(Originally posted 2 August 2015) Today we bought our bags for our extended trip next year. The logic behind this was so that I (Lauren) could wrap my head around how little space I will have to pack for a few months of travelling. Going forward, everything we buy for our 2016 travels will need to fit in this bag. Ouch!
We went with the Deuter Traveller 80 + 10 travel pack with its removable day pack bag from Cape Union Mart. This seems to be a good choice based on some initial research, but only time will tell and we will give more feedback later. Our sales person, Kyle, has travelled with a similar version from K-Way and seems to think this type of bag will best suit our needs.
I also bought a pair of khaki coloured pants that should dry super quickly, so it can be washed and dry overnight. “This purchase not only means I can’t pick up any more weight before we leave next year, but it is also an important psychological step to understand that I am definitely not going to be looking gorgeous. Gorgeous, it would seem, is just not practical!”
Update from 2022: We still use these bags long after our massive one-year trip. Overall, we definitely started with way too much in our bags – I had close to 20kg when we started. Over the trip, I managed to get that down to 13kg, which is much more manageable. Also, because we did not do much walking with our full bags, I have decided that a bag with wheels would be more suitable. But we would highly rate the Deuter Traveller 80 + 10 travel pack.
Also worth noting is that at some point in during the one-year trip, I could no longer fit into the Khaki pants. It did correspond to the week after our cruise that had a 24hr buffet…
Featured image source: https://pixabay.com/photos/luggage-travel-sunlight-vacations-1149289/