What’s in my Kit Bag
Back on the road tomorrow, heading for the Democratic Republic of Congo. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be disappearing deep into the jungle. Here’s the gear I’ll be taking:
- Sony Vaio S Series – at 13.3in it’s a smallish size notebook but still big enough to feel comfortable. Performance has been slower ever since it was infected by the Kibaki Tena virus and the battery life is shrinking. Must get a new battery soon
- Thuraya – I have a UUPlus account for email. It’s set up for poor connections such as satphones and means I can file copy quickly and easily. Pics still take an age though
- Samsung U600 – defected from Motorola recently as I needed a camera phone with a decent resolution. At 3.2mega pixels this is quite handy for taking pics in places where you are not supposed to have a camera
- Palm TX – have long used Palm handhelds to store and organise my contacts. The last one broke when my bag fell off the back of a donkey. This one has never been quite right either and am thinking of switching to a Blackberry or maybe a Palm Treo (any advice anyone?)
- Canon Power Shot A620 – had one of these pinched as my bags went through Nairobi’s international airport one time. For my money Canon has the point and shoot market sewn up. Great quality shots, and you can adjust all the settings if you know what you are doing. Snapper coming with me on this trip so my camera will just be for any Forest fans that we bump into
- iPod Mini – a lot of people laugh at my first generation Mini, but frankly it’s perfect for road trips. I can leave my 80GB iPod at home and still have enough music with me to stop me going insane. On this trip I’ll be listening to Steely Dan’s Gaucho (JMac, I’m really not sure about this, but willing to give it a go)
- Sony Tape Recorder – call me old school, but why make life more difficult than it needs to be? This takes AA batteries and normal cassettes, which you can buy pretty much anywhere