When I was young I was a bit of a book worm (still am) but there were two types of books that engrossed me more than any other, stories of expeditions/travellers and atlases.
I used to pretend I was Marco Polo, Robert Scott, Allan Quatermain, Livingstone, Burke & Wills, Daniel Boone, Wilfred Thesiger, etc. Otherwise I'd stare at maps of the world for hours. I was probably the only kid who liked going to the doctor's and dentist's as I could read Royal Geographical and National Geographic.
Luckily, my father often took us out for hikes, walks and camping throughout Scotland giving me a love for the outdoors and the remote places.
It wasn't until I was 24 that I set off on my first overseas adventure, a week trekking through the Australian red centre, learning about the history of the land and the people (both aborigine and settler)
Since then I have travelled through the hills of northern Thailand, the jungles of Burma, Laos and Vietnam, the Meikon river, the Sahara, and John O'Groats to Lands End.
I have the bug.
My new twin goals are the Poles. As training for these attempts (and for charity) next year I will be doing an initial trek 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle in northern Norway. This'll be 100 miles of -20 celsius cross country skiing and sometime a wind chill factor takes it down to -50, all the time dragging a 35kg sled (pulk) behind me.
I'll need some specialist equipment for this trip and my budget is tight. But one thing that is important to me is a decent timepiece . The timepiece that is renowned as the choice for the arctic traveller is made by Kobold. They are tough, precise and hold function over beauty but are still damn pretty.
They are way too expensive for my budget and I am not an important enough explorer (yet) to show up on the Kobold radar so I came up with an idea inspired by http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/
I have this watch, brand new and never been worn
The Casio F-91W-1XY
and hopefully swap with you wonderful people until I end up with one of these two watches
The Arctic Diver or The Polar Surveyor
Now I cant promise to come and make the swap in person (having to save as much money for the expedition as I can) but I promise that I will put your image or your add up on the blog and I'll put you up whenever your in town and I'll buy you a pint or two. Also I'll keep you all up to date on my progress and my expedition too.
