I LOVE my Osprey Farpoint 55 rucksack
After more than a year of travelling with my Osprey Farpoint 55 rucksack I can confirm that I am still head over heels in love with my bag.
Travel companions have come into my life and moved on, cameras and phones have broken but like a fine wine my rucksack just keeps getting better and better with age.
I was introduced to my rucksack by Paul Goodyer who is the CEO of Nomad Travel following a meeting at the Adventure Travel Show in London. At first I was hesitant, but I knew that I could trust the judgement and advice from Paul who had set up Nomad Travel in 1990.
‘Nomad has been pioneering the art of travel preparation since 1990, combining a kitting out and clinic service that is unique in the UK’.
- Nomad Travel stores are a fabulous Aladdin’s cave full of everything that you might ever need when you travel. The staff are experienced travellers too so you can be confident that they know what they are talking about and they won’t sell you anything that you won’t need.
- Nomad Travel clinics offer travel health information and inoculations from expert nurses.
- Nomad Travel pharmacy can provide a bespoke medical kit for you as well as anti-malarial tablets and other potions and pills for your trip.
Whatever bag I chose had a tough role to play as I was planning some serious travel over the next couple of years, but it was virtually love at first sight with my beautiful petrol blue Osprey Farpoint 55.
The proof of the pudding
The first test was in Vilnius in Lithuania. I exited the bus station and I turned right. After walking for 20 minutes I realised that I was lost and I was heading in the wrong direction. There were the remnants of the previous night’s snow underfoot but there was no way I was going to admit defeat and pay for a cab to the hostel where I had reserved a bed.
Vilnius
I tightened the hip strap pulling the bag snugly against my body and I purposefully marched back the way that I had just come. As I passed through the Gate of Dawn and entered the narrow streets of the old town I realised how easy it was to walk any distance with this bag. It was actually a pleasure.
Fast forward a few months from the winter cold of the Baltic States to the steamy heat of South East Asia. Now it was back to riding buses and trucks where my bag was stowed on the roof, where I fiercely guarded my zip-off day pack that contained my laptop and where the humidity made everything permanently one sweaty mess.
Osprey Farpoint 55 Hoi An
We had been evicted unceremoniously from a bus on our way to Danang and forced to walk a long way in the drizzle. I have put the bag in a deep freeze to kill any bedbugs that may have attempted to hitch a ride in Cambodia, I have sat on my bag in the aisle of buses, in airports and on street corners and I have toured the Central Highlands of Vietnam with my rucksack tied securely on the back of our motorbike.
It may have been love at first sight but it is a love that has endured; surviving all obstacles which have been thrown at it. It is a love which has not yet got jaded from boredom or complacency. It is a relationship where I still feel a thrill when I close the strong metal zip, pull the compression straps tight and lift the bag up onto my back.
Adjusting the hip and breast straps, clipping the day sack onto my front and striding out onto my next destination I always send a silent ‘thank you’ to Paul and Nomad Travel for a partnership made in heaven.
Nomad Travel & Osprey Farpoint 55
Now I just need to find a man with the same capacity to keep a relationship as fresh and exciting as my Osprey rucksack from Nomad Travel!!
Click here if you would like to buy the Osprey rucksack for yourself
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