Gear update: nine months into the round the world trip

Warning: if you are a fan of gear, minutiae or gear minutiae you are in for a treat. Anyone else (is there anyone else?) should skip this one. This is a geeky yet epic rollercoaster of a post about what we have with us on the trip, as a follow-up to the original, the three month, and the six month updates. Herein you will find tales of triumph and heartbreak, but no wide angle shots of majestic scenery.

One shudders to think that we are three quarters of the way through the journey (on the plus side, there’s plenty more adventures still to come). It feels like a long time since the last gear update (I know, sad). In those three months we have, broadly speaking, travelled across the south pacific, into South America (via Los Angeles), all the way down south to Patagonia, and back up through South America, Central America and into (actual?) America. Aside from covering a lot of distance, our gear has dealt with plenty including:

• chilly cold and world-leading scorched desert
• hiking up mountains and walking atop glaciers
• swimming in paradise and splashing in salty flat waters
• staying in flats, hotels, hostels, salt hotels, treehouses and one truly awful pit of despair that we will never mention again
• travelling in big buses, mini buses, planes, trains, boats and yes automobiles

So how are we getting on?

Does it all still fit?

Absolutely. Net, we are carrying less stuff than we set out with. Some items have been lost or worn out without replacement, others have been sent home while some have been confiscated (spoiler, see below). This is good and as it should be, as we learn what we really need and discard frivolous items. Nevertheless we are also carrying some extra items. Most of these can be laid at Odessa’s door and are generally in the ‘fluffy and cute’ category – two that come to mind include a cuddly kiwi won on a grab machine in La Paz, and a foam lizard on the end of a very inconvenient from a packing perspective metal walking stick acquired while my back was turned in Antigua, Guatemala. But they bring her great joy so…

Clothing and other individual stuff

Again, I’ve retained the previous lists and made notes of stand out winners, and also where changes have been made.

Item	Qty	Notes
Main pack	1 each	Jim – Peak Design Travel Backpack 45l Helen – Cotopaxi Allpa travel pack 35l Rafe – Forclaz 40l Dessa – Cotopaxi Batac 24l What is the worst that can happen? These words were uttered once again (not by Jim, as readers of the six month update will recall) as we gently placed our bags under the coach from Ushuaia (Argentina) to Punta Arenas (Chile). Well it turns out that the worst that could happen was that the bus company appears to have dragged the bag out and over a set of sharp metal teeth designed specifically to eat unsuspecting bags. This left a row of evenly spaced holes in the front panel. They may be small but two of them do go through to the lining below. If we were caught out in heavy rain some would get through. Not terminal for the bag, but ever so sad for me.
Packable day bag	1 each	Jim – Patagonia ultralight black hole 20l daypack Helen – Patagonia ultralight black hole tote Both continue to do remarkable service from beach bags to groceries to aeroplane carry on ‘personal items’
Kindle	1 each	We are going to find ourselves replacement screen protectors for these in the US. Dessa’s in particular has extensive scratching caused by overuse on beaches
Phone	1 each
Wallet	1 each
Passport	1 each	Disaster narrowly avoided! Still got all of these with us. Although Jim’s bag did get left in the boot of the taxi as it drove away from Uyuni airport, Bolivia. Fortunately we realised on entering the terminal. Cue Jim running faster than anyone thought possible at that altitude after the taxi in comedy style, flagging it down just before it turned onto the highway
International driving license	1 each	We still haven’t actually needed to deploy these despite hiring several cars. Though the guy with whom we dealt exclusively in cash in Chachapoyas didn’t ask for a single document – no ID, no driving license – so was unlikely to ask for this. We even got our cash deposit back
Sun hat	1 each
Cap	1 each	We have been carrying a cap each, but it strikes us they’ve had very rare use. Maybe that will change in the baseball cap capital of the world (the US of A)
Belt	1 each	Yep, still swanning confidently through airport security with my Arcade Belts belt
Swimming goggles	1 each	Triumph! We have gone a full quarter without losing a single pair of goggles. This is an actual record. In fairness we’ve not done much swimming at all in South America but nevertheless we will take the win
Swimmers	1 each	See above
Rash vest	1 each	See above
T-Shirt	2 each	These Icebreaker merino t-shirts are holding up OK and remain utterly indispensable. A couple of are just starting to show a pull or two now, but we are confident of them making it through the trip
Long sleeve t-shirt	1 each	Jim’s still relatively new from New Zealand Macpac trail top is getting through an awful lot of work. Quite often worn on moving days, as well as on sunny days (which has been often)
Long sleeve shirt	1 each
Hoody / fleece	1 each	Jim still hankers after his lost, brilliant and not inexpensive Patagonia R1 Techface Hoodie. The replacement Macpac Ion Fleece Jacket has actually come into its own in chilly Patagonia as it is warmer than the old Patagonia. But Jim will still likely buy another Patagonia R1 Techface Hoodie because it was perfect and Jim is a gear snob (maybe even in the US if Helen lets him and if they are cheaper)
Insulated jacket	1 each	Naturally got considerable use down south. Not so much recently but it could still get cold up near the Canadian border so we aren’t sending them home just yet
Rain jacket	1 each	I wager we may get to the end of this trip wondering if we really needed to bring these, or whether we could have got away with lighter windproofs. That’s something to look forward to in a few months time
Trousers / dress	1 each	Another victim of Rafe’s notoriously bony behind, while bum surfing in a skatepark in Puerto Natales, Rafe’s handy zip-off trousers-come-shorts gave way in the nether-regions. They limped on for a little while with some bum patching and darning before being replaced. His new trousers, purchased a size too big only a couple of months ago in El Calafate, now fit him perfectly. Not for long. Also growing apace, Dessa acquired a new pair in Calama, northern Chile.
Running shorts	1 each
General shorts	1 each
Socks	3 pair each	Darn Tough socks are almost laughably good. If you do not wear these marvels from Vermont your sock game is way off. They also have an epic no quibbles life time guarantee and return offer
Underwear	3 each
Buff	1 each	These, the hats and gloves got extensive wear in Patagonia. Everyone needs a buff, surely. Can even be worn as a pirate hat
Gloves	1 each	We haven’t had cause to mention our gloves to date – no longer! If you choose to think about these things, there is actually a very wide spectrum of gloves to choose from – from stupid-light but largely useless trail runners to massive polar mitts. For us the dilemma was that we felt we wouldn’t need to wear them often, but also that when we needed them we would need them to offer some genuine warmth. Although we would need them to pack small, they would also need to be worth carrying. Both Helen and I settled on the oddly named Extremities Waterproof Sticky Power Liner Gloves. Oddly named they may be, but very effective. They do warm the hands, are waterproof and yet pack relatively small / flat. They’ve done well for us. Rafe on the other hand (fnarrr!) left home with nothing but a novelty pair of old wool Christmas gloves. Seeing the error of his ways he upgraded at Macpac in New Zealand to these, and was glad he did once he found himself hunting for icicles up at Glacier Martial. Dessa, keen not to be left out, picked up a very nice pair in Wrightwood, California as a blizzard started to blow into town. Our fellow travellers on the salt flats of Bolivia at freezing dawn were very jealous of her snug little paws.
Warm hat	1 each
Flip flops	1 each	Helen hasn’t replaced her flip flops (one of which fell out of the camper van in Oman), relying instead on her Merrell sandals
Shoes / boots	1 each	Jim’s new (purchased in LA) pair of Altra Lone Peaks have proved perfect through the relatively light trekking we did in Patagonia. They also survived the wet salt flats, and got a buff up from the street shoe guy in Lima who took pity on them (he soaped them down no less!) Rafe’s shoes purchased in Decathlon Turin six months ago delivered outstanding service but were already running small and battered by the time they met with the damp salt of the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. They never really recovered or indeed dried out, so we splashed on out some North Face youth fastpack hiking shoe replacements in Lima. He likes them, as he should at that price! Both Dessa (Salomons picked up in Wollongong Australia) and Helen (those Merrell sandals) are on the brink of needing to be replaced. Hopefully in the US, and hopefully cheaper than Rafe’s.
Running trainers	1 each
Headphones	1 each	While our attrition of swimming goggles has paused these last few months, the same cannot be said for kids headphones. It is worth recapping where we are. We started out with two pairs, and we got nothing left (to paraphrase this guy). Dessa’s were replaced in Singapore. Rafe got a new pair in Perth, and Dessa got a further pair in Wellington. Well, Rafe got yet another pair in Ushuaia, Argentina. This time not the kids JBL 310s but the suspiciously similar JBL Tune 500s. Perhaps these will last better (I doubt it). To summarise, we are on our sixth pair so far. Adult headphones still intact since leaving Chobham
Water bottle	1 each	Disaster. Not our first Vapur water bottle disaster. We seem to have mislaid the smaller red one in Punta Arenas. We don’t know where (obviously) and can’t really see how. But it is certainly no longer with us. Will likely restock in the US. Particularly as the blue one is starting to look a little mouldy
Bag tracker	1 each	It is comforting, and it has to be said a geeky pleasure, to open the Tile app on buses and see that all the bags are still with us
Travel towel	2 between us	Used in water parks, sketchy hostels and on beaches across the globe, also double up as a blanket on buses or trains. Douglas Adams would be proud of us
Face mask	1 each	Had to drag these out from the far reaches of our luggage for all public transport journeys in Bolivia. Last seen in Indonesia
Ear plugs	1 each

The Detailed List: General and random stuff

This will be spread across all of our bags

Item	Notes
Washing line	Incredibly useful still
Lightweight caribiner
Folding cup	Sent home long ago
Spork	one remaining. Plus a useful yellow plastic spoon/knife which came free in a pack of golden kiwis in New Zealand
First aid kit	After successfully navigating malaria-ridden Vanuatu and staying largely at higher altitudes than the mossies in Peru and Bolivia, we have disposed of our remaining anti-malarials freeing up some space. Rafe made use of the emergency antibiotics in Vanuatu when he developed an infection in his scratchy bites. We also topped up on child strength paracetamol in Lima
Soap bar	Lush soap bars are still great. Not quite as good as Dr Bronners, but we haven’t found those anywhere since we left with one from the UK.
Soap bar pouch	The Matador flatpak soap case is still utter genius.
Face cloth
Dry sack	Wet swimmers, groceries and most recently a sick bag on a minibus with an especially spirited driver. Still extremely useful
Inflatable globe	Sent home
Folding football	Sent home
Ground sheet	The Matador pocket ground sheet is still brilliant
Travel power adapter	The Zendure Passport III – potential candidate for the end of trip unsung hero award. Is always charging everything. Also has an inbuilt surge protector, very useful in place with a dubious power supply
GoPro
Cables
Laptop
Keyboard and mouse
Portable battery bank
Travel router	Make the sad times end! The tiny gl.inet travel router we’ve been using to share VPN (vital for download Disney+ and Netflix stuff for the kids flights) and keep safe on dodgy wifi and internet so far has broken after an unfortunate meeting with the floor in San Carlos de Bariloche. Jim thinks this is an opportunity to upgrade to the new model…
Small speaker	Being able to play a few chunes never fails to put everyone in a better mood and make a place feel more homely. Ours is the lesser spotted old model JBL Go 2, superior to the newer Go 3.
Small games	Still going strong with Yahtzee, Cluedo and pass the pigs. We’ve memorised most of the country facts from the world Top Trumps pack and still find the silly Exploding Kittens cards amusing. We do need to learn more games than pontoon, Go Fish and Rummy for the pack of cards. Jim is still regularly beating Rafe at chess. Rafe and Helen both pretty good at solving the mini Rubik’s Cube
Silicone straw	Still not lost!
Folding food box with lid	Unsung hero, this. Useful for leftovers in Airbnb fridges, packed lunches and more. There was also that time when it came in handy to catch and remove a fist sized arthropod from the bed at gone midnight in the jungle. Shudder. We’re down to a single food bag clip now too, perilous.
Torch	Very useful in various dark situations
Keychain knife	Immeasurable despair! Despite close calls in Qatar and Perth, and making it through US security in LA and Miami without fuss, we lost our tiny but mighty Swiss Army Classic SD to domestic airport security in … La Paz, Bolivia! This was most unexpected. They were pleasant about it but nonetheless insistent. We have missed it many times already, and will likely get another one in the US since we won’t be flying for a while there (and will send it back home). By the way, what we miss most is the scissors. When travelling as we are and not camping, scissors are the thing we need most. Helen, ever the quick thinker did manage to save the tweezers and toothpick. Small mercies
Keychain tool	We still have this, but its not the same without its knife companion
Corkscrew	Sent home
Eye masks
Pens, pencils and paper	For schoolwork and general doodling and colouring
Sleeping bag liners	Still more useful than Jim ever thought they would be
Headphone splitter	Allows for rare moments of sibling harmony while the kids watch Phineas and Ferb together on a tablet
Car cigarette lighter USB charger	Expected to once again become vital in the coming months with road trips planned