Thursday, November 10, 2011

Packing? I don’t need no stinking packing!


At least not yet. But I’m thinking about it. Boy am I thinking about it!

There is a great website, the http://www.independenttraveler.com/, that has all kinds of packing advice. Which I would take except that Randy, my husband, is a fabulous packer. My favorite story about how great a packer he is: We took our (then teen-aged) children on an airplane trip to Hong Kong (in the summer there) and Australia  and New Zealand (winter) with a stop in Honolulu. Hong Kong was great, it was warm, we didn’t need a lot of clothes but we did buy a few things. Did I mention we only had carry-on bags? One carry-on each and my daughter and I had a purse each. But we also had makeup and “stuff” that teen-aged girls (and their mothers) have to have.

When we got to New Zealand my daughter fell in love with some fleece lined, knee-high, leather boots. I said no initially because I could not believe that they would fit in her suitcase. Did I mention it was a carry-on?

Well, Randy managed to fit those two boots in. As he said, “Piece of cake!”

So I have my very own packer. 

But I still read the packing advice and, as someone who has always before this trip only had carry-on sized bags—in fact, we don’t even own a bigger bag than that. We don’t even own more than two carry-ons—I am seriously thinking about how we are going to pack for 104 days. Maybe more like 124 days as we are now considering staying in Australia a few more weeks to go on a trip with Outback Spirit, the Cape York Wilderness Adventure
Our transportation, a 4WD Mercedes Benz
After dinner in the campground

Before getting the tents up...

...and after getting the tents up!
We went with them once before, a somewhat adventurous tour in 2008, 19 days of camping (12 nights) and hotels (7 nights) from Darwin to Alice via Kimberly, Broome, the Bungle Bungles, and the Tanami Desert. This year’s  tour is a bit longer as it goes to the Mitchell Plateau in addition, but is otherwise the same one we did in ‘08.

We tried to show the Aussies how to make 'SMores
Our home
So we know the tour company well, we just have to decide if we want to tack on another  12 days to our 104 days (plus the week before the cruise). We did spend some time in Daintree a few years back right after one of the biggest Wets in a while. But we have always wanted to see the Cape York area. It seems to be the right time of year for it, I just have to convince Randy that two more weeks would be worth it!

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