Lessons Learned from our "Test Trip"
By theprofessionalhobo ~ May 13th, 2007. Filed under: Alberta.
Now that we have had a chance to settle down in Edmonton and reflect on our last month of travelling, we learned a few key lessons about backpacking. Some of them are “common travelling and backpacking knowledge” tidbits that we chose to ignore, and some are more personal discoveries. Here is the “Coles Notes version”:
DON’T BE A CLOTHES HORSE.
Everything we have read and heard about packing too much clothing is right. You just don’t need that much. The “wash one wear one” adage isn’t far off the mark. We brought a small amount of well-chosen pieces of clothing, and were able to function fairly well with them. It wasn’t until half way through the trip that I realized I had packed an extra 2 shirts I forgot about!
My “girlie” objection to this rule is that most of the clothing we brought was very utilitarian. Functional quick-drying and non-wrinkly materials, but lacking on the style side. I felt my femininity waning every time I had to face my drab wardrobe each morning. I’ll make sure I have clothes that are both functional and stylish next time.
And of course a personal challenge to this rule for me is simply that I don’t like to wear the same clothes all the time. I’m used to a closet full of variety; something for every single imaginable occasion and then some. And because the weather on our trip was quite cool, I had to wear almost all my layers every day. Every picture looks practically the same since we were wearing the same outfit every day! Ah well – backpackers can’t be choosers I guess.
DR BRONNER’S ROCKS.
This is a liquid soap we were introduced to (thanks Sonia!) that is available at most health food stores. It is an all natural 18-in-1 soap. It is body wash, shampoo, clothes detergent, industrial cleaner, and even toothpaste (just don’t swallow it….it tastes vile). We don’t know what the international availability of this soap will be, but it ia a very useful addition to the toiletry kit at least initially until it runs out.
WEIGHT EQUALS MISERY.
The weight of your pack is directly related to the amount of enjoyment you will have on the trip. We (okay, Kelly. Let’s get real: my smaller pack was full) made the mistake of bringing 60meters of rope, harnesses, and other pieces of miscellaneous climbing and caving gear. Every time we mobilized, Kelly’s monstrous pack was more debilitating than liberating. The rub is that we never even ended up using the gear.
We will take this lesson a little further for our next trip: We Won’t Bring Excessive Gear. This is difficult for the self-proclaimed “gear-head” in Kelly, and we’ll have to keep each other in check. We will simply trust that when we need certain pieces of gear that we don’t have with us, it will become available somehow (for rental, purchase, borrowing from new friends, etc).
BUDGET EATING CAN STILL BE GOOD.
We made a bad decision one day to get foot-long subs for the train ride, and have half for lunch and half for dinner. I’ll be the first one to admit I made a bad choice of sub, but having any cold soggy sub 8 hours after it was prepared and after a full day of train travel certainly did NOT hit the spot. This was when I realized that I require warm meals from time to time. This is non-negotiable.
That was when we discovered Campbell’s Chunky soups for the microwave. You can heat it up in the container it comes in (no need for a bowl – this is very handy), and presto: a minute and a half later you have filling, comforting, warm soup for the soul. Beats a soggy sub any day. We discovered lots of similar grocery store angels on our journey in order to avoid making the same soggy sub mistake again.
ENTREPRENEURIALISM APPLIES NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE.
Okay, we knew that already. But we had a chance to stretch our entrepreneurial legs even on a small scale when we were travelling, and we helped out fellow travellers in the process.
For example, we rented a car on Vancouver Island; one of our more luxurious decisions. When we headed back east from the west coast to drop the car off (a 200km journey), we posted a sign at the hostel we were staying at indicating that we’d be making our journey and offering a ride for interested passengers. We charged a paltry $10 for the trip (to take public transportation would have been considerably more expensive). So we benefited by offsetting our cost of gas & the car rental, we met some really interesting fellow travellers, and our passengers saved a pile of dough and had a more comfortable ride.
We also attracted quite a bit of attention with our gourmet crab dinners each night after spending the afternoon catching our fare. So we took some eager students under our wing, taught them the ropes of crabbing, and then sold them our gear when we left! Once again, we didn’t make a profit from the venture, but we certainly managed to offset our own costs.
There are certainly other lessons we learned, but that’s all for now. Stay tuned!
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