Sweet Jacket Love

Last night we were half way through watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (one of my alltime faves), and we heard the sweet sound of heavy rain. We've been hanging out to try the new gear, so rushed out into the rain for a walk around the lake wearing only t-shirts and shorts, along with our new jackets and shoes.

OMG I'm so happy with them. :-D The jacket kept us warm & dry through the rain, and the shoes didn't let any water through. Once the rain had stopped, I deliberately sought out the deepest puddles I could find, and waded straight through. Not a drop came through. Woot!

We've got an outside work BBQ today, and it's been raining throughout the night, so I've got a feeling we'll get to try them out again today. ;-)

* KA-CHING! *

That was a sound we kept on hearing as we went on a huge weekend of purchasing hiking gear. We've got all the major items sorted now: backpacks, sleeping bags, shoes, sandals, socks, rain/wind jackets, thermals tops, etc.

Our biggest dilemma was who to listen to for shoe/boot advice. Some retailers were obvious n00bs, while others had had a lot of experience and strongly recommended one way or another. Some recommended the ankle support boots provided; others recommended the lighter weight of shoes with a solid sole. Some recommended the water resistance Gore-Tex provides; others recommended cooler non-Gore-Tex footwear. Nobody recommended leather. A mountain of discarded footwear later, we finally settled on some light weight water resistant Raichle hiking shoes.

We then got so sweeeeeet Montane jackets (our most expensive purchases to date). Now we're just waiting for some suitably shit weather to try them out in.

Oh, I'm mainly just naming the items we bought as a reference point for anybody else doing the same type of hiking.

We're supposed to stay well under 10kgs pack weight. Hannah is currently on 5kgs (including shoes & sandals); I'm on 6.7kgs (including shoes, sandals & DSLR camera gear). We've got the vast majority of our gear, it's mainly just toiletries we still need to include.

To try them out, we're heading up to the 1000 Steps in the Dandenongs on Saturday. I'm just hoping for some suitably shit weather. ;-)