They took everything they wanted, which is why they left me here.

Roll-top Chihuahua-Tex Dry Bag

As our start date draws closer the pile of 'essential' gear seems to be growing like a mushroom in what used to be our spare bedroom and is now a resembles the warehouse of a small Chinese sweatshop.

PU coated nylon fabric, shiny stainless bits and pieces, rope, anchors, dry bags, solar panels, compasses, maps, first aid kits, mozzie repellent … and a dog.

Our two wildly energetic pups have to put up with a lot of our craziness (oh, how they suffer), so much that we believe that they are an entirely new breed, the Adventurehuahua! They have scrambled up all manner of hills, run for miles through the bush and up and down countless sand dunes, they regularly climb cliffs that most agile people dare not attempt, they have swum hundreds of meters of open ocean to save walking around to the next headland, and despite their silent protests, they occasionally don their doggy PFDs to join us for a paddle - sometimes kilometres offshore.

Although they are probably superbly qualified to join us on the Archipallo expedition, we simply cannot find the space in our kayaks for two pint-sized stowaways. I am not certain they would quite understand the risks of swimming in crocodile infested estuaries either.

Despite their undoubtedly tiny brains, these puppies seem to fully comprehend our intentions to lump them on our accommodating family (thank you!!!) for months on end while we flit off around the world. Despite being offered more comfortable bedding than an Arabian prince, Pippy has taken to sleeping in a box of dry bags in the spare room / gear pile, and I am sure she is signalling her desire to find one that fits.

I half expect to be sitting on a sandy cay somewhere up in north QLD, rummaging through my boat only to discover that the dry bag containing the last of our emergency rations has two hungry puppies wriggling about inside it!

I promise, Winnie and Pip, if we could fit you in the boats, we would.