… just in time

09th June – Rotherhithe

2 days before the Scoresby Sund Expedition starts

The spare room is looking a tad untidy, luckily no visitors are staying this week!

Despite being years in the planning I now find myself in a flurry of last minute panics. To be fair, we are only driving to Scotland tomorrow (via Yorkshire) so not exactly off the planet. If I need to buy some woolly underpants or another bloody charger cable, I’m sure I can sort that out before sailing off to the distant Faroes.

However, there really is no excuse for me still needing to sign off my Will in Blackheath tomorrow afternoon! My appointment is in the afternoon because tomorrow morning, I need to collect my rounds of ammunition from a West London dealer as the firearms supplier in Oban couldn’t source the correct calibre in time. It’s all legit, no grubby brown envelopes needed.

My new courtesy flags arrived just in time! I rather like the Faroe Island flag.

I couldn’t find my old courtesy flags anywhere, so I ordered some new ones from J W Plant which have just arrived by an express Fed Ex bike van.

I bought the shoes last night from Cotswold Outdoor who gave me 20% discount when I showed them my RNLI Governors card which I thought was pretty generous.

Scarpa Mojito Trail GTX – obviously the GTX version make you run much faster

It is rather boring as these are my third pair of Scarpa Trail GTX shoes, I simply can’t find anything to match them for versatility.

Sadly the tread on the Scarpas does tend to collect grass and debris so care needs to be taken before boarding.
Montane Terra Trousers

The only other thing I buy time-and-time again are the Montane Terra Trousers which are light and packable, immensely hardwearing and very quick drying. I’ll take two pairs with me plus a pair of brilliant Devold trousers made partly from merino wool but probably only available in Norway. No jeans allowed.

I’m not really a bad dog – I’m a really bad dog!

To add to the frisson of excitement, the dog carer pulled out yesterday so half the day was spent scrolling through the “Rover” website to find another one. Happily, that is now resolved, I hope.

Then I discover my bank card reader has a fault so I was unable to open up the mobile banking app. That took all the morning and I’m no nearing to resolve it. As I am away for three months, if I owe you any dosh, then tough, you’ll just have to wait!

And now there is a planned train strike, just when Dom had booked his return ticket from Inverness. Not sure how that will be resolved. It’s a long way on a Brompton.

Oh well, I never thought the trip would be easy.

2 responses to “… just in time”

  1. …3 months! So we are going to have something interesting to read this summer!
    Tell us more about your plans, and when and how you started thinking about this adventure. I wish I could join you from the Hebrides, where we should arrive tomorrow if we are lucky, but in the interest of my marriage, my kids and my employment I’d better go back to Plymouth, and fast!
    All best wishes Alasdair, I hope you’ll write a book about your Vertue adventures! Will wait for you on the Orwell to plan new ones…
    Matteo

  2. You must stick with your plan, it will be the most amazing achievement. Next year hopefully we will be able to enjoy a meal and a few beers at the Butt and Oyster and tell each other of all our yarns. I love your fantastic blog! Enjoy Sheephaven while you can.

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