Travels in the Van 2024: Packing
















The mathematics of packing

The trick is to reduce,

to take just enough

But it's a hard calculation to resolve

with a list of what not to take.

To learn from past excesses and error might b he answer.

To make make things swallow other things whole,

to tuck them away, round them down,

square them away,

to leave enough space to breathe.

And so there's less to do.

I'm ahead, I have time in hand.

I will resist last minute adding 

and stick to the smallest number.

Reduce, take away, subtract.

(prompted by 'Burning the Old Year', by Naomi Shihab Nye)


We're leaving a month later than last year, to avoid the colder weather we encountered in Northern Spain and Portugal last January. We've also had a lovely week of cycling and visiting family resident in Mallorca (not a van trip) so haven't bothered to unpack completely. 

The plan is to drive through France to Galicia, visit the parts of Portugal we missed; Porto, the Douro Valley, and at the end of week 6, leave the Van in Toulouse, fly home for my Mum's 90th birthday, and come back out for April in Provence.

That's the plan. Cycle routes constructed and downloaded by the route-master, campsites vaguely identified, teabags stowed.

Quite pleased with the packing.

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