The Kit (and a competition!)

At the weekend, I pulled together my kit for the walk. I started by gathering everything I would like to take. That created a pile of stuff that Hercules himself could not have lifted. I then sorted through the original pile to create a new one that only contained the stuff I needed. It was still too much. So I sacrificed everything but essentials to create the final kit list, captured in this picture. It all fits snugly in my trusty sack from New Zealand, also pictured here. It weighs 12kg without food/water for one day, 14kg with (30lbs). It's a little heavier than I would like, but I can't get it any lighter.

The plan is to only have two sets of clothes -- one to wear each the day, wash that evening and dry overnight, with a clean set to change into each evening and wear the subsequent day (hence the clothes line and pegs). I have to take walking trousers plus waterproof jacket/trousers due to the extremes of weather we have experienced in the past few months. I'll be taking a sun hat too, but I'm not counting on using it!

I have bought a little pedometer to take along with me. It measures the number of steps, calories burnt, distance walked and time spent walking. I'll be taking note of each of these metrics at the end of each day and I'll total up all the figures at the end. I'm thinking this would make for a good competition (for the sad people in my life) -- so guess the total number of steps, calories and time spent walking at the end of the entire trek (except mileage, which should be 146 miles). If you'd like to guess, email me directly with your best guesstimate. I'll publish the winners at the end.