A hermit prepares to become a nomad ...

The car and Kenya are easy ... oil change, tune-up, good tires ... add in meds and food for Kenya ... and they are set to go.

After all the traveling I've done, you would think getting me ready would be at least as simple, but it's not. Even choosing which clothes to take is a problem. I have to consider ranges of temperature and all kinds of weather because I don't wear metal or fur year round. I have to worry about the demands of different social occasions.

I also have to deal with mapping things and ensuring that I can find pet-friendly accommodation.

And make sure that I can manage my finances from a distance.

And I have to consider my sanity. I am most sane when I am settled in my hermit's life at the lake. That is where I write, watch my films, read and reflect. I become too scattered for thoughtful pursuits when I am on the move.

I love the infusion of new experiences and the adventure of travel but I also need the settled feeling of being at home. That is likely why I travel as I do, settling in to a place as soon as I arrive, even if it is only for a few days. I treat each new place the way I treat a move to a new home. I travel out from it in ever-increasing concentric circles, learning where I am and what amenities are close by.

On this trip I will be staying with friends and family for periods ranging from 4 days to a month, and, except for the road trip to Nova Scotia I will be staying in people's homes.

Nevertheless I am mentally preparing for this trip as if I will be on the road with Kenya for 2 ½ months. I am trying to ensure that I can carry as much as possible of the serenity of our life at the lake with us. Kenya will be perfectly happy as long as I make sure she exercises regularly, eats properly, and has the odd cookie. She will also have other dogs to visit most places.

I need to be able to read and write. I need to create hermitages even in the midst of family life.

I have decided that I will take an interesting range of books, a fresh journal, a used laptop, and my first cell phone.

My book list is eclectic: two books of poetry - Ariel by Sylvia Plath, and Birthday Letters by her husband Ted Hughes; a book about death - nothing to be frightened of (Julian Barnes); three books about Africa - The Village of Waiting (George Packer), God's Bits of Wood (Sembene Ousmane), and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun (Peter Godwin); a memoir - The Gargoyle's Left Ear: writing in Ottawa by Susan McMaster; and two travel memoirs by women who travel as I do - Dinner with Persephone by Patricia Storage and Touch the Dragon by Karen Connelly. I should not be bored.


No novels, despite the fact that novels have always been my favourite genre. Perhaps because I know that I can likely pick up novels along the way.

Almost all of these books are about transience, and I will be a transient all summer.

And my own writing this summer will likely be pick up and go, so stream of consciousness travel writing is most like journaling.

I hope that the book about death will, like the poetry, give me food for thought as I drive.

My journal will likely be a day-to-day account of my travels with Kenya. As long as I can carve out a couple of hours every day to reflect and write, I should be okay.

This summer is an experiment. The next nomadic summer (2010) I may choose to rent a place in Newfoundland or Western Kenya or Nova Scotia rather than traveling from one place to another.