Post Race Stuff

We have flown over night out of Anchorage down to LA. We did a very dosey Parramatta Road style bus tour of LA, which explained were every body important used to live and where everything important used to happen, including where Bay Watch used to be filmed. The surf was not up but you could get a shower holding your board so you at least looked wet.
Also saw where every body used to stand on wet cement and had their names put next to their hand prints. Guys like Russel Crowe in frnt of the Chinese Theartre which did not look very Chinese.
Any how then we drove to Palm Springs. This is a nice place and nice and hot. This is also a place where every body used to holiday and generaly get rehab and the odd bit of plastic surgery before their next shoot. Even Shrep came here for rehab and surgery.
I have now to repack my bags to international flight standards, with some mythical weight limit that no one understands but the lady weighing you in.
I am a lot lighter than when I flew from Australia so I wonder if I get any bonus points for that.
Re packing the bags I go through the gear I did not need to bring.
Steve was much better organised than me but there was not much on the boat I did not use.
What I did take was lots and lots of saline solution as eye wash. In the past I found if I got Yukon water in my eyes soon after the White River entered, the high ash content hurt like hell and I could only get releafe with the eye wash. This time I had a similar problem with stinging eyes, but when I wiped them with a cloth I had in the cockpit to clean my glasses, the cloth was covered in tiny black flies. This was a continual problem. I had to wipe my eyes every couple of hours when paddling. But I never used any of the saline solution.
I had no chafe problems so did not use any of the first aid stuff, but that could have been a different story. I could have done with a better tent, but the half height therma rest was a must as was the minus 15 sleeping bag.
There was a 2 litre bottle of emergency water stuck in the bow that I could not get. I should have tied a bit of string to it. I took about a kilo of lollies for a sugar hit, but only had a few. A fe more pockets to keep stuff in it place in the cockpit may have helped other wise I used every thing.
Need now to drive back to LA and then back to Sydney. We have had no end of trouble getting internet access i Palm Springs. My next blog will be from Sydney.
Tom