But its not until several, as Craig Revel Horwood would say, 'disaaaaaaasters' that one starts to take the whole packing process a lot more seriously.
A friend of mine, Mark Knowles, who has trekked all over the world (and is currently in Nepal as I type) gave me the following 'commandments' of things to remember when packing to ensure an incident-free holiday.
If you are on a trekking holiday and you break a shoelace and don’t have a
replacement, it can cause severe problems as there isn’t usually enough lace
left to secure your boot safely, and you might be facing a 5 hour descent....
Soluble Vitamin C tablets
Always add soluble Vitamin C to your water bottle to keep vitamin levels up.
But be warned; as most Vitamin C tabs are effervescent you need to let them
fully dissolve before shutting your water bottle tight, otherwise they have a
habit of exploding when you open your bottle and getting covered with sticky
fluid is one way of attracting insects!
Shemagh
or Shish (Arabic style head scarf)
Handy
for keeping the sun off your head, sitting on when resting, covering up, drying
yourself, additional warmth, swatting flies, improvised sling.... Mark once had to tie one around a person to
lead them over ‘interesting’ terrain when they were petrified.
Waterproofs
and hat
Absolutely
essential wherever you are in the world – waterproofs (good quality,
breathable) – keep you dry (obviously), are lightweight and can be handy for
additional warmth if required. More importantly they keep the wind out; it is
invariably a cold wind that will take your body heat away. And of course a hat
can keep the sun out during the daytime and the warmth in at night!
Trekking
poles
Always take at least one trekking pole. There is
the obvious benefit of less impact on the knees, but you can use them to
stabilise yourself coming down tricky hills.....test questionable terrain (e.g.
just how deep is that puddle?), ward off stray dogs and so on.
Water
Purifying Tablets
Depending
on the destination, consider water purifying tablets as walkers and
travellers overseas tend to lose their energy as a result of dehydration. So,
if you need water from a questionable source, it needs to be purified.
Broken
in, comfortable & waterproof boots
This
might sound obvious but you’d be amazed how many people buy new boots for
trips. Mark once saw an extremely disappointed couple on an Everest trek have to
return home after two days with severely blistered feet from their new leather
boots.
And
finally…
Never,
ever go anywhere without a torch (spare batteries), compass and a whistle.
