by Simon
(Cornwall)
In view of all the recent storms and freak weather events we decided that it would be a good idea to prepare a "go bag" to use in case of emergency.
Although it's not strictly speaking something you'd think of for backpacking may of the backpack principles apply.
One of the pieces of equipment that we have in our go bag is a water purifier. As you have mentioned on your site, water is very heavy to carry, so we have the purifier to cut down on the things that we have to carry.
It's a pretty simple little thing. It consists of a container with a carbon filter. We also have water purifying tablets to get rid of any bugs or other nasties that the filtered water may contain.
Along with the water purifier we also have a small supply of food. Some dry soup mix, some energy bars, some porridge oats and dried milk. We have a lightweight stove and small saucepan to cook the food in.
To keep warm we have some lightweight clothing and a sleeping bag each. The sleeping bags are what's called three season, meaning you can sleep outside in them in all seasons except for winter. We figured that if there was a freak weather event that we would probably end up in some sort of public shelter, so it would be best to have our own bedding.
The double advantage of this go bag is that we are not only prepared for a quick exit if needed we can also use it to go backpacking in. We've added a small, lightweight tent to use for summer camping. Now all we need is some good weather to try it all out.