With 4 weeks to go before I start the drive its time to make sure the body has at least a little preparation.

The actual walk involves walking 20 -25 kilometres a day with a loaded pack, day after day and its very hard to train for that and do the normal home stuff.

All I can do is make sure some of the kinks are ironed out so every day I walk for about 2 hours covering 8 - 13 kilometres. I wear my walking boots and have been trialling orthotic inserts. This should help those feet and back problems I was experiencing on the last walk.

I plan to change the orthotics regularly as one of the problems with long distance walking is wearing shoes and boots well past their best supporting capacity.

This time I have a herniated disc in my neck at the C7 vertebrae to add to my woes and whilst I have backpacked with it in the last year I don't know how it will hold up on a multi week/month walk.