These are the clothes and items of equipment that are getting us around the world. We'll let you know how they fare in the field!
Travel Tickets
Purchased from STA Travel. We chose the One World Alliance ticket - this one is based on the number of continents that you visit, and gives you about 3 internal flights per continent. The other main kind of round-the-world ticket you can get is based on the number of miles you travel; the 29000 and 34000 mile tickets are generally considered most suitable for a round-the-world flight. We received excellent advice and after-sales service from STA Travel, Cambridge, UK. The cost of the ticket, including tax was £1689; you can see from the other pages where it's taking us to! Excellent service - very much recommended.
Travel Insurance
We all chose Boots Gap Year Insurance which cost us £270. It provides medical expenses cover up to £10m, as well as other things like hijacking, dental cover, prescriptions, new glasses.
Waterproof Trousers - Peter Storm (£20 from Blacks)
Rucksack - Karrimor Jaguar 65 +15 litre (£140 from Blacks)
Fleece - Karrimor Thermal Pro (£70 from Blacks)
Waterproof Jacket - Berghaus Storm II (£175 from Blacks)
Thermarest 3/4 length self-inflatable sleeping mat ($40 St. Catherines, Canada)
3 Season sleeping bag
Zippo lighter
I hope to take some rather special photographs on my way 'round the globe, so I'm taking a camera to suit the job. This is a fully manual camera, i.e. I don't have to rely on finding batteries in the middle of a jungle in order for my camera to work. The NIKON FM2N Manual SLR Camera (second hand body £300) with 28-70mm zoom lens (62mm wide) should do the trick (recommended by the Antarctic survey teams in Cambridge). I also have a f=80-200mm zoom lens (50mm wide) (second hand lenses approx. £100) for those more dangerous shots of rabid jaguars. To deepen colour photos I'll also take a polarising filter for use with the 62mm lens. And, of course, a lens cleaning cloth.
Astro's Equipment
Waterproof Jacket - Peter Storm (£30 from Millets). Not bad, doesn't let you 'breathe' enough, so you get quite hot, and it gets wet through after about 5 minutes, but better than nothing. Dries quickly.
Rucksack - Karrimor Jaguar 65 +15 litre (£140 from Black's)
Boots - Zambalan hydrolites (£101, Up 'n' Under, Cardiff). Exceptinally comfortable, haven't had any problems with them, no blisters - especially when combined with the double layer of walking socks.
Trainers - Salomon Exit Low 2000 (£59.99, Millets). Very comfortable so far, although perhaps not enough 'breathing' going on for my feet.
medication that can be obtained from your G.P. such as Metronidazole (for Giardia), wide spectrum antibiotics (for stomach bacterial infections i.e. very bad diarrhoea), Amoxycillin (for other 'general' bacterial infections) and motion sickness tablets (e.g. Stemetil). Obviously, you cannot (and we wouldn't recommend you do!) diagnose yourself in any case, but in the wide world with no doctor on call these medications may be helpful in emergency.
