It's all in the preparation, so i'm told.

 It was kind of Mike Knipe to invite me on his TGO challenge training walk this year. And now it's not far off at all.
 I'm not doing the chally myself but the others doing the walk are. They are all bloggers and so I will let them write their own thoughts.
 Our training walk is from Lauder to Dunbar in Scotland's border country. Not an area i have walked in before so i am looking forward to it immensely. Just a shame that Sheila has to work, again.

 With less than a week to go, I have been trying to find all my bits and bobs that have basically been redundant and scattered around in different places over the last few months. Then deciding what to take,  considering the incredible weather we have had recently i need to pack for very cold and very wet.

 Then deciding what I need to buy. You would think that after all these years I would have it all off pat. But no, the memory plays tricks. Now where is that list.

 Should I take gas or meths or both. Choices, choices. Which stove? Which sleeping bag, which mat? You know what it’s like.

 So today I packed, emptied, changed a few things and repacked. Seems really heavy I thought and I still need to put some food in. Geej.

 I better do a training, training walk and see if my back, knees, ankles, hips etc can still carry it.

 I set off.  Luckily we live where there are plenty of up's and so I didn't need to travel anywhere to find out what I already knew. It's hard work this “up" business with a 90% full pack.

  Our walk in Scotland includes one day of 28km. Oh joy. I hope it’s sunny.
Today I did about 13km. So to do double that amount is going to be tough considering the lack of backpacking fitness.

 But that is what the training walk is all about. Making sure the muscles get used to the weight, the mileage can be done, the gear choices are correct and it all works well.
 I’m sure the others will be thinking similar to me.
 But bring it on, I'm really looking forward to my first nights of the year under the stars. It will feel as though spring has arrived, even though it’s now summer. There is still plenty of snow around and forecast. The temperatures forecast for the weekend and beyond are not encouraging with -11C wind chill on one of the nights.

 According to my New Years resolutions we should have had 3 weekend backpacks done by now.
But at least this, hopefully is now the start proper, of a good years walking.