How much is not enough

After having done a test pack to evaluate how well we could cope with a miserly luggage allowance of just 16.5kg the cold hard facts have to be faced up to. We are using two Mountain Equipment duffle bags of 100 litres and 120 litres which have starting weights of 2.2kg and 2.5kg respectively. So straight away we are cut to 14kg of clothing and kit before the 2.6kg of boots leaves me with 11.4kg. The tripods we specially purchased for pack ability and weight feel awfully heavy at 1.4kg each. The list of clothing we have already prepared is starting to look a bit optimistic but we can but try. The first attempts at packing come in at a hefty 20.1kg and 23kg which even I admit is a lot better than I thought it would be. With two further rethinks and discarding what seems to me to be an awful lot of warm clothing and our only pairs of shoes the totals are down to 14.2kg and 15.87kg. These weights are well within the 16.5kg limit but we still need to fit the coats in at 1.5kg and 1.7kg each, mine will definitely have to go in but the Boss might just wear hers. Knowing what airports are like temperature wise I couldn’t wear mine without melting and there’s no way I would want to carry it around. We unpacked the bags and wrote down the revised inventory and realised we hadn’t taken any pictures of the piles of clothing we had to somehow get into the bags. So everything was laid out on the bed and the photos were taken, then everything was hung up and put back into draws and pods till it is used again. After updating the relevant spread sheet and much shaking of heads about the pared to the bone list of clothing thoughts of tackling the hand luggage were put on hold for another time.

Its now very real

Monday 8^th December and up pops an e-mail from Travelquest informing us the final instalment for the trip is due before the 17^th. This should be easy we thought, wrong! The Boss tried two cards and they were both declined with a misleading message about payments made. So the Boss fired off an e-mail to Jay at Travelquest about the possibility of a double payment. In the meantime she also contacted the CC Company to check that the cards were ok which they were. Jay did reply eventually to say that no payment had been made but to try again and if that failed just ring up and pay over the phone. So Monday evening the following week the payment was refused again so the Boss gave them a ring and it transpired that they were having a problem with the secure payment software and it would be quicker and easier to manually input the payment into their system. Bingo, job done and payment accepted. Later the same evening the final invoice arrived with a detailed packing list. As we are travelling on a scheduled flight from Newcastle to Amsterdam and onto Oslo we assumed our baggage allowance to be around 23kg which would be a struggle but it would stop Me from packing a load of stuff we might need, just in case! Upon reading the list of essential kit we would need we started to feel very smug as we had just about all that was on the list and the bits we were missing were very small and light so wouldn’t really add much weight. We read through the list again and noticed a section near the top which mentioned Charter flights (When packing, please bear in mind that baggage restrictions on our charter flights is limited to 36 pounds (16.5 kg’s) for checked bags and 13 pounds (6 kg’s) per person for carryon baggage.)  So that’s a 1/3 of our baggage allowance wiped out in a stroke. We needed a set of baggage scales as soon as possible. Upshot is the boots I’m taking weigh in at 2.6kg and the Boss’s are 1.6kg so this packing lark is going to be very difficult. The hand luggage isn’t going to be any easier as we had already decided to leave the computers at home and just take extra cards for the cameras. We had already ruled out any sort of telescope because of weight as well as size and the fact that we would need a sturdy tripod to carry a scope which is even more weight. Airline suitable tripods were purchased which will go in the hold luggage adding another 1.5kg each. Speaking of cameras raises another interesting dilemma, does a camera in its own case add into my carryon luggage allowance or will it be separate. As it is I’m probably taking three cameras with the separate batteries and chargers for each of them and the Boss is taking two but with an extra lens for her main camera along with batteries and chargers. These will have to go in the carryon luggage just for safety.  I imagine we will both struggle with these limits as we are taking a very scaled down kit list so as to be able to take the specialist clothing we will definitely need while up there. The next post will have to deal with what is and isn’t going to be in the bags and why.

Oslo flights booked.

We finally got the word from Travel Quest that it was safe to book our flights to Oslo at the end of May, but seeing as we had more pressing matters to deal with it was put on the “things to do” list! Next up was the honeymoon trip and all the photos that entails so we really had forgotten about booking until we received an e-mail from Scousey about said images which ended with a ps. about being booked for Oslo on the 16^th March. Google page fired up and flights to Oslo on screen. To my twisted mind a direct flight to Oslo had to be better than an indirect flight with a four hour stopover in Paris. So Newcastle to Oslo it was to be or so I thought! Yes you can fly direct from Newcastle to Oslo via Manchester, Heathrow, Birmingham, Gatwick, Stanstead, Glasgow or East Midlands. What part of direct do these eejits not get, after much cursing and gnashing of teeth a direct flight from Newcastle to Oslo was found via Schiphol with a two hour layover. So we set off with KLM at 05:55 from Newcastle and land at Schiphol at 08:20 with two hours to look round the transit lounge then leave there at 10:20 and arrive in Oslo at 12:10. Not being much of a flyer I didn’t realise at first that big cities have more than one airport so the codes after the destination names actually refer to specific sites. The Radisson hotel we are booked into in Oslo (OSL) is right next to Gardermoen airport, so it is a five minute walk from arrivals which is fantastic; it is then a three minute walk to a train station that goes into the heart of Oslo in less than twenty minutes. We booked the extra day in Oslo so that we would have time to visit the City without it ending up a galloping visit, so as it stands at the moment we have Monday afternoon/evening and all day Tuesday to look round the City. Having a look at the Oslo Tourism web page shows lots of interesting places to see, museums, art galleries and parks to name a few but a lot of our itinerary will depend on the weather in March.

Testing, testing!

The Kielder Spring starcamp straddled February and March and was to be the first starcamp of the year but someone had other ideas. Galloway decided to hold their spring event the weekend before Kielder, fantastic for us as it meant leaving Thursday for Galloway and returning Sunday then leaving Tuesday for Kielder. Plenty of opportunity for testing clothing and footwear in the cold of winter.
Just shows how upside down the weather is at the moment, gale force winds and driving rain featured nightly with lovely calm warm days for sightseeing. On the way home from Galloway we were calling in at the campsite at Kielder to see what conditions were like. The forecasts on the Saturday for Sunday morning onwards weren't very encouraging so with this in mind we left the campsite early to head through the New Galloway Forest avoiding the A75 which was littered with contraflow roadworks. Flooding became a problem only after we passed through Gretna Green and on to the road to Newcastleton through Langhome. Streams and becks were bursting their banks and flooding fields and roads as the rain came down in squalls as we approached Kielder. The campsite was the worst we had seen it with all the electric camping pitches unusable and quite a few under water. The boss took lots of pictures and as we made our way home to possibly send the dreaded cancellation email out the rain died off and the sun started breaking through the clouds. By the time we arrived home the sun was shining brightly but we still had to contact the other organisers to decide what would happen. Tell everyone on the electric side what its like and give them the option of a refund was the path taken. To our surprise most people said "we know what it can be like so we are coming anyway" so the game was afoot!
Tuesday morning came and it was a lovely sunny day for our drive up to Kielder. On arriving at the campsite we noticed the flooding had abated somewhat and there were a few hardy soles set up already. After unloading the car we had a tour of the paddy fields and it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be, still no electric tent pitches but we could put more hard standing hookups out.
The weather seemed to copy Galloway with nice sunny warm days and driving rain with the associated clouds at night. Nighttime temps never really dropped into the minus figures we had hoped for although we did have a couple of frosty mornings.
So two starcamps attended and no proper winter weather to test out new kit, we only have one more starcamp at Tan Hill in April this season. It would be nice to have the weather conditions we need but the end of April is cutting it a bit fine, but you cant count on the weather doing what it is supposed to do.

Kit Lists

Still over a year till we set-off but kit considerations are always being discussed. We went to the Newcastle branch of http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/  to get some presents and as often happens when we start looking at the latest releases cogs start to turn. While looking at the down jackets I noticed the new Rab Batura hanging on the rail. I had placed this one at the top of my most favoured jackets list but had yet to see one in my size to try on. Bingo, they had one in my size. It made me look like the Michelin Man but it did fit and it was the one I had wanted. I noticed that they had other sizes in and asked if the Boss was going to try one on for size, to my amazement she did. Considering where we are going and how bad she suffers with the cold I thought it might be the answer to her search for a very warm coat. We left the shop with the presents we came for but with two extras that hadn't been planned, ah well!
Over the Christmas and New Year I had been researching gloves and snow boots on various web sites and we came to the conclusion that the Bosses "kinky boots" were in fact exactly the same as a make of boots called Sorels which seemed the best of the best for the uses we had in mind. The Bosses version are white rubber around the foot with treated leather around the ankles and up the shin with laces to make a snug fit. Inside the boot is a felt foot bed for insulation and a separate felt inner-boot for extra insulation. While there isn't a  label saying Sorel anywhere the construction is the exactly same and if the Boss says they are very warm and comfortable who am I to doubt. As we are going into Newcastle to do some shopping I suggest a trip into http://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/  as I had seen they had some gloves in I wanted to try. The Boss said that when She had been in there earlier in the week that they had an offer on Bridgdale socks. The gloves were a perfect fit and along with quite a few pairs of socks each we made our way to the check-out. While standing in the queue the Boss asked "isn't that the make of duffel bag we use"? The sign said "Mountain Equipment Duffel's 50% off" needless to say we had to have another one, this time a bigger 120L version. Next off to  http://www.ldmountaincentre.com/ to see if they had any macho male versions of the Bosses "kinky boots". After checking on the shops stock levels the salesman found two sizes for me to try on. Twenty minutes later we left the shop with a massive box containing my new size 10.5 decidedly macho black "kinky boots"! The list of clothing still needed is shrinking, from memory I think it is mitts and a balaclava for the Boss.