Having the right equipment always helps.
After our Flinders Ranges walk Trevor upgraded his day pack. His new one supports a water bladder allowing him to drink water without having to take off his pack or getting someone to retrieve his water bottle for him. The bladders certainly make keeping hydrated much easier as it is possible to have frequent sips - important in very hot conditions. In addition, the pack remains balanced as the water supply is depleted.
On our long Melbourne Cup Day walk Trevor had issues with his socks. He does tend to sweat a lot which probably doesn't help however his socks kept on bunching up in his boots. He was wearing a liner however I suspect that the outer socks were the main issue. This week he is wearing a pair of my hiking socks to check out how they go in his boots. If they work then at least we will know what sort of socks to get him. Workman socks do not make the cut!
While I was relatively happy with my day pack, it has a number of chambers which allowed me to separate things that are being carried but not expected to be used from what will definitely be attacked during the day, our Melbourne Cup Day walk indicated that I need to reconsider whether to move to a water bladder supporting pack or not. In the end I figured that I would probably be better off with a pack which positioned the weight onto my hips, rather than my shoulders, as well as supporting a water bladder. Katmandu had one of their frequent sales with extra specials on offer for their Summit Club members and I took advantage of this pre Christmas sale to get another day pack with hip belt and water bladder support. I took it out for a trial last night and was happy with how it sat. It will need some more adjustment (there are so many adjustment points that the process takes a bit of trial and error to get it just right) and I also need to hike with it with a full day load. Last night was a relatively light load.
I had grabbed a walking magazine earlier in the week and came across a review of the Katmandu emergency support kit which comes in quite a small container (about the size of a 600ml drink bottle) and consists of 20 odd useful items from a poncho, space blacket, wire saw, whistle, solar powered light, flint ... I picked up two of these at a little under $25 each. Given the range of items it really is both a bargain and a very useful emergency kit.
The magazine covered a number of terrific walks. I think we will need to look at tackling some of these in the coming year along with our great Alpine Walk in January and the Coast to Coast next August/September. Once I get our internet access (read our wretched server) back working properly I'll do a bit more research and see what we can fit in around our other activities.
We still have a whole range of walks to do in Namadgi but these will need to wait until the reptiles (read red belly black snakes) are no longer active.
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