We have arrived!

We have arrived safe and well in London albeit very tired. Our journey was gruelling with over 25 hours of flying crammed into economy class and three hours of transit. We only got about four hours sleep between the two of us. Needless to say that bed was very welcome when we finally got to it.

The queue at the UK border control was huge like a serpent winding its way back to the baggage collection. When we finally got to the border security the official questioned us at length about our stay, how long were we staying, where we staying, how much money we had etc… When we told him that we were intending to walk around Wales the incredulous official finally seemed to be satisfied with our answers and let us enter the country.

On another note, traversing crowed spaces with our back packs on has proved to be a quite a challenge. Greg just about wiped out some poor unsuspecting woman on the London underground when he turned around in the confined space and just about sent her sprawling with the giant carbuncle on his back! And this also works in reverse, where I just about sent myself sprawling when I tried to turn around standing next to a lamp post! Having negotiated the underground we came up a Paddington Station only to find that we had no internet on our phones and as such no directions to get to our hotel. Relying on the locals didn’t prove to have too much success so there was two very tired and hungry Kiwis with frayed nerves having rather loud words with one another on the crowed London pavement.

We have woken up today to a very cold, wet and windy day in London with an expected high of 7 degrees Celsius. Let the sight-seeing begin!

Getting prepared

When first planning our trip, I had in mind that I would lose between 12-15 kilos so that by the time I put on my 12-15 kilo backpack my body would be used to carrying the excess weight albeit on a different part of my body i.e. on my back rather than around my waist. Well with less than two weeks to go I have only lost 3kg. On that basis I will only be travelling around Wales with a day pack!

Speaking of packs, Greg is already onto his third generation of pack in as many weeks. He saw our impending journey as an excuse to upgrade to a more modern pack. The first pack off the shelf looked and felt good however at only 65 litres it wasn’t big enough to hold all the gear that we would need. So, then it was back to his old pack, that is until after we went for a training hike with all our camping gear. During this trip he realised that his old pack just wasn’t comfortable enough with the weight he was carrying, particularly given that we are planning on hiking 1600km. So, onto version three which seems to be the business.

His latest iteration is a New Zealand designed Aarn Bodypack. This is effectively a pack which wraps around your body so that the weight is balanced in front and behind so that your posture and balance are unaltered by the load. It comes with extras such as pockets that tie onto the front of your pack. While this might be great for carrying a load effectively, every time I look at Greg with his gear on, I crack up laughing as he reminds of an Autobot (from the movie Transformers) that is about to transform into an Oshkosh Missile Military Truck!  

  

Not only that, he seems to find an excuse to pack and unpack his bag at least once or twice a day (and we haven’t even left the country yet). You’d think that having spent 12 years of his life in the army he would know how to pack his gear! Should I be worried that I am starting to get jealous of his relationship with his pack?

Why Wales?

The question we are most often asked is ‘Why Wales?’ Well how many other countries can you completely circumnavigate on foot? In addition, the locals speak English (albeit with a strange accent), they have cool place names (e.g.  Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch), there are no man-eating bears or poisonous snakes to beware of, the weather won’t be too hot, there are more castles than you can throw a cannonball at and there will be dragons! Those who know me well will know that I love slaying dragons in my alter ego as a brazen warrior woman in video games. So, in the throes of our mid-life crisis we decided that this was the place for our intrepid journey.