our RTW trip

What to pack for a round the world trip? The gear needed to be planned to the tee. From technology (camera, laptop, etc) to clothes, documentation to medical aid kit, and games to sleeping gear.

Technology:
Covered by Eon
Camera: Currently using a Canon 400D body with extra battery, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0 L USM and Canon EF 70-200 f2.8L USM lenses (very very heavy, ask Chantell, she must carry it around ;). Lens pen and a very small tripod (haven’t used the tripod once, there’s always a table or something to put the camera on for long exposure shots). I wanted to buy the 40D in Hong Kong but it was all sold out. Chantellis using the Canon G9 that we bought half-way through our trip.

Laptop: Campaq Presario B1200 with Windows Vista bought in Hong Kong for a very reasonable price. It’s not the smallest or lightest notebook but was the best price / weight / performance combination. It’s mainly used to edit my RAW images and writing our website posts and to keep in touch via gmail and Skype. It also has a DVD writer that I use to backup my photos on DVD that I send home.
iPods: My 30GB iPod video and Chantell’s 4GB iPod nano. It really helps on those long bus journeys! I use my iPod for photo backup as well. You can’t have all your photos only in one place!

Video camera: Panasonic NV-GS35 Mini-DV video camera. I haven’t started downloading videos, so currently we have a few full Mini-DV tapes! We thought of using the Canon G9 as the “video camera” but the quality was not as good as a proper video camera.

Clothes:
The biggest question on ALL my female friends’ minds was “how does one pack for an entire year’s travelling?!”

The most important rule to packing clothing for an entire year is to stick to packing light. Take clothes that you can layer as apposed to one thick coat. Clothes need to be quick-drying, non-wrinkle and functional. Start by packing all the planned clothing on the bed, then half all of that and pack only that.

What to take:

• Hat: a soft, wide-rim hat (for fighting sunrays as well as rain)
• Buff: fantastic invention that functions as scarf, beanie, balaclava, wrist band, sweat band, hair band, camera protector…only to name a few
• Trousers: light-weight, quick-drying, fantastic if it can convert to shorts
• T-shirts: comfortable, non-white, short and long sleeved
• Waterproof jacket: thin.
• Underwear: comfortable undies are important, also take some thermals
• Socks: well ventilated socks are great
• Shoes: two pairs - one proper all terrain pair and one pair of slops (need to wear this in the shower as well)
• Sarong: this doubles as skirt and shawl
• Jeans: I don’t think this is seen as “travel wear”, but I just cannot live without mine!
• Swimsuit
• Poncho

Clothing packing tips:
It’s better to buy one thing en-route than carry three things just in case. Try to match all clothing so that you have maximum flexibility in outfit versatility. If you don’t need something anymore (or you just brought too much stuff), don’t hesitate to give it away or send it home. You can always buy a thick woolly jacket in the countries were the weather turns exceptionally bad.

Luggage and everything else:
It was such a mission to find travel bags (mix between a back-pack and a travel bag). The bag has to be big enough to hold all gear, cloths, toiletries, documents, cameras, etc for an entire year, but at the same time must be small enough to carry with ease. Tip: When shopping for backpacks, make sure you try them on with the waist strap and loaded down with weight.

Chantell’s bags: A Deuter 55 litre ladies fit - a very good buy as this bag can be carried as a back-pack or the straps can be zipped away and convert to a normal travel bag. As a day-pack, a normal shoulder sling-bag works perfectly. As long as it has enough zips to hide away valuables as well as easy-access pockets for things like water and lip balm. And finally, a small money pouch for wear underneath clothes (UPDATED: Which we haven’t used once).

Eon’s bags: Got the Deuter 80 + 10 litre backpack a day before we left. It’s got about 40 litres of content. Last check-in it weighted 13 kilograms. If there are any South African backpack makers reading this, please please make a good quality 40 litre travel bag! I’ve looked high and low and could only find 30 litre (that’s just to small) and the next one is this big bag. Looking back now the big requirement was that the daypack must be able to zip onto the big bag, I’ve only used this feature once in the last year so it’s really a useless feature.

Books: Besides having a good book to read for relaxation and entertainment, we also have the guidebook for the country we are touring and maybe even the following country’s guidebook at hand. It is ideal to swap books with other travellers or at guesthouses. Books that we want to keep, we send home.

First-Aid kit: Feels like this takes up most of the space in my bag. A good stock of supplies, including multi-vitamins, pain-killers/anti-inflammatory, cold and flu medication, antacid pills (Tums), diarrhoea stuff (Bactrim and Imodium), nausea pills (Valoid), travel sickness stuff, sleep aids (for flying - earplugs), anti-malaria pills, antibiotic ointment (Bactroban), electrolytes, some prescription antibiotics, lip-balm, water purifying tablets and band-aids.

Other stuff: My Leatherman pocket-knife (doing this over again I’d rather take a smaller Swiss Army knife with scissors and bottle opener), Petzl headlamps, clothes drying line, inflatable pillow, earplugs , eyeshades, sewing kit, nail clippers, toiletries, travel towels (super absorbing and quick drying), sunglasses, Chantell’s old cell phone for text messages, extra shoe laces, Vietnam silk sleeping sheets. We bought sleeping bags in Nepal which came in handy in South America. Sleeping sheet is perfect for the tropical countries in Asia.