I'm sitting here with my backpack strapped on, trying to adjust to the feel of it in preparation for the upcoming Cotswolds trip, wishing it weren't so heavy. It has my tent in it and a sleeping bag--things that I don't necessarily have to take on the journey. We are on the trail for five days and we're only camping two nights. I could easily contact B&Bs in those towns and make reservations like I have for the other three nights. Then I could take out the tent and just carry clothes, food, etc. But I won't.
As it is, I feel slighty guilty that I'm sleeping at so many B&Bs. I have this backpacking aesthetic that I can't seem to shake--that you should carry your own stuff, that you should be independent and able to care for yourself on the trail. I'll probably be cursing myself by our last day, but there it is. Perhaps I feel I need to pay penance for my trip to Peru, where porters carried all of my gear and cooked every meal. I didn't think much about the circumstances of that trip. I was going with my dad and some of his friends. Someone else planned it. I just went along. And I felt guilty the entire time that I was carrying a day pack and the porters were carrying everything else (practically running up the mountain to beat us to our destination)--and making very little money. Maybe I'll think about that as I walk down the trail.
We'll see how it all goes. A travelogue of sorts will be forthcoming, I'm sure.
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Yeah, I remember getting a porter to carry my pack on a 4-day trek thru the Cordiellera Blanca outside of Huaraz (the Santa Cruz trail, I think, which is a 2-day hike, really). Although I was hiking alone and hired the guy as a "guide" (and "protection" against the unknown (bandits, altitude sickness, getting lost)) he carried my stuff and I felt so guilty. Eventually, though, he started being a jerk and I realized there was no way I could lose the trail so I cut him loose and the last 24-hour period was bliss.
This sounds ideal to me, hiking from B&B to B&B. You wouldn't have to carry anything, except maybe water and a sandwhich.
Is that pronounced Eggity?
What is this?! Why am I getting stock tips on my blog? Weird.
It is comment spam. Blogger works to prevent it, but it doesn't always work.
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