Having refined the ability to pack the right clothes for that right destination, spent yrs honing my skills with travelling as light as it can be and circumnavigated the (ridiculous) liquids restrictions as far as sensibly possible, I have come to know that the single most important part of Cameras travel is having a suitable tote.
It doesn’t help if you are a sorcerer at the art of flip-style folding clothing into crease-free, super-flat and even more super-organized piles if your bag you are putting anything into is a complete dinosaur themed and should have been put out to help pasture with the cretaceous time.
And all of the skilful blends of carefully weighed outfits and cosmetics add up to almost nothing if your bag tips often the scales at more than Ruler Kong with the Empire Status Building in his left hand as well as a distressed blonde in his suitable!
So. Baggage is key to helping successful, stress-free plant travel. Right? Well, the item certainly has its portion to play.
The eternal quandary I am faced with is whether to move for the exclusive luggage go shopping and shell out lots of money over a super-efficient, lightweight as possible, all-singing, all-dancing designer brand or perhaps select the cheapest, most trash piece of baggage I can lay down claim to at the local supermarket.
The key reason why I ask this question is the fact when you travel as much as I really do you soon realize that air travel baggage controllers do not identify between designer labels and also care not for cost – your bags acquire completely stuffed up regardless of whether you paid a small fortune on their behalf or got them inside the bargain bin at lower than cost.
So, the query which really needs to be questioned is “will my handbag stand up to the rigours of recent airline travel? ” You will find two answers to that, for me: “rarely” and “only on the good day”.
Let’s very first assume that your bag gets to the same destination as you do, on a single flight as you do. These days it appears that a lot of major airlines possess trouble routing bags towards the right place at the right time. Therefore always be thankful when you see your own bag on the carousel, supposing, of course, that there is a slide carousel at your destination airport! Plus a word to the wise, plenty of00 international safari destination airports don’t have carousels, but cheerful men literally hurling your own personal bags through small slots in walls onto sometimes the floor or roughly hewn countertops.
Your bag, if you wave it goodbye while you check into your usually first-world departure airport will be handled like a bag of carrots by the majority of the people who else handle it from that second on, be they very first, second, third world or extraterrestrials!
Be warned – fragile decals don’t work. I have dropped count of the number of instances my “fragile” bag possesses appeared upside down and battered to pieces on a slide carousel or at the bottom of an enormous, dangerously teetering pile of baggage on the back of a tractor and trailer. Nothing performs, except sheer luck plus the possibility that the person coping with your bag has some imprecise idea that its contents seem to have been of value.
So. Spending hundreds on Louis Vuitton’s very best or the very latest Antler miracle is not a wise issue. I tried the affordable and cheerful approach but nevertheless found myself virtually purchasing shares in the local “el cheapo” luggage store so went for a good, middle-from-the-road bag – the actual “iSpot” duffel bag range from Travelite.
The first thing you need to take into account within the majority of safaris where little planes are involved as linking flights is that a) they often have a weight limit associated with around 15kg and b) require soft, squishy luggage which can be squeezed into little spaces, not massive, stainless-steel megalodons filled with everything, however, the kitchen sink!
My posts tend to be soft, relatively light and also have a built-in wheely take care of which means I don’t will have to search around for a basket. Their zips are obscured, and all have to lock features on them (so many light and portable bags only have to lock piscine on their main zips but not on side pockets, which often irritates the hell out of us! ).
They are rugged, hard-wearing and spacious enough intended for two-week trips or smaller enough for a couple of days occasionally.
Fully packed, I almost never exceed 15kg in my principal bag and take a backpack with me for cameras, binos, netbooks and in-flight requirements. However, in spite of this, the main iSpot duffel bag, which cost me in excess of R1500 (around 150 euros or even $200) has been replaced 3 times in the last two years by 3 different airlines, thanks to becoming damaged by baggage handlers.
So, once you have got a lightweight, squishy, hard-wearing, rugged sufficient and spacious enough handbag, it’s really just a question of your time before it gets harmed by an airline or even its handlers.
That apart, the volume of your bag ought to be taken into account. My big duffel has a 71-litre capacity, which is around average.
There are some outstanding duffels out there, especially individuals designed for diving or voyage pursuits, which offer more space, keep in mind that a tightly packed tender bag is better than a usually packed one because it will keep your belongings from running around and getting damaged, plus your cosmetics or bath case from getting a bang along with leaking its contents throughout your clothes.
A wet case is a great idea for makeup and I always take the extra precaution of placing the idea in a run-of-the-mill high-street food storage bag and tying typically the handles up tight to avoid unwanted spillages.
I decant things like shampoo and moisturizer in it into small containers or even buy them in small containers, to begin with (the Body Store, for example, has some great little bottles of products which are perfect for travelling).
At the end of the day, your choice of handbag is peculiar to you as well as your needs, what you want to put in this and where you are going. Whether or not you spend a lot of money on it not really, just make sure that it is secure along with decent locks or, faltering that, cable ties. In no way, ever put anything valuable in it (jewellery, cameras, computer systems, cellphones etc) and if the idea gets damaged by an airline’s baggage handlers, be sure to stand up for your rights and acquire it either repaired or may be replaced.
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