How long is your back?

Rucksack research today - wowee. We went to two outdoor shops in Amsterdam - Beaver and Carl Denig. Totally confusing!

We've read everywhere that a smaller packs are the way to go - so were looking for 45/ 50 litre packs, but the guy in Beaver completely confused us by saying you can only get 45 or 65 litre packs Huh? Anyway, he showed us a few backpacks and told us it's all about back length, but he wasn't really paying attention or showing us what we want, so we ran off and decided to buy in the UK where it's all a bit more familiar and the staff are actually helpful..!

Thankfully, we persevered and went to Carl Denig and saw a great pack called the Osprey Atmos 50 - a 50 litre pack with a breezy back panel to prevent sweaty backs. It's streets ahead of all other packs we saw, in comfort and extras, and looks like the pack for us - mine a small in red and Ben's a medium in blue. The guy in the shop didn't really put the weights in properly when we tried it on, so we need to go back, but I think we'll do that next Saturday.

We're a bit concerned it's too small and we're following advice from experienced backpackers and we won't be able to fit everything in our backpacks, but I guess buying a smaller backpack will force us to take less, and we can share the loads between us, so it should be OK. I'll publish our list of things to take, so you can see what we have to fit in.

Debs