1 Days Until Trip - Day 159 of Training / Diet

Not even 1 day left as I type, so I'm  giving a quick update. Yesterday and yes I was cutting it fine, I decided I'd better once and for all set up the tent, a two person one I bought for the trip....the 1 man would be too claustrophobic. 

Anyway, I unpack the the tent and for those of you who do not know me, I'm not technicaly minded.......for example, when the kids were small I hammered in the screws for the child locks in the kitchen as using that screw-driver was wrecking my head. 

Yesterday in front of me I had a bag of pegs, no bother there, a bag with 2 sets of poles that are kept together by internal elastic and an ouster and inner sheet....no bother, I'm Mr D.I.Y. 

I set up the two lot of poles and as one was long, I presumed. obviously it goes length ways, so I stick in through some loops on the inner sheet but didn't work and then where was the other pole to go. Take two I realised I obviously had to bend the poles through the loops on either end.....so tried that. A few attempts later as I couldn't get the inner sheet to look like anything I remembered in the outdoor shop.

So I gave in after a few "fs'" and maybe a couple of other words too, and off down to the camp shop. In the window was a tent in mid air, not even pegged down and it was in the shape of the tent so I explained to the guy I wanted mine to look like that. 

the correct way...eventually :-)

I was sent upstairs to look at the same model I had and he told me to take pictures. Then I discovered and he confirmed that the poles go through  the outer sheet first and once that was up you hang the inner tent from that....easy when you know how.

I get home and with new confidence I tackled this challenge again......and not the ten minutes it should take but with some extra time and the sweat pouring out of me, I finally get the tent up.....the only hope now is that practice makes perfect :-) If it was on video it would have been some laugh.

Hopefully, smoother operation from here on in :-)
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In case you're wondering what exactly I'm bringing, here yo go:

The various weights are listed above too so as you can see, it all adds up. Here's the bike fully loaded. If I was to change things I would have bought the bigger pannier set but the price jumps up significantly so not worth it unless I was to do it more regular. We'll leave that judgement until the end of my trip.

the "BEAST"

Bye for now, keep smiling :-)