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The original was posted on /r/onebag by /u/SaltyMargaritas on 2025-08-07 10:00:45+00:00.
Just an interesting story about a very tough bag with a long history…
I happened to read filmmaker Werner Herzog’s memoir Every Man for Himself and God Against All, where one chapter is dedicated to travel writer Bruce Chatwin (1940–1989) and more importantly his leather rucksack.
Chatwin gave to Herzog when he died of AIDS-related complications. When Herzog and Chatwin planned to first meet up in the early 80s, that’s how Chatwin described himself so that Herzog could spot him: “I’m tall and blond and look like a schoolboy. I carry a leather rucksack.” After Chatwin’s death, Herzog still owns the bag and wears it quite a bit:
“The rucksack isn’t a souvenir or a relic; I use it. Of all the things in my possession, this rucksack made of stout leather by a saddler in Cirencester is the most precious to me.”
This rucksack has a long history because Chatwin had already traveled thousands of miles with it and once Chatwin left it to Herzog, he immortalized the rucksack in his mountaineering film Scream of Stone.
Herzog himself carried this rucksack when he and a few other people got trapped in the freezing mountains during a whiteout for a few days and nearly froze to death.
“We had just one ice axe among the three of us and Glowacz’s rope, which he needed for his scene, but no tent, no sleeping bags, no food. I had two chocolate bars in one of my pockets and Bruce Chatwin’s empty rucksack. We managed to dig out a tiny bivouac not much bigger than a wine barrel. Crouched in there together, we could feel reasonably safe because our breath and body warmth kept the temperature one or two degrees above freezing after we’d blocked up the entrance with chunks of ice. I sat on the empty rucksack so as not to lose too much warmth through contact with the ice. Later on, I heard a version claiming the rucksack had saved my life, but that can’t be right because my two companions survived without any rucksacks.”
Later, Herzog made a documentary about Bruce Chatwin called Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin where Herzog presents the rucksack and talks about his experiences with it and how Chatwin gave it to him.
So a probably very heavy and not very modern, but really rugged bag that has a long history! Felt like sharing this story.