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Lets give us – travel equipment maniacs – some opportunity to talk about our choice of items for this journey. Quite detailed, though hopefully a full list of the equipment should serve as our only home for the next year and a half and give us a hand us in some harshest situations.
Over these upcoming months there will be some know and unfamiliar seasons waiting for us – temperature fluctuations from -35C to +45C; freezing and hot periods, tropics and deserts. That is why we are trying to take only the most reliable items we can afford – usually army or mountaineering made equipment. Just to mention some, I feel lucky for the opportunity to buy Snugpak sleeping bags (English army’s used) that go down to -20C in comfort for £120(!!!), though the price reflects on its weight – 2.9kg. As I know Eve is going to hate me in two weeks time we decided to take two Vango tents for the journey. Some other important items are my old Thinkpad x200 laptop and Eve’s Canon 7D, which we are planning to do most of the filming with.
It is worth saying that with some exceptions we each have almost identical collections of items in our bags. As it is sometimes said – the team is as strong as the weakest member of the team., so I feel our preparation is of similar level.
Before going through the list we should understand that while doing the preparations we see this adventure as a hike in the wild – a semi-independent journey where our foot will be in constant use and in every step a new challenge awaits. I believe, we are chained to peoples’ generosity and we can’t change that, as we can never become independent. Which is wht it’s a good idea to prepare to be as independent as possible as our inner parts constantly crave for loosing the road and going into the wild.
I have highlighted some of the items which we find as being essential, while everything else are elements of the comfort or very useful while in difficult situations. And let this stay as a remainder for us when there is a wish to put something extra in the pile.
Silently we hope that it’s it all will weight < 25kg and will not break our backs.
Clothes
- Three layers: Base, Middle, Warm
- Rain/Wind shell:
- Pants (Berghaus Gore-Tex)
- Jacket (NF Gore-Tex)
- Hat, Gloves, Scarf
- Down Jacket (ME Xero)
- Socks + woolen socks
- Sandals
- Boots (Scarpa Ranger)
- Underwear x3
- T-shirts x2
Sleep
- Tent (Vango Banshee 200)
- Sleeping Bag (Snugpak Antarctica comf -20C / extr. -50C)
- Mat (Thermarest/Alpkit)
- Silk liner (Sea-to-Summit Mummy)
- Sleep clothes (something light)
Food
- Gas stove + gas (Vango Folding Gas)
- Water purification tablets x200
- Lighter
- Dishes:
- Aluminum bowl
- Termal mug (Lifeventure mug)
- Plastic container
- Water tank (2l)
- Spork
- Knife
Hygiene
- First Aid (+TeaTree oil, +iodine, +syringes, + anti-toilet tablets)
- Tooth paste + Brush
- Soap
- Deodorant
- Cream
- Comb
- Hand sanitizer
Electronics
- Camera + lenses + extra battery + memory cards (Canon 7D)
- Mini Camera (Flip camera)
- Chargers
- Dictaphone
- Laptop (IBM Thinkpad x200/Linux)
- Phone (smth very old)
- Universal adapter
- Head torch (Petzl Tikka Plus2)
Orientation
- Maps
- Whistle
- Compass
Other
- Backpack (Berghaus 75l / LoweAlpine 85l)
- Dry bags x4 (Exped)
- Little bag
- Wallet
- Book
- Repair kit + rope + Gorilla tape
- Notes: paper, pen, marker
- Sunglasses
- Survival bag + Emerg. Matches
- Lithuanian flag
- Business Cards
Even though we are trying to be practical it is still pretty hard to foresee everything and to pack the very right items, and it’s only our previous experience and other peoples’ recommendations that make things better in this case. That is why all comments and suggestions are very welcome If you have any ideas of what we should take to fight the Dragons in Romania or why I shouldn’t take my twenty bottle whiskey collection, please let us know!
Dennis lapkričio 21, 2011
I know it would mean more weight, but if you plan on doing lots of outdoor stuff on your own, I would recommend always having a full set of extra clothes in a dry bag (it looks ike you are only bringing one set of pants?)
In case you fall into a river etc. and you are in some very cold weather, you really need to be able to warm yourself up with just one set of dry (not clean ) clothes.
eva lapkričio 22, 2011
Thanks Dennis, you are right!
I’m deffo going to pick up 2 pairs (at least me) of trousers and couple options of warm clothes.