What's in my BUSHCRAFT _ HIKING backpack_.

G'day folks and welcome to another video. So what's in my bushcraft and hiking bag? I get asked this question all the time so I thought I'd do a little gear load out and show you what I take on an overnight hiking or bushcraft trip. So let's get stuck into it. Alright guys, well this is pretty much all my gear. So obviously depending on where I'm going and what time of year I'm going, I'll take different things. But this gives you a nice overview of pretty much my entire kit. So over here we've got the sleep system, then I've got my clothes, then my tools, cooking stuff and then just some first aid and fishing gear. So we start from the right. First up we've got my Mont Zodiac 500 sleeping bag. This is a down sleeping bag. It's an Aussie brand out of Canberra. It's always good to support the Aussie brands. It's just a really good sleeping bag. It goes down to about minus two, around zero degrees or minus two. Pretty much everywhere I go camping it never gets much colder than that. So this does me really well. So I'm pretty stoked with that. And then I've got next to it, I've just got a little, I think it's a Sea to Summit mosquito net. So I just kind of keep in this little drawstring bag. So just taking that because if I decide to sleep just under a tarp on a ground sheet, I might put this over me just to keep some of the bugs away. And then we've got my Sea to Summit Eros pillow, which I absolutely love this thing. Packs down to barely anything, weighs nothing, and it's super comfy. So it's always nice to have these little luxuries when you're out in the bush. Because a good night's sleep can mean all the world the next day. And then we've got the Outdoor Research Helium Vivi. So I've used this a bunch of times now. I actually really like it. It's pretty light. I think it weighs like maybe 500 grams or something like that. So it's really light. Packs down pretty small. Because I've noticed a few places I've been recently, I tend to come across a lot of ants. It seems to be the bane of my existence at the moment. So when the mosquito net won't do, because obviously the ants can kind of crawl underneath that, I tend to sleep in the Vivi. Because yeah, some of the bull ants in Australia have these big mandibles and they bite like hell. So sometimes it's nice just to roll this out and have some protection against that. But yeah, pretty happy with that. Obviously, Vivis can be a pretty hit and miss. Not everyone seems to like them, but I don't mind them. They're a bit claustrophobic, but you can kind of put up with it. And then next we got the Nemo Astra Air Inflatable Mat. I've had this for, gosh, probably three years now, three or four years, and really happy with it. Really nice and light and small. I've never had any issues with it. I've never had a puncture or anything, and it's still doing me strong all these years later. So pretty happy with that. Also, being sort of like a bright yellowy-orange, because obviously most of the gear here you'll notice is sort of greens and tans and stuff like that. So all kind of blends in the bush. But I find by having this a nice bright color, if I ever get stuck and need to sort of signal a helicopter or something, I can sort of lay this out and it sort of stands out against the vegetation. So it's kind of handy having one or two pieces in the kit that are nice and bright. Then next up, this is a new addition to the kit. So this is the Helikon-Tex Poncho. I haven't actually used it yet. I've obviously tried it on at home and stuff, and it seems to fit nice and well. The benefits of having this rather than a rain jacket is a rain jacket only serves one purpose, and it's only going to sort of cover your top half. Whereas a poncho, this can pretty much cover most of my torso, and it can go over my bag. So if I'm hiking through the rain, it keeps everything nice and dry. Also, it doubles up as a small top, and you can also use it as a ground sheet as well. So I'm pretty happy with it. It packs down really small, and it's really nice and light. So I think this might sort of stay in my kit pretty regularly, I think, because I might even substitute my other ground sheet for this in future because it doubles up as a few different things. So I'm pretty happy with that so far. And so speaking of ground sheets, so this is just a small little ground sheet that I've got. It does the job. It's really good, nice and light and small. And I've used it plenty of times before, and I really like it. But like I said, I might start using the poncho as a ground sheet instead just because, like I said, it doubles up a few different things. Speaking of ground sheets, so this is the other ground sheet I have. This is by a brand called Remote Projects. They're based out of Byron Bay, and this is wax canvas. So it's a little bit heavy, so I don't take it on hikes. But if I ever go canoe camping or car camping or something like that, and I want a nice durable ground sheet, then I'll definitely take this because it's really nice quality. Yeah, it's heavy duty, so it's going to stand up to test the time. Just a good bit of solid kit to have in the car. And then next up, we've got my Alton Goods hammock, which is once again nice and light. I've been using this for a number of years and very happy with it. Inside here, I've just got some tree hugger straps. So this is my Alton Goods 3x3 meter tarp. If you've seen my recent videos, you'll see me using this. Probably got it about six months ago, and I've taken it on a few trips now and really happy with it. It's really nice and light, packs down really small, smaller than my DD hammock tarp. So yeah, very, very impressed with that. And then moving into the clothing system. So start up here, this is my Kathmandu down jacket. So I got this last year, and it does a really good job of keeping me warm during winter, so pretty happy with that. And then the trusty flannel, or for you guys overseas, the flannelette shirt. Always take this on a hike. And then we've got... So this is the pants, so the bottom half to these pants. So this brand is called Mountain Design. Once again, I'm pretty sure they're an Aussie brand as well, and they're really nice and light. And I do have a pair of Fuel Ravens, which I was using for a number of years, but I find in summer they're quite thick, and so they're kind of quite hot to wear. So I've been using this over the last couple of months, and I'm really happy with them. They are obviously not as durable as a Fuel Raven, but they're nice and lightweight, and when you're hiking through summer, you want something nice and light, and this does the job nice and well. And then next up, we've got just a pair of Merino wool thermals, and then some Sea to Summit gaiters. I think these are the Quagmire Sea to Summit gaiters, and I haven't used them a bunch. I've used them maybe once or twice. They're kind of a new addition to the kit. Just figured I spend so much time out in the bush by myself, and I'm always coming across snakes. I actually just saw one just earlier before when I was hiking into here, so they're always out and about. So I figured I might just keep these in the kit from now on, because they're nice and lightweight. They weigh barely anything. They do take up a bit of room, but I figured just a lot of places I go, it's always very dense scrub, so it's always nice to have something to protect your shins and just to keep the snakes at bay. So I think that's going to be something I'll probably have to start using in future, just because I've been playing Russian roulette so far. I think it'd be nice just to keep these in the kit when I need to. And then last but not least, just a beanie. All right, now we move into the equipment. So I've just got here some, it's about 10 meters worth of paracord, 550 paracord just with a carabiner, and this is just some thicker, I think they call it battle rope. So it's like a seven strand rope and really strong. I think, I can't remember how much it can hold, but it's a lot. So I kind of keep about 10 meters of this. Both of these I just strapped to the front of my pack on the molly webbing. And yeah, you always need a bit of extra cordage, so it's nice just to have it handy. The reason I've got the thicker rope here is just because hiking a lot of sandstone country, sometimes you need to lower your bag down off a little rock ledge, or you might even need to tie yourself to a tree and kind of help yourself down. I wouldn't use it for abseiling, but just if you want a hand line just to help yourself down, this will come in handy. And then next to it, we've got my VanQuest Husky Organizer, which I absolutely love. Just keeps all my bits and pieces nicely organized. I've got my Sawyer water filter in here, other bits and pieces like a lighter and a pencil and a Gerber multi-tool, all my batteries for my camera, a charger, a power bank, and also my flint and steel kit. So I've just got a flint steel and also a little Fresnel lens. So obviously you can't see it now because it's overcast, but if it was sunny, you'd be able to sort of use that to start a fire by focusing the sun's rays. I'm going to do another video where I sort of go through the VanQuest Organizer in detail, so I can show you all the stuff that I keep in here and go through its specs. So I'll do that in another video. The next up here, we've just got a small dry bag. And inside here, we've just got some more paracord, sort of one, two, and three meter lengths of paracord, just in this little dry bag. So it's always nice to just have some small bits, just if you need to tie something up. And also having the dry bag, that can double as a pillow. If I need to, I can fill it there, clip it up and use it as a pillow. Or I can fill it up with water, just so I don't need to transport some water to the camp to maybe put the fire out. Yeah, it's just nice to keep some things nice and dry. So it's a handy little bit of kit. Next up, I've got my Silky Gomboy. I think this is a 240, so really happy with this saw. I was using the Barco Laplander for a number of years, but I got this last year and I absolutely love it. It just cuts through wood like butter. It does a really good job. The teeth on it are pretty vicious, so it does a really good job of cutting through the Aussie hardwood. And it's nice and light and small as well. So I've got this other hand saw. It's by Agua Canyon. It's a Boreal 21. So I got it at the end of last year. Put that in here. Yeah, so it's a pretty cool saw. I've only used it a couple of times because when I got it, the bushfires kicked off in Australia. So a lot of camping was put on hold. And so I haven't really had too much of a chance to get out and use this. But for trips where weight isn't an issue and I'm not hiking too far, then I'm definitely going to take this because it's just a beast of a saw. It folds down to pretty much nothing. So it is a little bit heavy, obviously, compared to the Silky Gomboy. So it really depends what kind of trip I'm doing. Like I said, if I'm not hiking too far, then I'll take this. But if I'm going for a decent hike, then I'll take the Silky Gomboy. And that just folds up like that. So pretty handy little bit of kit, this one. I really like it. I'm keen to get some use out of it. So this is a classic hatchet. It's pretty lightweight, nice and small. I generally don't take it on too many hikes just because in Australia, I find you don't really need an axe or a hatchet, just like you guys in the northern hemisphere. I find a saw is much more useful. So I'd rather take a saw than take this. But it is nice and handy just to take on some trips when I know I'm not having to hike too far and I want to do a bit more bushcraft-y kind of stuff, then I'll take this. But generally speaking, I tend to leave this at home because, yeah, with a knife and a saw, I can pretty much do everything I need to. Then down here, I've got my new addition. This is by Core Knife and Tool. This is a Bushman. I'm absolutely stoked with it. I have shown you guys in a number of videos, but it's such a beautiful knife. I'm really happy with it. The quality of it's lovely. The leather work on this is awesome too. So I'm very happy with this knife. So yeah, it's called the Bushman by Core Knife and Tool. If you want to check it out. And this is also from Core Knife and Tool. It's just a little pouch. He calls it Swaggy's Pantry or Swagman's Pantry. So basically, inside here, just little vials where you can keep your salt and pepper or some spices or other little bits and pieces. And once again, the leather work on this is lovely. Really happy with this. Another nice little bit of kit. So here we've got a drawstring cotton sack just to keep my food in. Nothing special. Then I've got a little gas stove, which I don't use a whole lot, but it's nice just to have it. This is the Optimus Crux Light. It packs down really small. It's a good little stove, but like I said, I don't really use it a whole lot. Here I've just got some steel wool and just a little leather pouch I tend to keep my tinder in. So this is another recent addition. So this is a Trangia or Trangia? I always seem to say it wrong, but yeah, it's a Trangia metho stove. So yeah, I've used it a couple of times now and really like it. It's nice and silent too. So I find using this gas stove, it's a bit loud. Sometimes when you're in the bush, you kind of just want to be nice and silent and not have this rearing gas stove going. So I find cooking over this sort of silent flame is actually nice. So that's just a little bottle of metho as well. And then also during summer when it's pretty bloody hot, you don't want to get a fire started in the morning. I find this is nice and useful just to cook up your brekkie and not having to worry about getting a fire going. And then so down here, just got my water bottle and cook set. So just got my Pathfinder's one liter stainless steel water bowl, which you can also put over the fire and boil up some water to sterilize. And here's my Pathfinder's 750 mil nesting cup. So that just slots in there nice and snug. And here I can cook up my rice and my pasta or have a few gin and tonics when I'm sitting around the fire. And then here's a stove stand. So basically put either sticks under there or a little hexamite fuel tablet, or even just chuck that straight in the fire. You put that on top and boil up your water. So pretty handy bit of kit. And the best thing about all this stuff is it all just slots in nice and snug. So it keeps it all quite compact. And there's just a little lid that goes with it. Actually, I think I forgot two more things. I just realized. So just tucked down the back of my bag is my cooking system. So here I've just got a Snowpeak, it's just a titanium plate. So with this I can cook up over the fire, cook up some steak or pretty much all my food I cook in this. You can also use in the morning just serve with your cereal because it's got reasonable edges on it. So you can put your milk in there and it's not going to spill out. So that's a very, very handy bit of kit. I kind of wish it was a little bit bigger, maybe like an inch or two bigger, but it still does the job. So very happy with that. And then next up is my Alton Goods titanium grill, which is a very handy bit of kit. So really small, slides just down the back of my pack nice and easily, barely even notice it there. It's very light and it's just nice to chuck that over the fire and then cook over the hot coals. So really enjoy using that. And then here I've just got a plastic chopping board, once again, weighs nothing. Just put that on top of there and I can just chop up. So that way I'm not using my knife on my metal plate because I've had plenty of people tell me in the past to stop doing that. So I've gone to these plastic chopping boards and I'm very happy with it. And just over here we've just got a hip flask, which usually carries some port or tawny or even some musket. It's probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I obviously love this stuff. And when you're sitting around a fire after a hard day of hiking, listening to some Johnny Cash or some Paul Kelly and sipping on some musket, life doesn't get much better than that. So I always like to carry some music out in the bush. It's probably not everyone's cup of tea, but like I said, after a long day of hiking, there's nothing better than just relaxing by a fire, listening to some music. Next up, I've got my lead lens. I think it's called the MH8, which I got a couple of months ago for Christmas. And yeah, really happy with it. It's got a nice wide beam on it. You can also focus it to a nice narrow beam. It's rechargeable and you can also put some AA batches in here as well. So pretty handy bit of kit. I can charge this off my power bank in here. So yeah, I'm pretty happy with that one. All right. And the next up is my Shimarg. I got this a couple of weeks ago, so I've used it a bunch of times. I'm pretty happy with it. If you're not sure what a Shimarg is, just Google it and you can find all the uses for this thing. Just to name a few, it's a head covering. So if it's sunny or dusty or sandy, you can just wrap this around your head to keep yourself protected. It's obviously a towel, so you can wash yourself and wash up your cook kit. You can also use your knife to scrape some of the fibers off it. So you use a striker with your ferro rod to start a fire. You can filter water through it. There's plenty of uses for it. Or you can use it as a sling if you've got an injury. So heaps of uses for this thing. So it's a pretty handy bit of kit to have. All right. Next up is probably one of the most important bits of kit I have. This is the ACR ResQ Link PLB. I would not go in the bush without this thing now. It is super important to have. And it is a little bit expensive at about $350, but I think it's one of the most important things you can have because, especially like myself, if you go out in the bush by yourself and you get bitten by a snake or you roll over and twist your ankle or break your leg or you get lost, this thing will save your life. And so it is a bit pricey, but I think the investment is very worthwhile. So it's definitely worth looking into this. It's just a PLB. So it's just a beacon. So it doesn't do navigation like the Garmin InReach, and you can't send text with it. But I can just set this off and it'll go to a satellite, to a communication center, and then they'll send help. So very handy bit of kit to have. I might start looking into maybe getting the Garmin InReach just because it's got a few more capabilities like the navigation and being able to sort of send a text if I ever get stuck and just want to let my partner know that I'm running a bit late or something like that. So I might look into getting that, but for the time being, this does the job. So very important bit of kit. And then just next up, I've got my first aid kit. It's a pretty standard first aid kit, so I'm not going to go through all the contents of it. I might do another video one day if you guys want to see that. But the only additions I've got in here are probably a few extra compression bandages because if I ever get bitten by a snake, the first thing I want to do is wrap that limb up with ideally two or three compression bandages and then set off that PLB to get some help in. But apart from that, it's just a pretty standard first aid kit. And then next, I've got just a one meter by one meter square bit of orange cotton. I don't take this all the time, but if I'm going to go somewhere that's nice and remote, I'll probably chuck this in the kit because say if I do ever get into trouble and I have to set off this PLB, most of my kit is pretty, blends into the bush pretty well. So I kind of want something that's going to stand out, that I can lay out on the ground or put on a rocky outcrop or something just so if a helicopter does go past, you can see me nice and clearly. But that's also the reason I've got the orange, yellowy orange NEMO mat because that can also double as sort of a signaling device. But yeah, so if I ever go somewhere remote, I'll probably usually take that as well. And then just here, I've just got a silver compass with my write in the rain notebook, which I keep a pencil in my organizer. And this is I find a pretty handy bit of kit to have. So inside here, I've just got two plastic bags. They're 90 centimeters by 60 centimeters each. The idea of this is just a transpiration bag. So if I ever find myself somewhere where there's no water source, I can always wrap this around a branch of a tree and sort of capture that transpiration and it can condensate in the bag and form at the bottom of the bag and I can just pour that out into my water bottle. So I've done it a couple of times before and I've gathered about sort of three to four hundred mils, sometimes even up to 500 mils of water. So it's a pretty handy bit of knowledge to have because if you ever get stuck, it requires a very minimal effort. You've just got to basically sit around and wrap this around a branch and let that do all the work for you. So I find that's pretty handy just to keep in the bag. It weighs nothing again. Also, if you ever come across maybe like sort of like a trickle of water coming out of like a rocky outcrop or something and you can't quite capture it maybe in the nesting cup, you can always lay this out and sort of collect all that water and then pour that into your water bottle. So I think that's pretty useful to keep in the kit. And so just here I've just got a pretty standard blue bandana. So nothing special. I generally just keep this in my pocket so when I'm hiking along and I get a bit sweaty, I can just sort of wipe the sweat off my face. If I'm not wearing my hat, I can wrap it around my head and sort of keep the sweat out of my eyes or the sun off my forehead. Now to my fishing gear. So everyone knows I'm not the best fisherman in the world, but I do go to a lot of places that are sort of next to rivers and waterways like lakes and stuff. So I like to just chuck it in the kit and give it a red hot crack. I'm getting a little bit better. I'm definitely not the best fisherman in the world, but I like to give it a go. And so with persistence, hopefully it'll pay off one day. But just in here is just a pretty standard travel rod. Breaks down to four pieces. The brand of this is called Savage Gear. And then I've also just got a box of lures and then a reel. So yeah, so there you have it. That's pretty much all the gear that I use throughout the year. I do have a hiking tent, but it's a little bit big and heavy and bulky. I'm not a big fan of it. So I decided to not include it in this gear loadout. Obviously, depending on the time of year and where I'm going, I sort of mix up different things. But yeah, this gives you a nice overview. All right. Well, hopefully you guys enjoyed this one. It's always nice to sort of see what other people take out in the bush so you can sort of get some ideas. So hopefully I've given you guys some tips and maybe ways you can improve your system. You guys have any tips for me? I'm always keen to sort of change things up and improve my system. So feel free to leave me a comment below with some tips. Anyway, hopefully you guys enjoyed this one. As always, thanks so much for watching. I really appreciate your support. I'm going to get on out of here because I'm getting absolutely hammered by mosquitoes. It's starting to get a little bit late. So yeah, thanks so much for watching. If you're new to the channel and you like this kind of stuff, then feel free to give me a thumbs up and subscribe because that'd really help me out. So anyway, until next time guys, poo-roo.