In some ways Lain and I would have loved to just decide on this adventure and impulsively begin the journey the very next day - having too much time to think and plan is not always a good thing for us. It is like when you quit a job - you want to hand in your resignation and just walk out the door, not hang around for another two or four weeks pretending to be interested. Let alone waiting for months on end just to get to the start line.
I'll restlessly lie awake till all hours, my mind on auto-pilot, refusing to sleep until the tiniest details of the smallest problems have been examined from every angle. What if this happens? What else could that be used for? How would this work? Is this going to be better than that? With every solution there's a mad scramble to punch a quick note into the phone so my mind can release its grip on it's prize and finally let me rest. Unfortunately my insomnia-driven solutions don't always work.
Our kayaks are actually pretty similar to a camel. These boats are renowned for having a large volume (or storage space) which means we can pack some luxuries that we wouldn't normally take on a hiking trip. The somewhat weightless nature of our load (I'll eat these words on a mudflat somewhere) mean we'll be able to take much more than a backpack - over 100kg each during some stages. I've seen Nepali sherpas being undoubtedly squashed hauling loads well over 100kg but fortunately there's no need for a fully laden sea kayak at Namche Bazaar.
We are limited though, and your average car camper would gasp in shock and awe at the tiny spaces into which we must jam a year's worth of possessions, food, water, emergency gear, and the huge pile of solutions to midnight problems. "But where do you put the fridge?" Hmmmmmm…… So all of our gear has to meet the criteria - it has to fit, it needs to be functional and not too bulky or heavy.
And it is on this delicate balance that I am stuck. If only I'd spent more time with camels. My conundrum (or is this now just an expensive obsession) is to work out exactly what cookware to take. Yeah, that sounds like it is worth losing sleep over! Well it isn't as easy as it sounds.
While we'll have a multi-fuel stove with us we hope to cook on campfires as often as possible. Most of our meals for the first few months will be dehydrated. We hope to catch fish (BIG fish), regularly bake bread, drink plenty of tea, we are big fans of one-pot meals, but not all the time, and we can't keep leftovers. So multiple pots is good, a big frying pan is good and something capable of baking a steamy fresh loaf is good - all at the same time. We can't simply fill our kayaks with a year's worth of aluminium foil.
I've tried quite a few solutions to this problem and am still no closer to an answer. I really like the spun steel Aussie Camp Oven - it ticks most of the boxes but is just a bit big (it only just fits in the large front hatch). Perhaps combined with a billy we'll have a winner, or perhaps there's still a few sleepless nights for this little black duck.
Anybody have suggestions? Not about insomnia - about cooking pots!
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