First Aid Kit
What should never be missing in your backpack
Given that I do not want to distress you with reading this page, I will try to give you some useful tips, all personally tested.
Often when we go for a bike ride or even, a walk in the mountains, we always try to be as light as possible. Maybe we try to suffer a little cold leaving the sweatshirt at home or we reduce the wallet to the only license plus a banknote inserted in the cell phone cover.
But one thing we should never think of sacrificing in favor of lightness is the first aid kit. It may seem superfluous, but there will surely be that time when you or those traveling with you will need it, even just for small accidents. I learned to be foresighted by admiring the readiness of one of my high school classmates who, during a group outing in the mountains, pulled out of the backpack disinfectants and bandages to medicate a girl who had stumbled on a stone. More direct experience: during a bike travel, my boyfriend thought well of taking a picture while continuing to ride. Normally he knew how to do it without problems, but with a luggage of 20 kg on each side the physical law got the better of him and he fell ruinously on the dirt. Not fortunately, but for retirement, I had my kit, also because we were many kilometers from a town and his arms and legs needed basic dressings.
So, let's move on to the practice
- DISINFECTANT – I’ve only transfused a part of it into a smaller barrel, with the diffusion dispenser; if you use oxygenated water you have to be careful to put it in a non-spray container so as not to lose its disinfectant properties.
- PATCHES – few, but of all measures.
- STERILE BANDAGE – self-locking is better.
- ANTIBATTERIC HAND CLEANING GEL – essential for disinfecting your hands before touching a wound.
- COTTON DISCS – practical to use because they don’t flake and leave no lint.
- EMOSTATICS PATCHES – not essential, but can be useful for more intense bleeding.
- ELASTIC MESH – useful for covering a dressing made with bandages on a limb.
- MULTIPURPOSE KNIFE – especially using built-in scissors and tweezers.
- EYEDROPS – to humidify contact lenses, but even if dust or earth enter our eyes.
This Kit contains the essentials and is therefore designed to occupy as little space as possible and constitute a paler additional weight. You can store it in a small clutch bag or a resealable plastic bag, so that it is also waterproof.
You can also add a few basic medicines, or even just a bag of sugar or mineral salts for moments of weakness.