Finding my new pack

How many packs are too many?  For many years I’ve laughed at a good friend of mine who seemed to have more backpacks than he did pairs of underwear.  As I stood and gazed upon the contents of my wardrobe a few days ago however, I came to the realisation that I’m not much better.  There seemed to be luggage for every occasion, from the super small black bag that fitted only a bottle of water and a city guide, to the stained and dirty blue suitcase that carted most of my stuff home from the UK several years ago.  Several day packs of different shapes and sizes, plus the 90 litre behemoth that accompanied me on my last round the world trip.  In this apartment, I swear half of my storage space has been taken up by storage space.  Obviously, therefore, it was time to go pack shopping…

As sad as it seemed, among my excessive collection of luggage I just couldn’t find the right thing to take around the world with me this time.  The largest pack was far too large, the smaller ones were all too small and the suitcase – well, that wasn’t even an option.  After considering how long I was travelling for (at least four months) and where I was going (several countries in Asia and Europe, with potential for others), I decided that I just wasn’t hardcore enough to manage carry-on only.  I’m going to travel light, but not completely at the expense of wearing the same clothes for weeks on end or having to buy my entire wardrobe afresh when I get to somewhere that requires me to look a little less like the stinky backpacker that I inherently am.  Following my own advice, I decided the smallest travel packs (usually around 50-60 litres) would do the job nicely, so it was time to hit the travel stores for a couple of days and give them a go.

First stop: Anaconda, a large outdoors store where I’ve whiled away many an unproductive hour in the past gazing at fun backpacking accessories that I didn’t need.  They had a wide variety of travel and hiking packs available, in what I would call the low to mid range of the market, with 25-40% off.  Sounded ideal!  After finding the one knowledgeable sales assistant – who was wonderful, by the way – and spending at least an hour there, though, I wasn’t convinced.  There were a couple of options that didn’t look bad, but nothing that I really trusted to stand up to the rigours of several months of being kicked around airport terminals and dropped off dusty buses.  Hmm.  Maybe somewhere to come back to if I couldn’t find anywhere better, I thought.

Fortunately I live close to a range of outlet stores, so I decided that they would be my next port of call.  Mountain Designs had a few choices, including a very sexy looking 45 litre hiking pack.  It would have been perfect – except that I really don’t like that style of backpack for the kind of travel that I do.  As I’ve said before, by the third time that you’ve emptied its contents on the sidewalk in a day, you’re likely to be a little less than thrilled that you chose a pack that opens only from the top.  Next.

A little further up the street was Kathmandu, pretty much the biggest name in general purpose camping and travel in Australasia.  To be honest I had low expectations about both price and quality based on previous experience, and those expectations weren’t exceeded.  It’s a reasonably well known fact that you never buy anything from Kathmandu unless it’s on sale, and the backpacks were all priced at full retail on the day that I went in.  Paying $450 for a pack worth maybe $150 didn’t seem like the smartest move that I could make, and so I carried on out the door without attempting to disturb the apparently vital conversation about the impending weekend’s activities being held by the staff behind the counter.

Next stop: the Macpac outlet store.  For those who don’t know, Macpac is a New Zealand-based company that sells mid to high-end outdoor equipment around the world.  I had always heard great things about the products, but assumed that I could never afford to actually buy one.  Still, this was apparently an outlet and clearance store, so I figured it was worth a look.  And it was.  Within a couple of minutes of talking to Tina, the fantastic shop assistant who used to drive trucks around Africa with her husband back in the 80’s and has probably forgotten more about backpacking than I’ll ever know, I realised that I was in the right place.

We quickly settled on the type of thing I was looking for – the Macpac Orient Express 65.  Despite the name, this pack is only 50 litres in size – the other 15 litres comes from the detachable daypack, so it’s a pretty compact unit.  One look at the harness mechanism told me that it was a significant step up in quality from everything else I’d seen, and the subsequent half hour of walking, standing and squatting with about 15kg of weight in the pack proved it.  Seriously, I’ve never worn a more comfortable backpack, and I’ve tried on a lot of them over the years.  Lockable and robust zips, an internal sleeping bag / dirty clothes compartment and compression mechanism and enough pockets and compartments to be useful without looking like you’re carrying a portable wardrobe complete the picture.  Oh, and it’s constructed from materials so strong that they seem as if they’d survive a missile strike.  Or at least being mishandled by baggage handlers and taxi touts, which is pretty close.

Long story short, I bought it.  Even with the 25% discount that I was offered I still paid more than I had wanted to for my new pack, but I think it was worth it.  With an excellent reputation, lifetime warranty and, equally importantly, a few repair centres around the world, I’m reasonably confident that this pack will last me longer than the back I’m putting it on.

And now? Well it’s time to fill it up with stuff and then take half of it back out again.  Fun!