We are now going to carry on looking through the contents of my rucksack that I used to take with me when on expedition or working in the jungles of Central and South America.

The following items of expedition equipment are in no particular order of importance.

1. Tough outdoor sandals. Necessary for letting your feet breathe at night if your boots are wet. Also, for bathing in down by the riverside and protecting your feet from sharp rocks or coral if on coastal projects.
2. Bungee cords. Good for putting up shelters, mosquito nets, washing lines. I take 4 of them.
3. A decent length of paracord string. The uses are endless, from shoelace replacements to shelter construction.
4. Duct tape, Gaffa tape, Hostage tape… whatever the name…. it is a superb, repair anything, highly useful addition to your expedition equipment – also include (not in photo) two tubes of super glue. You now will be able to repair rucksacks, boots, basha sheets, in fact anything in you have!
5. Insect repellant. I take 50% DEET, but I never put it on my skin, I spray it on clothing and equipment (not plastic – because it melts the stuff).
6. Sun cream.  Highly important in the tropics because of the intensity of the sun near or on the equator.
7. Cigarette lighters, several of them (I don’t smoke) and keep them dry. For fire lighting and candles.
8. Batteries, lots of them. For torches, cameras, MP3 players, etc. Take dead ones back out of the bush with you.
9. Spare bulbs for one of my torches. I am now leaning more towards the new style LED type of torches due to the longer lasting bulbs and they are more battery friendly.
10. Torch number 1
11. Torch number 2, a head torch.  I have 2 torches because at night under the canopy of the jungle, with no moon, it is blacker than the ace of spades!
12. A good handful of zip lock bags to keep items waterproof.

That is it for Part 2. Come back soon to read more advice on expedition equipment.

Imagine, in the heat and humidity of the jungle, not having dry clothes to put on for days at a time because your rucksack wasn’t waterproofed properly or the mosquito net you brought along was too short and when you rolled over in the night it came untucked and every bug in the forests dined on you!

Then, as you suffer from fungal infection brought on by constantly wet skin or infections from scratching your mosquito bites, imagine how your performance would suffer and what a negative impact that would have on the expedition – especially if you had a pivotal role in the proceedings.

“Expedition Equipment for the Tropics” is a five part series where we will look briefly at what equipment you would consider using on an expedition, or even a trek, into the tropical or sub tropical regions of the world.  What defines the equipment we will cover are the following factors -

• heat – because it is warm you will notice that all the sleeping equipment is thin and lightweight, also lots of water carrying methods and purification.
• moisture (both rain and humidity) – everything will be waterproofed many times.  Sandals to let your feet breathe, bandana for sweat.
• survival – in the tropics the vegetation is dense due to the increase in the strength of the sun, not to mention the heat and humidity, so survival equipment is vital.

The image below (and in the the other articles) is an actual kit display of my own expedition equipment used for the many 2 – 3 month conservation expeditions in the jungle in Belize I led and my 8 months working in the Peruvian Amazon as a guide.  It is also what would be recommended by S2Si on their expedition equipment list for a trips to Papua New Guinea, Borneo, the Bolivian Amazon, etc.

1. A military style ‘basha’ sheet. To go over the top of your hammock and mosquito net and provide shelter.  Keep in the side pocket of your rucksack so as not to get water in the main compartment. Make sure it is longer than you are.
2. A decent hammock.  Tough material and strong ropes.  NOT a net hammock, please! Again, make sure it is longer than you are.
3. Mosquito net. Get one that has a good ‘drop’ on it, so you can sit up in your hammock without having the net pop out from under you. Having it treated in an insecticide stops bugs getting you through the net, but it also kills friendly bugs… your call.
4. A thin sleeping bag or a ‘tropical quilt’.  Mine is a 2 season bag because I get cold even in the jungle.  I don’t use a liner as I always wash before going to bed – no matter how tired.  If in doubt get a thin cotton mummy style liner.
5. A large rucksack liner, a good tough high quality one as this is your equipment’s first line of defense against moisture.  Make sure the bag is bigger than the rucksack itself and pack a repair kit for it.
6. Mini dry sacks. I put everything inside in these as well. Not only is it another layer of waterproofing but a good way to itemize things, for example, I had sleeping equipment, then clothing and dry gear, then wash gear and personal things.
7. A sleeping mat. For when a hammock can’t be put up.  Try to avoid the inflatable ones when in the tropics as everything has spikes and you’ll go through an awful lot of repair kits.

Not shown above is my 70 litre rucksack it all went into. We could devote many pages to rucksacks and how to make them fit properly, etc. For now find a good outdoor shop, find a decent sized one and have the staff go over the strap adjustments to make sure it feels comfy….. because if it doesn’t feel comfy in the shop it sure wont feel comfy when fully loaded and you are slipping your way through a muddy bush track with sweat stinging your eyes and blisters forming on your heals!

Why not head on over to part 2? –>  Expedition Equipment