Day -1.0: Packing for Karijini

The best decision I made this week was to take Wednesday off work. Why? Because we severely underestimated just how long it would take to pack the DMAX for this trip.

Our day started at 7am and didn’t stop from there. While Daniel reluctantly went off for his last half day at work, I got to cleaning and packing. The DMAX and canopy had to be cleaned inside and out, food shopping had to happen, and then everything had to be transferred across from the Ranger’s canopy into the new setup. We packed and repacked the canopy, learning as we went as it was the first time EVER to pack this thing. There were a few last-minute additions, like an Anderson plug for connecting solar panels to the lithium setup, and a second fridge to run as a freezer. We also had to quickly engineer some sort of locking mechanism for our pantry drawers after we discovered the elastic just wasn’t going to hold them shut.

By this stage it was about 8pm and our plans for an early night were out the window. We continued to pack our gear, struggling to find a home for everything after being so accustomed to the near-OCD-ness of the Ranger’s setup. Not to mention, we were used to having an extra 0.5m of length to the canopy, and although it might not seem like much, we really felt the difference.

Many hours later we were finally finished and able to collapse into bed. It felt almost pointless as we set our alarms for 4:30am, a mere 4 hours in the future. As Daniel said at the time, it was more of a nap really. So, we shut our eyes, too exhausted for even the excitement of our pending trip unable to keep us from sleep.