Australian Hiker

Over the past few weeks I have been collecting all my hiking gear in one location for my upcoming Heysen Trail trip which Gill always loves as my collection location is the lounge room! Overall I had done a pretty good job but from my trip on the Great South West Walk a few months ago I realised I had become complacent when putting my gear together which resulted in me not have a few small but vital pieces of gear (back-up water filtration) that impacted the particular hike.

Yesterday morning I sat down and worked my way through my Multi-Day gear List that I have been progressively building and updating over the past ten years. In going though my list I had done a pretty good job but there were a few minor things I had missed so this check should really be a crucial activity for everyone when preparing for a trip – working from a written list will mean that you shouldn’t forget everything. The other task that needs to be considered and is often neglected by many hikers, is checking the condition of your equipment. Just because the gear worked on your last hike doesn’t mean that it’s still in good working order. I always leave enough time with my packing process to ensure that if gear can’t be repaired I have adequate time to purchase a new one, just in case.

Later today I will do a test pack and put everything, including my food into the pack to ensure it fits before stripping it back out and starting to pack everything into my travel bag ready for my Tuesday morning flight.

In my last post I talked about food and yesterday I sent my first resupply box to the pick up point on-trail and the biggest surprise for me is how cheap this process has become. I can remember when I sent resupply boxes in 2018 by Australia Post (Express) how expensive it was but the prices have really dropped. In all my six resupply boxes that will b posted for this trip will cost less than the cost of one box from my 2018 Bibbulmun Track journey which was a vert pleasant surprise.