I am rarely without a notebook. For years I have realised that they are indispensable for work. It’s not just that the notebooks are useful for remembering things, I find people think you are taking them seriously if you take notes during a conversation. I keep my notebooks and everyone and then I find that my notes are the only reference that something that may have happened somewhere but has missed being properly recorded.

I also always carry a notebook when I am travelling and certainly when I am hiking and backpacking. Anyone planning their first TGO Challenge or long trek this summer would be well advised to carry one.

I’m not a diary keeper, though heaven knows over the years I have tried hard to write one on a number of occasions. Basically, I take short sharp notes which are enough to trigger all kinds of memories when read well after the event.

My note keeping is now part of my camping routine. Each night, after I have eaten and while am relaxing, I settle down to muse on the day. My notes are simple pointers of noteworthy things that happened. I might make a note of an encounter and record the name of a person I met. I might describe some terrain or the weather conditions or simply my feelings when looking out over a stunning landscape. These notes seldom stretch to more than 2 or 3 sides but it is amazing how often, when I’m writing up a trip, I’ve forgotten something that was quite significant. And over the years I’ve discovered that even these simple notes have an elegance to them. Even these roughly written, rain splatted notes an bring the memories flooding back.

So, take a notebook I say. But, what kind of notebook? Here we get into a new and dangerous world of obsessive behaviour!

Over the years I have settled the Moselskin books, the classic pocket book size. For years these were difficult to find but now are difficult to avoid. While there are different styles of covers basically all have a hard cover which is useful and have pages that are acid free. The pages may not be pristinely bleached but they will last a long time. The pages come in different styles, plain, ruled and so on. I prefer the pages which are squared like graph paper; this is the traditional French style for notebooks and I find it more flexible han standard ruled pages – the gap between be rules is never right!

There are other notebooks of course but they are not standard designs that stay in production for years and years. A couple of years ago I bought a pack of very small moleskins, each one which consisted of only a few pages. Just one of these was ideal for the TGO Challenge and was, of course, very light! But then a standard Moleskin pocket book is not really heavy!

I’m not the only one to be obsessed with notepads. The Moleskine, for example, is not just a notebook it is part of a tradition. Hemingway used them as did the late Bruce Chatwin. Chatwin used to journey specially to Paris to buy them up in huge numbers.

There are even blogs devoted to notebooks (yes of course there are blogs). One of the best is Black Cover which, surprise, surprise, compares any new notebook to the classic Moleskine.

Recently, while browsing through Stanfords, I came across something new which fascinated me and which I may try this year. This is the Japanese produced Midori Traveler’s Notebook. The Midori consists of a leather cover into which you place refilled paper sheets, the paper being very high quality and long-lasting such as that used in the Moleskine. The leather cover is flexible and you can even role the book into a tube shape. The cover is kept secure by a leather chord. Part of the concept of the Midori is that it will last a lifetime but I doing so its leather will wear and age in ery interesting. The only thing that stopped me buying one of these was that I couldn’t seE any page refills being sold.

I turned to Black Cover for help. It appears the Midori is creating a lot of interest across the globe not least because most people have to order it over the net forms Japanese site! Black Cover’s Midori Review is here.

If you have found this article has been mildly interesting the you should check out the UK killer journal store – The Journal Store.

So, notebooks are important travelling companions and choosing one is not such an easy tast, especially if you want it to last a lifetime. If you are setting out on your first TGO Challenge take a notebook with you. It will be an important companion. You will be glad that you had it with you.