Norway

We had been waiting three weeks for our luggage to arrive in Malaga from Dublin until, just twenty-four hours before we set off for the frozen north, it became clear that it would not arrive in time. All our carefully packed moonboots, balaclavas, survival suits, gloves and thermal underwear were still sitting in a transit warehouse in Tangiers and would not arrive until after our departure.

Our first destinations were so remote that there was no possibility of buying what we needed there, so my wife and I, in T-shirts and shorts, drove frantically to the largest department store on the Costa del Sol to re-equip ourselves.