Hello relatives (close and distant), friends (ex or otherwise), lovers (again, ex or otherwise) and last but by no means least, curious strangers,
I'm due to set off tomorrow morning on this walk:
That's 239 miles of fun and frolics, from the ferryport at Calais, up through Dunkirk and Oostende, with a stop off in Bruges for a day, then up the coast to Rotterdam, through the Hague before finally winding up in Amsterdam hopefully in about a fortnight or so.
Tomorrow morning at about 0500 I'll wake up, and at about 0530 I'm heading to Barbican tube station, which which I'll head to Victoria Train Station, where I'll get a train to Dover Priory. From Dover I've booked passage on the Spirit of Britain to Calais:
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| With captain. |
Following this, if all goes to plan I'll head up the coast until either I reach Dunkirk, or it gets dark - at which point I'll set up camp somewhere. My aim is to walk between 30-40km a day, and try and camp in designated camp areas, although I would like to camp in the wilderness at least a few times. When I get to the three cities on my route, Bruges, Rotterdam and Amsterdam I'll probably check into a hostel for a night or two, or even a hotel if I'm feeling particularly flush. As I don't really have anything to rush back to the UK for I'm going to try and take my time, there's no real hurry to get to my goal - and if I get sidetracked here and there, well -that's all part of the adventure.
As I don't know when I'm going to want to come back, I don't want to book a trip back from Amsterdam in advance, although once I'm there I'll get a ferry to Harwick, a flight or even a Eurostar straight back into St Pancras.
Anyway, without further ado - here is my gear:
There is everything that I hope should be to get me through a fortnight or so on the road.
I'll break it down here:
1. Gelert Tryfan 300m DL Sleeping Bag
2. Black hoodie
3. Army Surplus rain hat (reversible)
4. Gelert Solo one man stealth tent (with design fault that I have corrected for)
5. Military Assault backpack 50L (I do not plan to assault anyone incidentally, it's just the slightly trying-to-hard name of a backpack - it's nice enough as it is really, it doesn't need to puff itself up with testosterone like this).
6. Pillow Case - to fill with soft things and use as pillow during the night)
7. T-shirts (the top one has Rosa Luxemburg on it and says "Those who do not move do not notice their chains." on it. P sweet and appropriate I think)
8. Rosetta Stone British Museum bag - a side pack for keeping things I might need more immediately on it.
9. Hiking shorts with side pockets.
10. Combat trousers with multiple pockets (I may cut the bottoms of these at some point on the walk).
11. Hi-Tec Men's Eurotrek Waterproof Hiking Boots (I hope to god these don't let me down - they have good reviews though)
12. Rainsuit, Top and bottom.
13. 6 pairs hiking socks.
14. Pants (I am unsure as to whether they should be loose or fitting, so have packed a few of each).
15. Kelloggs Special K cereal bars.
16. Batchelors Pasta 'n' Sauce Cheese & Broccoli x 2
17. Batchelors Pasta 'n' Sauce Macaroni Cheese x 2
18. Batchelors Savoury Rice 'Golden' x 2
19. Batchelors Supernoodles 'Chicken Flavoured' x 2 (does not actually contain any chicken unsurprisingly and is veggie friendly)
20. 2l Waitrose Still Mineral Water
21. Roll of binbags
22. Small pots for food I may pick up en route (cheese, eggs etc)
23. Toilet roll.
24. 10x individual sachets of instant coffee (I hate instant coffee, and seriously considered bringing a cafetiere before realising it wouldn't fit. Instant coffee is, I suppose, better than no coffee at all).
25. 3x Ronson LED torches all with batteries with spare pack of 8x AAA Duracells
26. Ronson multitool.
27. Vaseline (to rub on feet and also on various other body parts that might chafe)
28. Compass
29. Headphones (I don't expect to listen to much music to save the battery on my phone, but you never know).
30. Mercury Backpack Stove (has the cheery motto "Go anywhere, do anything" written on it, I'm sure this will allow me to cook some excellent meals.)
31. Small white towel.
32. 2x stainless steel camping pans/plates (for cooking and also eating food out of) also a knife, fork, spoon and scissors.
33. Cash - 235E (hopefully enough to get me through most of this trip - I don't plan on being overly extravagant)
34. Casio F-91W digital watch (as worn by Al-Qaeda)
35. First aid kit (containing "plasters, gauze, dressing pads and more" I figure this will my salvation if I get into a 127 hours type situation)
36. Safety pins
37. Passport
38. Propane Cannister for stove (burn time, 4 hours)
39. Bungee cords 2x
40. Duct tape (this can solve almost any problem I encounter if I think hard enough about it)
41. Toothbrush and toothpaste.
42. 2x books '23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism' by Ha-Joon Cheung and 'Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class' by Owen Jones.
43. Sure antiperspirant stick.
44. European plug adaptor.
45. iPhone mains adaptor and USB lead.
46. 2x packs of Ibuprofen (32 tablets)
47. Insect Repellent.
48. Water purification tablets.
49. Razor and razor blades (I don't really expect to shave on this trip, but you never know. Also the razor blades themselves may come in useful.)
50. Zippo lighter.
51. Lighter fluid.
52. Alcohol wash gel.
53. Baby wipes.
54. Sun tan lotion.
55. 2 books 'Leonardo da Vinci - Notebooks' and 'The Tiger that Isn't: Seeing through a World of Numbers' by Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot'.
Whew.
Things notable by their absence:
iPhone - used to take pictures, and therefore impossible to photograph on the bed. The phone is configured for data use in Europe. I will be keeping it switched off most of the time, checking for messages once or twice a day and charging it at internet cafes.
Digital camera - I have been told I can borrow one from a friend, and will try to sort this out this evening. If this falls through I'll use my iPhone, although ideally I would like to have a dedicated camera.
Mug - the specialist camping mugs were extremely overpriced (£11!) so I'll improvise with whatever plastic cups I can get my hands on.
Radio - I wanted to buy a bare bones AM/FM radio - but the cheapest I could find was £20! What gives?! If I come across a decently priced one along the way I'll pick it up. Would be nice to be able to listen to the world service at night.
Maps - I have full offline maps of Europe loaded onto my iPhone, so I'll be able to use that. If things 'go bad', I'll use the compass to find my way to civilisation and, I guess buy a map if I need to. I looked into buying maps, but I'm covering such a weird distance that I'd need to drop about £40 on three maps of France, Belgium and Holland - and frankly the whole affair seemed too complicated. I may yet regret this decision.
Right, I'm going to pack, I'll post a picture of it all in a bag later.
edit:
Woop!
edit:
Woop!
