h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A good set of waterproofs is usually a good idea - including gaiters. These go over the top of your boots, and under the bottom of waterproof trousers (if you put them on). They're especially good if you're going through boggy or marshy ground, 'cos they help keep your laces free of mud.

There are some pretty good camping stoves on the market, that can pack up really small. You shouldn't need to spend more than £15 on one.

A pack of 'compeed' is useful, especially if you are prone to blisters. They are special plasters for blisters, that actually help them to heal (rather than just covering them up).

If you do get blisters, make sure you've got a good thick pair (or two) of walking/skiing socks, and a good stout pair of boots. Make sure you rub plenty of dubbin into your boots, as this helps keep them supple and waterproof.

If you've got tins of food, take a proper tin opener - make sure it works! The ones on a penknife sound like a good idea, but in my experience are too much trouble, especially if you are hungry!

Make sure you've got a good first aid kit. It should contain a variety of sticking plasters, bandages, alcohol wipes, a needle, safety pins, and a triangular bandage. Some sort of pain relief is also advisable. Make sure all the items are within their use-by date - if not, throw them away!

A survival bag is essential. The best ones are foil lined, to reflect your body heat, and brightly coloured on the outside, so that you can be seen easily. You never know when you might need it.

You should also have a whistle (one *without* a dried pea or similar in it), to attract attention should you need help.

A map and compass are a must-have if you don't know the area very well. Even better is a GPS system, but these can be expensive (and rely on electricity!)

A moblie phone is useful for emergencies, or at the least enough money for a pay-phone.

Kendal mint cake is a great energy food - as are jelly (in block form, undiluted) and dextrose tablets.

A box of baby wipes (or similar) is extremely useful for wiping your hands - it saves having to find the toilet (if there is one) block every time.

If you're planning on doing a lot of walking, take a woolen hat and waterproof gloves. The majority of your body heat is lost through the head, and wool is one of the best insulators. Woolen gloves tend to be a bit useless though, as it's rarely cold withough raining. And the last thing you need is wet gloves next to your hands all day. Never trust the weather reports!!!

Duck tape! Duck tape! Duck tape! It's your best friend with all its many uses.

And along with that miraculous duct tape, bungee cords and lightweight tarps. And an air mattress. And box o'wine. Insect repellant. Flashlight. A good book. Something to use as a grill (old fashioned metal refrigerator shelves are great for this). A saw. And a partrige in a pear tree

Along with that miraculous duct tape, bungee cords and lightweight tarps. And an air mattress. And box o'wine. Insect repellant. Flashlight. A good book. Something to use as a grill (old fashioned metal refrigerator shelves are great for this). A saw. And a partrige in a pear tree

A sponge is really handy if you're going to have to wash in cold mountain streams or lakes - it saves getting all of you cold at the same time, and you can also dry yourself with it to some extent.

If camping for an extended period, epoxy adhesive (JB Weld or Araldite) is great for equipment repair, but make sure it can't leak and get spread over other stuff you're carrying.

Small, strongly flavoured sweets are excellent for waking up your taste buds if you're going a long time between meals, and are particularly good for morale on long walks in miserable weather.

I find iodine spray makes a big difference to healing times for minor cuts and grazes, which are quite common if hiking in rocky or densely forested areas.

The air mattress is an absolute necessity, as it makes the difference between a fun experience in the wild and a miserable one. The ground sucks heat out of your body faster than air does, so you'll freeze all night without the insulating layer of air underneath you.

Definitely - I *do* like my Thermarest, though two drawbacks, compared to a dense foam camping mat (Karrimat or similar) are the risk of puncture, so you can't stick the matress under the tent to protect the groundsheet if camping on rocky ground, and also with thin inflatable mats, they sometimes only work if you lie on a sufficient area of them, so sometimes lying on your side doesn't work, and you have to double them up to sit on.

I would definitely suggest a torch for navigating to and from the toilet at night. Having celebrated new year at Blacksail youth hostel, I know the folly of having too few by my bruised nose and forehead. I didn't come off as badly as someone else though (who may have been very drunk at the time): He thought he was at the door, which requires a bit of a push, and put his shoulder into it, closely followed by his snozz. Mind you, one of the landlord's at our local fell off a lamppost on Comic Relief night, which was presumably adequately lit, so possibly the alcohol is more of a contributary factor than the presence of a light source.

If you have them, Tilley lamps a great for lighting large tents and have the added bonus that pre-teens can watch crane flies melting onto the glass.

Wool socks! These are a lifesaver if you're walking through any kind of snow, or water. Cotton socks might be less itchy, but they take forever to dry, and they will hold the cold moisture close to your skin...I have also found that a down comforter works better than an air matress (no punctures, inflating, deflating) and it keeps you toasty warm, without that, "I just woke up in a tent and I'm cold and damp" feeling.

1. A map, and
2. A compass

No joke. These two items are THE most important items you could ever take camping. History-making battles have been won or lost on the basis of whether the officers knew where they were going. If you know which way is which, you can figure out where the closest road/civilization is in case of an emergency, and you can be sure you aren't just walking in circles. It also helps if you have a particular place in mind that you want to go - this way (guys esp.), you don't have to put yourself through the embarassing ordeal of describing your perfect spot to rangers over and over and asking if they know which trail will take you there because you've forgotten since your last visit. More importantly, though, knowing where you are can save your life.

In order to be able to use a map and compass, you have to know how. Also, you need to know what kind you are using. In terms of compasses, most are similar - for camping, the kind that has a baseplate and degrees and rotates is usually the best. The most important thing to remember about compasses is that THE RED NEEDLE ALWAYS POINTS NORTH. Compasses rely on the attraction of a magnet in the needle to the magnetic tug of the poles of the earth. However, don't try to take a compass made in the northern hemisphere into the southern hemisphere - the needle will point the wrong way, since the south pole is closer to you and will therefore attract the red side. Once you figure out which way is north, you should automatically know that south is the opposite (where the white needle points), west is perpendicular to the left of the needle and east is to the right (i.e. facing north, south is behind you, west is to your left and east is to your right).

Maps are somewhat more complicated. For most camping, extended hiking and backpacking excursions, you will want to bring a topographical map of the area that has trails shown on it. In the USA, the most popular and common version of these are produced by the USGS (US Geological Survey), and can be bought at map stores, park headquarters or over the internet. Usually, these are 1:24,000, which means every 1 cm on the map equals 24,000 cm, or 240 meters (0.14 mile) in real life. The main features of a topo map are topo lines, which are brown lines that run parallel to each other all over the map. Each line represents a certain elevation above sea level - on a USGS topo, there is a line for every 20 feet (6 meters) of elevation change. Thus, the topo lines show hills and valleys - figuring out what they mean is a matter of logic. If there are streams marked on the map, they are going to be at the bottom of a hill, so those lines are the lowest, and if there is an enclosed circle, it usually represents the top of a hill, since there is only a small circular area that is higher in elevation than the top line. In judging the slope of a hillside, the closer the lines are together, the steeper the slope (there is a lot of elevation change in little horizontal area).

In order to use the map, the hiker must first get oriented. To do this, simply use a compass to face magnetic north. Then, line up the compass rose (that funky arrow thing that has an N, E, S and W on it) on the map with the compass so that the little red needle points the same direction as the 'N' arrow on the map. Now, to make things more complicated, most topo maps (unless otherwise stated) are drawn so that the North arrow (which usually lines up with the sides of the map) faces what is called true or geographic north (literally, the top of the world). The problem is, your compass faces MAGNETIC north, which is a couple hundred miles off of true north. Usually, though, the two are not far apart, and for basic camping a rough estimate of north should be good.

MAP AND COMPASS - DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT THEM! (OR YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO GET BACK!!!)

Actually I have a compass where THE RED NEEDLE POINTS SOUTH and the white needle points north...

Waterproofs has been mentioned. Make that Goretex® or the like.

And don't forget a corkscrew! We once had to use one to fix a tent pole, when that little spike(?) at the end of it suddenly was missing on a Norwegian Mountain...

BOTH French and white mustard to impress other campers!
(And it makes it easier to swap goodies! )

I don't think anyone mentioned this yet - STRING!!! Can't go camping without it. You never know what you might need it for (hey, we used it regularly as part of making our own tables - the other part was dirty great big logs of course )

Cotton wool.
This has many uses.
You may even invent new ones.
A comb, hairbrush, toothbrush, toothpick, mirror, deodorant, mints.

A towel. I don't know if this has already been listed, but I thought the Guide itself says it is the most useful thing you can have with you when you're hitch-hiking through the universe. If its good for the universe, it must be good for camping in the wild.

A sharp knife is incredibly useful, or maybe that should be that a blunt knife is so incredibly frustrating?

A good billy and some black tea. NOT tea bags.

A billy? Do you mean a goat??

Billy ... as in billy can to boil water and make tea in ... I presume. Tea is the one essential of camping, the mornings just don't start without it

Emergency sewing pack including button thread (thicker & stronger than ordinary sewing cotton - has a multitude of uses), self adhesive V****o you know that stuff that sticks together for mending anoraks fastenings, tent flaps & sleeping bags if the zip breaks and of course elastic.

If you do light a camp fire, make sure you're not on a peat field, in a dry spell it won't go out!

The best flashlight to bring is a headtorch. One of those elasticated things with the battery at the back.
Having your hands free is probably one of the most important things while hiking or just relieving yourself at night.
If your hiking in winter or bad weather light can fade quicker than expected and if you fall with a torch in your hand,you can't use that hand to grap on to something.
Also,in wooded areas at night,having a torch on your head can save you banging your head on a branch and everyone laughing at you.Or more so to prevent injury from getting a protruding twig in the eye.

Headtorch-wise, I'd really recommend looking at white LED based lights. You can get commercially made ones that are very small, quite bright, and last for quite a while on small batteries, or get LEDs mounted fitted in normal bulb bases to put into existing Petzl Zooms or similar 4.5v headtorches.

This summer, I used a 3 LED based bulb both in my surface Zoom, and in my caving Laser headset (basically a miniature zoom/carbide combination). The light was as easy to cave on as a standard (non-halogen) bulb, and I managed to get at least 60 hours of light from an already part-used 4.5v Duracell flatpack, which is still going strong. I also bought a single LED bulb as a spare, and that was easily bright enough for most uses.
The bulbs are expensive (UKP 10/15 for 1/3 LED varieties where I got mine), but should last almost indefinitely compared to standard bulbs, and even when batteries start to fade, the light seems to degrade more gracefully than a filament bulb. Given the price of batteries, it wouldn't be long before a regular user recovered their initial investment.