Saturday, February 10, 2018

Sydney days

My days involve walking. I'm walking at least 10km a day. Mostly that is early morning, late in the afternoon, when it is cooler. Middle of the day, I visit a library to charge my phone. Then sit either outdoors or in a mall our shopping center, have my daily meal while people watching, day dreaming, or watching the wildlife. Sometimes I talk with people. Mostly it's the elderly. 

I've walked a few trails and suburbs that I've not been to before. Some nice walks about.  Many more to explore yet. Though, I want to carry less to do it. 

Doing a bit of community service. Walking past the same rubbish every day got to me. Someone should pick it up. I decided to be that someone. Starting carrying a bag and picking it up. I'm only filling one shopping bag a walk past, so will be cleaning some places for a while yet. Been reporting leaking taps/toilets to the council, water seeps to Sydney water, etc.  I don't get why the people who clean/resupply the toilets don't report leaks. Such a waste water!

Still bedding down living. Finding water locations, open toilets, sleeping spots. Got very dehydrated a few times not drinking enough. Combination of few water fountains and fear of not finding a toilet when needed. (Also being in to populated areas with few bushes.) And just not thinking about drinking. Making an effort to drink more. 

Still hunting the perfect sleeping spot. Had a couple of sleepless nights with bad choices. But it's been okay overall. The weather has been fine this past week. Any showers were light and after I was set up. Was a couple of heavy dew falls too. Sooner or latter will be heavier rain. I hope to have sleeping sorted before then. Or, might try for undercover. Wet gear is heavy, and I carry it outside my pack to keep the rest of my stuff dry. If it's only lightly damp, I leave it. But if it's dripping wet, I spread it out at lunch time to dry. 

Pack weight has plummeted. Carrying everything everywhere really has me focused on having less. Down from 8 or 9kg to about 5.5kg now, including the pack. I changed to a smaller, lighter 45L pack, but it's not full, so I could go smaller yet. I'm not happy with the gear I am carrying, and am experimenting to drop it further. There are some trade-offs. I'm finding that some of the trade-offs are more mental than physical with comfort. And some of the physical comforts after a while you get used to having less. It's just the change that feels uncomfortable. 

I'm changing my clothing. The long sleeve shirts and cycling shorts aren't as utilitarian as I'd like. Sweating in them walking, the shirts are large and difficult to wash. I'm trialling a layering system, so I can wash the thin, light, quick dry base layers more often, and the outer layers, hopefully less often. 

Wipes were on sale and I purchased a packet to try.  Washing with wipes does feel better. But having a water shower still wins out. I had one this week. Washed my clothes under a tap at the same time. Midday in the sun, 34C, it all dried in an hour. I spread things on a park bench at first. Then draped first the shirt, then later the pants, on my head, both to cool me and to dry them faster. Next time will just wash and wear. It's faster that way. I don't want to pack away damp clothing as it will not dry in my pack.