0400UTC, Narrabeen - New South Wales

“When international travel stopped in 2020 I found myself with an abundance of time on my hands. Now I’m a pretty big fan of routine, so the opportunity to spend a long string of days together at home was one that spoke to me. Doing one thing is how you do everything, as they say. I think that’s why I like flying airliners so much. Adherence to standard operating procedures is drilled into us from a young age at flight school. Anyway, I digress.

Safe to say I deal with routine well – it’s a comfortable place for me. But humans need to rest, they need to disconnect and turn off to re-energise. Soon enough, I realised I wasn’t so different from everyone else in this regard, so my wife and I – when restrictions allowed - began spending weekends away in the country. We’d pick a place in the Hunter, or down the coast near Bowral – somewhere about 3hrs drive away, so we felt we’d actually left the city.

I’ve always been a fan of backpacks. Travelling solo so much around the world invites a need for functional efficiency in many regards, not the least of which is how you carry your gear. But backpacks aren’t really suited to weekend trips. They’re clunky - there were pauses in the flow of packing. Clothes got crumpled when they shouldn’t, and it just wasn’t a nice experience. I wanted to have an effect on that. So, with all that spare time on my hands, I found my next project”