The time is fast approaching…. The flat in Kendal has been vacated and the bags are (nowhere near) packed and I’m (almost) ready to go.
I’ve got to admit that as much as I’m looking forward to starting the trip, it was bitter-sweet leaving Kendal. Over the last two years I’ve come to realise that it really is just about the perfect place to live…. It’s not just that there’s plenty of climbing/biking/walking/whatever-you-want, I’ve been lucky enough to make some excellent friends while I lived there. Once I’m actually on the road and have time to relax a little I think I’ll really miss Kendal, but for now there’s too much in the way of last minute planning (panic) to be done.
Part of that has involved testing (playing with) a new toy – a Satellite Personal Tracker: SPOT.
SPOT was a birthday/Christmas present from my family, and is basically a GPS based emergency locator beacon. If it all goes a little bit wrong in the middle of nowhere then I can press the “help” button, the unit then transmits my exact co-ordinates to a network of low-orbit satellites (fancy, eh?) which then emails a list of family and friends asking for then to help me out. If it all goes very wrong I press the “911″ button (ok, it’s a bit American) and the message goes to a command centre who send more professional help, which I trust will arrive in suitably dramatic style: if there aren’t helicopters blaring Ride of the Valkyries, I’ll be devastated.
Obviously it’s not something to press just to see if it works, but not all the buttons are doom and gloom: push the big “ok” button and your contact list gets an email with a message saying “All’s Well!” and a link to Google Maps showing your current location to within a few meters. There’s every chance that they’ll be stuck in the office when they get these emails, so it’s a button I think I’ll particularly enjoy pressing when I’m at the more overtly spectacular points of the journey!
After all, one of the best thing about being on holiday is remembering the people that aren’t… I’d like to think I was a fairly altruistic kind of a guy in that way.
I’ll not be able to update the blog all that regularly, particularly when I’m out trekking, so I’ve set up a map which will automatically update as I push the big, happy, “I’m OK!” button. To view it, click on the generic map on the right hand side of the blog….
But only if you want to.
That’ll all come into play over the next few weeks. For now though, I know that I promised less writing and more photos, so here’s a few gratuitous shots from a recent day out in the (English) Lake District. I really hope that Patagonia’s a little less wet….
No, he's not posing, he's just that much of a man.
Jack's Rake on Pavey Ark
Stickle Gill
I’ve just enjoyed an early Christmas Dinner with the family so am away to sleep off a massive excess of turkey and cake….
Take care folks!
Dougie
