# Planning a multi-day trip, what do I need to know?



## Barrabundy (Sep 29, 2008)

Ít's been a little too wet to do my day job today so I headed off to do some recon for a future land based trip during these school holidays. While driving around on my own my mind started to wander off to something that's been on my bucket list since before the term bucket list was even invented.

I got home and did a quick measure of the trip in my mind and it's at least 120k. Now I didn't think it was that far, and it would be very easy to halve it and make the insertion point a sunday drive with the wife and kids, so how do I go about planning it?

I would probably prefer to have someone tag along (unlikely) but would be prepared to go solo on a much shorter trip, even a really short trial run if necessary. Having never done anything like thi,s but being able to gather some intel about the likely route and even possibly doing a flyover closer to the event, what do I need to know, how would I prepare?

Obviously food, water, trip plan, emergency plan B, communication if possible, contact landowners, first aid, damaged hull/shallow water contingencies etc come to mind but what about the detail of all these things?

Someone wrote a book once about a similar trip in a sik but I can't remember the name of it and can't seem to find it anywhere on the net. I saw it in one of those specialist adventure/outdoor type stores in Towsville many years ago.

Anyone out there done a trip over a few days or week where they've been on their own for the whole time? (Murd & Co. come to mind)


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

Yes BB, plenty of people every year, in sea kayaks or other SIK's. They have the storage volume, whereas SOT's don't.

Will it be downstream (with the flow)? Time of year?

trev


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

I've done three day white water trips in slalems. I don't see why you couldn't fit what you needed in a decent size SOT too.

A small tent or bivy bag is the go. We did it under a fly and the mozzies got us pretty bad. A large tent takes too much space.
Get a non-down sleeping bag if possible as they stay warm should they get wet.
Old wine bladders are OK for storing water. Get a Dromadary (large water bag) if you can though.
A camelback would be a must so you can drink continually.
I'd forget the esky. Just take food that doesn't perish. Pasta, pasta sauce and tuna is an excellent easy meal.
Cheese, salami, capsicum, pocket bread, bananas, nuts, Tang (or similar drink powder), chocalate - all good for lunch.
Stove and fuel of your choice. Don't be short of fuel. Thermos is a nice luxury for a second coffee during the day.
Are you in wilderness by yourself? If so then I'd think a PLB would be well worth it.
Gaffa tape. Always carry gaffa tape. I repaired a huge crack in my plastic kayak with lashings of gaffa tape, then shot rapids.
Camp well above water level. That way you won't stress about rising river if it starts to rain through the night.
It would surprise me if any farmer worried about you camping without a fire anywhere overnight. Don't worry about prior approval.
You can't have enough dry bags.


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## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

As Alex said, freshwater is your big one. 
You'll need a hiking tent and sleeping bag or a swag. Swags are hard to fit in kayaks, probably need to be stored on deck.
I can get my tent, bag and mat into me Revo hull no worries.
I difer from Alex in that I would say avoid the esky unless you really need it.
Get a food dehydrator and make your own dried meals or just take packet stuff. For 120km - say 6 days - you can live off just about anything. Flour, tinned fruit, ricecream, dried veggies and catch some fish or crustacea. You'll struggle to carry water for 6 days though. Especially if there's any portaging.
Tides are important if tidal.
First aid kit, sat phone or PLB if you're worried about that sort of thing.
Most importantly, give me plenty of notice.


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## Barrabundy (Sep 29, 2008)

One important detail I forgot to mention, this would be in freshwater heading downstream and there would be flowing water the entire distance, how deep and whether any portaging required is unknown although I assume there would be very little (portaging). It would probably be worth a fly over just to be sure if it was a long haul affair over many days. Anything around 2 days worth I could get intel on through friends and is pretty familiar to me anyway.

I'm also pretty sure the landowners wouldn't be worried about being notified if I was seen to be responsible, pretty sure I could name-drop my way out of any situation anyway.....doubt there would be anyone to see along the way anyway.


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## Barrabundy (Sep 29, 2008)

Wouldn't jump into a 120k trip as a starter, would like to do it one day (or week or two!). Thinking of an over night trip over 2 days covering about 20-30k as a warm up.

Alternatively I could just cover that distance in a series of smaller trips over a year or so. The problem with that would be getting access through private property easily. With a longer trip it's easier to launch from public space and then just get picked up from somewhere equally convenient at the end.

Hmmmm......I should,stop now otherwise you know what I'll be doing next weekend!


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## gonetroppo (Jan 29, 2011)

Great thread, will be following with interest as I'm hoping to do some larger trips in the near future too. I have a few questions to add regarding water, what have people done to sanitize water taken from natural sources? Tabs/boil? Is there a way of desalinating and using sea water out there?


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## labrat (Jul 25, 2008)

Barrabundy said:


> Anyone out there done a trip over a few days or week where they've been on their own for the whole time? (Murd & Co. come to mind)


Not so much planning advice but a good cautionary tale from one of our own:

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=55472

I'm going to start with a local overnighter then hopefully 2 or 3 nights in the Coorong.

Keep us posted.


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## Barrabundy (Sep 29, 2008)

labrat said:


> Barrabundy said:
> 
> 
> > Anyone out there done a trip over a few days or week where they've been on their own for the whole time? (Murd & Co. come to mind)
> ...


Sheeet! I hadn't read that one, what a timely read!


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

I don't think 120km is a no go. If you only average 20km a day it's less than a week. Check out things on a smaller trip first I think.

And SIKs aren't necessarily better than SOTs. It's about how much you can confidently carry on your yak. My SIK was dubbed "Collins" for the Aussie submarine class, during the GC to Brissie trip. No SOT had this problem. :shock:


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

If there are rapids involved, even minor ones, I'm not sure solo is a good idea. Even getting caught under a low branch can be deadly without a mate to help you out.


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## millonario (Feb 20, 2012)

the water problem is not so much solved with this but it is an excellent backup.

http://www.lifestraw.com.au/page/lifest ... efault.asp


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

eric said:


> He finally paddled around and told me he'd decided on a different line and had smacked against the main trunk, gotten dumped and been sucked under, all in about a second.


That's a classic way of killing yourself. He was lucky there was enough room under the log. I saw one at the bottom of a race once, pulled the tabs on the skirt and bailed immediately. The kayak sailed off and eskimo rolled itelf under the log in 50cm of water. I would have been dead. So there's another piece of advice. Never EVER go anywhere near a half submerged log across the river. They are death.


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## Barrabundy (Sep 29, 2008)

So don't hit THOSE snags for fish? ;-)


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## Feral2 (Jun 14, 2012)

Being fresh water, and if your going to plan some camp spots / talk with the cockies about permission to camp, make a trip and put in some food and water dumps. Easiest way is to hang a few cans of tucker, gas and water from a tree. Maybe add something thats a nice treat, like a can of caramel, that you wouldn't otherwise bother with.

Canned flavoured fish (I prefer salmon, Tuna is cat food) makes good rich protein sources for lunches you can eat in small hits as your peckish. Easy to store handy in your tackle bag for the days trip.


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## Barrabundy (Sep 29, 2008)

Speaking of water storage, I saw a promotional a few months ago about a new chemical container which is a bladder contained in a cardboard box. The cardboard outer will hold together after 24 hours immersion and, get this, they threw a full one off a scaffold about 5m high and the bladder didn't burst. They also had the bladder laid out on the ground, partially filled, and ran over it will a land cruiser...it didn't spring a leak!

.......those bladders would be great if food grade and available new.


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

Barrabundy said:


> I saw a promotional a few months ago about a new chemical container which is a bladder contained in a cardboard box.


What, a cask?


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## Barrabundy (Sep 29, 2008)

Yep, a glorified big arse goon bag!

My mistake, they are 15l containers and you can empty 2 of those in less the time you can empty 1 "normal"plastic 20l.

http://www.nufarm.com/AU/QuikPour

These companies don't do themsleves any favours with their videos do they? The one I saw was a different company and they were pouring the water into a drum at least. I know it's only water but it's not a good look pouring chemical coloured liquid onto the ground, makes us farmers look like total dills!


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## shabby (Mar 24, 2011)

missingdna said:


> toilet paper!!!!!! my GOD dont forget the toilet paper!!!!


Forget toilet paper it only takes up space you always have the option of an aqua turd just watch which way the tide is flowing.


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## Levi (Nov 24, 2008)

I've done plenty of solo O/N and 3 dayers, no worries at all. BUT if things went wrong it could have been bad, and i admit on my first trips i never worried about risks. We take a bit more care now days and give accurate ETA's and even had an EPIRB last time in a remote area.

Recently a mate and I explored a 3 day trip, in new territory with known waterfalls and portage to be expected. IT WAS AWESOME!!! we took way too much gear (as the following photos show), but even so we easily stowed it into the 2 SOT yaks. Our next trip later this year i think we can ditch 30% of the gear, as it was unneeded. 2 people doesn't require 200% of the gear as per one person, so it helps. Solo is possible, but you still need many of the basics that you can divide between 2 people (e.g tent, frying pan, billy esky etc).

Some great comments so far, and i will just add a little to it-->
Esky and frozen water bottles, def the way to go, My evakool gives 3 days of frozen bottles easily. Frozen vacuum wrapped bacon is a great idea too, TAKE IT!. Frozen steak or sausage also. Pack the esky tight, and only store in it what you need. my little IceKool 25l easily did it for us, and we ate VERY well  Target catching fish, it helps cut down weight, and its normally not hard to do. Dried fruit, nuts, apricots, Prunes etc help to ummmmm... balance you diet! High carb food help with energy.
Water was pretty easy too, even though the river we were in was drinkable, we simply took enough for 3 days no worries. When ever we cooke we boiled the river water, though thats not always a tasty option, so think about that. If you do start to extend your trips, water and perhaps filtering/sterilisation should be a big consideration.
Store inside your hull of a SOT yak easily, but make sure you balance the load well, as it will impact your tracking and balance. We found out canned food rolling around through rapid runs is not a good idea.....

Gear wise, we took one 3 man tent, compact roll up camp mattresses (high quality, very light, they roll up to nothing and insulate you well off the ground too- worth spending money here), compact sleeping bag and thats about it. Extras include a travel towel, wool thermals (work even when wet) and of course your preferred choice of fire starting equipment. I take the same solo.

We survived a few capsizes/rolls and the only gear we lost was due to complacency and stupidity on small rapids where we didn't expect to have to baton the hatches.... won't make that mistake again.

One i strongly suggest is TAKE A SPARE PADDLE. I didn't and i lost mine in a capsize event, it took an hour or so to find it, luckily it came up out of the whitewash eventually, damaged but usable to get me home. Don't take it for granted, we were in a bit of trouble for a little while, and i was about to go Bear Grills with plastic and the fork of a tree....
We had an EPIRB too, just incase.

Some pics to show you our set up-->


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## Levi (Nov 24, 2008)

Oh, and take at least one spare rod and reel... we had failures, and losses here that you don't want to ruin your trip.
Remember, it can go wrong, so have a couple of back up plans.. we saw plenty of evidence of this (See attached).


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## Artie (Dec 19, 2011)

shabby said:


> missingdna said:
> 
> 
> > toilet paper!!!!!! my GOD dont forget the toilet paper!!!!
> ...


Some like to call that an "Eco Crap".... er yeah...Ill take the paper thanks.... :shock:

Watching with interest as Gretl and I are planning some spring trips on the Murrumbidgee...so very relevant to us. Sadly the Moken (hers) has huge hull space but tiny hatches, the very large looking front hatch is 'on top' of the hull and doesnt allow access inside it.... Ill carry the bigger stuff in the Quest..... we will only be doing 1 nighters, max 2.

Good thread mate....


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

Artie said:


> Some like to call that an "Eco Crap".... er yeah...Ill take the paper thanks....


But what do you plan to do with the used toilet paper? Personally, I use leaves.


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## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

Ado said:


> Artie said:
> 
> 
> > Some like to call that an "Eco Crap".... er yeah...Ill take the paper thanks....
> ...


Bury it, same as the used food.


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## Artie (Dec 19, 2011)

yup, either use the collapsible shovel or kick a hole...


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## Artie (Dec 19, 2011)

Ado said:


> Artie said:
> 
> 
> > Some like to call that an "Eco Crap".... er yeah...Ill take the paper thanks....
> ...


But what do you plan to do with the used leaves? Personally, I use rapid breakdown toilet paper. :lol: Enjoyed your book btw.


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

I've been to a lot of camping sites littered with TP. Not a good look. Most breaks down very slowly. Some people burn it, but that can be a fire hazard. I hadn't heard of rapid breakdown TP. That may do the trick nicely.

I'm really pleased you got through the book Artie.  Thanks for the feedback. I know it's a hassle, but a review (paragraph or two) on Amazon would be really appreciated, fair and honest.


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## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

Couldn't agree more Ado. I suspect a lot of it is from females doing numbers ones though.
I ALWAYS bury mine, nothing worse than walking through bush and coming across a fresh number two.


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## Artie (Dec 19, 2011)

Ado said:


> I know it's a hassle, but a review (paragraph or two) on Amazon would be really appreciated, fair and honest.


No hassle at all, consider it done.... and how does Lake Mummuga fish? Is it always open to the sea?


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

Artie said:


> how does Lake Mummuga fish? Is it always open to the sea?


It fishes really well, much better than Wagonga (in my experience anyway). Never had a doughnut. It's open most of the time but closes every few years. It's been open for more than 12 months now, but it looks as though it could close soon unless we get rain.


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