Buy before you fly

I'm sure you'll all be thrilled to learn that we have now bought our rucksacks - yes, I know! Awesome stuff indeed.

We spent a while getting all confused about what sort/ how big/ which brand/ etc. and after long debates and a couple of unsatisfactory visits to outdoor shops in Amsterdam (Bever, I'm looking at *you*), we went for these rather splendid Lowe Alpine "Cerro Torre" numbers:



Several people, including Giles from Travel Independent (highly recommended), told us to go ultra small/ compact - 40 or 45 litres - but in the end we decided we'd rather go for a pack that could comfortably hold a reasonable amount of stuff.

In other words, we didn't fancy going nuts, super-economising on clothes and stuff, sawing toothbrushes in half and having to fold everything to within an inch of its life to fit into an elaborately designed packing scheme.

So what we've got are a couple of 65 litre packs with the possibility to extend another 20, which I doubt we'll use. Deb's pack is red, mine's blue. I made the guy at Carl Denig go and dig it out, rather than a) have the same colour as Deb, or b) get a green one - totally not my colour...

Ben