice, please do. I would like you to give to an organisation that not only offers support to but preferably campaigns/advocates for and is run by Indigenous/First Nations people, asylum seekers/refugees, trans/queer people or other marginalised groups. Dan would like you to support libraries, literacy and education. If you can combine elements of the two, brilliant! Feel free to share links to the organisations you support in the comments.

It's the final countdown!

See ya later . . .

Oh, by the way, did you see my interview over on The Urban Wanderer? I talk about long distance walking, adventure plans . . . and tea, of course. Go and check out Sarah's blog - she's got some lovely stuff on there.

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The Sounds of Sissinghurst

6/3/2017

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Last weekend we headed up to Sissinghurst in Kent. I took a few photos and made an audio blog of our walk.
Farm track
Along the High Weald Landscape Trail near Sissinghurst in Kent.
There's no transcript of the piece, but it includes:
  • Notes about a few places we pass (see photos below for some of them)
  • A couple of speculative discussions of our Snowy River adventure
  • Dan losing the rain cover for his bag (does he find it again? oh, the tension!)
  • Some annoying kissing gates
  • A short interlude of pigeons and bagpipes
  • The sound of birds, wind in the trees and rain
This was a bit of an experiment to see how well the digital recorder worked and if the recordings might be edited into a single piece, so it's not the most polished thing ever. It's probably best to use headphones to listen. But hopefully it gives you an insight into what it's like to go on a walk with us!
person in field in gaiters and raincoat
Testing out my new gaiters. Looking pretty happy about them!
fancy red brick building
Fancy! Benenden (not Biddenden!) School. I like the way the additions change style over the years.
sign on tree
Danger Adders. The worst kind of adder.
sign beside road
Caution Humps. The worst kind of hump.
muddy boots and legs and tea stuff
Ahh, time for tea! We found a dryish spot in the woods, complete with a few items of handy tree stump furniture.
green shoots and dead leaves
Wild garlic. Spring is coming . . . As Dan says in the audio piece, "Tasty, tasty spring."
new growth
New growth.
oast houses through an archway
Oast houses at Sissinghurst.
walled garden and tower
Sissinghurst Castle. We haven't been for a while and it was nice to see it again (we didn't go in).
tree with growth that looks like a skull
A slightly creepy tree - doesn't that look like a skull?!

Please do let me know if you enjoyed the audio! I'll post a Snowy River adventure update later this week and then the blog will be taking a break until after we return from Australia in late April.

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