Our bags are packed we're ready to go...

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How do you pack for 6 months? Maybe if I had been in the army I would have had some experience of packing for an extended tour of duty. Of course having a uniform would have made clothing selection easier but experience has taught me to select the clothes I thought I'd wear and then take half of them and put them back in the wardrobe. But then there's all the other stuff, shampoo, toothpaste and of course travel wash! having decanted large bottles of stuff down into small manageable plastic bottles what do you do with the rest? Take clothes, wash bag (including mosquito potions), first aid kit, footwear (1 pair of shoes plus lightweight footwear) and that's about it. Now pack it all in a rucksack using the rolling technique Sue has taught me and off we go. So why does the rucksack weigh so much and a why does my shoulder bag weigh about the same? I fully expect to find half of Sue's stuff in my bag when I unpack until I pick up her rucksack and find it weighs almost as much as mine.
Oh well we piled our stuff into George's van and left Portsmouth for Guildford to stay overnight with Jonno who took us to the airport. Luckily for all concerned he had elected to work that morning so we said goodbye at the airport drop off point and went to find check-in with hardly a tear although all the emotions were just beneath the surface.

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