In addition to our - ahem - bodies I guess we all carry first-aid for our equipment (NO! Wash yr mouth out with soap Sloman! Right now!)

I carry duck-tape,dyneema,needles and thread, a small tube of SuperGlue and a very wonderful American multi-tool whose name escapes me and I can't be a*rsed to go and find it. I take spare phone batteries rather than chargers - and yes, if you carry a phone make sure that you've got one with with interchangeable batteries.

To my mind the absolute Mack Truck of mobiles is the Sony Ericsson K800i - almost eight years old, available on eBay for around £25 and rock solid. I have three. Out on the hill this is all the phone you'll ever need. Monster battery life - think ten days. Yum Yum!

Completely off-topic, but a couple of weeks ago I got the Anquet Android App (sounds a tad like Tocks's Trffic Trekking Tipz). What a sweetie. All the routes created on my PC now show up on the phone(Samsung Galaxy SIII) and tablet (Google Nexus 7). All mapping is stored on the device - so no need to have a Wi-Fi or data connection. GPS locator works perfectly - again no need for any external connection, so no cost whatsoever.

Like most of us I use a GPS for those times when I'm deeply puzzled - aka standing outside The Fife. But transferring the GPS reading to map was always a faff. Particularly in France, where they have a deeply strange tho' I'm sure entirely logical (if you are Jean-Paul Sartre) construct.

Map and compass will always be my main navigation system - but it's cute to now be able to to get a direct locational fix on a real map. For no money whatsoever.

I guess that there are also apps for Mac systems.

Peace and lurve, brothers and sisters.