Friends, hello! Today we are going to talk about such a topic as the organization of a camping trip or independent travel. I will try to give the most important and most popular tips that can be useful not only to beginners tourists, but also already experienced and experienced travelers.
As has long been known, and for no one is a secret, hiking is a type of active recreation. In fact, most likely, many are not even aware, but there are different types of hiking. And they differ in the complexity of the route and the duration of travel time. The easiest and most accessible to most novice tourists and travelers, of course, is the hiking route. Equipment for which you can buy in any nearby tourist store, or rent it from a hiking club.
Gathering of participants and organization of the hike
Before you go on a long-awaited trip, first of all, you must decide on the possible participants of the hike. Of course, the most preferable option and the best way to go with friends, acquaintances, or colleagues at work. Before you set out on the road to get ready in advance and discuss the route, time of location in the campaign, to distribute responsibilities and food. The optimal and most comfortable number of participants hike from 2 to 10 people, but sometimes going to a group of more than 10.
Route chosen with the physical data and the capabilities of all those participating in a hike, as well as the possibility of force majeure. This may be a deterioration in weather conditions, an unexpected illness or injury to one of the participants. Plan a route, must be armed with a map, but you can also look at online reviews of those who have been in a hike. Need to think in advance about the stops and places to stay overnight.
Distribution of duties and responsibilities in the campaign
After all of the above has been discussed, then comes the distribution of responsibilities among the participants. In any independent travel or hiking tour, be sure to be the eldest in the group, who will lead the trip. This person must be ready in the most extreme situations to take responsibility for the entire group and its individual participants. Since the most basic and most important responsibility of the head throughout the campaign is to ensure the safety of the event.
Then the chef is chosen, he will cook, and be responsible for the consumption of food, which should be evenly distributed among all participants of the trip, and not burdened on one chef. About what kind of food it’s better to take with you on the trip, read here. You must also appoint a person who will be responsible for first aid. It is desirable that this person had prepared in advance and read enough literature on medical care for burns, frostbite, cuts, bruises, and poisoning. You can also choose someone to take pictures or videos of your adventures, if you want.
Preparing General Equipment
Now that almost everything is negotiated and allocated responsibilities and food, you need to start preparing equipment. The first thing is the most important thing is, of course, the tent. The number of places in the tent must match the number of participants in the hike. But even better when the tent is a little larger, as it will be able to stack all the backpacks and place clothing for the overnight stay.
You also need to take utensils for cooking. There should be at least two woks or pots. One will be used for tea or coffee, and the other for heating and cooking. Also, you can bring a cutting board and a few knives, preferably tourist knives that have a can opener in addition to the knife. Each participant must take a set of CLMN – mug, spoon, bowl, knife. It is also important not to forget a small hatchet, a sapper spade, a small wood hacksaw, thread and needles, toilet paper and universal glue.
Preparing Personal Equipment
Before leaving when planning a trip, each of the participants must understand in advance that they will have to personally take a backpack, sleeping bag, hiking mat and flashlight. Backpack must be comfortable, of sufficient capacity and adjustable for a person’s height. Optimal choice for the beginner hiker backpack is a volume of 60-70 liters. More is not desirable to take as a temptation to fill it to capacity, and thus increase its weight to 20 kg or more. With such a weight any trip will seem excruciating experience and only spoil the whole holiday long-awaited vacation in nature.
At the bottom of backpack stowed sleeping bag, clothing, above – the food, and then the things that will be needed during the movement along the route: cap, olimpiyka, raincoat. The sleeping bag should not be too warm and not too thin, but always chosen for the conditions of the trip. For winter and summer is better to have two different sleeping bags, because in the summer in the winter you can sweat, and in winter in the summer to freeze or even frostbite the internal organs. Flashlight can be simple or headlamp, take spare batteries just in case.
Medical kits
Now it is necessary to choose a first aid kit. First-aid kits can be group or individual. The group first-aid kit is complete with first aid supplies – bandages, tourniquets, antibiotics, antipyretics, antiseptics, antiallergic agents. Each participant collects his own first aid kit. It must contain medicines, which he takes in case of chronic illnesses.
Safety of a campaign and participants
Organization of safety of a trip and participants. Before leaving for a hike during the preparation, it is necessary in advance to notify the closest family members and relatives about the planned trip. It is important to mark on the map and write on paper the entire route of the hike, with anticipated stops and overnight stays, travel time, distance and other important details of the journey.
If the hike will be children under 16 years of age, be sure to inform the local emergency services. Also, if the trip is planned with extreme elements of overcoming difficult areas, for example, rafting on the river with steep rapids, or high-altitude ascent, or descent into an underground cave, then report to the Emergency Ministry of the route of the tour is necessary, even if no child under 16 years are planned to participate in the group.
I hope I managed to describe the most important and the most demanded advices for planning and organizing independent traveling and trekking tours.
Have a safe trip!