Does this happen to you when you travel.? You pack carefully (or frantically if your like me) then once on your way you have time to reflect on all the things you REALLY needed to take with you and all the siily stuff that you just realized could have stayed behind. I am having this same film reel running in my head of all the 'stuff' that I literally 'stuffed' into the tiny trunk space of the Bentley. Given how scare the real estate inside the boot of that car is I think I could have been smarter in planning what was essential.
For example, yes it was good to take all the tools and some lubricant that might prove necessary. But why the paper shop towels,cloth rags, surgical gloves etc. Just how dirty am I planning to get?
And those bungy cords. Who am I going to strangle with all those cords? Some poor choices I would say.
OK, my turn, you are hogging the blog here with car stuff and yes I thought I would be the one to over pack and unless you think the bungy chords will somehow bommerang us forward like a sling shot I really do wonder what use they will be. Also for the life of me I still am not sure what we will use any of them for. Perhpas we could carry our very own yak for fresh milk on the roof!
So where do I put the important stuff like food and toiletries and what do we take, from Canada and what do we buy in Beijing?
Sunscreen, sunglasses bathing suits (oh wait we are spending 2 weeks in the desert. then in the mountains, then tundra ,so nixs number 3. Clothes,perfume, since we may smell like Yaks after 10 days anyways, washing by sandblasting ourselves and using little wipettes probably wont be pleasant. From my perspective the biggest concern is staying healthy not clean in an environment that we know little about and since we will all smell the same, BAD, will it matter. I have been reading about the issues in Beijing like POLLUTION and some questionable food. I think our cars will only add to the pollution so can't be too concerned there. Well food shouldnt be too bad if we stick to the big Hotel. If anything we may overeat. We arrive into the Shangri-La Hotel which is luxury. We have one in Vancouver but I digress. I think the organizers are trying to spoil us with this start. We will all be overstuffed and super mellow before the race begins. Then the night before we leave there is a huge Gala dinner and finally we ride out 'en masse' to our official start at the GREAT WALL. Oh dear, car might weigh too much.
I've been checking on Mandarin terms we might learn. like … 'Help I am lost?' in Beijing we should find someone to ask, but in Mongoiia, there just aren't that many people. Wonder if I should get a sextant? Oh dear I am starting to overthink this. 35 days sitting on this, um, back support?
