Ready to go?

When you think about it, 17 days travelling across swathes of the world sounds significant but I hadn't really appreciated until last weekend quite what that amounted to in terms of preparation.

Last Saturday marked the start of holiday shopping - first, down to Boots to get a range of creams, pills and potions designed to arrest any incident, short of a serious car crash, that one might succumb to in the northern hemisphere. Antihistamines - check; oral rehydration salts - check (and in a tasty blackberry flavour too - mmm!); water purification - check; sun tan lotion - check; DEET spray - check; bite cream - check; anti-aging moisturiser - well, I was in Boots.

Thanks to the wonderful world of Boots 3 for 2, points promotions and vouchers, I managed to save a small fortune, spend a large fortune, and get a voucher for £2 off something I'll never want to buy.



Next stop, Blacks. The credit crunch and bad weather earlier in the year proved an unexpected boon, and I happily skipped away with a deeply-discounted pair of hiking boots and a fleece (Every treatise on Mongolia insists I'll need it, even in July & August, but I'm not quite convinced!). I balked at paying £35 for a Cag in a bag, so we still need to find something waterproof!

Back to Blacks (Amy, eat your heart out!) yesterday. And Milletts. And Ellis Brigham. And Ice + Snow. And I eventually found a rucksack that fitted the bill - comfortable, filled with pockets and with a nifty non-sweaty-back system. All the rage, I'm sure!

And so, I think I'm nearly ready - a few final purchases remain to be made, but this morning, I've been finalising preparations by getting my Trans-Mongolian reading list in order. Over the coming weeks, I'll be enjoying:

• Paddy Linehan's Trans-Siberia: Inside the Grey Area
  
• Orlando Figes' The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia
• Paul Grogan's Barbed Wire and Babushkas: A River Odyssey across Siberia

I'll also be enjoying some light distraction in the form of Philip Nolan's Ryanland, be guided by Lonely Planet's guides to the Trans-Siberian Railway and Moscow, and Bryn Thomas' seminal guide, the Trans-Siberian Handbook.

Hurrah - I think I'm nearly ready to go!