i am sitting around darwin airport for three hours, until 6am.....half way home after my little jaunt to bali!
and i am feeling quite good about things.
my one bag travel experiment worked out just perfectly and i truly doubt i will ever haul along checked luggage again.
into one H.A.L. backpack from timbuk2 (not a huge bag by any means.... well within international cabin luggage limits) i managed to put:
a swimsuit
a silk sarong (worth it...it folded into nothing and it was warm but so light)
3 complete sets of clothes....one on, one off, one washing
a small toiletries bag (the ziplock limit plus an extra bag of gear)
a camera
an ipod
an iphone
an ipad
one fits- all charger for the ithings, plus a camera battery charger (bulky and i didn't use it....so i am seriously assessing it's value to me on my next trip.
four sets of prescription glasses (i went up there with a sunglass pair and a plain pair, and i had my eyes tested in denpasar, and two new sets made....and omgoodness i cannot believe how much more i can see now!)
a pair of sandals ( i am wearing clogs)
a small jewellery pouch
a heavy duty samsonite collapsible bag that folds into a heavy little packet....i hauled it north, stuffed full of soap for gifts.
(i eyed it off all week....it was always in the back of my mind....oooo if i see something fabulous i simply must have, i've always got the samsonite folding bag to fall back on! but because i had already folded it up and because i was enjoying one-bag-me, nothing actually tempted me enough to consider it and all the attendant hassle and then, after a few years of dusting/laundering/mending the thing, i'd be decluttering it anyway.... i am finally cutting out the middleman!).
on the whole, i think i am ready to lose the jewellery pouch and the camera battery charger (take two charged batteries instead, unless trip is epic trans-europe tour kind of thing...in which case, the husband could carry it).
i am also carrying a few packets of coconut milk powder and fat fresh indonesian vanilla beans. i see coconut milk soaps and a lot of vanilla sugar in my immediate future).
the quarantine and customs guy looked over the foodstuffs and said...is that it? is that all you've got? and i gave him the big happy smile and said, o, i've carried it allllllll home on previous trips already.
i wasn't even fazed when we had to walk down stairs off the aircraft and miles acoss the tarmac and then up more stairs.....all with the slowly mending broken leg....because my bag wasn't a nightmare to carry.
packing took five minutes, instead of the usual kind of harried twenty minutes or so.
it really does feel light and simple and clean and easy.
i used to be an exhausted wreck by this stage in the journey and now i just feel fine.
but i still have a long way to go to get to my dad's example.
he set off alone on a 12 month, round the world trip in his sixties, with a tiny bag containing: spare set of clothes (he was wearing the other set), a razor, a bar of soap, a toothbrush, some toothpaste, a comb, and a newspaper.
i swear to god, it was impressive.
he came home with a whole load of stuff, including a volvo and a bunch of paintings....but that was months and months later.
and i know the corrupting influence of my mother had been at work there too!
