Monday 4th April:

Well it's three days to our departure to South America, and thoughts must now turn to packing. Which cases will be best, what approach to take, plan with a spreadsheet, or empty the wardrobe until the case won't close. We're away for 38 days, so how much underwear to take, 8 or 76; how many cameras to take, 4 or 5, how many lenses to take, all these questions need decisions, need answers, and this all adds up to stress, and we're getting too old for stress.

I plan a medium soft bag given the number of flights, car journeys, bus journeys, train journeys and plane journeys. Lorna plans the big hard easy-to-wheel, hard-to-lift case, but it will take most of the wardrobe, whilst I will have to refine with the famous spreadsheet.

Then there's medication, a life long diabetic and a budding hypochondriac with a aggregate of 130 years between them; this generates enough to open a small pharmacy in Cusco. Lorna's carry-on luggage will be mostly medication, my carry-on bag will be mostly camera equipment, and I hope to find space for my tripod, I'll need it to get sunrise at the Sun Gate above Machu Picchu.

We're off along the Inca Trail starting in Quito in Ecuador, some 2,500m up in the Andes. We will take a short sojourn down at sea level as we fly out to the Galapagos Islands for a five day cruise and hopefully learn what Charles Darwin discovered about the origin of the species during his five year voyage around the world in HMS Beagle. After that a little more time at sea level in Lima, Peru, where amazingly we will meet up for dinner with friends from Oakham who are sailing round the world. Then we will gain altitude visiting Cuenca, Colca Canyon, Cusco, Machu Picchu, Arequipa and Puno up on Lake Titicaca.

We then cross into Bolivia visiting La Paz and the Uyuni Salt Flats, cross into northern Chile staying in San Pedro de Atacama, before flying home from Santiago.