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Craig and Linda look into best practises for packing a backpack in this, the 60th Indie Travel Podcast. They look at packing well for space, comfort and health as well as a walk-through as Craig fills his Berghaus pack before finishing with an email from Chris who shares some gear which could soon be in your pack.

We’ve spent the last week with friends in Ventnor, Isle of Wight, England — look out for Monday’s Travel Talk video to find out more about the nearby towns. Internet access is a little difficult to get to, so we apologise in advance for missing release schedules over the coming weeks.

Packing advice

When packing a backpack it’s important to think about weight distribution and the shape of items going in there. Weight should be balanced between the left and right sides and, where possible, be against the back. It’s also good to have weightier items near the bottom of the pack which aids in gaining a good centre of balance. Here’s a list of steps to go through before packing:

• Lay out everything you want to pack on a floor or bed
• Are you packing light? What can you remove?
• What are you going to use daily? Make these easy to access
• Find regular places for things that need quick access
• Can you use compression sacks to organise your things?
• Consider the weight of each item and pack accordingly

We’ve spoken about packing before: see our discussion on taking a pack or suitcase, packing list for walking trips and our short introduction to packing. Subscribe to the Indie Travel Podcast to ensure you don’t miss anything.

Some gear suggestions

We finish with an email from Chris in England who talks about the following products:

1. Buffs.
2. A nylon broad rimmed hat.
3. An LED headtorch (he likes the Petzl Tikka XP).
4. Smartwool socks.
5. Icebreaker thermal layers.
6. A down jacket.
7. Rohan make great underwear (pants if you are “English”).
8. An old ipod — they are a great way to copy pictures off your digital camera onto their harddrive as a backup device and viewer (as well as being a music, video, games, audiobooks and podcast player!!). You need a little usb dongle which attaches to it (“ipod camera connector”) which are beginning to become rare. Unfortunately this doesn’t work with the latest ipods but then the older 60gb ipod “video” is perfect and will be cheaper on ebay than the newer ones. I don’t know why apple have stopped letting you do this on newer ipods, very disappointing!

Thanks Chris. If you have something to share, contact us.

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This article was written by Craig and Linda

Craig and Linda Martin have been living on the road since February 2006. Both born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand they are ... somewhere in the world! Craig and Linda host the Indie Travel Podcast - you can get in touch with them here.