The gear list
Nine things that made every trip
This is the whole list. Everything here has done at least one full trip in the guides, most of it several. If something wore out or annoyed me, it is not on here.
Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through one, the shop pays me a small commission and your price stays the same. It never decides what goes on the list.
Carry
-
Carried for 6 years · about £145
A 32-litre top-loading pack
Fits every cabin allowance I have met and opens at the front, so nothing lives at the bottom for a week.
See it -
Carried for 5 years · about £24
Two packing cubes, not five
One for clothes, one for everything else. More cubes means more deciding.
See it -
Carried for 4 years · about £28
A foldable daypack
Weighs almost nothing, and turns a hotel into a base for the walks in every guide.
See it
Walk
-
Carried for 2 years · about £120
Trail shoes, half a size up
Feet swell on long days. Every walk in the guides was done in low shoes, not boots.
See it -
Carried for 7 years · about £160
A packable rain shell
The single most useful thing on this page, especially in Lofoten.
See it -
Carried for 3 years · about £45
Merino socks, three pairs
Wash at night, dry by morning, and they do not smell by day four.
See it
Paper and pictures
-
Carried for 7 years · about £14
A pocket notebook with a stiff cover
Every guide starts in one. Stiff covers mean you can write standing up at a bus stop.
See it -
Carried for 7 years · about £4
A soft pencil and a sharpener
Pens leak on planes. Pencils work in the rain.
See it -
Carried for 7 years · about £220
A secondhand 35mm prime lens
One focal length, no zoom. It slows you down, which is the point.
See it
Going somewhere in the guides?
Each guide has a packing page for its own weather: what to add for Lofoten in March, what to leave at home for Morocco in May.