You might be wondering about what gear we are taking – well, the photo above is the gear we are not taking! We do not need a gun (thanks Photoshop) for self protection, although I have read blogs where this is seriously discussed. We do not need an axe, because we won’t need to build a fire or a shelter. Unfortunately Mollie has to stay with Jo. This isn’t a holiday, so we don’t need chairs. Books will be electronic. Everything we need will have to be carried on our backs so you guessed it, the main criterion is weight.

Why aren’t we taking our favourite Big Agnes Copper Spur tent? Well, we have splurged on a super light-weight tent (Zpacks Duplex) which at 640g including pegs is half the weight of the Copper Spur. We can’t show it here as it has been sent for us to pick up in San Diego, along with our hiking poles and Ros’s sleeping bag. I’ll let you know how the tent is once we have used it for a while.

Another area we have saved weight is in our backpacks. Ros has an Osprey Lumina weighing about 850g and I have a Zpacks Arc Blast weighing about 640g. We tried both these packs last year when we did the Great South West Walk in Victoria, and we think they will do us well.

Our sleeping bags are also Zpacks – mine is 570g. Other weight savings come mainly from not taking stuff – we will have only one set of clothes, plus cold weather and rain gear. The spread below gives you an idea of what we are planning to take. I might update you with the actual inventory when we are in San Diego, and have collected the tent, another sleeping bag, hiking poles and of course food and water.