Today marks the first official day of my summer holidays, meaning I officially only have one more year left of my school career. It's astonishing how brief six years feel when you're looking back on them. Year 12 was definitely a progressive year for me, and I hope that my AS results in summer reflect that too!
But exam results is a far too scary and depressing topic to dwell upon on the first day of summer, so I'm going to lock that away in a mental drawer for now.
As I promised in my previous post ('Counting Down') I'm going to talk about getting ready for Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, which is likely going to permeate every subsequent post for the next couple of weeks. I will be there ON FRIDAY.
I've been spending most of today sorting through all the kit I have so far and making check lists (so boring, but it has to be done). If you are planning on taking a similar trip to mine, I will include some of the kit lists as a basic guideline in a later post. I'm travelling with my school and a professional travel company so you can be assured their advice is reliable.
But exam results is a far too scary and depressing topic to dwell upon on the first day of summer, so I'm going to lock that away in a mental drawer for now.
As I promised in my previous post ('Counting Down') I'm going to talk about getting ready for Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, which is likely going to permeate every subsequent post for the next couple of weeks. I will be there ON FRIDAY.
I've been spending most of today sorting through all the kit I have so far and making check lists (so boring, but it has to be done). If you are planning on taking a similar trip to mine, I will include some of the kit lists as a basic guideline in a later post. I'm travelling with my school and a professional travel company so you can be assured their advice is reliable.
As you can see, it's hard to keep track of everything. Somehow I need to make all of that...and more...fit into my case that you can see on the left. I'm fortunate enough to have amassed over the years various bits of outdoor clothing from trips I've taken, such as trips to Iceland (good for cold weather gear) and Snowdonia in Wales (good for wet weather gear). I will be spending 3 nights in the Amazon next week, and so the wet weather gear is going to be very handy indeed, particularly if we encounter any tropical downpours or thunderstorms.
You'll see a big pile of socks to the right of the photograph - it turns out that we will be provided with enormous wellies during our hikes in the jungle, so, if you are doing anything similar, ensure you have enough long knee-length socks to stop the skin being ripped off your legs as you walk!
You'll see a big pile of socks to the right of the photograph - it turns out that we will be provided with enormous wellies during our hikes in the jungle, so, if you are doing anything similar, ensure you have enough long knee-length socks to stop the skin being ripped off your legs as you walk!
Due to the amount of hiking and general exertion this trip involves, I was delighted to finally have an excuse to buy some Kendal Mint Cake bars. You know you're on an adventure if you actually need energy bars!
So that about summarises my day today. I can definitely feel the excitement growing now, and I'm really looking forward to having the stressful packing stage of the trip over and done with. Apart from the packing, I'm trying to keep fit at the moment so that I can keep up with what I will expect to be a fairly grueling timetable for two weeks.
On that note, I am off for a swim.
So that about summarises my day today. I can definitely feel the excitement growing now, and I'm really looking forward to having the stressful packing stage of the trip over and done with. Apart from the packing, I'm trying to keep fit at the moment so that I can keep up with what I will expect to be a fairly grueling timetable for two weeks.
On that note, I am off for a swim.