Originally Posted by
SmallFront
I wild camp in all places, excepting poorer countries where I can get a real bed for the night. In Australia and parts of the US, I would still need to carry water and I don't want to do without my coffee. Or are you saying that carrying 19lbs for crossing Australia or barren parts of the US is something that will be more comfortable than carrying enough water and stuff for a shade, a double walled tent with a mosquito net/mesh?
[edit: What is it with people, that when they read I live in Copenhagen, they automatically think that that must be my only stomping grounds? I have a passport, and I do travel./edit]
Yup, but as I said in the very post he responded to:
Water is as variable as the amount of food that is carried. It depends on the conditions, distance travelled and the distance between services. I would imagine that for the sake of this thread discussion, we are concentrating on the fixed weight a person would expect to carry.
To cross Australia, I would opt for 19lbs, which would give me additional flexibility in carrying additional water. I didn't have significant issues with water on the Nullarbor Plain, because the distances between services wasn't huge. And I was a newbie then, so I had a lot of heavier-than-needed equipment. But getting up into the real deserts or riding north from Alice Springs to Darwin might bring more issues where having lighter equipment would be imperative to compensate for the additional water that I would need.
I don't know what your touring experience is. Let us know so we can put what you say in context (I am sure you know why that helps after recent events on another thread).