Now… how to get all this packed!

The ever growing pile of "stuff" required to create the Great Ape Diaires

Down to the final 72 hours before “leav’n on a jet plane” for Borneo and Sumatra and the gear seems to multiply over night.  Every morning I wake up to find yet another thing that has to make it in to all these bags. Into those TWO bags if I have my way about it. And on top of that come news that TSA is confiscating litium ion batteries from shipped luggage — ERGH!

“Come Monday it will be all right” I keep telling myself. Ya, climb on the plane and everything you forgot will work itself out.

That seemed even more evident yesterday as Skye spent five hours in my office filming a pre-trip segment and we had final discussions and run throughs on the gear – oh, and of course yet another race down to Pro Photo Suppy and discussion with Rob about changes in gear – which resulted in picking up a Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USM for Skye to not only film the pre-trip segment, but it looks like it will end up being his workhorse lens (he will be posting his thoughts here on the lens in the near future.)

Skye work yet agin on the audio mounting setup - this version did not work even in the safe and dry confines of Gerry's office.

The other issue is audio – we still are sorting out what will functions best in the field – not the equipt per say, but exactly how we are going to carry it for best operation and protection.  Where we are going isn’t kind to gear – especially stuff with lots of antennae and exposed buttons. So one of my jobs today is modify a couple old flash (soft) cases to see if that will do the trick. Truth is only field testing over there will tell us definitively yeah or nay.

This meeting was important on another level as it will be the last time Skye and I see each other until rondevouzing in Kuala Lumpur in a few weeks. Ya, Borneo is on me for the first few weeks – the good, the bad, and the ugly will all be on my shoulders. I’ll be blogging (here) and tweeting (@greatapediaries) as I go so grab a copy of the Great Ape Daily and see how it goes.

Now pack to packing -

A huge shout out to Rob and Jon at Pro Photo Supply – they have been beyond awesome and we have put them through a small amount of hell (I say small because we know it will grow!) these past few weeks – THANKS GUYS!!

•