Saturday 24 March 2007

SUW T-7

Ugh.

This time next week, I'll be travelling South. For some reason it makes me more nervous.

Caught the later half of "Out of Doors" live this morning. I'll catch the rest on the 'listen again' feature.

The happy, cheery postman brings a free TGO re-subscription gift of a Colin Prior 220' panorama of Torridon. I'll see if I can get a frame in town that is 3 foot long and 7 inches tall.

Also arriving, my trail-book for the Southern Upland Way, "The New Penguin Book of Scottish Short Stories", ordered second hand for a penny from Silver Sporran Books via Amazon (plus postage and package).

Furthermore, a big box from Expedition Foods, which I had ordered on Monday. The Drytech food feels weird in its figure-hugging packaging. No wasted volume there. The Pemmikan is from a German company called Cathay. I look forward to tasting it on the trail, "für trekking" as the label says. No pre-trek nibbles to try out the delights.

And some birthday cake from my Dad. Which will be eaten today.

Flat currently smells of Nikwax. It smells like .. preparation.

Off to clean boots. Yup, I'll be wearing boots on the SUW, leaving my Terrocs at home. Choose your own reason from last night's poem.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you putting wax on your ZG65s?

Londonbackpacker said...

Just seen your odiogo link, a fun bit of software.

Shame the voice can't be changed
:-)

AktoMan said...

Sounds better than my actual voice!

http://backpackinglight.hipcast.com/deluge/cd753cec-6e1c-7e86-2129-bda5e9a89926.mp3

:)

No choice of voice, the provider supplies it. Nice of them. Another web 2.0 service.

Londonbackpacker said...

Its funny how we all think our own voices are so bad. :-)

AktoMan said...

LOL.

I love hearing posh telephone voices when they switch to their real ones. No doubt all very different to people's own 'inner voice'.

Is it just me, but once you know what people sound like, then you 'hear' emails in their own accent? Wonder if it's the same for blogs?

Anonymous said...

You're wearing boots on the SUW? There are some long stretches on hard surfaces. Then again, there are some short stretches on very soft (and wet) surfaces. By all means ask me if you want any info about the route that you haven't picked up elsewhere. Don't forget to collect the 'waymerks' along the way... a great test for your navigation and treasure-hunting skills. ( paddy_dillon@hotmail.com )

AktoMan said...

Thanks for that, Paddy. I'll be sticking to the official path. Its the first coast-to-coast I'll have done, and I don't know how long I'll take. I'm keeping it fairly loose in a Bill Bryson sort of way.

As to footwear, I've retired my Terrocs for the meantime, and have had no problems with the ZG65's on trails (including rocky sections) at Linn of Dee. With superfeet, and decent socks (and foot care regime), I hope I'll have less blisters than I had on the WHW with the Roclites. But my feet survived and the shoes have been relegated to weekend town wear.

As to waymerks, well, that's one of the reasons I'm doing the SUW. If I can't find one, then I'm not the cunning, scrounging soul I thought I was.