Our tent is the Nallo III manufactured by Hilleberg. During 10 years we've got a great deal of use out of our traditional one-pole tent (a typical Dutch design), a Carl Denig Pluto Plus, we switched to a more modern "tunnel" type. The main reason for this is that the one-pole tent required a lot of pegs (in our Pluto Plus you could get rid of 46 (!) of them), which is a serious disadvantage in mountainous areas. In all fairness I have to add that we mainly encountered on stony camping grounds, and never elsewhere. The main advantage of the Nallo III is that one gets a lot of space for only 2700 grams of weight. With three persons we still slept comfortably in it. During rainshowers you can still look outside, which makes you feel less confined as in the one-pole tent. The Nallo is highly finished. A disadvantage, typical for tunnel type tents, is that they are sensitive to side winds. But under the Vignemale we (and the tent) survived a storm in which the roof of the tent was occasionally pushed on my nose.

Our sleeping bags were custom-made by Tatteljee in Zunderdorp (near Amsterdam). Weighing about 1 kg, they are lightweight, and yet warm (we slept in them with temperatures below zero). The foot-ends are tapered, to save weight. Peter's sleeping bag is 10 cm longer. Originally we didn't choose for a mummy type. In stead, like our great-grandparents did, we put on a warm cap (only this time in modern fleece). Meanwhile, we have bought a mummy type bag from Mountain Equipment (Lightline). These have a number of high-tech features which allow them combine a low weight with perfect isolation (indication: -12 C).

Underneath the sleeping bags we use isolation matresses: when backpacking we use the super light weight Nomad Flyer, when biking we allow ourselves to carry along the heavier (but more comfortable) self-inflatableTherm-a-Rest matresses.

The backpacks are Alpamayo's manufactured by Lowe Alpine. Peter carries a 70+20 litre model, Ant toils around with the 50+15 litre model. For tours along mountain refuges the 70+20 litre is quite big, but it is necessary to make tours with the tent and provisions for a week...

Our hiking boots are made by Meindl. Ant uses the Island Lady (B/C boot with a gore-tex liner), Peter walks with Meindl Nepals. Both shoes are fine, and very comfortable. You don't need to get used to them, and we seldom suffer blisters. The Vibram sole of one of the Nepals appeared not to have been glued properly, but this was fixed under guarantee. Meanwhile, for heavier tours and use with crampons we both have bought a pair of Meindl Perfekts (Ant uses Perfekt Lady).

When cycling we use Shimano bike/hikeshoes. Having used toe-clips for many years, we now switched to SPD pedals. Wait-and-see how these will suit us...

Ant is using a bike, oops, randonneur which is custom-made by Vittorio (in Heerhugowaard, near Alkmaar) a shop which specializes in this type of bikes. Her old bike had a so-called mixed frame (sort of between a ladies and a gent's frame) which was relatively unstable when descending a mountain with velocities above 60 km/h (40 mph). That's why she now uses a gent's frame. rijdt nu al weer een paar jaar op een fiets, oeps, randonneur van Vittorio. At Vittorio's you can compose your bike to your own liking, enjoying a cup of coffee and excellent advice. The main disadvantage of the Vittorio bike is that it is a typical straight-on bike, and less manoeuvrable.

For already 10 years now, Peter uses a Koga Miyata (Grantourer). In those days these bikes were real asphalt-runners, without too much (expensive) add-ons. Three years ago the bike has been equipped (at Vittorio's) with new derailleurs, wheels, and rear carrier. All-in-all this bike is not as heavy as the Vittorio.

Both bikes are finished with Shimano Deore DX components. Gears: 48/38/28 , and 12-32. We use 48 spoke Alesa rims and 28 mm tyres. Our experience with the default rear carrier of Koga is poor: in 7 years time I lost two of them. The heavier Vittorio carriers (their own design) are more solid, and because of their special shape very stable.

By the way: both of us are fans of the conventional touring bike model, that is without oversized tyres, and a conventional racing handlebars.

Having used AGU Quorum panniers for about 7 years (the original, grey model), we have now switched to Karrimor, because they provide watertight bags. Ant, who is usually carrying clothing, uses Aquashields: these bags are so big that even the sleeping bags fit in easily. Peter carries the tent, cooking gear, and other tools, which get a place in the classic red Karrimors. Our experience with the AGU Quorum was not bad (apart from a poor suspension system, which is replaced in their recent models), but by both selecting Karrimors we can do with only one set of spare parts for the suspension system. Finally, it is really an advantage using bags in different colours: it helps you to retrieve something from the big pile of bags lying around in your tent.

Op our hiking tours all our clothing is synthetic these days. Helly Hansen (Lifa) and Odlo underwear. Over these we wear a (not so fashionable, but very functional) tight, densely woven fleece pullover (Sprayway), and when it is really cold a fleece sweater (North Face). Really great are the fleece sweaters (Mammut, North Face) with windstopper (Gore-tex) which we bought in 1998. They are particularly nice for cycling in dry but cold weather. When the weather is not suitable for shorts, we wear tights (Odlo, Gonzo). Socks are manufactured by Falke.

The rain coats (which we more often wear as protection against the wind) are from Mammut(Gore-tex) and Lowe (Triple-point). Because we anticipated lots of rain during our tour in Wales, we also got us ourselves a pair of rain trousers: Ant has got one from Marmot (special ladies model), Peter has one from Moonstone (both are lined with Gore-tex).

Fleece gloves (Mammut Windstoppers), a fleece cap, a fleece head band (usually worn around the neck, as a short of shawl) finish our outfit. Yep, even in summer everything is carried in our backpacks, and more than once we have had to use them...

One sees more and more people carrying telescope sticks, and less using an ice-axe. As far as we know that's a dangerous trend... we experience the benefits of an ice-axe ourselves during tours through the Pyrenees. Our axes are Camp Hyperlights (HL250), the lightest which you can by: suited for walking, but not for ice-climbing etc.

Recently we started using crampons as well. We use flexible 10-point crampons manufactured by Stubai (Trekking). During our 1997 tour in the Pyrenees not a day went by without us walking on them for a number of hours.

For orientation we use two Recta compasses. A simple plate compass (DO-110) goes along on hikes and bike tours, cause you can put it on the map so easiliy. During hikes we also carry a Recta gauging compass (DP6, with mirror).

A great deal of use we get from our altimeter, an Avocet Vertech Alpine. During hiking tours we use the altimeter even more often than my compass. During bike tours it serves a purpose to indicate how much more we have to go, as a sort of moral-o-meter, but also to provide us with the heigth of a pass which isn't on the map.

Our first stove was a methanol burner (Optimus, Trapper). A big advantage was that it had no vulnerable parts, and, because of its construction (the pan hung in the wind screen) you could safely use in the tent. But there were also some disadvantages: during filling it tended to leak fuel. And during cooking, you regularly found out that you'd ran out of fuel... which forced you to wait until the stove had cooled down before being able to refill it. Ones hungry stomach had to wait a while. Therefore we switched to a petrol (gasoline) burner (MSR Whisperlite). Its wind screen and reflector look a little but shabby, but turn out to be real long living. As with the methanol burner, you can stow away every part in your pan, which is quite convenient when packing. We always use Colemanfuel to prevent clogging of the burner. On 600 ml you can easily cook for a week. MSR also supplies 1 litre bottles. A big advantage of the petrol burner is its huge heating capacity: cooking a litre water is done very quickly.

We don't carry around a lot of cooking gear: the plastic trays and cups have been replaced by a mug, from which we consume our stew, macaroni, as well as the obligatory Grand Cru. A simple Victorinox pocket knife, with a knife, a tin opener, and a cork screw is all one needs. Twee sets knife-spoon-fork, also fitting in our pan with the burner, and that's all.

Since a year or two we posses an MSR Waterworks water filter. When camping out in the fields we always bring it with us. The big advantage of the MSR filter is that you can fit a Nalgene wide mouth bottle on it, which prevents you from having to aim carefully when you're pumping. The plastic Nalgene bottle is also suited to mix lemonade powder. In addition tothe Nalgene bottle we also carry an aluminium Sigg bottle: this seems to be the best in preserving the taste of the water.

Light in the darkness is produced by our mini-Maglite flashlight (2 AA batteries): small, a lot of light, with a spare halogen bulb always at hand, and very robust. When days are short we also carry a head lamp (Petzl Micro): handy when reading a book or map. By default the Petzl is suited for the use of a standard 4.5 volts battery. However, this old type of battery performs not well in cold conditions, as we experienced during one of our tours. For this reason we bought ourselves an adaptor for AA batteries (pen-lights). It would have been better if Petzl has provided their lamps directly with this provision.

Because we don't carry books on our hikes with the tent, we enjoy music from our small Sony (ICF-SW100) world band receiver. This is one of the smallest radios available with a credible short wave reception performance. Also very useful to listen to the local weather forecast.