PCT: 1 day to go

Here's a tip: when, in a state of sleep deprivation, you discover that you've ballsed up the quantities on numerous items of your resupply groceries, the correct action is to drop everything and go to bed. Don't pass go, and certainly don't plough on before then spending half an hour on the phone to your mobile phone provider. By going to bed, you may just wake up refreshed a few hours later and discover that you'd not ballsed up the grocery quantities at all. You'd just completely lost the ability to count (or think, or remember your own name). Much frustration and stress could have been saved if I'd gone to bed when I found the first quantity discrepancy last night. This morning I discovered that rather than being short of rice, pasta and smash, we had a surplus. Sums never have been my strong point!

It made this morning less hectic, mind, as a bit of rejigging avoided another supermarket trip. Instead, between 4am and 9.30am, pausing only for breakfast, all of the parcels got sorted, packed and labelled.

A trip to the PO got everything mailed (two of those parcels are MASSIVE!) and now we're on our way to Agua Dulce, where we will join the trail.

Before we start hiking (ooh, I'm coming over all American with my lingo!), I do hope that a significant amount of sleep can be had.

(Incidentally, other top tips with the benefit of hindsight: 1) I should have told the credit card company that I was travelling and going to spend a lot in rapid succession in a single day on arrival. That would have maybe prevented the fraud team from putting a stop on my card causing a need to spend half an hour on the phone back to the UK to sort it out; 2) hiring a car would have allowed the resupply logistics to have been completed in half the time and would have removed the 'oh my god, we forgot X' traumas (we would have just nipped back out) - and it would barely have cost more than the buses and taxis; 3) Embassy Suites LAX North was an excellent choice of base whilst we sorted everything out. I'd definitely choose it again.)

(Louise - that was only a tiny fraction of the food; just the main meals, without the rice/pasta etc. The picture above is the rest of it. It was a lot of food!
JJ - thanks for the pointer. If we find ourselves straying into a town we'll remember that one
Alan R - no water on board yet, but I'm pleased that my backpack is feeling a manageable weight. May have to do a bit of rejigging though, as Mick seems to be carrying more weight than me at the moment.
All - thanks for your good wishes.)

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