Day one and no more sleeps

All the months and weeks of planning and preparation; now as the Anglican prayer book says " What has been done, has been done, and what has not been done, has not been done."

Later this afternoon I start the long relatively passive stages of my journey. My flights are about 26 hours from Wellington to Auckland to San Francisco to Paris with several hours transitioning in both places. My arrival time in Paris is about 11 am Tuesday local time (and 9pm Tuesday NZ time) and I have a hostel booked for two nights before heading to the foot of the Pyrennees. There should be time to recover from jet-lag. Maybe time to enjoy a cafe solo in view of the Eiffel Tower. Here I go, dreaming ahead again! So my gear is packed with a thermal layer added given reports of unseasonal cold weather. I've scanned the weather forecasts and there are suggestions that it may be clearing by the time I approach my literal mountain on Saturday morning. With apologies to John Bunyan ..distant memories from reading PILGRIM'S PROGRESS "...as 'Much Afraid'.... approached the River....., ( she fussed an awful lot but got there in the end with much grace) it...that river... was never known to be so low.....and the sound of her singing was heard."Read more