The hunt for the Goldilocks’ rucksack

Lewis the Lion shook his head. Something just did not feel right. He’d been woken one morning by a knock on the door. It was the postman waving an electonic device at him, asking him for his signature before he was handed a huge, brown parcel. At first he was very excited as he cut the brown parcel-tape along the box edges; he’d been waiting for his new rucksack to be delivered. As he opened the box up, he could see an enormous rucksack – the biggest rucksack he’d ever seen!

It was everything he had carefully ordered online. This rucksack even had a day-pack (like a mini-rucksack) that was zipped to the front. However, the most important feature was that this rucksack had wheels so it could be pulled along by a small handle. He’d deliberately selected this rucksack as he had spoken to the travel agent who had said that she had had “rucksack envy” of other travellers who had rucksacks with wheels when she had done some travelling around the world.

Nonetheless, as Lewis’ travel companion, Helen put the rucksack on her back, it already felt like a huge weight and that was before, she’d even put anything inside it! This rucksack would never do. It was simply too big and heavy. So, Lewis had to go to the post-office and send it back to the shop. It was back to the drawing-board!

This time, Lewis and Helen started to do a bit more research as they knew that the correct rucksack was the most important thing for a traveller as it would soon become one of their closest friends on this important journey. After all, it had to travel with them for at least a year. So, research was done in earnest, checking out some websites that had been created by travel experts. These websites generally all agreed on three key principles:

1) The rucksack had to be as light as possible (and certainly no more than 55 litres). They said that no traveller ever complained that they weren’t carrying enough and besides, you could pick up most things in most countries these days. The golden rule seemed to be: the lighter, the better.

2) If you were a women, then it was best to buy a rucksack designed for a woman. Rucksacks for women are generally designed for the weight of the bag to sit on the hips and there are wider shoulder-straps. Lewis thought that this would be a great idea for Helen as she would be doing the majority of the carrying!

3) A rucksack with compartments and lots of external pockets was a great advantage as it would mean that you could quickly grab a bottle of water, a guide book or suntan lotion, etc.

An added bonus in all of this would be a rucksack that also had a raincover which would protect the luggage from getting wet and soaking everything inside.

So, with these three principles in mind (and the added extra bonus tip!), Lewis and Helen visited many outdoor camping shops, taking advice from sales assistants and trying different rucksacks on. The sales assistants showed great patience as Lewis and Helen returned to the shops trying to hunt down the rucksack that met all of their requirements.

Because it was just after Christmas, some of these shops had some great price reductions in the sales. Lewis and Helen were then swayed in their decision to buy a rucksack based on the price. This second rucksack was a Duke of Edinburgh Award recommended rucksack so Lewis and Helen knew that it had to be a good one. It was also designed for women and had lots of external pockets. However, there was one snag: it was 65 litres + 10 litres. In other words, it was much bigger than the advice on the websites had recommended. Nonetheless, Lewis thought that it was such a good bargain that he just had to buy it! (It had been reduced by £40 and the shop even did a price-match with another shop and then took off a further 20%. Lewis just couldn’t believe his luck!).

If the rucksack originally cost £80, how much did he pay for it? Can you work it out?

When Lewis arrived home with his rucksack, he was quite pleased with it. After all, it had lots of pockets, was a lovely plum colour (designed for ladies) and even had a bright orange raincover that folded away. However, as he started to fill it with some of his equipment, he still had a nagging doubt in his mind. This rucksack was still 75 litres and when Helen put it on her back, the top of it came way above her head! The first rucksack had been too heavy but this rucksack was just too big! Oh no! Lewis had to have another rethink about what to do…

This rucksack was too big

So, he went back onto the internet and scoured the search engines for a women’s rucksack that was 55 litres and under. Eventually, he discovered that there was a shop that sold two rucksacks just like that not too far away. He phoned the shop to check that they had them in stock so that he could go and compare them. It was lucky that he did phone because the shop didn’t have them in but was able then to order them in from another store. Lewis is such a clever and lucky lion!

Therefore, several days later, Lewis received a phone call from the shop saying that the rucksacks had arrived, if he wanted to come and have a look at them? Lewis left the house in nervous anticipation…maybe this time, he would find the right rucksack?

When he arrived at the shop, they showed him the two rucksacks that he had found on the internet. The first one, he dismissed straight away as it had no external pockets. However, when Lewis saw the next rucksack, he breathed a sigh of relief: he knew at last that he had found his `Goldilocks’ ‘ rucksack; it was just right!

It was designed for women, had lots of external pockets, was 48 litres + 5 litres, didn’t feel too heavy, wasn’t too big, had a smart silver-coloured raincover and even had some smart colours too in greys and blacks. Lewis couldn’t believe his luck: it was simply perfect, (even if it did cost nearly double the amount of the second rucksack but thankfully, it was half the amount of the first)!

Can you work out how much the first and the third rucksack cost?

The only thing that Lewis the Lion had to worry about now is whether or not he was able to fit all of his things into it…. but that’s a story for another day!

If you were travelling the world, what sort of rucksack would you want to take with you? What sort of thing would be important to you? Can you design your own perfect or Goldilocks’ rucksack?

About Helen Molloy

Helen Molloy has been a Primary Learning and Teaching Consultant, leading on the introduction of Primary Languages in the City of Stoke-on-Trent for the past 5 and a half years. She is passionate about language learning and inspiring children into developing a curiosity and awareness of other people's languages and cultures.
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One Response to The hunt for the Goldilocks’ rucksack

  1. Holly Sherratt says:

    Wow alot of readng haha good luck for your journey

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