Now bring me that horizon!

By Sundance: 

The day has arrived at last.

Late. But it has arrived, none the less. Packing up and leaving the place you've lived in for three years is a time-consuming, frustrating process, which has left me with a whole new level of empathy for the launch crews who manage space missions. Another launch delay! Grrr! Frustrating and moderately embarassing, but you do eventually get through them all.

We had intended to set out two days ago, but arranging shipping for our belongings back to Australia and the removal of furniture has pushed that date back to last night. To say that we left our apartment at the crack of dusk would be generous, and it was tempting to stay for another day, but the landlords are moving new people in today and so we had to get out. And so we loaded up our bikes, like snails climbing into our shells, in the wee small hours, left behind our keys and made ourselves homeless for the next few months.

The first question was how well we'd manage to ride with the paniers and our backpacks, and fortunately neither of us had any trouble or toppled over or anything like that. We then rode out to our friends Rianne and Julian who generously let us couch-surf at their place This was a very useful practice ride, as it gave us a good idea of how well our gear would fit on the bikes. I'm glad to say it all seemed pretty good, although we're going to try to rebalance the weight and reduce a bit of bulk here and there. It also meant we got extra pre-travel hugs this morning, warm showers, and a nice spacious kitchen in which to prepare breakfast today.

And now the air is cool, as winter moves its way in from the Arctic, but the sun is out and we're ready to put some kilometres beneath our wheels. And the knowledge that we're on our way back to Australia and will be seeing a whole slew of new stuff en route is slowly seeping in. That's a good feeling.