Meanwhile, in readiness for her journey of extremes, grey Netjetter Chelsia experiences pre-departure challenges to the max

So everybody has to do something crazy at least once in their life? This is definitely it for me! If I wanted a trip of extremes, it has started already.

The extreme quickness of email: an email to the Sarek Wilderness rangers in Sweden took me all of two seconds, the reply - well, I'm still waiting! Is their wilderness so wild that they really do live most of their lives at the extreme non-technology end of the spectrum? So a quick flip to the opposite end of my trip at the Okavango Delta in Botswana - not only did that reply come back immediately, but it was followed up by a phone call before I'd logged out of my computer.

But the worst extreme is cost - the prize money won't even dent the surface! I can see the ridiculously young face of my bank manager freeze as he sizes up this nutty (not quite wrinkled) woman wanting to do outrageous things, and reckoning that a loan to her won't be the safest bet. I can't face a re-mortgage on the re-mortgage, so perhaps an internet loan - at least I won't have to appear in person to explain myself. Then there's always the loan shark on the North End Road - but even he would look at me twice while ratcheting up the interest rate.

Back down with the nitty-gritty, I'm trying to cope with the technological gizmos - a mobile phone which can't be registered, a cutting-edge digital camera the size of a football which will create files that are so mega-pixel huge that I won't be able to send them in under four hours from an internet cafe, and a laptop which will add kilos to my rucksack and create a kyphosis in my spine.

Do I still want to go on this trip? You bet!