Reading matters
Here is the 134g solution to the most vexing problem of what to read en route.
Unless I change my mind.
I can't be trusted with any novel I can read quickly because that's what I'd do. And find myself with four or five more days before resupply - the thought of sitting out bad weather or lying awake in the tent without a book is much scarier than my next worst fear.
An e-reader would need charging and my powerbank will be strictly rationed for keeping the phone alive (photos). Plus, it might get wet, most stuff does. So, hard copy.
When I walked to Bluff I read Proust, having cut the bible-sized epic into smaller sections that I walked towards by including them in the food boxes I'd posted ahead. And shortly after I returned, Radio 4 broadcast a dramatised new translation over three intense days and nights. Never-to-be-forgotten literary experiences, first in my tent and then camping on the sitting room floor so as to listen all night.
This time, nothing so enriching has popped into my head. I just weighed a paperback "Ulysses", it's 640g. Must read it one day soon but cutting it up won't work because my only cache this time has already gone, to Waikiti Valley.
So by a process of elimination I'm taking the booklet of hands dealt and played during the New Zealand Wide Bridge Pairs in November. My partner and I made it halfway up the 750-strong field when our handicaps were computed, clearly there's room to bid and play even better. And I put the rest of an old book by Rixi Markus in the recycling, saving her chapters on declarer and defender play.
My next worst fear? Dogs. In Northland I was rushed by two snarling beasts and north of Huntley, two more. Lots of noise and bluster. Where I'm going I expect to encounter more dogs.
I just keep reminding myself, the actual dog attacks I've experienced came with no warning at all. One was a sheep dog that I didn't even notice until a blinding pain erupted under my knee. The other was a doberman at an equestrian property who bit my thigh - I finked on him to a council animal control officer I met later at a ride! Contrary to textbooks, it's the dogs that send no warning that are dangerous.
