I’ll do a real YouTube-circa-2014 “what’s in my bag?” blog next time I go to Dartmoor but today a follow-up to “what to carry while out walking” from the other day: what’s in my first aid kit?
I would recommend carrying a first aid kit whenever you go out walking. I mean, I don’t bother on my daily 2km circuits from my own front door and I don’t usually bother on my weekly 6-8km Friday walks with Dad but I probably should and if you’re going for a full-on day hike anywhere you’ll be more than half an hour from civilisation I can’t recommend strongly enough having a first aid kit with you.
There are two basic types. The DIY, where you get a container and fill it with the things you’ll need, and the pre-made. Pre-mades are great, they contain all the stuff you could possibly need plus at least 25% of it stuff you won’t ever need. Even so, I’d add some personal stuff to it. I have a little pocket pre-made, about the size of my fist and I have a camping pre-made for my Rangers, which is about twice the size and unfolds to reveal three pockets full of stuff. You can always go bigger: there are mountain first aid kits and mountain leader first aid kits and expeditions and expedition leaders and if you’re unfamiliar with first aid kits, a pre-made of an appropriate size and style is a great starting place. My two are both from Lifesystems and they’re very good at what they do. There are other companies or you can try your local outdoors shop or Boots/Superdrug/supermarket.
But I don’t actually carry my pre-made very often. It has too much stuff I’m not going to use – far too many bandages and fabric plasters and dressings. What I want in the way of medical intervention most often is blister plasters, the hydrocolloid/Compeed types. So I bought an empty first aid case and filled it with the stuff I actually want.
The compeeds are a major component. Before I did the Laugavegur trail in 2018 I collected various sizes and shapes and stored them all in the same box which now lives in my first aid kit. I used one plaster on that trek and that was only preventative – I was starting to feel a hotspot on my foot on day four but an hour or so later I changed into my sandals anyway. Sometimes compeeds will stay stuck for weeks despite nightly soaking in a bath and sometimes they’ll turn slippery and come off after one river crossing. If you’ve never used them, they’re sort of thick and rubbery and create a gooey layer underneath that cushions and they’re wonderful. I have a pair of silver glittery Dr Martens that just tear my heels open and with these stuck in the right place, I can’t even feel the boots, let alone the rubbing and tearing.
I also have a blister stick – you rub it on your feet to reduce the friction that causes blisters. I don’t find it amazing but I like to have it nearby. To be honest, it mostly feels a bit slippery and sticky at the same time inside my socks but perhaps it’s being kind to my feet in a way I just take for granted.
Next, I have a miniature spray bottle of antiseptic wash. The real thing is 100ml which sounds tiny but really fills up a small first aid kit. I’ve never actually used it – well, the idea of a first aid kit is to hope you never need it – but I think it’s not a bad thing to have a sprayable liquid you can use to clean minor wounds. I have a tube of antiseptic cream in my first aid at home/medicine kit but I use it mostly for sore patches, almost like an extreme moisturiser. I don’t like the idea of rubbing thick cream into minor wounds but spraying this stuff on them feels like it could be useful.
Tick removers. Again, hope to never use them. You can pick up ticks anywhere, which is why you should have long legs and sleeves when you’re walking in long grass, and even then they can somehow get through. You can’t just pick them off because you don’t want to squeeze them. Tick removers are designed to get underneath and then twist them off without damaging them (although feel free to stomp on them with a well-soled boot afterwards). Ticks can cause Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis so it’s essential to be able to remove them safely.
Plasters. Ok, I’ve packed some. Two of each size and waterproof. These are specifically pool plasters, which I’m interpreting as “extra waterproof”. I don’t use them much, they’re mostly there out of a feeling of duty.
Because what I tend to use when I need a plaster is either a compeed for blisters or a bit of electrical tape for anything else. This is a hangover from my caving days but honestly, it’s great stuff, a first aid essential for me. You can tear it with your fingers so you don’t need scissors, you can wrap it around small cuts, it’s waterproof and you can use it to secure something more absorbent, if you have anything on the sort with you.
Tube bandage. I put this in there mostly just because I had it and I felt a bit guilty for removing all the bandages. In the event of emergency, I can use this for its intended purpose or I can use it as my “something more absorbent”.
Silver blankets. I’ve never used a silver blanket but I had one that lived in the top of my helmet in my caving days (which is probably still there) and although I’m probably carrying my survival bag on Dartmoor, these are a little less dramatic. I only need one really but I think there are five in this pack and I don’t desperately want to remove the other four because I don’t want them to get lost or battered.
And finally, a tube of AfterBite. For bug bites, not ticks please. It’s basically ammonia in a pen so it stings like crazy and then it more or less stops itching. Big fan, except the smell.
And that’s what I carry when I’m out walking on my own. If I was leading a group I’d take more – either my pocket kit or the big Ranger kit if I had the girls with me.
I customised my pocket kit with a tick remover card, a tube of antiseptic cream and another tube of AfterBite. Think about what you need and what situations you’re likely to have to deal with and either make or customise your first aid kit accordingly.
By the way, if you haven’t done a first aid course, I’d highly recommend getting yourself on at least a basic one. One day I’ll do a 16-hour outdoor course but I’ve had to have an up-to-date basic qualification for Guiding since 2008, I did a caving-specific one back in about 2004 and before that I did it at school and at Guides/Brownies so I’m oddly steeped in first aid. Not qualified to teach it, so that post will not be forthcoming unless my life does a 180 and I become unexpectedly qualified but I’m qualified to tell you that a bit of first aid knowledge and preparation is a wonderful thing.