Field trip packing lists for the discerning traveller

On our recent trip to Costa Rica, the students accidentally got a rather old, dated "suggested packing" list from one of the lecturers that included items such as: a compass, “shorts for relaxing” – it did stop short of a pith helmet, personal valet, white tie and tails (in case we go for dinner) and a flag (for claiming new countries discovered).

Because of this I started looking into packing lists for historical explorers. For example, Peter Fleming, who traveled 3,5000 miles from Peking to Kasmir, suggested:

• old clothes,
• a few books,
• two compasses
• two portable typewriters, 
• two pounds of marmalade, 
• four tins of cocoa,
• six bottles of brandy,
• one bottle of Worcester sauce,
• one pound of coffee,
• three small packets of chocolate,
• some soap,
• tobacco,
• barley meal and other basic foodstuffs.

I highly support the Worcester sauce – an essential cooking ingredient. Lord Byron in his expedition to Mount Athos took other essential supplies including a soda water siphon and a hatbox (because no true gentleman would go anywhere with a crumpled hat).

Going back further in history, Roman legionaries when travelling to the edges of the empire, in addition to their armor and weapons, would take woolen trousers, 2 pairs of underpants, hobnailed sandals, a scarf, cooking pot, bowl/mess kit,  2 cloaks, a shovel and mallet, a wicker basket, a metal skewer (for kebab night?) and would have to carry two massive wooden stakes, to construct a wooden palisade or fence around their camp.

Our particular field trip to Costa Rica was somewhat female dominated (75% of our group) and so for them here are some essential items for the female traveler courtesy of Gertrude Bell’s (from her 1913 expedition to “Arabia”):

• Silk dresses
• Parasol
• Silk underwear
• Fur coat
• Silver candlesticks
• A tea service
• 12 hats

Lilias Campbell Davidson in the 1889 book “Hints To Lady Travellers” additionally suggests

• dark coloured petticoats (to hide dirt)
• an ivory glove stretcher
• a portable bath

The more practical Ms. May French Sheldon packed two loaded colt revolvers and a Winchester rifle, because it gave her “31 chances to shoot without having to reload”. Mary Kingsley extolled the virtues of “a good thick skirt” during travels, particularly after she once fell into a pit trap and her rugged skirt and petticoats saved her from getting her legs impaled by the stakes lining said pit.

 

Laurence Durrell, the older brother of famous naturalist and conservationist Gerald Durrell suggests a pretty minimalist packing list "A loincloth? One pair of very light long trousers made of any lightweight linen. (You may find the sun a bit burny). A pair or two of shorts. A couple of old shirts. A pair of sandals or beach shoes. Nothing else."

Evelyn Waugh is my kind of traveler noting that a good supply of alcohol is essential to relive boredom and irritation (1935; The Tourist Manual): "With a glass in his hand, the tourist can gaze out on the streets of Tangier, teeming with English governesses and retired colonels, and happily imagine himself a Marco Polo."