The Plan

Thanks to Robbie Burns we all know that

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men,
Gang aft agley,
An'lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy

so, lest foresight may be vain......we are leaving our plans loose and flexible. Today we will write "The List" of things to pack. The logistics of planning for a rather circular route involving three very different climates and activities means that our packing will be somewhat all encompassing. From ski boots to sandals, city clothes to shorts, camp gear to credit card and everything in between will have to find a place.
Loosely and flexibly we will fly first to Calgary. From there we will travel in our friend Anne's, very kindly offered, Volkswagon camper van out to Canmore where brother-in-law Greg is waiting for Bernie to admire and assist with his Panel truck reno and for his expertise in shopping for a motorbike to go to Inuvik. (That will not be part of this trip!) And sister Nath is waiting to catch upon the last six months and do some walking/snowshoeing and whatever else the weather permits and Scrabble when it doesn't.

Then out to Golden to see Caimin and Tessa and the future-grandchild-bump. We are also looking forward to meeting Tessa's parents who will share that grandparenthood with us. There we will climb some mountains and ski back down again. There are no real opportunities for hill climbing practice near East LaHave and we are going to need it for the next leg of the voyage..

Which is to Turkey. To get there we have a race through Heathrow so fingers crossed for no delays  on the Calgary-Heathrow flight. There we spend the first two nights in Antalya, do some last minute purchasing of those essentials which cannot travel when you have no time to check luggage, check out what was an important Phoenician port, and try to undo the worst of jetlag and see how our Turkish communication skills work out.
After that it is all unknown territory. We will sleep where we arrive each night, walk where the trail takes us and eat when we can. So no plan.......that way nothing can gang agley.

And now down to that packing list.