Bon Voyage

This past week has managed to sneak past me rather silently. Like the many grains of sand in an hour glass, each remaining moment before my departue has slipped away quietly and without emphasis.

That is, until now. Now, as I sit her in the early morning hours of Wednesday, each passing minute of the clock seems to echo and reverberate my welling emotions in a cacophonous way. Having just completed packing, the preperations final, and my exit fast approaching - all my thoughts can now finally and fully turn to the full scope of my trip at hand.

Packing is such a weird process. Every piece of clothing in your closet becomes your favourite and every doodad in that junk drawer essential - such that you can hardly imagine spending even a day without them, let alone months at a time. As a consequence you usually end up with a pile of desired carriables that dwarfs your bag in magnitude.

To clearly illustrate this, about six days ago I was looking at the daunting task of making all of this fit into that backpack:

I was trying very hard to sift that pile out - but it is funny how sentimental you can get with a t-shirt or any other piece of clothing. "Oh T-shirt! I bought you a month ago, and you mean nothing really to me, but I would die without you!"

So, sarcasm aside, I have managed to finish packing. The answer was to be really honest with myself. I took a lot of the articles and said to myself "could I live without this", and the answer was overwhelmingly yes for all borderline items. Thus, the final result is this:

Now this is still a fair amount of stuff, but I managed to leave my bag with some room to spare. If all holds true and I ditch some things, and pick up others along the way, I think I have struck the correct balance with this pack to get me through Africa. The way I look at it, I had a larger pack for South America and packed it to the brim - and that was only for a month trek. Pats on the back for everyone! Good work, Me.

Fourteen hours to flight, and I think it is time for sleep. I am full of lots of emotions, including aprehension, nervousness and even a little fear - but above all else there is an excitement that overwhelms everything.

Wish me luck, Africa here I come.

Lots of love,

Sean