Less than 2 months to go and I have done as much as I can from Congo. Most of my international orders have arrived in New Zealand and my parents are looking after them for me. I am just waiting on the last of the ZPacks orders which should arrive any day now. It is a little frustrating knowing I have lots of new equipment to play with but I have to wait until October when I go back to New Zealand.
When the new track notes are released on 8 September I will work on compressing them and paste onto the maps ready for printing.
Ideally I should now be focusing on trying to get fit but unfortunately that is going to be difficult given restrictions where I live. Due to security restrictions in Kinshasa there is only one 2km loop that I can walk on which is really boring. On 1 Oct I move to a new city called Goma on the other side of DR Congo which has even stricter restrictions and I will not be able to walk at all. There is the possibility to cross the boarder into Rwanda and walk there but that will take a lot of organising.
My flights are booked to leave DR Congo the night of 17 October. I have to cross the border into Rwanda and drive for 3 hours to the airport to fly out at 1 in the morning. I change planes in Nairobi, Johannesburg and Sydney to land in Christchurch at 11.50pm on 19 October. I will go shopping for the last of my outdoor supplies in Christchurch on 20 October and fly that evening to Dunedin where my preparations can begin.
First thing is seeing a Podiatrist to get some new Orthotics to make sure my leg alignment is sorted for the walk. I have fallen arches so this will be important to prevent injuries.
I plan to do some experiments with gas and alcohol to work out which one I will take. I will do precise weights of all my equipment and make some decisions on what to take, or not. These decisions will be tested on an overnight tramp. I will then spend a couple of days fixing anything that went wrong, preparing my resupply and bounce box and printing my maps. I will then go for another test tramp for final confirmation of what I will be taking. A couple of days after that on 28 October (subject to change if needed) I fly to Kaitaia and start walking on 29 October. So exciting thinking about it now.
57 days, 19 hours and 4 minutes until starting!
When the new track notes are released on 8 September I will work on compressing them and paste onto the maps ready for printing.
Ideally I should now be focusing on trying to get fit but unfortunately that is going to be difficult given restrictions where I live. Due to security restrictions in Kinshasa there is only one 2km loop that I can walk on which is really boring. On 1 Oct I move to a new city called Goma on the other side of DR Congo which has even stricter restrictions and I will not be able to walk at all. There is the possibility to cross the boarder into Rwanda and walk there but that will take a lot of organising.
My flights are booked to leave DR Congo the night of 17 October. I have to cross the border into Rwanda and drive for 3 hours to the airport to fly out at 1 in the morning. I change planes in Nairobi, Johannesburg and Sydney to land in Christchurch at 11.50pm on 19 October. I will go shopping for the last of my outdoor supplies in Christchurch on 20 October and fly that evening to Dunedin where my preparations can begin.
First thing is seeing a Podiatrist to get some new Orthotics to make sure my leg alignment is sorted for the walk. I have fallen arches so this will be important to prevent injuries.
I plan to do some experiments with gas and alcohol to work out which one I will take. I will do precise weights of all my equipment and make some decisions on what to take, or not. These decisions will be tested on an overnight tramp. I will then spend a couple of days fixing anything that went wrong, preparing my resupply and bounce box and printing my maps. I will then go for another test tramp for final confirmation of what I will be taking. A couple of days after that on 28 October (subject to change if needed) I fly to Kaitaia and start walking on 29 October. So exciting thinking about it now.
57 days, 19 hours and 4 minutes until starting!
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