Around the world with 80 gadgets - Around the world with 80 gadgets

I leave in less than a month. Of course I have to test pack. And I must say it went quite well.

First I laid out almost all the stuff I'm bringing on the bed and tried to get an overview of what I actually was going to take with me. I chucked out a few items like the plate and cup set, some clothing and the big rain poncho.

Then I started packing it into the sections of my backpack. The shelves must not be filled to the top, or you won't be able to put the shelf system into the pack. Things you are less likely to use at once go at the bottom (of course), but I realised there is actually very little of what I'm taking that I don't want to keep at hand every day. Well, something's gotta go at the bottom, and I guess these decisions have to be made based on weather, location and plans for the day.

I really hope the technical underwear won't be necessary (maybe in NZ though), so it's going on the bottom along with the silk dresses. Not really planning a lot of visits to fancy restaurants. Besides, thanks to the brilliant shelf design nothing is really unreachable anyway. I just like to keep stuff I use often or might need quickly very close. During flights I'm locking the main compartment with a PacSafe padlock and making sure nothing valuable is located in the outside pockets. Expensive stuff like PC, camera and money/cards is in my hand luggage.

Then in the next shelf I'm putting clothes, underwear, swimwear in a separate bag.

On the top shelf the pillow, towel, toiletries and fire/burglar alarm. Also note the cool LED candle! Shoes, rain poncho, first aid kit, toilet paper and such is practical to have in the outside pockets.

The weight was exactly 13 kg (28,6 lbs) and I had plenty of space to spare for souvenirs and other stuff. The weight includes hand luggage and PC (and all shoes), so I'm quite happy with it. Now I can't honestly say I'm looking forward to wearing a backpack so much of the time for the next 6 months, being a Norwegian and prone to mysterious diseases, but a backpack is by far the most practical luggage. Especially for backpacking. When I was in Australia for the first time a couple of years ago, I was on a tour with AdventureTours (and very happy with them!) with a Canadian girl among other backpackers. She was sporting the biggest hard suitcase on wheels I have ever seen (pretty sure her lover would fit in there), and she could actually not carry it herself (up stairs, through sand and so on) and relied on the kindness of strangers. When you travel alone, it goes without saying that you should only take what you can carry yourself.

On the other hand, people have different opinions on what is big and not, in Jordan I traveled with a 65 litre backback only, and two elderly British women thought I was joking when I said that was the small backpack ...

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