Ok, I’ll admit it. This is a LOT of luggage. (In our own defence, it was what we brought home after two years in Asia). But still…Seeing, not to mention transporting, this amount of stuff did make me think. How in future could we travel a bit, well, lighter. A recent article* provided food for thought..

One suggestion was to follow the advice of Jerome K Jerome’s narrator in his classic book Three men in a Boat: “It is lumber, man- all lumber! Throw it overboard”. Hm, I admire the principle, just I’m not sure it would work for me. Lumber? All of it? My book, my diary, phone? Even my sun hat? A scarf? An extra pair (or two) of shoes? Splish splosh never to be seen again? No, don’t think that’s for me,

Maybe a better strategy is to think about what to take, rather than what not to take. So the advice novelist Louisa Young received from her sister would Be helpful. This intrepid lady, who went round the world on a motorbike and presumably knows a thing or two about packing, recommends taking “one silk dress – rolls up tiny, in case an Ambassador invites you for tea”. There’s that idea about making things you pack work for their keep, too – international educationalist Thom Jones always takes a harmonica, and uses it to judge the countries he goes to by whether their customs staff demand that he plays it…

But the best advice of all, I think, was given to writer Horatio Clare in the Kaokoveld Desert. Clare asked: “What should I take?” His Namibian guide replied: “Go with a level head and a humble heart. You’ll be fine”. You know, I think that’s one to try. It might even work if (when?) that  Ambassador invites us for tea…

* Horatio Clare’s article on packing, The Observer magazine, 29 July 2018