10 days to go…

Yesterday both Hoff and I had our last days at work – for 10 and a bit months. We celebrated in style – with a Pizza Express (really pushing the boat out) and Agatha Christie’s ‘Witness for the Prosecution’ at London City Hall (well worth a watch). Whilst we’ll miss our colleagues, I certainly won’t miss the commuting scrum and nor will I miss Hoff’s work phone going off in the middle of the night!

We’re now surrounded by vacuum bags and metres of bubble wrap. Picture Joey and Chandler’s bubble wrap scene (for those Friends fans amongst you) – but significantly less fun. I never knew we had so much, well, crap, for lack of a better word. Maybe Marie Kondo is on to something as I am sure that half of the stuff we are packing we haven’t used in years (and I am definitely sure some of the things I’ve just dusted off and stashed away have never even left the cupboard we put them in when we moved in). It’s amazing how much stuff you accumulate in day to day life and I have to admit that we have realised both how much we have hoarded over the years and also how many things we just don’t need. So we’re taking the chance and doing a bit of a ‘spring clean’ at the same time. We’ve both promised to be better when we come back and consume less, as we’ve already got much of what we need for a long time!

Following on from less consumption, another of the things we are very conscious of is generating CO2 as we fly/bus/train around the world. My dad is pretty keen on doing his bit for the environment and although his timing could be better, he does also make a good point in highlighting that our trip, whilst well intended, will be adding to the issues causing climate change. We’ve made the decision to carbon offset as much as we can – starting with our flights. Having done some calculations we have worked out that we’ll need to plant c.61 trees to capture the carbon our flights will produce. Our aim is to start planting these before we leave and then continue planting them when we get back – 61 trees need a lot of space but luckily North Devon is quite big!

We’ll be exploring the more ‘environmental’ elements of our trip as we go, seeing as our aim is to visit some of the more pristine areas in South America and New Zealand that have been less impacted by humans (walking and camping where we can).

Anyway – that’s all for now as there are more boxes to be packed. I think a beer or two might make the process a bit more palatable.

Alex