In exactly one week from today, three of the Great Canadian Beavers will be embarking on a plane headed for London, England (with the fourth to join us a few days later), armed with as little as possible, for one of the biggest challenges any of us will have ever faced. I think team emotions have sort of been running the gamut, from stressed, to excited to resigned to our fate.
One of our biggest fears was visa’s. With only seven days until departure, none of us have our passports back and we are each awaiting a single visa - Nick’s Russian visa encountered a bit of a snag when he was issued a single entry, as opposed to a double, and so it needs to be re-issued. Personally, the rest of the team were quite content to leave Nick somewhere in Russia, but it seemed there were some legalities involved. For the rest of us, a few strings had to be pulled, and a couple favours asked (it pays to have friends in higher places at the very least) and our Mongolian visa’s were hurried along a little faster than usual. Rumour has it our passports will be released later today however, and hopefully arriving before Friday so our fears are at least partially abated.
We’re not in the clear yet however, and it’s likely going to be one busy week for this team. With last minute organization and preparations to arrange, including packing, ensuring we have enough equipment (but not too much) and figuring out how we will be cramming three girls and one boy into a rather tiny Vaxuhall Agila with all of our stuff, equipment, spare parts etc. and no roof rack (for the time being); it looks like The Beavers have their work cut out for them.
