TRACKING THE WENDIGO

I have various sacks and bags and satchels and hold-alls and carriers lying around all over the place - and various things that would look good inside said conveyers - and now the fun of deciding what to take begins in earnest. I'm playing around with it and tomorrow I hope to go for a long walk with a full backpack to decide finally whether or not it is too heavy for 6-8 weeks of hitchhiking/CouchSurfing/Camping madness.

The route, like The Song, remains the same. Noora (who I believe is still in Europe SOMEWHERE) is attending the Nowhere Festival outside Zaragoza in early July, so where exactly we'll meet remains a mystery...

The nerves... Oh how they kick in when you have to click CONFIRM for an online ferry booking.

The only thing that really remains with regard to this adventure is to get up one morning and walk out the front door, and I find myself repeating the adage that "there is no courage without fear, there is no courage without fear"....

Reading Hakim Bey last night, now travel really does appear to be the manifestation of the dynamic and fluid lifestyle that is really the greatest freedom a human being can recognise. At least with nomadism there is a constant effort not to crystallize the self or one's thoughts because there is a constant change in one's surroundings. Which perhaps is conducive to creativity and inspiration, thought and freedom. I think I have decided what the "other book" I'm taking travelling is going to be :P

Hallucinema, love the cannibal
Arch-trip sordid samsara shuffling single streets after
The drugged ore in the shuddering veins of eagle-man,
Wendigo son.

In other words I'm still in Wales. Exams begin tomorrow. Preparing for my expedition this summer is keeping my head together.

The decision as to whether or not I take my frame backpack goes on unresolved, though the more I find I want to take the more likely it looks, I'll just have to pack everything in when I have it all in the same place and see what fits where... Exciting eh?

The route for July and August now looks a little different, being:

- Milton Keynes to Dover
- Dover to Calais (only £12 on a ferry for a foot passenger!)
- Calais to fair Paris to meet Noora
- With Noora toward the Pyrenees!
- Through the entire length of Spain
- Storm into Morocco just as summer hits its peak temperature. (eek.)
- Either across Northern Africa or back through Spain/France or by boat to Italy (to Damanhur?)
- Up into Eastern Europe to festivals!
- Possibly part ways with Noora around Germany and head back towards Paris and UK (or continue to North Eastern Europe? Even Finland??)

Hmmm much has yet to be decided...

Today my Hennessy Hammock arrived in the post! My plan is that it will come in very handy for wild camping when that is required and perhaps there are no couchsurfers about...

Also, a useful tool I have just started using is iGoogle, my personalised Google homepage. So I can store all my necessary links on there and not have to spend ages searching individual peoples journals/blogs for updates thanks to Google Reader. That will save some serious time in internet cafes methinks.

I have just returned from a long trek in the bluebell woods just outside town (ALL the woods around here are FULL of bluebells!!) to test my hammock! I will post photos on here when I find my card reader... I should tidy up, that might help.

-------------

And here it is!

So here I am, still in the verdant valleys of Wales, 4 weeks away from the end of my course at UWL, 9 weeks from graduation and 10 weeks from the start of my trip!

I know there's not a lot to say yet really, but at the very least planning for the trip begins now because I can't wait to go! So where am I going? Well that remains to be seen, the most recent plan looks like I'll be meeting Noora in Paris around 15th July, then heading East by hitchhiking to various festivals in the Baltics, namely Slovakia and Bosnia I think.

What am I taking? As little as possible! I don't even really want to take my frame-backpack, though even that is on the smaller end of the scale as far as frames go. I think I'll take two small bags in the end. Inside so far is my mandolin, a change of clothes, a bottle of water, my camera, a little food I guess and a map of Europe! But this is all subject to change...

From Eastern Europe, we are free as the wind! Probably a Westerly wind that might take us back into France and down through Spain as far as Morocco...

The only time restraints on the whole thing are for Noora to be back in Finland by Sept 1st, and I am free as long as my money lasts.

I wonder how many backpack adventures Jack Kerouac is responsible for.....