Those of you who enjoy this kind of geeky thing will enjoy this! Almost every long distance hiking blogger starts with a carefully curated display of their nice, clean gear. It’s nice to remember what it all looked like while it’s still shiny, I guess. Some of our stuff even smells new, and just how clean is that table?!

We don’t have a support car carrying our kit for us, so all our choices have been made with weight in mind. Roo’s not used to carrying a large rucksack so even though they are being Very Helpful and carrying some things I just can’t fit in, they’re not yet taking as much as I hope they will do in a few months… [you can imagine Roo grumbling right now!] If I was more geeky and less forgetful, I would have included the weights of things, as Proper Serious Hikers apparently go bananas for that kind of spec. In total I’m carrying about 23lbs and Roo has about 5lb (which includes the rucksack weight)

First off, the big two - Tent and Sleeping Kit.

The tent is a Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL2 in pretty much neon orange. It’s light, surprisingly big inside, double walled and very easy to put up.

Roo is sleeping in a Thermarest Hyperion 0C down filled bag, all snuggly and cheerful. I’m in a Big Agnes Sidewinder 20 because there’s more of me! Down filled bags are much lighter and fit into really small stuff sacks for carrying (it’s better for the down not to store them long term in the stuff sack). They really MUSTN’T get wet, though, so I’ve got them inside waterproof bags.

In an attempt at Hygiene, we’re both using Rab bog standard sleeping bag liners.

Big Agnes AXL Air pillows. I know some people don’t carry them, but these weight 46g each (oops! I geeked) and I need to sleep! Also Thermarest NeoAir XLite sleeping mats, which come with a PUMP SACK [capitalisation at Roo’s request, because it’s hilarious.] to inflate them. It’s a really clever bit of kit, and simple to use; I can leave Roo to inflate the mats while I’m sorting the tent out no problem.

Rucksacks…

Roo’s is an adult daysack. There’s a Chicken Tramper Gear bottle sleeve clipped onto one strap, and their own Kula Cloth. Somewhere there’s a sunhat too.

Mine is an Osprey Something Impressive, with Kula Cloth, sunhat, solar powered inflatable lamp and standard Jewish woo additions. If necessary, Roo can fit inside my pack, probably.

In the absence of Roo, these are some of the things we’re taking:

Heat and water. At the top there’s the MSR Pocket Rocket stove, plus fuel and pots, pot handle and titanium (!) mugs and spoons, etc. Bottom left is the Sawyer Squeeze water filtration system, with a bespoke Diet Coke Bottle accessory that stops me getting dirty water all over the filter bag. And some water bottles.

The value of the water filter, even in less rugged areas, is that I don’t have to start out carrying 2 litres of water. We can start with a little bit and usually find a source of water to filter later on.

This is Wolfy. No Wolfy, no Roo. I tried for a smaller toy, but here he is. He takes up half of Roo’s rucksack. Wolfpack, with a wolf in a rucksack, or something.

POWER! An ACER power pack, my old Kindle, some Dirt Cheap Bluetooth Headphones so that Roo can listen to podcasts and I don’t have to, our Pezl headtorches, plus all the charging cables we need. My Garmin should be in this picture, but isn’t.

The last picture should be captioned “Some other stuff I thought you’d be interested in.” This may be wishful thinking on my part.

Um. Crocs by Mario for Roo and something from Aldi for me as camp shoes. Smidge is probably the best insect repellent I’ve found. Camping towels, seat mats, a bum bag, a nice red first aid kit, some wipes for when we’re wild camping and That Black Thing. It’s the world’s lightest shovel for digging cat holes, which are not holes for cats. And a rainkilt; a much lighter and less sweaty alternative to waterproof trousers.

Not shown: clothes, toiletries, medications. Food, snacks, one pencil. A handkerchief. Dental floss in a pack smaller than a 10p. All carefully stored in waterproof bags.

It all looks like this in the end: