Travel broadens the mind, they say. It focuses the mind too. One of the benefits of my peripatetic lifestyle is that it provides me with frequent deadlines for action. If I had a more regular lifestyle I would probably let things drift. What didn't get done today would wait until tomorrow. But when there may well be no internet access tomorrow because I will be somewhere else, there is the urge to clear the decks (and clear the desk) before I move on.
So the long list of To Do items comes in for a sudden blitz. The sponsorship proposal that I've been hesitating to send out, tweaking and titivating and trying to make it 100% perfect - hell, 98% perfect will do. Just get it out there. It's not doing any good just sitting on my laptop. It needs to get out there and earn a living. The draft manuscript for my book - likewise. The press release - same again. Like slightly premature babies, they are just about well-enough formed to survive on their own in the big wide world.
So before I left for Africa I was crazy-busy, down to 4 or 5 hours sleep a night, frantically writing, researching, calling - but it was worth it. Productivity levels hit new heights. My babies have been sent forth, and I wait to see how they fare.
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And the good news is that it looks as if Sedna may be on the move very shortly as well - just from Miami to Tampa for now, where she will be exhibited at the Museum of Science and Industry.
The sticking point had been legalising the boat trailer, but some very helpful and resourceful friends have figured out a way to get us through the various bureaucratic hoops, so soon the trailer will be registered as street-legal in the US and can hit the road.
Sedna will live at MOSI until the end of March, when I will be giving a presentation there. By then, hopefully, I will have figured out how to get her to the West Coast...
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I am on the move again - off to Africa to climb Kilimanjaro. Altitude training may not be essential preparation for a very sea-level challenge, but it will be a good cardio workout and an unmissable opportunity to see the famous snows of Kilimanjaro before they are lost forever to global warming. It has been estimated that at the current rate of shrinkage the snows will be gone within the next 30 years.
And of course, ironically, by flying there I am doing my bit to hasten their demise... Air travel is the most environmentally damaging form of transport. Mea culpa.
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After my highly enjoyable paddle on the Columbia River in a Maas boat last year, I wrote to the company to ask if I might be able to borrow a boat for training purposes. To my delight, they said yes.
So last week I went to their premises in a far-flung part of Point Richmond, north of San Francisco, to collect a brand new shiny Aero 21.
Doug Kidder, the boss man, proudly showed me around their premises. On the wall of their office was a photo of the company's founder, Chris Maas, surfing a sculling boat down a sizeable wave. These boats are built to last - although when it comes to ocean rowing I'll stick with Sedna. You could fit a few LaraBars in the hatch of an Aero, but not much more. Certainly not three months worth of food.
Quackers and I got a few strange looks on the 11-hour drive from sunny California back up to the snowy north. When I stopped for petrol a lumberjack gave the Aero a hard stare. "Sure is a funny looking toboggan", he muttered....
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