All the travel blogs sensibly tell you to pack light, promoting the two by two rule, i.e. take two t-shirts, wear one and wash one. Now anyone who has travelled with me on work or pleasure knows that I am terrible at packing light. You never know what you might be invited to or what the weather might do. I try, I really do, but I am always lugging massive heavy bags and suitcases around with me full of stuff that I inevitably don’t use or wear. I am envious of those people who can manage a 2 week trip around Europe with a just hand luggage ….you know who you are!

My friend Mark, a seasoned traveller, advised me to buy a backpack no bigger than 55 litres. For practical reasons, when traveling on local transport you can comfortably nurse a pack that size on your lap and not have to worry about it being strapped to the top of a bus out of sight. Sage advice indeed and totally unrealistic in my case!

After much online and in-store research I ended up buying an Osprey Farpoint 70 litre pack. The main pack is 55 litres with a detachable 15 litre daypack. It’s comfy and in my signature colours of black and grey*.

My good friend Skye, who works in the travel industry and is constantly on the road, introduced me to the wonder of packing cells back in 2003. For this trip I purchased a number of different sized dry bags to help keep me organized.

• 2.5  x clothes
• 2 x toiletries
• 1 x chargers, adapters, torch
• 2 x first aid kits
• 1 x odds and sods

Trying to keep myself organised with Exped dry-bags.

I did a couple of trial runs at home prior to my trip and everything fitted (but only just). Now I’m on the road however it’s clear that, once again, I’ve totally over packed and will need to have a bit of a re-think on what I really need and will use!

My kit, well nearly all of it. See future post ‘Indigo Pearl’ for an explanation for the high heels.

*Quick rant: Why do backpack manufacturers feel the need to design female packs in garish purple or pink, (or with pink highlights)? Why does a backpack need to confirm to gender stereotypes of colour?