New Valley Hills

I sent home quite a lot of stuff, either because I hadnt used it after several weeks and saw no use ahead as I became more experience, or the conditions had changed and it was no longer useful, such as sun protection clothing. In total 1555g of stuff discarded one way or another. It felt good to declutter and let things go, especially at the nightly bag explosion in my tent.

At first put-on of the backpack every morning it felt heavy. During that 30 minutes limbering up it soon became forgotten, and as I was using he hip belt to carry the majority of the weight my shoulders didnt carry much; they were there for stablilizing the load. Adding 2L of water nd 1Kg of food did make it more noticeable. On the flat and downhill the weight wasnt an issue, but the big uphills did test my leg muscles over the duration of the day.

It’s amazing how few things you can choose to do without when you have to carry them. My luxury item was the Birkenstock plastic sandals which I’m not prepared to do without, som some would argue that 739g of charger, cables and batteries was excessive. I did use my phone a lot, and having social media contact was very helpful for contacting the virtual support groups online for trail conditions, weather and camping locations.

First package home 469g

• Hearing aids 38g
• Sun sleeves 53g
• Gaffer tape 50g
• Headphones 52g
• Sun hat 76g
• Various ointments 200g

I abandoned one 1L water bottle (64g) in Seatown, expecting to not carry more than 2L normally, and if more needed use pee canteen.

Second 833g

• Long walking trousers 301g
• 3L canteen 93g
• 2 pairs underwear 59g x 2
• PF insoles 91g
• Rohan belt 33g
• Clip-on sunglasses 40g
• Flannel 42g
• Pasty warmer 35g
• Pen 10g
• Tape measure 10g (why did I take this? I hve no idea!)
• Antihistamine cream 25g
• Magnetic clips 25g
• Spare cord 10g

Third 189g

• Rohan shirt 189g