Equipment will, essentially, fall into two major categories, expedition and personal.
Expedition
The expedition equipment will be purchased in accordance with perceived needs, at a charge to
the expedition.
The original plan was to travel with a chuck wagon but costs are prohibitive and the difficulties attached to finding someone to sit aboard for the duration, plus the responsibilities placed on the chuck wagon driver, made the prospect of pack animals far more attractive.
Each riding horse will be equipped with saddle and bridle suitable for the trip, hackamore, saddle blanket, lead rope, picket rope, pin, hobbles, canvas feed and water buckets, hoof pick, curry comb and brushes.
Pack animals will be similarly equipped.
Additionally, central cooking equipment, canvas cover for the cooking area, collapsible wash bowls, utensils, condiments, fire grid, water containers etc will be carried, shared weight-
Personal
The personal equipment list will be supplied to each rider and is the responsibility of the individual.
In general terms, personal equipment will fall into the following categories: hygiene (including medical), clothing (including riding gear and wet weather clothing), camping (including sleeping gear, eating utensils and ‘recreation’ equipment - camera, MP3, swimming costume, notepads etc).
Provision for waterproofing all equipment should be considered as river crossings are anticipated, the rain assumes monsoon proportions in June/July and the dust is another factor to consider. Either the container itself should be waterproof, or the contents bagged in waterproof containers. I have been in touch with a manufacturer here in UK which claims to make ‘waterproof’ bags which will be ideal for our purposes. However, they also claim these bags are not suitable for immersion! Watch this space.
There will, of course, be both weight and size restrictions placed on the personal equipment as we will be using pack animals to transport all equipment. The upper weight limit of an animals load weight should not exceed 1/5 of the animal’s bodyweight.
