I came recently from a jungle trip in Amazonas. It was quite a short trip - 3 nights in jungle and 2 night in jungle lodge - though it allowed me to practice my survival skills and enjoy the scenery.
I had with myself survival kit based around the kit of Doug Ritter. And I found my kit not particularly adequate blush - the quality of items in the kit is good, but I have not thought how to carry it when I wear only swimming shorts and sandals, and this was most of the time. Therefore, I ended up with carrying only my Delica knife and a short length of cord around my neck.
Anyway, this trip revealed me quite a few things about my survival kit. I would say the most important in the survival kit is its compactness and ease to carry and if this problem is not solved, then the kit is near to useless, you would leave it in the camp with the rest of your kit. "It is better to have 22 calibre pistol in the pocket instead of 45 at home".
Therefore I am reconsidering my survival kit specifically for such situations - bearing in mind that you usually end up in a survival situation unexpectedly, I want to have something that I can have on me day and night. At the moment I am expeirmenting with putting SwissChamp on my neck with 2m paracord, but it is too heavy for comfort and I want to add compass, fishing kit, wire, whistle (I guess I will take it from my existing kit) and a waterproof lightweight lighter (in a stressful situation, when you are wet and cold, it would be very difficult to find tinder in a wet forest/jungle).
I also thought about other survival kit. For example, knife - I think it is a good idea to use your survival knife instead of having one specifically in a survival kit, because if you double items you increase the weight, hence you hamper your mobility. Another example is rubbish bin - if you have a sleeping bag and have to carry it with you all the time, I do not see much point to have rubbish bag: it is too large to carry on you, therefore it will end up in a rucksack next to your sleeping bag. So if you lose you rucksack with your sleeping bag, you will lose the rubbish bag as well.
If you are in a survival situation, half-panicing, I think there is a risk to consider that you may freak out and drop your gear off if you conclude it is too heavy for you to carry it to the shore (if you swim from a sinking boat) or restricts your movements (in case you need to run because of some emergency). Therefore, I copncluded that compactness and weight are much more important than I thought before.
What are your thoughts?
Thanks,