If there’s one thing that I have learned from my previous hiking experiences, it’s that the footwear is really important. You use them throughout your entire time while hiking. So, this time, I didn’t want to go cheap on the boots.

First, I went to a simple Outdoors store. There were a lot of options for footwear and I didn’t know where to start. I didn’t even know my shoe size. The salesman helped me find out my shoe size, so that cut down my choices to a specific shoe size. But there were still too many options.

The next day, I went to a different store: CAMP4. There were fewer options, but the salesmen really helped me find a goot boot. At first, I said I wanted a hiking shoe, not a boot, since I only planned on doing easy trails. After a few try-outs, we found a good pair of shoes. By “good”, I mean one that doesn’t let my foot slip at the heel, since that would cause horrible blisters, and one in which my toes don’t touch the tip on the inside, not even when going downhill.

But then I got curious, whether I should get that low-cut shoe or look for a high-cut boot. The salesman said I should get high-cut if I wanted to go on rough terrain, do moderate trails with hills, or if I didn’t exercise routinely and my feet were unprepared for hiking. That last option sound exactly like me, so I decided to check the tougher boots.

I tried some leather boots, which fit quite nicely. The salesman suggested I try another pair of boots, not made of leather, but made with GoreTex. They were 50% more expensive than the leather boots, and somewhat over my budget. He insisted I at least try them on for comparison.

As soon as my right foot was in the first boot, it felt so comfortable that Ipaused for a while and closed my eyes. I imagined myself hiking non-stop with those boots. Then I put my left foot in the second boot, tied the knots, and walked a bit around the store: it felt like walking on pure cotton. I have never walked on pure cotton, but that’s what I imagine it must feel like.

Screw the budget, I would cut it somewhere else.

So that’s the tale of how I got my Meindl Vakuum.

Maps, GPS logging, camera and communication, all in one device.

Paper maps are big and an unnecessary weight. They might tear when wet  (if not waterproof) and are expensive. I also get lost easily with normal paper maps.

GPS logging is useful to keep track of the trails and to share them with other people (in this blog for example).

A camera is good for taking pictures of Laetitia and food.

Communication is essential on emergency situations and quite nice to keep in touch with some parts of the real world.

Instead of using many different gadgets, for each of these purposes, I decided to use just one smartphone for all those purposes.

But I had never had a smartphone before. My trusty old Nokia 1100 died recently after 9 years of constant use. So I had to go and choose a smartphone.

I wanted an Android phone, because it’s open-source and there are a zillion apps. The most important issue for me was the battery: it had to last very long. I also needed a good camera. Based on that, I started my search, reading reviews, comparisons, and looking on online shops. I came to the conclusion that there were way too many models, the prices ranged from “kind of expensive” to “really expensive” and after a few days I still had no idea which one to buy. In the meantime, I thought a larger screen would help, since I can’t type properly on such a small keyboard.

My head was overwhelmed with so many reviews and so much information, so I just picked one already: the Samsung Note 3 Neo.

It’s not a workhorse smartphone, so the battery doesn’t drain too fast. It might be a little bit slower than other models, but that didn’t bother me.

It’s somewhat big, which became a problem. Since it’s an odd size (unlike the S4 and such), I couldn’t find a cover for it. No protection, which is important for hiking. It’s also hard to hold if to take a picture with just one hand.

I’m still lost in this Android world. I keep hitting the back key inadvertently.

I’m using the GPSLogger App or logging. It’s lightweight and exactly what I was looking for.

I use Google Maps and OSMNavigator all the time. I really mean it: all the time. With the maps and trails cached for offline viewing, I use the compass and the GPS and I hardly ever get lost now!

The camera is not that good. Oh, well. Too bad.

When I stop in villages with some WiFi, I check my e-mail, use WhatsApp and try to post something. It’s hard to write letter by letter on such a small keyboard though. Laetitia helps me type the posts, since she has small paws.

The feature I use the last is the phone itself. I never liked phones anyways…