Travelling tales

I happened to be with some family friends the other day. The daughter, just out of school, is soon to go travelling to various far-flung destinations and to this end she was busy assembling her backpack — a stage I remember all too well from my own first big trip.

Trying to fit everything you will need for the next six months inside something small enough to go on your back should be a liberating experience, but I found it alarming to say the least. As well as a scant assortment of clothes, I remember squeezing in all sorts of odd things like quick-drying trousers, a clothes line, a sink plug, a very peculiar and teeny-tiny travel towel, masses of insect repellent, half a pharmacy, and a terribly expensive medical kit containing my own syringes and things, as the doctor said, having pumped me full of jabs, just in case.