Avoiding Responsibility

Well it was the end of an era last week. No tears were shed, but it did make for an interesting moment of self-analysis.

So the story - I began travelling at the conclusion of my first period as a student, at the end of 2001. Having grown up in Scouting, I was well aware of the old adage 'you get what you pay for', particularly with outdoor equipment. It's very much the case that when you are in places that you will be using this equipment, you really don't want to be having to deal with it failing on you.

So I didn't have any problems splashing out on good quality equipment. The shopping for quality travelling equipment was somewhat limited in Armidale, but I was lucky that I had a Mountain Designs (MD) store. I had been recommended MD by a friend who was in the Army reserve, who had used their gear for a few years with great success. I also borrowed his windproof fleece jacket one night for the long walk back to College in -2 degrees and was toasty warm the whole way (granted, I also had a skinful of vodka, but it was freezing without the jacket on). So it was down to MD to do some shopping.

I was going to be spending some money - I was in the market for:

* Fleece jacket
* Goretex jacket
* Hiking boots
* Backpack
* Thermal underwear

With a wad of cash and a shopping list I went into the store and was lucky enough to be served by the guy who owned the store (along with the store in Newcastle). After an hour of going through all the options, trying on gear and making decisions, I was flabbergastered when the guy turned around to me and said to me to go down to the other outdoors shop down the road and have a look there, try things on and see if they fit better. Surpised that someone would recommend that I walk down the street with $1500 in my pocket to their competitor, my opinion of this guy rose significantly. So I did just that.

As it was, the MD gear was the best fitting and/or 'price vs feature' ratio, so back I went to MD. I ended up purchasing an MD Exodus 75L travel pack as my main backpack. (For those that don't know the difference, there are two main types of backpacks - a traditional hiking pack which has the opening at the top and you stuff all the gear down into it, and the travel pack, which has a zipper around most of it to open it up like a suitcase. The latter is much more useful for 'backpacking' - getting in and out of trains, airports, buses and hostels. I thoroughly recommend them). Anyway, I recall at the time the owner said something about the pack having a lifetime warranty, and that even if the pack failed while I was travelling the company would sort something out. I tucked this piece of information away for latter use.

With my trusty new backpack I set off around the world. And we had some wonderful times. There were some testing times as well - particularly the time that some wanker at Dallas-Fort Worth airport put my backpack on the plan heading to Lima, Peru, instead of the plan which I was on, heading for New Orleans, Louisiana. After 4 days apart however, we were thankfully (unusually for American Airlines apparently) reunited.

But our relationship soured recently when on a trip home the shoulder strap broke. Not a big deal really, but it is very handy when getting around an airport, or on/off trains and buses. The reason the strap broke was that the stitching holding it to the bag had somehow come apart. I don't know how it happened, but I thought it might be something the company would want to know about for future designs.

I took some photos and emailed the company. The next day I got a response, stating that the bag would still be under warranty and that they would ship me a replacement pack. Erm.... what!?! This pack has done over 80,000 miles around the world over 6 years and the shoulder strap breaks and they are still going to replace it? Well, I'm impressed.

So my trip to Norway for Christmas took on a new meaning. It wasn't just another trip, it was my last trip with my original backpack. Now that may sound strange, that I'm getting a bit sentimental over a backpack. But it has been a constant companion for the last six years, been with me for all the miles I've travelled, and faithfully carried all my shit across god knows how many countries. And now its going to the big left luggage room in the sky.

So long my friend, I'll always remeber you slowly revolving around the luggage carousel at various airports around the world (except that time you left me standing in the baggage reclaim hall in New Orleans while you were jetting your way to South America). Cheers!