Since we’re doing most of our packing today, we figured it would be a good time to share some photos of our gear before everything is stuffed into a suitcase. Below is a random selection of items we’ll be taking down to Jamaica with us, from food to insect repellent.

Starting to our left, we have a small bottle of biodegradable all-purpose soap that can be used as bodywash, shampoo, and detergent for both clothes and dishes. I’ve already sampled it on some clothing and it seems to do a great job. Seeing as you can’t take a real shower in the field for five or six days at a time, it might be good to have some of this stuff handy.

Next are two types of water container that should grant us more mobility away from our base at the Windsor Research Centre. We’ve been told that there aren’t many natural sources of water in Cockpit Country, so we need to bring our own water with us. Our solution to this problem is hiring a mule to carry water and certain heavy equipment like tents for us, so we have two 26.5L bladders and two 8L carriers for water. 

These Bushnell binoculars are part of the IDEA WILD grant gear that John and I will be using, and these bug jackets are something we’re hoping won’t be imperative in the evenings, but we’ll bring them with us just in case. We also have some lemon-eucalyptus spray repellent (pictured below) and another product to spray onto our clothing, so we should be pretty well protected from any biting insects.

We found a strong plastic version of the Bodum French press for coffee, so that’s what we’ll be using in the morning to start our day off. For breakfast, we’ll likely have a combination of oatmeal, granola, and nākd bars. The latter took us by storm a few days ago, when fifty pounds of bars arrived on Justin’s doorstep from California. We’re super excited to have this great source of fruit and nuts to snack on every day while in the field — it beats having to individually ration dried fruit and nuts into ziplocks all the time!

Finally, we have an emergency bivouac sack, or bivvy, in case anyone gets hypothermia, a Luci solar-powered lantern, and a trowel for all our digging needs in the woods.