Prologue Concluded

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Ready for the off

Well at last all the vaccinations are complete: Polio, Diptheria, Tetanus, Hepititus A and B (course of 3), Typhoid and last but by no means least Rabies (course of 3). Our thanks go out once again to Jean the Nursing Practitioner at our local health centre who managed to adminster all this needle totally pain free and then provided all the certificates to satisfy border beaurocracy. The cost of this pain free exercise thanks to the National Health was approximately about £270 (Rabies £210 for two and £36 for 200 Malaria tablets) give or take a couple of imodium tablets.

The first aid and needle pack along with the mosquito net came half price (£43) thanks to the MountainLife store outside Castleford who are shutting down their camping section. At the time of writing still lots of bargains galore.

Surprisingly the money situation was by far the easiest to arrange mainly thanks to the Nationwide who provided the travelers cheques, the currency and the debit/ credit cards that are free to use around the world. What's more I hadn't realised until my few visits to the main branch how many people, in this day and age, still have savings accounts and go on a regula basis with their passbooks to build their little nest eggs and what's more it was not just the elderly. I thought all finances were transacted electonically this day n age.

The visas took a little longer but are now fixed in our passports with the exception of the Australian (a bargain at £7.50) which is an ETA or a number which is checked on entry against the passport. Indeed, although this was one of the cheapests items purchased, it was the single most difficult item to obtain because my application had to go to Australia House to be manually checked and all because I have two common names Peter and Smith. Had I been a Julian or Cuthbert it would have been automatically checked and stamped, metaphorically speaking, in 24 to 48 hours. I can't help wondering what would have happened if I had been a Bruce.

Most of the gear we need is now bought and consists of rucksacks (free from friends), sleeping bags (£160), tent (£19 cheap!), thermarest mats (£100), mosquito net (at least half price at £15), walking shoes, sandles, socks etc (£170), shirts (tee and mosquito repelling ones £50 - £60), shorts, trousers, skirts, head torches (£22 each) and a winding-up one for emergencies (£12.99), money belts etc etc etc.

Then there are the electrical goods: the PDA (£250), the portable folding keyboard (£30) the solar battery charger (£19) in case the sun shines and the hairdryer incase it doesn't (not mine I have very little hair), a hat to protect my baldness 99p binoculars to spy the wildlife with (£90 paid but still not arrived) and last but not least in this category a new digital camera to record the whole thing (£300). All this towers above, overshadowing the rucksacks that are destined to carry it all. I'm afraid some kind of culling exercise will have to take place before the off.

Finally but not least travel insurance which came in better than expected at £355 (GlobalNomad) for the two of us. Well if you're contemplating embarking on a similar exursion all you have to do is total it all up and probably add another 20%!f(MISSING)or things I have forgot to mention, underpriced or still haven't bought but will need to before next weeks off. I'd do it for you but I don't want to spoil the illusion of traveling round the world.

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