Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: Sleep

Since our last blog, we have come to the realisation that there is yet another way in which Zephyr will be asked to pull his weight on our Mawson Journey; and that is by sleeping. Sleeping in the chariot for his day time nap shouldn't be too much of a problem.... sleeping at night.....well.... that is the question on all of our minds. If Zephyr sleeps, we all sleep, and that can only be a good thing!

All this talk about sleeping prompted us to actually visualise our 'night time arrangements' for the first time. Despite sleep, and more to the point shelter, being pretty high up on Maslow's Hierarchy of needs,  until this point we surprisingly hadn't really given it much thought. We knew we would be camping, presumably in some kind of a tent, but now that we were forced to contemplate our shelter of choice a little more seriously we seemed to have a few decisions to make.

It's tempting to imagine one of those nice, walk in, three room tents, with a large awning out the front, a sizable blow up mattress inside, a few comfy pillows and a matching doona. Getting even more carried away I can picture a couple of camping chairs, a fold up table, a hammock hung up between two trees just off to the side and why not throw in a solar panel run portable camping fridge!

Unfortunately, given the fact that we will be somehow strapping and tying everything we need for our two week journey vicariously onto our bikes, that vision is nothing more than a complete fantasy. For the stark reality is that we are probably looking at a two man tent, a tent smaller than our queen size bed but just bigger than our coffee table, the type you need to crawl into, with a ceiling just high enough that you only need to duck your head slightly when sitting up, a tent with just enough space to fit our family's four bodies, albeit, as long as at least two of us are lying on our side!

On past adventures Tahlia adapted well to the
life of a 'tent dweller'; probably because she thinks
of them as her own personal jumping castle.