But just how practical is the idea? Is it possible to roller-skate with a pack on, with a tent and all, for that touch of freedom and flexibility? How do skates fare in the long haul? How many kilometres are too many? How about carrying the skates when you're not riding them?
All this and more I set out to answer on September weekend. I'd sold my motorbike, and was feeling mighty confined without any transport one sunny weekend, when the wanderlust just got the better of me ... So I packed my bag, tent and gear and hit the road on skates just see how far I could get in a day or two before hitching back.
I could barely stand up on skates at the start of summer, let alone execute advanced manoeuvres like turning and stopping. But it was a long summer and I'd come a long way, I was even skating backwards, and pulling the odd trick or two. Most impressive skill I'd acquired was how to fall over though. I was doing less and less of it (falling over that is) but more importantly was less and less afraid of it, having rolled a few times, stood up and kept going almost on the same momentum. The body is an amazing thing like that, it picks up sense of balance and reflex that it's own brain can only marvel at. Let's just say that controlled falling is something the brain can describe well before the body can execute it. But this isn't to be an essay on roller-skating.
No, I packed a 50 litre backpack (no waist-belt) with a sleeping bag, a change of clothes, some food and water, tied an inflatable mattress and my pup-tent to the top, donned my skates and headed out along the Route-de-Lac, a fairly flat road following the coast of lake Geneva (with mountains all around me I thought I'd start with the easy road).
First thing I noticed was no more fancy stuff. O.K. I wasn't a star performer yet anyway, but even a turning stop with a bag on you back isn't an option really. Your hard won sense of balance is thrown right out. Even braking hard any way you can leaves you with a pack thrust against the back of your head. You're really confined to powering straight ahead, the luggage really depriving you of much of the joy that was skating.
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