We are all packed to go!

The decisions as to what to take with us have been difficult, wanting to strike the balance between taking what we will want, but not too much. Everyone we’ve spoken to and everything we’ve read has said that they got a couple of months in and regretted taking so much stuff, deciding to leave half of it in a hostel… we want to avoid that pitfall.

We started off thinking we could take just a 35 litre daysack each, which was quite an exciting idea, but walking boots spoiled that idea and we were planning on using 45l bags, the same as we take for a day of mountaineering. That was scuppered when we succumbed to taking climbing kit around the world. Having experimented with lots of bags, I have a 65 litre bag, and Ness has 50l. My bigger bag has loads of space, which I can compress down, while Ness will learn to be a very efficient packer! Not quite the super-light dream we had, but that was never going to happen with climbing gear and a rope.

To give you an idea of what we’re travelling with for a year, here’s a summary….

I’m taking 3 tops, 2 pairs of trousers (one day-to-day and one for climbing) and a pair of board shorts. 3 pairs of underwear and 4 pairs of socks should do me. A hat and a thin fleece top it off.

Ness has argued that she can be more luxurious as her clothes are smaller, so she is taking 7 tops, a pair of trousers and some leggings, a bikini and a swimsuit, and a whole 5 pairs of underwear!!

We each have a waterproof jacket, an insulated jacket (synthetic rather than down so it stays warm when wet), a pillowcase and sleeping bag liner to make for a nap anywhere. We also each have odd bits like hat, sunglasses, a headtorch and a microfibre towel.

Between us we have a camera and associated bits, a solar charger and battery pack for when we’re away from civilisation, a first aid kit and a steripen to sterlise water. If we’re using 3 litres of water each a day, and even based on big 2 litre bottles of water, this will save us buying and throwing away over a thousand plastic water bottles this next year. We’ve got some medical supplies for the expected issues, and some yoga balls and therabands to keep our bodies happy.

Finally… if you’ve stuck with me this far… we have the lightest set of climbing kit we can get away with. I’ll save the real gear geeking for another post, but we’ve got a rope, helmets, harnesses, shoes and gear to climb short bolted routes.

All in all, we’re taking a bit under 15kg each.

Let’s see how much of that we throw away…..