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

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