Off the grid and gone...

So, I'm gone... Or at least, I've left Victoria and I'm in Vancouver and I'm only semi-connected to the world... For the first time since I was 17 or so I don't have a cell phone and it's really, REALLY strange...

I said goodbye to my dad this morning (picture above) at the Schwartz Bay ferry terminal hopped on the 11AM boat out of Victoria, hit the mainland right on schedule at 12:35 and then spent four hours busing and walking around Richmond and downtown Vancouver picking my D200 from Nikon (it feels *SO* good to have a "real" camera back in my hands. My backup D80 just wasn't cutting it...) and picking up my British passport from Visa Connection with my Russian and Mongolian visas in it. My backpack weighs in at around 80 pounds or so, by my best guess, with my camera bag adding another 25 to that. (I know that sounds a lot, but that's still well under 1/3 of my body-weight, which, as I understand it, is the recommended max weight for a pack)... Amazingly enough it didn't actually feel very heavy at all once I got it up on my shoulders and had all the straps adjusted... I wouldn't want to walk for 8 hours with it, but that's more because I'm in bad shape and my legs would get tired rather than from any discomfort. The biggest problem I had (and it wasn't REALLY a problem) is that with my camera bag slung across my body UNDER the backpack straps, the camera-bag strap digs in a bit, and is much harder to adjust than when I don't have the backpack on. Hardly critical, but a mild nuisance...

The overall experience was good, as it was handy to see how well I could move around with all my gear. Aside from being firmly reminded of exactly HOW out-of-shape I am, I'm quite pleased with everything. The gear is heavy, but quite manageable, and I'm quite sure I'd be able to run short distances with it if necessary (One of my hard-and-fast rules is that I'll never go traveling/on-assignment with gear that I can't run with, or abandon, should the need arise...)

I'm at my brother Mark's house now, and am relaxing a bit before doing some invoicing and then going for a beer with my friend Kirsti, who I haven't seen in almost a year (She was an ASM at last year's Shakespeare in the Summer festival in Victoria. I was, for a time, the Technical Director of said festival...)

My plans for tomorrow involve a beach, a book, and my D200. (Hopefully some cute girls as well, but I'll have to play that bit by ear...)


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Nic's Current Location:
Mark Hume's House, Vancouver, Canada
+49° 14' 46.69"N, -123° 10' 10.30"W