I think it's great that Pete is getting correspondence back about how he tours. And everything in this thread is useful.

But it does get to a point, I suppose, that when someone looks at an UL or SUL set-up, the immediate reaction may well be: CC (credit card). That's because many people may not be able to comprehend that you could be comfortable camping out and being self-sufficient on such a small amount of stuff.

Which comes back to Pete's point about getting the message across better by actually camping with people.

I know that my eyes were opened to a large extent touring with a guy in his 50s who spent some time acquiring stuff that was small and lightweight and comfortable.

He was a long-time touring cyclist, and a hiker, too, I think, so he was very experienced.

He got all his kit all into two tiny panniers and a small handlebar bag, and was always at the front of the pack, or further ahead, on his bike. I was always amazed at what he pulled out of the panniers, because they seemed bottomless!

This was back in Tasmania, where you need to take stuff to cover you for weather changes by the hour. I think I caught him out shivering a couple of times.