O ne thing that’s very important on a long walk, such as this one, is to make sure that you take the right equipment. Obviously, there needs to be some give and take between equipment and weight, especially considering I was carrying everything I needed on my back, every step of the way. Too much weight could bring on injuries but not taking the right things with me could have lead to something far worse.
I spent a lot of time looking at books and sites by other people who have completed the Land’s End to John O’Groats walk and I hoped, through reading about their mistakes and their eventual kit lists, I’d be ok. Clearly, making the decision very early on in the planning of this walk to not camp meant I saved myself a lot of weight from all the camping gear which I’m sure paid dividends as the weeks rolled on.
You can see the final list below. In total everything came in at a weighty 39.948lbs (18.120kgs). Not all of that was on my back as I was obviously wearing some of the clothes and my boots – they added quite a few lbs to the overall weight.
The actual contents (not including maps, water and any food I had for the day) came in at 24.936lbs (11.311kgs) which is 5lbs more than I really wanted to be carrying in the pack but there wasn’t a great deal I could do as I classed pretty much everything as essential. By the time water, maps and food were added to the pot, the average weight of the pack contents was closer to 30lbs, if not more…gulp!
My Kit
Clothes
T he table below details all of the clothes I took with me in my pack. It doesn’t include a few extra items I picked up as my journey went on, like an additional fleece or more spare socks for example, as I forgot to add them when I got back from my walk.
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Miscellaneous
T he table below details all of the miscellaneous items I took with me in my pack. This covers everything from dry bags, my emergency bivi bag (which I never had to use, thankfully, down to safety pins in case of any clothing malfunctions.
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Electrical
T he table below details all of the electrical items I took with me in my pack. This covers everything from my GPS unit, batteries, to my watch.
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Medical / Toiletries
T he table below details all of the medical items/toiletries I took with me in my pack. This covers everything from the plasters I took, wash things, to water purification tablets, something that I didn’t have to use I’m pleased to say.
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Documents
T he table below details all of the documents I took with me in my pack. This covers everything from the money, ID, and most importantly all of my OS maps, not that I was carrying all of them at one time. Luckily I had friends dotted up the country I sent packs to, picking them up along the way and sending used maps back home.
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