Packing frantically and getting all the last minute things done. What a mission. We move our pile of stuff up to Manchester tonight. Been too excited to sleep, so we are in zombie mode. Had a great evening out with our friends from V’s work on Thursday – thanks for the great biking Sam and Chris, maybe we’ll see you next year !  Shifnal’s been good to us being so close to Wales.. but time to bring on the world (well half of it). [more coming – got to run to fetch the rental van]

–Update – So long Shifnal.  Said goodbye to all the lovely people at MMB and after sitting on the M6 in Friday afternoon traffic managed to successfully move all our bits into a corner of J&S’s garage. Sim had to return the van this morning (What a rubbish no one way rental policy Enterprise has) and after all the hard work finally collapsed into a coma in the afternoon sun in J&S’s back garden. -V-

I’m fiddling with WordPress a little at the moment – hopefully I won’t break anything permanently. I Need to sort out the image gallery and make some CSS changes.

Last week was quite a week, but we are getting there !  We got our passports and visas back. I have to plug Real Russia once again. They were fantastic ! (albeit expensive). Have booked a ferry from Denmark to Norway and started boxing up bits and pieces. Saturday we popped into Birmingham again for some last minute shopping and to get some Dollars and travellers cheques. We got what we needed (TK Maxx is incredible) but there was no electricity at Birmingham New Street station (first power failure I have seen here) so were not able to get our forex. Not a problem – we ordered online and it will be delivered by post. Can you imagine getting cash in the post back in SA !?

On the way back we stopped off at Cosforth to visit the RAF Museum (5 mins by train from home + a 20 minute walk) We’ve been talking about going since we got to Shifnal. Thoroughly enjoyed it. The new ‘Cold War’ hanger is stunning and well worth the visit. As always, museums are free. I’ve uploaded some photos to the gallery.

V spent most of Sunday trying to arrange hostels and accommodation for our first few days on the road in Denmark and Norway. What a nightmare. If they are not closed for the ‘off’ season they are full or overpriced. One serves pancakes and coffee at 21h00. At around R1000/room/night it should come with a masseuse, not pancakes !  We have had to take hotels and B&B’s – blasting our budget to pieces in the first week – let’s hope the rest of the trip is cheaper than expected. Looking forward to a danish in Denmark.

We are nearly there…  ONE WEEK OF WORK TO GO !!… Lots still to do.

Belated news of the passing of one of our key pieces of kit (Sanyo Xacti CA-9 video camera). It’s been all over; from the deserts and wadis of Oman to the ski slopes of Passon Tonale. We prepped it to go Mountain biking in Wales and in the morning it was dead.

We’ve been impressed with it’s performance and it is so cool being able to wash it in the sink after being in the mud, but I am not happy with Sanyo Europe. I gave it to V for her birthday last year and it failed after 11 months of minimal use (no abuse). Sanyo Europe are not willing to honor the warranty and insist that I send it back to South Africa for evaluation. No international warranty policy and no time left. It would have been great to get some good quality video on our travels. Next time.. Canon/Sony only.

More than a week since our last substantial post ! Couple of reasons/excuses. We have been very busy, and I have been sick with a nasty cold.

So to summarize what happened last week;

• Russian and Chinese visas have been sorted and the Mongolian one should be ready tomorrow – so we should get our passports back this week.
• V got a very early birthday present.. and I haven’t seen her since.
• We’ve basically got all the bits and pieces we need – I think the only thing left on the list is a new toothbrush.
• I completed my Open University “Maths for Science” course and assessment. I suspect my first ever “A” for Maths is on it’s way – unbelievable.
• Booked our travel insurance with Travel Nation – V researched options for hours. Let’s hope we don’t need it.
• Made good headway on the IT bits for the trip – finding translation apps for the iPhone and getting our data in order. The iPhone is such an amazing tool for travel. Guide books, talking phrase-books that say “those drugs aren’t mine” in Mandarin, GPS, Blogging, Skype – there is an app for everything. But.. what if it gets stolen ? Then we’ll do it the hard way and make sure everything is backed up to Google docs.

And that’s not all…

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Happy Birthday Dad – form both of us.

And great to see you getting all those years of collecting and research online. Keep it up.

Added some photos from the weekend to the gallery – Thanks Phil

X-Men V (V, not 5)

Yesterday was our last fitness training/MTB trip out to Wales before we start travelling. Perfect shorts and T-shirt weather for the first time this year and a great group of people. The MMB crowd, our friends and some new ones, 12 all together. The Coed Llandegla black trails are just so much fun – even on a rental bike with marginal breaks (who needs them anyway).

V was pretty sick with a cold and should not have been out on the trail. Everyone knows that wolves can spot invalids. One seems to have gotten hold of her – tis but a scratch. Bad chain-ring !

Today we started to pack away and sort our junk. It wasn’t long before we got discouraged by the sheer volume. Maybe next weekend, but we are running out of them.

Covered in Bees-tings

We needed to get a lot done this weekend and didn’t do too badly. V and I climbed into our trip entertainment and general trip-tech on Friday. I ripped my entire West Wing DVD set to iPhone video (see end of post for more info). We both still have a lot of sorting to do, but it was a really good start.

Don't look left

Saturday morning we were up early to catch a train into Birmingham for various bits and jabs (around New Street station). I hate needles, but survived. Can’t say the same for our wallets, a total of £245 each for Hep A, Typhoid and Jap B. The latter being £80 per dose – 2 doses ! Seems we will have to go back again in the week for the Japanese B Encephalitis vaccine. They did not have stock even though we had made an appointment for it !

With sore arms we toured the gear shops in the vicinity (Snow and Rock & Blacks) where we picked up a few more bits and pieces. Socks, pants for V, stuff sacks, and my Merino wool t-shirts from Icebreaker. Got to love their marketing and since they are made in New Zealand it will be fun to see if they make it all the way back home. [more palace intrigue below]

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Pirate Jesse

And don’t forget Sept 19 – International Talk Like a Pirate Day … Enjoy the chocolate eggs and bunnies – Caramel eggs rock ! For more information on the subject… Eddie has a bit to say.

Seems our blog may be wandering off topic… not to worry, as soon as we get on the road that will all change. Busy weekend ahead !