Burning Man is only a bit over a week away. It’s really time to get ready, as much as I can organize it from here.

Thank God I am going with an experienced camp.

They’re all friends of my friend Brandon from San Francisco, and have gone a couple of times in the past years. They know the do’s and don’t’s, what worked previously and what failed.

I had two Skype conference calls with them, one in Tel Aviv, one last weekend in Vancouver.

And they have prepared several detailed spreadsheets shared on Google Drive, so that we all know what is still needed, or what the camp does have in stock…

It’s an extensive list, but I like this very organized way. After all, its a near-military operation to get 60 000 people into the desert, build a city, and have them leave it without a trace.

I am borrowing as much stuff as I can from various friends, a tent from Brandon, and a lot of stuff from Renato, from old hiking shoes, to bedding, a bike, to headlights, a fan for the tent… basically I am moving parts of his house to the desert.

When I arrive in San Francisco next Monday we’ll go through the stuff, order the remaining things on Amazon (with ultra-fast delivery) and I’ll pack everything into neat air-tight containers (to protect everything from the dust).

We’ll bring everything over to our friends on Thursday evening, and get ready to leave San Francisco on Friday morning. We’ll head to Reno, where we’ll spend a last night in a proper hotel.

Saturday morning we head out to the desert. The boys secured early arrival passes, which means we can come in onto the playa early and start building out camp. Still, the drive and the arrival itself might take a few hours, till we’re passing the gate.

Then, we’ll have to construct everything: Shades, out tents and the whole camp, and at the same time build the tropical treehouse, which is the name of our camp.

Between two trees, with crow nests, we’ll have a hanging bridge. And we’ll serve free drinks on various dates. I stole a few pics from Brandon’s FaceBook, so you have an idea what this will look like.

I think I am somehow prepared as best as I can be, and on the other hand I feel like I have no idea what I am getting into. I’ll just go along with it, soak it all in, help where I can and then just experience it all.

I’ll bring my camera and I can’t wait to shoot some great pics. To have an idea of what’s in store for this year, check the 2014 Theme list.

For the blog, this will mean a break, as I wont’t have any access to the internet or a phone during the week in the desert. Only when we come out of it all the following sunday, I’ll be able to start posting again.

We’ll clean up camp on Sunday, and head over to Reno, where we’ll crash at the same hotel, to shower off the dust once and for all…