Leave Approved

We celebrated our three year wedding anniversary yesterday. Actually we have been together for more than eleven years. So when V proposed it wasn’t really a surprise at all, and I knew he was going to propose on the trip anyway (he told me so!) If we plan it right, we may even be able to return to the scene of the crime (so to speak) on the fourth anniversary of our engagement.

We have bought most of our gear now. We made another shopping trip yesterday. We both got our new day packs, both from Mountain Designs. V’s is an Escape 30, and mine is a Women’s Slipstream 30, although his looks significantly larger than mine!

Mine is pretty spesh as being a “women’s” daypack the shoulder straps are set closer together which suits me as I have really puny shoulders and my previous daypack was too big in this regard. My new pack also has one of those ventilating frames which set the pack away from direct contact with your back. Hopefully this does result in a less sweaty back while hiking!

Both the packs were quite well discounted, V’s from $150 to $100 and mine from $130 to $100. Mine wasn’t “officially” discounted but we were offered a cheaper price. Either they wanted to get rid of the pack, or the salesperson wanted to get rid of us quickly as we looked like we were dithering about the decision!

V also bought a wind proof soft shell, and I bought another skirt, the same design but in a different colour, and discounted even more because of a few loose threads which will be easily fixed!

Our gear will be put to the test this weekend when we head to the Grampians for 2 days of hiking. Look out for an update on Monday!