Don’t forget the most important thing…
Eucalyptus Delicatensis + Waterfall. Hasselblad 500CM, Portra 400, March 2025.
Lists are fantastic things. If everything I need for a trip is written on a list, and I cross each item off as it goes into my pack and at the end everything is crossed out then I know everything I need is going to be in my pack and will be coming with me on my trip. This is a well tested and reliable method and fits within the 6ps of good performance, or in this context, good outdoor leadership: prior preparation prevents piss poor performance! In an ideal world, this is the process I would follow to pack for every single trip.
Naturally, this is rarely the case.
First, there is the challenge of making the perfect list. Second there is the challenge of having time to make a list at all. Third, after lots of practice, it is easy to convince myself that I don’t need a list at all: that I can remember every single item I need to have for my trip! And to be honest, most times this actually works out okay. But every now and then, let’s face it, human nature means we make mistakes. Even when we don’t expect to. We forget and we stuff up and we have to live with not having some items we really really wish we had!
Waterfall + Ferns. Hasselblad 500CM, Portra 400, March 2025.
I mean in some ways, leaving items behind can make us rather creative. This week I forgot to pack my inflatable seat for my packraft for a paddle down the Picton River. So I figured out that putting my dry bag with the repair kit inside my pack and sitting on that actually makes a pretty good seat. Which made me discover that dry bags under pressure behave differently to dry bags not under pressure. The dry bag had about a pint of water in it at the end of the day! I swear I rolled the top three times! But it is okay, I have finally managed to dry everything off and tomorrow we go on the river again. And this time I am packing my seat!
Mt Pelion East. Hasselblad 500CM, Portra 400, March 2025.
One of my favourite guiding stories involve a pair of boots. About ten years ago one of the new bushwalking guides on the Overland Track was doing their ‘famil’ trip, which means they go along as an extra or third guide on the trip to learn the ropes. And this guide, well she grabbed her pair of boots from the hallway of her sharehouse in the dark to drive up nice and early to meet the guests. She had two boots, which seemed quite satisfactory. Until she got to the trailhead at Waldheim with the guests and went to put them on, only to discover that she had two left boots! Oops. She grabbed one of her boots and one of her housemate’s boots from the hallway! So she couldn’t go on the trip and ended up having to go back home on the bus. With her two left boots.
Grazing Plains. Hasseblad 500CM, Portra 400, March 2025.
Then there was the time we went on a bushwalk with my brother and my dad many years ago in Hungary. The idea was to go on a short walk, then have a picnic and build a campfire and roast some bacon over the fire. But we got quite lost, and I remember walking for hours, getting quite weary and looking forward to lunch. But when we eventually stopped to eat, Dad realised he left the bacon at home in the fridge. Along with the sausages.
Well at least we had pickled cucumbers and some bread.
I guess it could have been worse.
-A.S. 24.5.2025