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Skyline On Fire

Skyline On Fire

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Luke
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Does anyone have any experience with backpacking in Europe with their cameras etc? I want to spend a month or two walking the alps, or somewhere in France, maybe through to Switzerland/Italy. Yes I have no concrete plans yet, but I have the money, and the time! So the planning is the fun bit.

Anyway, does anyone have any experience with such things? Id like to camp, cheaper and probably nicer than youth hostels. Id be taking my 7D with my 70-200 L, my nifty fifty, and a short-medium zoom (havent decided which yet) so not too much kit in the way of cameras.

Anyone here done anything similar? Im completely open to any idea. Im currently jobless, but with plenty of money to enjoy myself for quite a long time. And no responsibilities, and nearly 21 years of age :) So let me know! Anything considered.
 
Mitch.Carter said:
How many spare batteries would you need for backpacking :O
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Yeah that was one of my concerns. I was thinking 2-3 spare batteries, and take my charger and just get a hostel room or internet cafe for the day when i need a charge.
 
Hi, Luke. I was thinking of doing something similar to this, too. I'd love to give you some tips but I have no idea as far as planning goes - I still don't even know where I want to go. I made up my mind that I want to leave England permanently but have realised just how hard it is to emigrate to another country. Travelling is fine but it means you have to come back. :shrug:

I don't know whether this would be anywhere near what you're thinking of doing and a lot of it is aimed at University students. I'm not a student, though I'm very seriously considering taking one of these programmes: http://www.bunac.org/uk/

They do work placement abroad and also voluntary work. There's one they do for 3 months in America, more specifically, the Grand Canyon; it's voluntary for 3 months and will cost somewhere in the ball park of £1500 (from site). You'd be working a lot but you'd still have the times you clock off to get the camera out and go walkies. You also get days off where they say the participants organise roadtrips to Vegas etc.

Like I said this is a little different to what you posted for but there's a lot of options for a lot of diverse places and you'd be doing something while you are there, too. Since you said you were out of work, this may be a great alternative. :)

I'm really interested in doing something like this permanently, but unfortunately I don't have the funding and I need to work here before I can go.

As far as the camera goes I can only suggest bringing a shed load of 4GB memory cards and buy a battery grip so if you're ever caught in a tight spot you can simply make do with AA batteries. (y)
 
Anton17 said:
Hi, Luke. I was thinking of doing something similar to this, too. I'd love to give you some tips but I have no idea as far as planning goes - I still don't even know where I want to go. I made up my mind that I want to leave England permanently but have realised just how hard it is to emigrate to another country. Travelling is fine but it means you have to come back. :shrug:

I don't know whether this would be anywhere near what you're thinking of doing and a lot of it is aimed at University students. I'm not a student, though I'm very seriously considering taking one of these programmes: http://www.bunac.org/uk/

They do work placement abroad and also voluntary work. There's one they do for 3 months in America, more specifically, the Grand Canyon; it's voluntary for 3 months and will cost somewhere in the ball park of £1500 (from site). You'd be working a lot but you'd still have the times you clock off to get the camera out and go walkies. You also get days off where they say the participants organise roadtrips to Vegas etc.

Like I said this is a little different to what you posted for but there's a lot of options for a lot of diverse places and you'd be doing something while you are there, too. Since you said you were out of work, this may be a great alternative. :)

I'm really interested in doing something like this permanently, but unfortunately I don't have the funding and I need to work here before I can go.

As far as the camera goes I can only suggest bringing a shed load of 4GB memory cards and buy a battery grip so if you're ever caught in a tight spot you can simply make do with AA batteries. (y)
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Thanks for that! Il have to take a look. It would be different from what I intended, but that doesn't bother me, its new experiences I want the most. And a break from the dull, packed little island i currently live on.

So you want to move to another country? Same here. Unfortunately its not easy is it. What about just travelling cheaply, backpacking, in south east asia, or india? You could live for years just backpacking around these places on not that much money.
 
I haven't done any walking in europe (at least multi day) but have travelled reasonably extensively as well as done multi day trips in the UK.

Firstly if you are either sociable (make friends very easily, just walk into a pub and start chatting) or sure of your own company (nights can be a bit lonely) definately go for it!

Secondly, location, I've been very tempted to do some/all of the Pyrenees, which I personally think is a bit nicer than the Alps for walking, however at the moment I have the time but not the money (and am not too keen on spending weeks alone). There is actually a couple of routes that take you from the Bay of Biscay all the way to the Mediterranean via the pyrenees that usually take around 8 weeks.

Thirdly, equipment. You mention camping, which means equipment which, especially decent light stuff*, can cost quite a bit. You're looking at £100 on a bag (something in the region of 45-50L, i'd recommend something like the Osprey Atmos 50, but you'll want to try one to see what is the best fit) and over £200 for a tent alone, sleeping bag will probably set you back around £70 minimum etc. You're also looking at other random bits and pieces like pen knives, stove/pot, thermal air bed (eg a thermarest) and a trowel (good luck trying to dig a hole most of the time though ;)) as well as maps, compas AND GPS (and i'd advise taking a second emergency compass, just a small thing that you can attach to your bag, whether you take a GPS or not, just in case you lose or break your other compass).

You may already have all this stuff so I'm probably telling you how to suck eggs but... :p Either way once you get there it will be cheaper, you should be able to camp for free (wild camp) most nights depending on the area. With wild camping you need to think about three things really (again not sure how much experience you have); toilet, which is where the trowl comes in, if you can't find a village and proper toilet; cleaning, either be smelly for a while, until you stay in a hostel for a night, or wash in streams/rivers; water, most important really and generally you should be able to stock up with a few Litres every day or two in local villages.

I'd recommend you get a lightweight tripod, you'll miss it if you don't have it (I use a Giottos GB1060, small in height but cheap and light). I've actually put a list together of what I take with me if you're interested, it includes some weights as well. As you suggested around 3-4 batteries and probably 16GB of card space with maybe a backup. What you should be able to do if you don't want to carry around an external HDD or netbook type thing is burn whole cards to DVD at internet cafes (reasonably common in villages in Spain, i'm guessing the same in the Alps) and send them home**

Definately go for it, if you are like I mentioned earlier it would be a trip of a life time and something to remember! If you're not adverse to a bit of hard work and travelling a bit further there are various trail organisations in the US that provide food and lodging (well normally tents) for help maintaining trails (such as the Appalachian trail), something i'm also contemplating doing this summer.

Actually, darn you, you have me thinking about doing this again! It's still a bit wet (only have tarp and bivvy) and cold to carry on with my trails around the SWCP but Spain sounds tempting... :D


*which you will want, you won't want to be carrying more than around 15kg max, which isn't easy with some camera equipment.

**The usual suggestion is to burn each card to two DVD's, send one home at the time and keep the other until you get confirmation of the othe getting home safely, then send the second DVD the next time you burn a new card to DVD, along with one copy of that new DVD. That way there is always one copy of your photos in a safe location (either on you or at home) and you don't have to worry about carrying a whole trips worth of photos with you.
 
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