Top tips when you are planning on going on an expedition be it Sailing, climbing Everest or huge treks across lowly habituated areas Gorilla tracking or searching for ancient archaeology. People don’t masses when they are going on long expeditions if they have good training and bountiful amounts of common sense.
One of the first things to think about is fitness levels are you going to be able to cope with the stress and pressure you are going to be placing your body under. Even walking can become difficult if you are unhealthy and the weather becomes bad one slip or bad judgement can have you in a position of not knowing what to do to get you out of your situation. If you know you are fit enough for your given adventure (hopefully after getting a once over from health professionals) then modern technology can certainly ensure you remain in contact with the civilisation with Mobile phone technology allowing you to get In touch with people when you need to, and with the dawning of Bluetooth technologies you can now get Telemedic systems that allow you to have Bluetooth enabled medical apparatus that can then be used to give a distant doctor the information he needs to proscribe a treatment (which could be evacuation or a couple of headache pills and a lie down). Remote telemedicine certainly seems to have come of age, its like something out of Star Trek!
The 2nd thing I would think about is food, how are you going to maintain your supply, you can only carry a so much and if you are doing this without transport you will have to ensure the quantity is enough. At the simplest (or advanced depending how you look at it) you can be taught which foods you can consume and have training in hunting and survival techniques. Wilderness survival lets you carry a small amount of kit (tools mainly) which you can then work with to make whatever you need when out in the wilderness. Obviously where there are time pressures a check point system is better, this is where you have set points along your route where you have food and resupplies waiting for you. This however then incurs much more cost, as if you are travelling through places that are really remote you will need to have a team moving ahead of you to get the supplies in place. Water is a vital food type and ensuring you can maintain a constant supply means complete planning before hand. You can never rely on a supply being clean, so you will have to carry a decent form of filtration to ensure you don’t catch some form of nasty bug.
The third thing to think about is clothing whatever the environment you need to try to stay dry and clean make sure that you have at least one change of clothing one for hot weather one for cold depending obviously on the terrain and environment you are moving through. The main thing with clothing is to use a layering system so that as you begin to get to hot you can remove a layer and as you cool down the layers can go back on again. Wet weather coat and leggings will keep you dry and a decent pair of boots will look after you if you look take care of them, the rubbish you hear about having to break a pair of boots in is wrong. Go to a specialist walking boot shop and have your boots fitted properly it may not be the exact fashion you like but if it fits the purpose and keeps you comfortable then you wont have any hassles. Oh and I almost forgot take a hat and gloves, obviously decide depending on what you are doing but having the right kit for the job can make everything run smoother.