Kitchen Sink

We are only going away for a weekend and the amount of kit we have is ridiculous, these words are heard everytime we go away so something has to change as we normally travel by car but the big trip is by air. I havent travelled by air for a lot of years so packing light has never been a feature in my tarvel arrangements. Just checking a few items of essential clothing on the scales and the totals start to mount up. Seems like 23kg is about the standard for hold luggage and 6kg for carry on, doesnt seem to add up to a lot of kit. Camera, lens and tripod add up to 6kg so I will have to be carefull about over doing my carry-on bag. When The Boss went to Japan she managed to keep to her weight limits ok, but it was warm and wet when she went and she went for two weeks. We will be in Oslo for 2 nights on the way out and 1 night on the way back and 4 nights in Svalbard. We are going to Oslo a day early to have time to see the city in daylight. We dont know what the temperatures will be like in Oslo in March but we dont expect it to be warm! So do we take extra clothing or just use some of the stuff we are already taking, that is our dilema.We dont want to have too little clothing but we also dont want to have too much. The layers we are taking for Svalbard will be too hot for travelling round Oslo in as they are meant for standing still staring into space, so do we have to take another coat to cover our time in Oslo? We have lists of clothing and I can imagine they will be changed numerous times before we finally settle on what will be in the travel bags come March 16th. 

Feet First

The e-mail was sent on the 2nd April to Travelquest asking about the possibility of booking two places on the 2015 Eclipse trip! The next day there was a reply from them saying, congratulations you are booked onto the trip all that needs to be done now is phone the team and complete the payments form. Which the Boss did that night and the next day the confirmation e-mail arrived, we were really going to Svalbard. Bradt Travel guides to Spitsbergen and maps of the Spitsbergen archipelago were purchased and then assiduously studied.
We thought that as we were off on a cruise we would have loads of free time to study the maps and books on board as well as the guide books we had for the different locations we would be visiting.
Just as well that we read the books before we set of then isn't it, free time on board was not happening. We thought we had planned for every eventuality whilst we would be on board, cold weather gear, check. Warm weather gear, check. A reduced set of camera gear, check. Tripod, check. Computer, check. GPS, check. Extension leads, check. Everything but the kitchen sink was packed and we then had to carry it all on board. We are so used to travelling by car that travelling light to us is leaving the rear seats in the car. We really thought that we had pared everything down to a minimum and were only taking essentials. This trip taught us a few things about packing and selection of kit. First out are computers, too big and too heavy. We hope to take extra memory cards instead. My tripod is too heavy, so a lighter one is going to be purchased. One camera and one lens for Me again to keep the weight down. Cold weather clothing is bulky but not that heavy so the travel bags shouldn't be overweight but footwear is another matter. We took walking boots on the cruise and they certainly added to the weight of the bags but the boots we will be taking to Svalbard are even heavier, so do we wear them or pack them.