Misty, I think you're there with all you need, truly. So long as your boots are made for walkin' and you've a strap on your sunnies for when you're going full pelt across the veld, and you are sure that the brim of your hat is sturdy enough not to flop over your eyes at speed (always a fun one, that, but then you don't get to see the yawning aardvark holes your horse is merrily picking its way round!!...)

My mind is racing with what might happen when a pair of padded pants meets a thornbush - do they explode??? No, but seriously, sorry about my sorry butt tales, but I can be a bit of a numpty and never have the forethought to prepare such as you - vaseline and rumpypumps or whatever they're called, here we go!

You're all set for a cracking time. If you see Laura and Shane Dowinton as part of your Dinaka leg, give them a big hug from Hen, tell them I haven't fallen off the planet (but plenty of horses, heh , no change there then) and try to explain to them how addictive this western marlarkey is, which explains where I've got to!! Have a brilliant holiday.

My husband has started to bring mountain biking magazines home and they reside by the loo. I was both fascinated and appalled to read in there that there are special creams available for preventing chafing in delicate parts of the anatomy from cycling for hours. Or they just use udder cream. And chamois lined cycle shorts that appear to be intended to be worn without underpants.

Now *that's* gross out surely???!!

However, the idea of acquiring a tropical infection from an infected bum would, I have to admit, make me chuckle even in my line of work (emergency medicine) where it takes quite a lot to surprise me these days. Ouch!

O.k so it's Laura and Shane love from Hen.

So where do I get these leather pants for OH from.............?

Hats were fine at speed in and out the cacti and still got the strings on the glasses in the draw. I'm starting to get a bit nervous, did they have any calm horses?

Well what an education I have had here. What with this thread and the one earlier in the year about bras, plus a serious underwear discussion that took place at the WES champs, I now realise that the very sad looking contents of my underwear drawer need to be seriously reviewed this autumn. To sum up what I have learned - I now know that everything needs to be bigger, longer and stronger, made of cotton or lycra or leather (or maybe a combination?), I need to consider words like "compression" (top half) and "padded" (bottom half) - get those last two the wrong way round and we could be in big trouble! I can give up the forlorn hope that M & S will one day again stock the seriously good heavy duty sports wear that they had 10 years ago because it is not going to happen. I must instead start visiting proper outdoor clothing shops and pretend that I am a cyclist. I also need to stock up on Vaseline and udder cream.
So here's looking forward to a bounce-free and chafe-free 2009.
Is there anything that I need to know about socks?

Yep. If your socks are on the outside of your boots, you got out of bed way, way too early .