The Ultimate Bushcraft Kit For The Aussie Bush

Hey guys, so I thought I'd do a little rundown of some of the gear that I bought for this two this two night wild camp. So to start with this is my Tasmanian Tiger Raid Pack 3. Really really good bag, really well built. It's about 48 litres with two litres and extra two litres on each side to make it about 52 litres all up. It weighs about 2.9 kilos so slightly heavier side but the strap system on the back is really really good. I've hiked for five days in the wilderness with this, about 15 kilos worth of gear inside and I didn't have a problem at all. It was really really good. Like I said it's really well built. The strap system is really strong. This waist belt can come off if you want it to. It's got a really good side pocket so you can put your medical kit in one side and your water bottle in another side so that way you don't have to rummage through the bag which is good. It's got a good pocket on the top so very easy access to anything you want throughout the day. It's got a lot of molly webbing as well on the front and the sides so I've attached a little hatchet. I'm just using some double-sided velcro. I've just got some rope with a carabiner and sweat rag or bandana. Like I said it's a really good bag. Also a very handy thing to have I find when you're hiking especially in sandstone country where it's very hilly and rocky is a good walking stoop. This is a flower spike from a xanthorrhea or a grass tree and I've just attached some paracord around the handle. This is really handy I find just because when the ground is very uneven it almost acts as your third leg so if you need it to help you down it's really good for that. It's also really good if you're walking through a bit of snake territory just to tap on the ground and make some noise just so the snakes are aware that you're coming through. Also when you're through dense scrub I find to have this out and push the dense scrub away from your face so you're not always smacking your face in with branches. Really handy thing to have I think a walking stick. Anyway let's open up the bag and we'll go through and see what we've got inside. It's also made of 700 denier cordura the fabric so it's really really strong and abrasion resistant which is a big thing for me because because hiking through sandstone country you're constantly rubbing up against rocks so you need something that's going to last so yeah really cool bag. Yeah so first up I've got my Polter 4's trekking hatchet. It's a really nice little little hatchet this one. It's got a nice little leather guard, pretty lightweight, pretty small and compact which is good. The only thing I have to say about hatchets or axes in Australia I find is a lot of our wood is hardwood so something like this just doesn't cut it for a lot of timber. I actually find a saw is much more useful than an axe or a hatchet. Maybe you had a much bigger axe and yeah that's fine but the thing is you don't want to be hiking with that. Maybe be car camping then that's fine or something but yeah like I only use sometimes not all the time depends on what sort of tasks I want to do what kind of bush if I want to make like a shelter or something then I might bring this but yeah but it's still a nice little hatchet just to have and plus a lot of the timber in Australia the dead fall you'll find coming off trees that's more than sufficient for using for firewood didn't always need to chop up wood you pretty much just find it on the ground so but yeah good little hatchet and then I've got some yeah just some rope and some paracord and then a bandana which I use as sort of a sweat rag just to keep the sweat off my forehead during summer and also the bushfires get pretty bad and they just bite your head so it's pretty good to keep them keep them away also it can double as a sling if you end up hurting your arm and you need to sort of get it up so that's pretty handy plus that yeah so I just got a just a one litre sort of army canteen just plastic pretty handy to have in your pockets just got a little head torch PLB which I think is uh really important to have if you're sort of spending a lot of time out bush just because um yeah you never know what's going to happen you could get could get bitten by a snake could be bitten by a spider especially the snake if it's a brown snake or something um you've only got about an hour before you get in real deep trouble and if you're a good couple of hours hike away from um your car or civilization or reception which I often am this could save your life um also if you injure yourself badly enough um need to get sort of chop it out or um or rescued or if you're lost this um this would be a life saver so it's definitely worth um investing in I think they're about 350 bucks so they are pricey um especially because you hope you're never going to use it but um yeah I think it's definitely worth peace of mind the girlfriend made me get that one she said I couldn't keep going if I didn't have something like that uh once again just the first aid kit um just I'm not going to go through everything in here but you know just all the normal stuff like bandanas a couple of compression bandages just for snake bites you always want to have two compression bandages so you can wrap up the limb um should you get bitten um yeah some tea tree oil which is good for um yeah bites and stings and stuff like that just bits and pieces um what else have I got in here so I've got a little steel steel wool um which is pretty good to get off the I find I don't know how um sort of more the northern north northern hemisphere guys with the pine and stuff but I find with Australian wood when you put um your steel cup on the fire you get a lot of sappy residue build up on the cup and it gets real sticky so I need this to scrub it off I don't know if that just happens with um sort of eclipse and stuff um Australian gum trees or if you guys get it with pine trees as well but anyway I find that handy it's got a tea tower um this is just a little little towel not for washing up but more for um yeah if I go for a swim or um want to wipe some sweat off the forehead again or something like that pretty handy to have wipe your hands the other side that's just a plastic bottle with um some gin some gin and tonic which I love on this side I've got my um one liter pathfinders stainless steel bottle really good bottle helped with its nesting cup so really like that it's got a little lid as well and I've got a little thing that hooks in and you can hang it up on a stick above the fire that's really good um and also this uh little stand so you can put it put some twigs and stuff underneath there pop that on top so just get some flame underneath it which is pretty and it all it all um yeah it all compacts down to to that which is good and I've got my silky gumboy um I only just got this so I only used it a couple of times I already really like it I used to have a well I still do have the Barco Laplander found is just the blade was just a little bit too short um kept slipping out and stuff so this is just that extra a bit extra um so a bit more length in it so hopefully it doesn't slip out as much seems like it's a really good saw so can get a bit more use out of it um this is just a a grill I think yeah I think that's a brand Expedition Research um I think got them off Amazon which they shipped to Australia which was good because it's so hard to get things from overseas shipped to Australia and there's not many places in Australia that sell this kind of stuff so but just a little grill which is good for cooking your steak and stuff on um on the fire yeah so let's have a look inside oh I should tell you um and then this back pocket really nice big open pocket um just got a little tinder pouch we got some paperbark inside here um yeah swallow it um little flask um full of tawny or musket which a lot of people don't like but I love um yeah just a book oh this is a really handy thing to have Wild Food Plants in Australia by Tim Lowe great book if you're going to spend a lot of time in um I highly recommend getting this because it makes you look at the bush in a whole different way um just realizing what what you can eat and stuff um yeah really good book um it's pretty much the bible in Australia for edible plants um it's got a good description whereabouts you'll find them what time of year um how to identify the plant and whereabouts in Australia like it shows on the map um yeah really good book so I'm sure if you're into this kind of bushcraft you probably already know about it but yeah this is kind of what got me into it all oh yeah also just got a topographical map of the area just so I'm not going to get too lost let's have a look inside yeah so inside so I've got a good little bum bag which um yeah I don't know I kind of use it um as my little day pack so when I've sort of set up camp and I want to go for a bit of a wander I can manage to fit um my little army canteen can manage to fit this little canteen inside it um as well as sometimes I put my little PLB in it just in case I get into trouble um I always put some compression bandages just in case as well if I happen to get bitten by a snake while I'm out um I've got them just my little pack I mean in some maybe some snacks or something so I actually find it really handy um takes up a little bit of room but um yeah that way when you go wandering away from camp it's um yeah you've got something something to put some stuff in uh this is a I think it's snow peak titanium plate so yeah this is really good because obviously use it as a plate um use it as a bowl as well it's got some nice high sides um and you can fry in it so it's obviously you can put in the fire so that's very handy cook up some steak or whatever you got going um just got that's my food just uh just a sack got a little speaker I always take a speak with me I don't know I love music I don't know what other people um takes bothers taking music with them but yeah wouldn't go anywhere without my music so it's always nice to sit back and by the fire and have some tawny or some gin and um yeah listen to some tunes just got some some beers see um so I just got an um bushcraft knife which I got custom made by um a boy called Scotty Simmons um calls himself Gidgey it's based up in uh Queensland I'm pretty sure um beautiful beautiful knife absolutely love this thing uh it's got a Scandi grind um I think the timber scale is a Lance wood um really really nice knife trying to do a closer close-up of it so you can see a bit better but really nice knife um he made the sheath as well um just with a little fly steel holder the fly steel I made myself I just got some yeah just bought the rod on a line and then just bought a bit of um antler from the from the pet store and just um yeah just ground it down and drilled a hole in it fits perfectly so nice little um nice little system there oh socks um some thermal pants thermal top yeah just undies and some clothes and stuff there it goes uh beanie it's pretty cold this time of year these are just the um the zip-off pants so my um four raven um trousers so actually oh yeah one thing is that that was pretty important when um I was sort of trying to figure out what pants to get because I had some pretty other sort of just cheapo zip-off pants but they kind of got a bit worn down after a while and in Australia it's just always hot even in winter during the day it just gets hot and so you need something you can zip off um so just bought some of these they're a little bit the materials it's good it seems like really good quality but it's a bit thick so I feel like in summer it might be a bit too heavy to wear I did notice when I did my five day butter weighing trek I was getting a little bit of a sort of a rash on the leg so because I think building up sweat um just rubbing against it so it's a bit of thicker material I think obviously being a Swedish brand they obviously um yeah build this stuff for cold weather but still really good pants um good quality uh actually let's pull out so it's more just another jumper and a flannel always go with a flannel I've got a um Sea to Summit what is it Aeros pillow a large one really good packs down really small um very comfortable this is just a mosquito net inside of it this little pouch that I found and just tucked a mosquito net um I think the brand was like 360 or something you can buy them at anaconda stores um yeah so just if you want to sleep on the ground it's always good to have that draped over just to keep all the insects away got my Alton um hammock a really cool brand they're just like I think they're just a small brand um some youngish guys I think maybe based up in Queensland or something um but yeah it's really good really good hammock I like it it doesn't have like a mosquito net or anything built into it or a layer where you can put um sort of a underquilt or anything but for summer camping and stuff it's really good yeah I like it I think it's a good brand and um good quality it's held up well so it's always nice to support the little guys as well obviously just got my DD hammock um three by three meter type which is very important this kind of um wild camping you always need something like this seems like a good size as well you can get away with a to do a lot of variations in um sort of shelter styles and stuff so I got my um what is it nemo astro air inflatable mat um yeah really cool don't usually bring this if I'm going to be hammock camping but because it's a bit cold at the moment um I might be using this instead so but yeah folds down really small which is really good um I got my my new mont zodiac 500 um sleeping bag it's a down sleeping bag so yeah really warm used it a couple times now really warm um they're a local they're a local Aussie brand um I think they use I'm not sure if it's duck or goose but they are pretty sure they're sustainable um yeah ethically sourced uh feathers so that's one thing you've got to keep an eye on make sure you're getting your head down from an ethical source um yeah folds down always goes even smaller than that it folds down so small and lastly this is my van quest uh husky pouch this thing has everything in it this is um yeah I love this thing I'm so glad I got it because it just keeps all my stuff organized um yeah I'll go I'll go lay it down and do a bit of a run through and show you what I've got inside it but yeah really good definitely worth having one of these that way you're just not running rummaging through your bag trying to find bits and pieces it keeps it all together so but yeah that's um yeah that's everything inside the bag um so yeah wasn't a super light trip this one but um yeah got all my sort of essentials and stuff anyway let's let's go through this um let's go through this pouch yeah so just got the van quest husky it's got pretty much everything in it that I need got a got a meal bank bag a soya soya filter there's a soya filter there's a little um water thing for it uh just got a the pot hanger just to get the billy off the fire this is really handy as well just something to get yeah once again get the billy off the fire or um use for the the titanium plate so it's pretty handy to have that's just a little bit of fatwood that I found when I was in America just so I think it's almost dried out probably doesn't really work anymore but um just got that in there a little case pocket knife just a knife fork spoon just kind of goes together nice and small which is good uh this is about a meter or so worth of paracord maybe a meter and a half um I keep this in here because I can use that um with the with um the spike of a xantharia or something uh it's a fire by friction method it's like for like a bow drill so just keep that in there in case I need it I just got a pencil got my iPod like I said pretty important nothing like um sitting back around the fire listening to some Johnny Cash or something just a little little torch um a lighter never use it obviously I like to try and do things the old school method the fire steel or um fire by friction method but it's always good just to have just in case little compass um just some double batteries for my head torch uh these are my um camera batteries so they actually fit in perfectly there which is good um got my cables for my iPod and my my phone this little charger which um put the batteries in here they um show you the so that's the power bank and then I can plug that into that and charge it up this thing is awesome um it's like weatherproof and shockproof I'm pretty sure um I think it's 10 000 milliamps I think um so you can get a fair few charges out of that really really cool and um yeah fits in perfect there which is really handy also just got a little um all weather right in the rain notebook um yeah and just some other bits of paper but yeah that's um that's what I've got in that kind of all the things that would come in really handy and it's just good to have them all in one place rather than rattling around through the bag trying to find them so yeah yeah so that's a little bit of an insight on what I bring in my walkabouts um hope you guys enjoyed that and I'll see you next time